Joko Beck
Joko Beck
Charlotte Joko Beckwas an American Zen teacher and the author of the books Everyday Zen: Love and Work and Nothing Special: Living Zen...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEducator
Date of Birth27 March 1917
CountryUnited States of America
dream memories future
But opinions, judgments, memories, dreaming about the future—ninety percent of the thoughts spinning around in our heads have no essential reality.
teacher kindness home
With unfailing kindness, your life always presents what you need to learn. Whether you stay home or work in an office or whatever, the next teacher is going to pop right up.
sorry space complaining
There is a foundation for our lives, a place in which our life rests. That place is nothing but the present moment, as we see, hear, experience what is. If we do not return to that place, we live our lives out of our heads. We blame others; we complain; we feel sorry for ourselves. All of these symptoms show that we're stuck in our thoughts. We're out of touch with the open space that is always right here.
things-in-life rely one-thing
There is one thing in life that you can always rely on: life being as it is.
uplifting block self
Awareness is our true self; it's what we are. So we don't have to try to develop awareness; we simply need to notice how we block awareness with our thoughts, our fantasies, our opinions, and our judgments. We're either in awareness, which is our natural state, or we're doing something else.
teacher disappointment discovery
Practice has to be a process of endless disappointment. We have to see that everything we demand (and even get) eventually disappoints us. This discovery is our teacher.
miracle life-is
Life is a second-by-second miracle.
dream work who-i-am
All I can be is who I am right now; I can experience that and work with it. That's all I can do. The rest is the dream of the ego.
trust years secret
Trust in things being as they are is the secret of life. But we don't want to hear that. I can absolutely trust that in the next year my life is going to be changed, different, yet always just the way it is.
sisyphus
None of us would choose to be Sisyphus; yet in a sense, we all are.
paradise seeking
You cannot avoid paradise. You can only avoid seeking it.
dream teacher compassion
Caught in the self-centered dream, only suffering; holding to self-centered thoughts, exactly the dream; each moment, life as it is, the only teacher; being just this moment, compassion's way.
worry may way
To some degree we all find life difficult, perplexing, and oppressive. Even when it goes well, as it may for a time, we worry that it probably won't keep on that way.
vacation interesting car
There are many people in the world who feel that if only they had a bigger car, a nicer house, better vacations, a more understanding boss, or a more interesting partner, then their life would work. We all go through that one. Slowly we wear out most of our 'if onlies.