I shut my eyes in order to see.
Paul Gauguin
Soil
Inside each of us, there’s continual autumn.
Our leaves fall and are blown out over the water…..
There’s a necessary dying,
and then Jesus is breathing again.
Very little grows on jagged rock.
Be ground. Be crumbled, so wildflowers
will come up where you are.
You’ve been stony for too many years.
Try something different.
Surrender.
Rumi, A Necessary Autumn inside Each
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Problems as opportunities
View all problems as challenges.
Look upon negativities that arise as opportunities to learn and to grow.
Don’t run from them, condemn yourself, or bury your burden in saintly silence.
You have a problem? Great.
More grist for the mill.
Rejoice, dive in, and investigate.
Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English
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Wait in silence
There are some things that we simply must wait in silence to receive.
We live our questions and wait for the knowing to happen.
Like the tree, we wait for the sap to rise.
Sue Monk Kidd, When The Heart Waits
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More on letting go in autumn
There are so many things that hold us back from our dreams
Freedom is not given to us by anyone; we have to cultivate it ourselves. It is a daily practice.
By freedom I mean freedom from afflictions, from anger, and from despair.
Thich Nhat Hanh, Be Free Where You Are
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Settle
Just listen to whatever surrounds you. Sound is a good object of meditation because we generally do not try to control it as much as we do other things. People often have a more difficult time settling into their bodies than they do paying attention to the sounds that appear naturally. Just listen and try to let whatever sounds are around you pass through you.
The fundamental purpose of meditation is not to create a comfortable hiding place for oneself; it is to acquaint the mind, one a moment-to-moment basis, with impermanence….When the mind is settled, the underlying ephemeral nature of things can be more clearly perceived. Resistance diminishes, the flight to past and future recedes, and the sense that it might be possible to respond consciously rather than react blindly to events begins to emerge.
Mark Epstein, Advice not Given: A Guide to Getting Over Yourself
