Month: September 2013

Four years old

Karl Duffy8 Comments

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A more practical type of post this afternoon. I started this blog 4 years ago today so this is a kinda of anniversary. And like all birthdays or anniversaries it allows us time to celebrate and take stock. The blog started as a simple aid to those who had done the MBSR Course with me in Geneva to provide an ongoing support. And I hope it has remained true to that purpose: to post some thoughts which help people – now all over the world –  trying to maintain a meditation process or develop a more conscious style of living, by relating directly to this moment. And my main thought is one of gratitude to every one who has read the blog in these past years –  now approaching a quarter of a million – and who have commented, or encouraged, or in many different ways kept it going.

My first post was about change and referred to a wise Advisor, Fr John Hyde,  who I had many years ago in Ireland. And since then I have witnessed some changes, many small and some larger, the most recent of which has been to come back to my home country. I recently put on-line a work-related site www.karlduffy.ie  and would be delighted if you click on that and check it out. It contains some nice scientific stuff on mindfulness and recent mindfulness articles “in the news” which you may find interesting.

I finish by returning to the first quote I ever published. It has been the guiding motif behind the word “balance” which links the blog and my work site. It sets before us our daily task, one which is even more relevant today than it was four year ago.

If you hope to find lasting happiness, you must first answer the question,

what is your true priority – your inner or your outer life?

Philipp Moffitt, Loving Life’s Questions

Underneath change

Karl Duffy1 Comment

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When the stories of our life no longer bind us, we discover within them something greater. We discover that within the very limitations of form, of our maleness and femaleness, of our parenthood and our childhood, of gravity on the earth and the changing of the seasons, is the freedom and harmony we have sought for so long. Our individual life is an expression of the whole mystery, and in it we can rest in the center of the movement, the center of all worlds

Jack Kornfield, A Path With Heart

Learning that fluid is best

Karl Duffy3 Comments

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These are the first days of autumn, my favourite season.  This has been a good Summer in Ireland, and the leaves are very slow to reflect a change of atmosphere. However, inevitably, the seasons evolve and have their own rhythm, with periods of growth and periods of rest.  As John O Donohue’s quote yesterday suggests, there is something in our being that is linked to the changes in nature. We can instinctively feel that all things change. That gives birth to the understanding that  there is only suffering to be had when we try to hold onto things, like the long days of summer, or elements of life that have passed. However, I realize how much I like permanence and continualy rehearse a story of a solid, single identity. So I will try and walk in nature and learn that, like the seasons, I too change, things come and go in my life.  Nature lets go and moves on. So should we. We all have need for different tempos in our lives.

Notice space

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Most of our suffering comes from habitual thinking. If we try to stop it out of aversion to thinking, we can’t; we just go on and on and on. So the important thing is not to get rid of thought, but to understand it. And we do this by concentrating on the space in the mind, rather than on the thought.

Ajahn Sumedho, Noticing Space

The ease that comes from trust

Karl Duffy2 Comments

autumn leaves

In contrast to our frenetic, saturated lives, the earth offers a calming stillness. Movement and growth in nature takes its time. The patience of nature enjoys the ease of trust and hope. There is something in our clay nature that needs to continually experience this ancient, outer ease of the world. It helps us remember who we are and why we are here.

John O’Donohue, Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

Sunday Quote: Autumn begins

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Autumn

Don’t prolong the past,

don’t invite the future,

don’t be deceived by appearances,

just dwell in present awareness.

Patrul Rinpoche