And I am thinking:
maybe just looking and listening is the real work.
Maybe the world, without us, is the real poem.
Mary Oliver
Year: 2013
Which myth we live by
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
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
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
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
The end of suffering
This is an interesting, important text, one of my absolute favourites, and merits some ongoing reflection. On first reading it seems strange – living in Ireland it is obvious we live on an earth, with plenty of water and wind! Obviously we come and go, either on holidays or as in relocating from country to country. It must mean something deeper about the causes of suffering. There is a lot of evidence that people can benefit fairly immediately from some of the centering and calming practices that are found in meditation and mindfulness. They bring a certain release from the stresses and suffering of everyday life. However, texts like this suggest that real, lasting and full liberation comes from coming to a felt knowledge of the dynamics beneath the human capacity for stress. It is somehow related to a stepping out of the continual movement of the mind towards or away from experiences – what is referred to as the “shackles of constant becomings” – to a place that observes all comings and goings without judgment.
There is that sphere of being where there is no earth, no water, no fire, nor wind;
this sphere of being I call neither a coming nor a going nor a staying still,
neither a dying nor a reappearance; it has no basis, no evolution, and no support:
it is the end of suffering
The Buddha
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