Year: 2013

Change and Patience

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File:Chaenomeles 3.jpg

In my hermitage in France there is a bush of japonica.  During the night a cold snap arrived and brought with it frost. The next day I noticed that all the buds on the bush had died. A few weeks later the weather became warm again. I saw new buds on the japonica manifesting another generation of flowers. I asked the japonica flowers: “Are you the same as the flowers that died in the frost or are you different flowers?” The flowers replied to me: “We are not the same and we are not different When conditions are sufficient we manifest and when conditions are not we go into hiding. It’s as simple as that.”

When conditions are sufficient things manifest. When conditions are no longer sufficient things withdraw. They wait until the moment is right for them to manifest again. Just because we do not perceive something, it is not correct to say it doesn’t exist.

Thich Nhat Hanh

This weekends weather

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low cloud Jura april 28

Snow, rain and low clouds on the Jura. The weather moves from Spring to Autumn, confusing the plants and the birds. A useful lesson for us in working with our inner changing moods:

High winds do not last all morning

Heavy rain does not last all day

Why is this? Heaven and Earth!

If heaven and earth cannot make things eternal

Why do we think it happens for us?

Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Take what is given

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Daisy 210309 Dumpling Cottage#001

At my feet the white-petalled daisies display
the small suns of their center piece, their – if you don’t
mind my saying so – their hearts.

Of course
I could be wrong, perhaps their hearts are pale and
narrow and hidden in the roots.

What do I know?
But this: it is heaven itself to take what is given,
to see what is plain; what the sun lights up willingly;
for example – I think this
as I reach down, not to pick but merely to touch –
the suitability of the field for the daisies, and the
daisies for the field

Mary Oliver, Daisies

Sunday Quote: Letting go of ideas

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File:Lotus flower in china.jpg

Only the hand that erases

can write the true thing.

Meister Eckhart

photo: mgmoscatello

…with no gaining idea

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20090605141826_foot down

Our way is to practice one step at a time,

one breath at a time,

with no gaining idea

Suzuki Roshi

A place of awareness

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Stop Running

We know how to become, but we don’t know how to stop.

We are not used to stopping.

Stopping is the practice of learning how to take the points of when you feel the mind moving and proliferating

and coming back to a place of awareness.

Ajahn Passano , On Becoming and Stopping