A common metaphor for the entire Buddhist path is swimming against the stream. This refers to the reverse aspect of all forms of mind training. To investigate consensus-reality reverses social norms. In a noisy and materialistic society, to sit down and remain still and quiet is a reverse activity. To devote even one hour a day to becoming nobody when we could be in the world becoming somebody reverses socially rewarding goals. To aspire that all sentient beings have happiness and be free from suffering runs counter to self-centered preoccupations. When we take a wide look at reverse, we can appreciate that the meaning runs much deeper than labeling a category of discrete exercises. It can become a foundational principle for guiding daily-life situations. It can be used to cut through mindless behavioral loops, and for using disruption to wake us up from our sleepwalking habits.

Mingyur Rinpoche

from the book In Love with the World: A Monk's Journey Through the Bardos of Living and Dying

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Further quotes from the book In Love with the World:

• It’s how we relate to emotions
• Change yourself
• Upholding the lineage
• Anywhere, anytime
• Stay with what is
• Meditative awareness
• Beyond habitual patterns
• Fundamentally pure and good
• Replace longing with love
• The masks that hide our true selves
• The chattering voice in our heads
• Only with recognition
• Dying is rebirth
• Ego-grasping death comes before life
• Spacious awareness
• Identifying the sickness for ourselves
• Stretching a bit further
• Facing suffering
• Short moments, many times
• Awareness contains impermanence