We are always seeking something from the outside
and forgetting that our fundamental well-being and strength depend on how we relate to our own minds.
Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, Old Relationships, New Possibilities
a basic truth
Why are you waiting
And we advise you to begin doing it now.
We are not living in eternity.
We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand – and melting like a snowflake.
Let us use it before it is too late
Marie Beynon Ray, died 1969, American journalist and popular self-help writer, The Best Years of Your Life
a willingness
What is required is a willingness to look deeply at one’s present moments
no matter what they hold
in a spirit of generosity , kindness towards oneself
and openness toward what might be possible,
Jon Kabat-Zinn
How to make the most of each day
The fourteenth-century Tibetan teacher Longchenpa talked about our useless and
meaningless focus on the details, getting so caught up we don’t see what is in front of our nose. He said that this useless focus extends moment by moment into a continuum, and days, months, and even whole lives go by. Do you spend your whole time just thinking about things, distracting yourself with your own mind, completely lost in thought? I know this habit so well myself. It is the human predicament.
Pause practice can transform each day of your life. It creates an open doorway to the sacredness of the place in which you find yourself. The vastness, stillness, and magic of
the place will dawn upon you, if you let your mind relax and drop for just a few breaths
the storyline you are working so hard to maintain. If you pause just long enough, you can reconnect with exactly where you are, with the immediacy of your experience.
In any moment you could just listen. In any moment, you could put your full attention
on the immediacy of your experience. So, what is the most important thing to do with each day? With each morning, each afternoon, each evening?
It is to leave a gap
Pema Chödrön, How to Make the Most of your Day
Sunday Quote: Every step
Today is Reek Sunday, the traditional day for a pilgrimage to Ireland’s Holy Mountain Croagh Patrick
There is something deeply human about climbing a holy mountain. But we do not need to go anywhere special. The holiest ground is the place where you are standing. Therefore, be completely here.
All the way to heaven
is heaven
Catherine of Siena 1347–1380
In front of you
This message is consistent across all wisdom traditions.
“Sit in your cell and it will teach you everything,” they said. The point was that unless a man could find God here, in this one place, his cell, he would not find him by going somewhere else.
Benedicta Ward, Sayings of the Desert Fathers
The monk asks for ultimate meaning. The answer is not in metaphysics but in noticing what is right in front of him
A monk asked Zhaozhou,
“What is the meaning of the ancestral teacher’s coming from the West?”
Zhaozhou replied,
“The cypress tree in the courtyard.”
Kōan Case 37 of The Gateless Gate, attributed to Zhaozhou Congshen (Joshu), 778 – 897
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