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Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be: Lessons on Change, Loss, and Spiritual Transformation QUOTES

Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be: Lessons on Change, Loss, and Spiritual Transformation QUOTES

1 " I believe that this is the time to become warriors for peace and dialogue, not warmongers or mere worriers. "

― Surya Das , Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be: Lessons on Change, Loss, and Spiritual Transformation

2 " With every breath, the old moment is lost; a new moment arrives. We exhale and we let go of the old moment. It is lost to us. In doing so, we let go of the person we used to be. We inhale and breathe in the moment that is becoming. In doing so, we welcome the person we are becoming. We repeat the process. This is meditation. This is renewal. This is life. "

― Surya Das , Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be: Lessons on Change, Loss, and Spiritual Transformation

3 " Our sorrows provide us with the lessons we most need to learn. "

― Surya Das , Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be: Lessons on Change, Loss, and Spiritual Transformation

4 " Non-attachment is not complacency. It doesn't imply a lack of caring and commitment. The philosophy of non-attachment is based in the understanding that holding on too tightly to those things, which in any case are always going to be slipping through our fingers, hurts and gives us rope burn. "

― Surya Das , Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be: Lessons on Change, Loss, and Spiritual Transformation

5 " For it is not what happens to us that determines our character, our experience, our karma, and our destiny - but how we relate to what happens. "

― Surya Das , Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be: Lessons on Change, Loss, and Spiritual Transformation

6 " Often we cling to habits that aren't even comforting or satisfying, simply because we are unable to let go or explore new ways to do things. "

― Surya Das , Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be: Lessons on Change, Loss, and Spiritual Transformation

7 " It is usually a mistake to believe that any opinion or situation is objectively good or bad, since everything depends on the perspective of the viewer. "

― Surya Das , Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be: Lessons on Change, Loss, and Spiritual Transformation

8 " We all have certain desires and undesired outcomes related to whatever possible course and attitude we take in life, whether it be at the larger macro scale (what shall I do with the rest of my life?) or at the micro level (as in, what route shall I take to work this morning). These include all the myriad choices we make each hour and each day. These choices determine our karma and our destiny. It's no accident, nor any great mystery, how this evolves; although one would have to utterly omniscient to understand all the many gross and subtle interconnections and causative links that determine happenings and outcomes. "

― Surya Das , Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be: Lessons on Change, Loss, and Spiritual Transformation

9 " Seekers inevitably want to get a better handle on life; we want to figure things out. We know intuitively that the events of our lives are not always arbitrary. We feel connected, however intangibly. We know that it is in our higher self-interest to unravel the mysteries in our own lives. There must be a higher purpose and greater meaning. As we become more and more spiritually evolved, we become more determined to find wisdom and reach a deeper understanding of our lives and our paths. "

― Surya Das , Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be: Lessons on Change, Loss, and Spiritual Transformation

10 " Give up grasping and see things as they are. THE SEVENTH DALAI LAMA "

― Surya Das , Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be: Lessons on Change, Loss, and Spiritual Transformation

11 " May virtue and serenity belong to all, even my competitors and adversaries. "

― Surya Das , Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be: Lessons on Change, Loss, and Spiritual Transformation

12 " When we are no longer so tightly identified with who we used to be and how we think things should continue to be—based on the past—every moment of wakefulness is an opportunity to actualize and enjoy our inherent freedom, wholeness, and perfection. The heart-mind is gorgeous in its authentic natural state! "

― Surya Das , Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be: Lessons on Change, Loss, and Spiritual Transformation

13 " The deep pain we continue to experience reminds us of our love and keeps our hearts open. "

― Surya Das , Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be: Lessons on Change, Loss, and Spiritual Transformation

14 " With every breath, the old moment is lost; a new moment arrives. "

― Surya Das , Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be: Lessons on Change, Loss, and Spiritual Transformation

15 " Expecting good things to last and unwanted things to stay away forever is simply unrealistic, "

― Surya Das , Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be: Lessons on Change, Loss, and Spiritual Transformation

16 " Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle. "

― Surya Das , Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be: Lessons on Change, Loss, and Spiritual Transformation

17 " Partings make us sad; they make us feel as though we are being beaten up by fate; sometimes they make us feel desperate and without real connections or roots. When we are torn away from those we love, we suffer from intense feelings of longing and loneliness. "

― Surya Das , Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be: Lessons on Change, Loss, and Spiritual Transformation

18 " I went to a charnel ground for the practice of Chod a few dozen times in India and in Nepal. Several times I went to a place near a meat slaughterhouse where thousands of water buffalo bones were piled high in macabre pyramids. One night as I was chanting, the bones began to shift, move, and rattle about. I didn't think it was a ghost or demon, but I did imagine that some kind of huge rat or snake was making its way through the immense pile. I must admit I was scared out of my wits, although I somehow managed to keep chanting, praying, and practicing the somber meditation and visualization until dawn. Was I ever happy when that night ended! "

― Surya Das , Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be: Lessons on Change, Loss, and Spiritual Transformation

19 " Instead of dealing with the reality of loss, we crank up the music, have a munch or a drink, pick up the phone and try to insulate ourselves from pain. "

― Surya Das , Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be: Lessons on Change, Loss, and Spiritual Transformation

20 " Many of us are so quick to deny and cover up the true roots of our unhappiness that we are unaware of the depths of our buried suffering. We lose track of the patterns that haunt us, and we fail to find meaning and purpose in our experience. We get mired in our guilt or anxiety; we get overwhelmed by our sadness. "

― Surya Das , Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be: Lessons on Change, Loss, and Spiritual Transformation