Month: February 2012

Choosing outside our usual pattern

Karl Duffy1 Comment

The big thing in my own experience is that the bravery is to not just go with an habitual pattern because it’s usually fear-based. Instead, stay present and open so you can connect with your underlying strength, which is called basic goodness. The seductiveness of habitual patterns is a false security, but we wouldn’t follow it if we didn’t think it was going to bring us some comfort or relief. Still, habitual patterns just keep us stuck in the same rut, so the courage is to actually realize you have a choice and choose to do the tougher thing.

Pema Chodron

Our habit of running

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

If we can’t rest,  it is because we have not stopped running. We began running a long time ago. We continue to run even in our sleep. We think that happiness and well-being are not possible in the here and now. That belief is inherent in us. We received the seed of that belief from our parents and grandparents. They struggled all their lives and believed that happiness is only possible in the future. That’s why when we were children, we were already in the habit of running. We believed that happiness was something to seek for in the future. But the teaching…is that we can be happy right here, right now. If you can stop and establish yourself in the here and now, you will see that there are many elements of happiness available in this moment, more than enough to make you happy.

Thich Nhat Hahn, Happiness

Letting it all pass through

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

Just go into the room, and put one chair in the center. Take the one seat in the center of the room, open the doors and windows, and see who comes to visit. You will witness all kinds of scenes and actors, all kinds of temptations and stories, everything imaginable. Your only job is to stay in your seat. You will see it all arise and pass, and out of this, wisdom and understanding will come.

Ajahn Chah

How to deal with our inner commentator

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

A great distraction at times are so-called “running commentary” thoughts such as, “Now I am not thinking of anything,” “Things are going very well now,” “This is dreadful; my mind just won’t stay still” and such like……..All such thoughts should simply be noted as “Thinking,” and, as Huang Po says, “dropped like a piece of rotten wood.” “Dropped,” notice, not thrown down. A piece of rotten wood is not doing anything to irritate you, but is just of no use, so there is no point in hanging on to it…Nor is there any need to try to retrace the links in a chain of associated thoughts, nor to try to ascertain what it was that first started the chain. Any such impulse should itself be noted simply as “Thinking,” and the mind should revert to the breathing. However badly things have just been going, one should take up again at the only place one can – where one is – and go on from there.

Bhikku Mangalo, The Practice of Recollection

Not getting too fixed today

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

We usually take ourselves to be the sum of these thoughts, ideas, emotions and body sensations, but there is nothing solid to them. How can we claim to be our thoughts or opinions or emotions or body when they never stay the same?

Jack Kornfield

Sunday Quote: Mystery

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

 

Never forget:

We are alive within mysteries.

Wendell Berry, Life Is A Miracle : An Essay Against Modern Superstition