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Joan Tollifson Quotes

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Famous Joan Tollifson Quotes

“I talked to my friend Frank on the phone that evening. Frank used to live in Vermont and would come to Springwater occasionally for retreats, and then he moved out to California to be a cook, which is where I met him. “I was at work chopping onions yesterday,” he says, “and suddenly I was filled with sadness … because here I am, I’ve got my dream, exactly what I wanted, I’m working at the restaurant I wanted to be at, I have a terrific place to live, and suddenly I was really sad because now I just have to chop the onions, you know?” Isn’t that exactly it? Chopping the onions.”

WorkAcceptanceContentmentNondualityPresence
Book:Bare-Bones Meditation: Waking Up from the Story of My Life
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“So I’ve held on to Catholicism or Zen, as practices, as fantasy futures, as possible identities. But when I actually dare to lower myself down into this emptiness—no, that sounds entirely too dualistic and willful and “courageous”—but when this seeing suddenly happens and thought relaxes, Zen drops completely away, and something much deeper is contacted, some entirely other way of being.”

ReligionSpiritualityZenEmptinessNondualityPresenceDuality
Book:Bare-Bones Meditation: Waking Up from the Story of My Life
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“The concentration of a baby is alive wonderment. It is to that kind of organic interest, or passion, and awareness that Toni [Packer] seems to be pointing: listening that is not rote or methodical in any way. The baby has no sense yet of self-image, of itself as an object—a person—who needs to be improved, and Toni will question any meditation practice that contributes to such a picture.”

AttentionMeditationAwarenessAcceptanceConcentrationNondualityPresenceBeing PresentSpiritual Contemplation
Book:Bare-Bones Meditation: Waking Up from the Story of My Life
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