Yesterday was 立冬 – Lìdōng – the beginning of winter in the Chinese solar calendar. In their thought health is achieved by staying close to the rhythm of nature and winter is the season of resting and storing what has been gathered.
We humans have lost the wisdom
of genuinely resting and relaxing
Thich Nhat Hahn
Thankfully, even the greatest emperors and dictators – and their grandiose projects – must bow to this law
The first rule is:
Keep an untroubled spirit;
for all things must bow to the law of Nature,
and soon enough you too
will vanish into nothingness,
like Hadrian and Augustus
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8:5
No matter how much we like or dislike, or are hurt or maimed by a thought, action or event,
our attitudes do not colour the event itself, only our relationship to it.
As this is so, no matter how much we stomp or shout or cajole or whine, reality is what it is.
Anzan Hoshin Roshi, Cutting the Cat into One
The turning of the mind
away from the objective content of experience
towards the source or essence from which it has arisen
is the essence of meditation or prayer
Rupert Spira
As Martin Buber saw it – writing at his best near the turn of the last century – the world of ordinary days “affords” us that precise association with God that redeems both us and our speck of the world.
God entrusts and allots to everyone an area to redeem: this creased and feeble life, “the world in which you live, just as it is and not otherwise”.
Annie Dillard, For the Time Being:
Leave the door open for the unknown, the door into the dark.
That’s where the most important things come from,
the things that break your sticks and change your life.
Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost
