Month: August 2013

Noticing simple things

Karl Duffy2 Comments

File:Flowingtap.jpg

By taking a moment to pay attention to something as simple as turning on the water tap, we give ourselves the opportunity to be aware of how things in our lives come, go, and transform, which makes us less likely to take them for granted.  Instead, we can, for even a moment, be awake to the transitory blessing they are.  And, certainly, we can carry this habit out into the larger world, applying it to whatever we find ourselves doing or encountering.

Turning on the Water:  Water flows from high mountain sources.

Water runs deep in the Earth.

Miraculously, water comes to us and sustains all life.

Thich Nhat Hanh

photo thegreenj

The real work

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boat dunmore

And I am thinking:

maybe just looking and listening is the real work.

Maybe the world, without us, is the real poem.  

Mary Oliver

Which myth we live by

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 File:Obilisk and gravestones of the Big Church in Templemore.JPG

It is clear that many things have changed in Ireland in the time I have been abroad, such as the confidence placed in institutional elements such as government, banking and most especially the church. However, we never really get rid of our guiding myths, just simply replace them with others – new populist ideologies, fads and obsessions with fashions and celebrity leaders – which play a similar role.

The crises of the world are not just “out there” in the geopolitical sphere but “in here” in the individual soul. The questions, explanations and great rhythms that once guided the soul by way of living myth are still within us, still guiding our lives. And we are obliged to render this process more conscious lest we live blindly, false to ourselves and false to nature. . . . we must more consciously create our own myth or be enslaved to the myth of another.

James Hollis, Tracking the gods

photo Templemore abbey, Laurel Lodged

Sunday Quote: On not living with regret

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When such as I cast out remorse, so great a sweetness flows into the breast

We are blest by everything, Everything we look upon is blessed.

W.B. Yeats, A Dialogue Of Self And Soul

A story about doing what is right

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File:Black scorpion.jpg

Once, the sage Tulsidas saw a scorpion that was struggling to escape from a river.   The scorpion was about to drown, when Tulsidas reached over and saved it.   The scorpion immediately stung Tulsidas.   In shock, Tulsidas dropped the scorpion back into the waters, where it began struggling again to keep from drowning.   Tulsidas again reached over and picked up the scorpion to save it from drowning.   The scorpion stung Tulsidas once again.   This happened three more times, before Tulsidas was finally able to toss the scorpion to safety in the wooded land around the river.

A man who had been watching this whole incident walked over to Tulsidas, and asked him, “Are you crazy?”

Tulsidas replied, “It is the scorpion’s nature to sting, and it is my nature to be helpful to all beings.   If the scorpion keeps its nature even in the face of death, why should I give up my compassionate nature in the face of his sting?”

Photo: Per-Anders Olsson

The two aspects of meditation

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two handles

There are two types of meditation, namely, samatha and vipassana. Samatha is the development of concentration. Vipassana is the development of wisdom. Of these two, samatha is the important foundation of vipassana. Therefore, the Buddha said: ‘ you should cultivate concentration….. if you have enough concentration, you can understand phenomena as they really are.’  So beginners are encouraged to first practise samatha to develop deep and powerful concentration. Then they can practise vipassana and see phenomena in their real essence.

Pa-Auk Sayadaw