For there is a boundary to looking.
And the world that is looked at so deeply
wants to flourish in love.
Work for the eye is done, now
go and do heart-work
on all the images imprisoned within you.
Rilke
photo llias81
Month: July 2013
Little steps
Sometimes I feel overwhelmed. But I try to work one day at a time. If we just worry about the big picture, we are powerless. So my secret is to start right away doing whatever little work I can do. I try to give joy to one person in the morning, and remove the suffering of one person in the afternoon. That’s enough.
When you see you can do that, you continue, and you give two little joys, and you remove two little sufferings, then three, and then four. If you and your friends do not despise the small work, a million people will remove a lot of suffering. That is the secret. Start right now.
Sister Chân Không
photo shaun mitchem
Holding tension
We must cultivate the ability to hold tension in life-giving ways. Our lives are filled with contradictions — from the gap between our aspirations and our behavior to observations and insights we cannot abide because they run counter to our convictions. If we fail to hold them creatively, these contradictions will shut us down and take us out of the action. But when we allow their tensions to expand our hearts, they can open us to new understandings of ourselves and our world, enhancing our lives and allowing us to enhance the lives of others. We are imperfect and broken beings who inhabit an imperfect and broken world. The genius of the human heart lies in its capacity to use these tensions to generate insight, energy, and new life.
Parker Plamer, Healing the Heart of Democracy
photo gocheganas
Looking for solid ground
It’s not impermanence per se…. that is the cause of our suffering. Rather, it’s our resistance to the fundamental uncertainty of our situation. Our discomfort arises from all of our effort to put ground under our feet, to realize our dream of constant okayness.
Pema Chodron, The Fundamental Ambiguity of Being Human
Not going anywhere
Nothing really sticks. When we understand this…we can shift our attention and intention beyond being a thing, having a position and going places. We can witness our life with wisdom; then there is the realization of that which is knowing and insightful and which brings forth a response of compassion, rather than frustration. That shift is the essence of liberation.
Ajahn Sucitto, Turing the Wheel of Truth
photo: vaikoovery
Only present time
The river is everywhere at once, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the rapids, in the sea, in the mountains, everywhere at once, and that there is only the present time for it, not the shadow of the past, not the shadow of the future.
Herman Hesse, Siddhartha
photo: vincent, la rivière Rouvre.
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