Feeling that we are continually falling short
is like a toxic gas we breathe,
making it difficult to be truly intimate with others
and at home in our body, mind and heart.
Tara Brach.
Month: October 2011
Nourishing ourselves: Being happy in the way things are
Blessed are the man and woman who have grown beyond their greed and have put an end to their hatred and no longer nourish illusions.
But they delight in the way things are and keep their hearts open, day and night.
They are like trees planted near flowing rivers which bear fruit when they are ready.
Their leaves will not fall or wither.
Everything they do will succeed.
Psalm 1. Translation by Stephen Mitchell
Sunday Quote: Dropping into a calm inside
You who want knowledge,
Seek Oneness within
There you will find
the clear mirror already waiting
Hadewijch II
On using our time responsibly
Western laziness is quite different. It consists of cramming our lives with compulsive activity, so that there is no time left to confront the real issues. If we look into our lives, we will see clearly how many unimportant tasks, so-called “responsibilities” accumulate to fill them up. One master compares them to “housekeeping in a dream.” We tell ourselves we want to spend time on the important things of life, but there never is any time. Helpless, we watch our days fill up with telephone calls and petty projects, with so many responsibilities – or should we call them “irresponsibility’s”?
Sogyal Rinpoche
Running from shadows
I remember, when I was a very small child, often trying to jump into the middle of my shadow, but however hard I jumped I just landed on the shadow’s feet. And I would run after my shadow and then jump – but where would I land? Just in the same place all over again. And this is what we do with our lives – the things that we desire, it’s like running after shadows. You try to catch hold, reaching for the desire so close, and then you grasp it and then . . .and you haven’t really got it. Somehow it’s not what you expected, it’s different, not what you really wanted. And then to run from your shadow – to be afraid, you keep turning around: ‘It’s still behind me, run faster, got to get away.’ When we stop and look though, we realize: ‘Well, it’s just my shadow.’ You can’t get away from it, but there’s nothing in it to be afraid of, it’s just a shadow. So when we stop and rest in the stillness of knowing, we know in our hearts that all we desire, all we fear, are just shadows. There is no substance there – nothing which can make us more complete and nothing which can threaten us. This is the real freedom of mind.
Ajahn Amaro, Real Freedom
……and not judging it
As I have said, nothing that arises in our body and in our life happens outside of our journey, of our path, to full realization. Everything that occurs needs to be welcomed with an attitude of acceptance and openness. No matter what happens, it is imperative that we do not judge it. Especially when we are going through very difficult and trying circumstances, one cannot repeat to oneself too often, “Do not judge it; do not judge it.” Only when we resist the temptation to judge what we are going through can the journey we need to make at this moment continue to unfold, and can we receive the needed development and transformation it may bring.
Reginald Ray, Enlightenment: Finding Realization in the Body.
Mindfulbalance 