May 5th
Early in the morning it rained again for several hours. Now at midday, cool clean fresh-smelling breezes carry bird songs and the ever-sweet smell of blooming honeysuckle and wild roses in the open windows. Here in the midst of the green woods, with rabbits and squirrels and all the various birds, and today a gray sky.
How we see things or feel doesn't depend on the world outside ourselves, but on what we are doing with our own thinking. It is only habit and conditioning that is dependent on the outside. Only habit and conditioning create pain and sorrow. Observe the ease that comes in our thinking and body use when we become aware of habits, for it is only our habits, which are unconscious beliefs, that interfere with our natural ease.
We do not accept how strong our habits and tendencies are, so we try to dominate them, control them, change them into what we hope is right. But if instead we observe how strong habits are and accept that, then there is a shift, without the effort of forced change, which never really works anyway.