Shundo David Haye

‘Being fully alive also means aligning our lived lives with what in Zen is called the inmost request. The inmost request is what we most truly want from being alive. We can ask ourselves, “What do I really want?” And in search of an answer, for a while, we may grasp for the implements of worldly happiness and excitement (pleasure, power, money, favorite objects), but that’s usually not the final answer. If we keep searching, we will probably arrive at a version of the insight that what we really want is to be at ease with our here-now-aliveness—with what our life already is at this very moment. I call that unconditional aliveness. I say unconditional because now our sense of contentment is not dependent on feeling good or happy anymore. In other words, now we can feel truly at home in our aliveness even when life is uncomfortable or boring.’ (from The Dewdrop)