Month: December 2013

Doing less

Karl Duffy1 Comment

dog-walking3

There are two different acts of patience: the first is to stand firm against the activity of another person, the second to stand firm against one’s own activity. Not to resist the activity of another person is an act of patience of the former sort, and to control oneself when one wishes to do or say a certain thing is an act of patience of the latter sort. It is the nature of activity to tend to increase its speed, and if this increase is permitted, very soon a destructive element comes about. The stronger this faculty of control becomes in a person the stronger the person becomes, and the more one loses the power of control the weaker one becomes.

Hazrat Inayat Khan, The Wisdom of Sufism: Sacred Readings from the Gathas

Movement in the mind

Karl Duffy1 Comment

wind

It takes time to really see that thoughts and emotions are mere movements of the mind. They are, after all, the fabric of who we think we are, and everything we do is an expression of thought and emotion. We take them so seriously. But take a closer look, test this against your own experience, and see for yourself. If we can gain this recognition, we are on our way to freedom,  for instead of being sucked into the contents of our mind and acting out everything that arises within it, we will watch those contents melt like snowflakes on a hot rock.

Andrew Holecek, The Power and the Pain.

Where we do not wobble

Karl Duffy1 Comment

lake woods1

A succinct teaching on practice – developing a space which does not wobble –  and how we work with changing moods.

Through meditation practice we can access a core presence, which feels like an ‘inner’ state, where things are not happening, and the flow of events has receded. Thoughts quieten down, and we feel firmly grounded. There is a sense of singularity, of ‘just being here.’  This is a valuable basis from which we can look into the roots of mental/emotional behaviour. So meditation is not about getting into that inner state just for its own sake, but about using quiet firmness as a base from which to contemplate moods and mind-states. This entails not sticking to ideas of what I want and what should be, but really relating to what is present without reactions and bias. In this way we learn and develop non-attachment. 

Ajahn Sucitto

Dont grasp the snake

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Flickr - DVIDSHUB - Snake Handler.jpg

If we don’t grasp hold of the snake

it won’t bite us.

If we don’t grasp onto the moods,  the feelings,  the thoughts

they won’t bite us.

Ajahn Jayasaro.

photo DVIDSHUB

A joyful mind

Karl Duffy6 Comments

File:Greek Window (2414595505).jpg

This is the path we take in cultivating joy: learning not to armor our basic goodness, learning to appreciate what we have. Most of the time we don’t do this. Rather than appreciate where we are, we continually struggle and nurture our dissatisfaction. It’s like trying to get flowers to grow by pouring cement on the garden  A basic support for a joyful mind is curiosity, paying attention, taking an interest in the world around you. Happiness is not required, but being curious without a heavy judgmental attitude helps. Curiosity encourages cheering up.  We are so locked into this sense of burden — Big Deal Joy and Big Deal Unhappiness — that it’s sometimes helpful just to change the pattern. Anything out of the ordinary will help. You can go to the window and look at the sky, you can splash cold water on your face, you can sing in the shower, you can go jogging — anything that’s against your usual pattern. That’s how things start to lighten up.

Pema Chodron

photo Harold Hoyer

Create joy

Karl Duffy1 Comment

jumping

Life will bring you pain all by itself.

Your responsibility is to create joy

Milton Erikson, American Psychologist,