Nothing is enough for the person
to whom enough is too little.
Alain de Botton, The Consolations of Philosophy (quoting Epicurus)
Sunday quote : satisfied
Leaves in the wind
When you encounter difficulties, the feelings and stories that arise in reaction are just that, feelings and stories.
They are whirlwinds of confusion, based not in what is happening now but in deeply held beliefs about you and your relationship to the world.
Let them swirl- leaves in the wind.
Sometimes you fall back into them and lose touch with the present, but a moment of recognition always comes. Right then, come back to your body, come back to your breath, and rest. The confusion, the stories and the feelings are still there.
They continue to swirl, but you are not lost in them.
Ken McLeod, Reflections on Silver River, teachings on Tokmé Zongpo’s 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva’
The Strange Power We Give Our Thoughts
When a rainbow appears vividly in the sky, you can see its beautiful colors, yet you could not wear it as clothing or put it on as an ornament. It arises through the conjunction of various factors, but there is nothing about it that can be grasped.
Likewise, thoughts that arise in the mind have no tangible existence or intrinsic solidity.
There is no logical reason why thoughts, which have no substance, should have so much power over you,
nor is there any reason why you should become their slave
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, The Heart of Compassion: The Thirty-Seven Verses on the Practice of a Bodhisattva
Leaves and Rivers
Separate the leaves in your life from the river which keeps flowing.
Boundless,
without end
the leaves fall,
rustling down.
Endlessly,
unceasing,
the great river flows on,
rolling along in swirling waves.
Du Fu, 712-770, Tang Dynasty.
(This poem is considered the greatest example of lushi poetry in the Chinese language)
Making space
Written before smartphones, email and the internet.
No inner room to inhabit our own hearts. Greater anxiety gets transferred into endless activity.
We live in a time of no room, which is the time of the end.
The time when everyone is obsessed with lack of time, lack of space, with saving time, conquering space, projecting into time and space the anguish produced within them by the technological furies of size, volume, quantity, speed, number, price, power, and acceleration
Thomas Merton, The Time of the End Is the Time of No Room, August 1965
Our situation
If we are willing to give up hope that insecurity and pain can be exterminated, then we can have the courage to relax with the groundlessness of our situation.
This is the first step on the path.
Pema Chodron
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