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When you stop thinking about yourself all the time, a certain sense of repose overtakes you. It happened to me by imperceptible degrees and I could not really believe it; I could not really claim it for some time. I thought there must be something wrong. It’s like taking a drink of cold water when you are thirsty. Every tastebud on your tongue, every molecule in your body says thank you.

Leonard Cohen

You may want Zen practice to make you calmer, more relaxed, and more peaceful. But though these things may occur, they are not what practice is about. In fact, Zen practice is learning how to live in hell, the hell of suffering and the hell of creating suffering. Practice is experiencing life and responding to whatever arises in the midst of hellishness.

Elihu Genmyo Smith

To live in this world

you must be able to do three things:

to love what is mortal;

to hold it

against your bones knowing your own life depends on it;

and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.

Mary Oliver