Year: 2013

Everything arises freshly

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

File:Dew drop on green grass.jpg

Since every element of reality — each being, each moment in time, each experience — is different from every other, this means that everything always arises freshly and uniquely as just what it is. The fact that all things arise freshly and uniquely in each moment means that they are inherently self-liberated, free of all the concepts we have about them — which are based on past conditioning. Similarly, the living, breathing process that we are is always free from all the concepts or beliefs we have about it. Letting our experience be helps us make an important shift — into that unbounded, all-encompassing space of pure being, which alone can let be. In the moment, the small, bounded, dualistic ego falls away. Letting the relative be as it is, then, reveals the absolute.

John Welwood, Double Visiion

The slow pace of creation

Karl Duffy2 Comments

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Slowing how we think and feel and take in the world is directly related to being centered. The wisdom traditions all have some form of meditation and prayer that is aimed at slowing us into this center, where the very pace of creation breathes…..At the pace of creation, all things breathe the same way….So, when we slow and open and center ourselves, we breathe in unison with all of life, and breathing this way we draw strength from all of life.  At the pace of creation, the beginning enters us and we are new.

Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening

photo josh hallett

Trust

Karl Duffy1 Comment

buds2

What shape waits in the seed of you

to grow and spread its branches

against a future sky?

David Whyte

Recognizing your experience

Karl Duffy3 Comments

Looking Outside

Here’s a definition of mindfulness: it’s a strengthening of your concentration so that you can be more precise and clear in recognizing your experience. It’s also a strengthening of your equanimity — your ability to be relaxed and open in the face of your experience. The concentration part of mindfulness is a little like drinking a cup of coffee; it kind of wakes you up. It’s like the straight spine of arousal or awareness. The equanimity part is like the relaxed limbs of the body. The spine is straight, and the limbs are relaxed. This relaxation part is a receptivity and acceptance to things as they are. It’s a kind of “friendly audience” to your own experience; a sort of “Hello. Wow! OK.” attitude — a gentle, matter-of-fact awareness of your experience, rather than a reactive pulling back.  All mindfulness practices cultivate both of those, the concentration and the equanimity, so that you can be clearer, more precise and more relaxed in the face of whatever is happening to you —whether it’s loud noises coming in from a jackhammer running in the next building, or a pain in your knee, or your emotions about your spouse.

Polly Young-Eisendrath

A different strength

Karl Duffy1 Comment

sitting

Too often, people think that solving problems is based on conquering the earth,

rather than touching the earth,

touching ground.

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Finding what feeds us

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Eating fabada.jpg

We do not serve our children, our friends and partners, our society by living partial lives, and being secretly depressed and resentful. We serve the world by finding what feeds us, and, having been fed, then share our gift with others.

James Hollis, What Matters Most

photo Gabriel Rodríguez

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