...are like today, filled with unexpected joys. Simple encounters. The kindness of friends. Good news. Real progress in plans. Every day brings new experiences and change. Our practice is all about training the mind, and moving towards greater contentment that way. It means that we work on accepting whatever way things work out. However, when things go well, like today, the sense of contentment can be very deep. Practice works on how we see ourselves and life's events. It helps us to see positive events as common, and positive aspects of ourselves as permanent. It allows us see negative events as mainly filtered through negative thinking, exceptions to the general rule, not affecting our sense of self. It gradually works on the fear which is always lurking in our lives and relases its grip on our actions and our view of ourselves.
Joy does not simply happen to us.
We have to choose joy
and keep choosing it every day.
Henri Nouwen
