Month: January 2014

It belongs here

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IMG_1384

Letting go of form is trusting in the immediacy of awareness.

And awareness is real. It isn’t abstract, it isn’t some kind of concept I have that I don’t recognize immediately. Its more like the space in this room and the forms in space. They are what they are. and I no longer go from one thing to another saying “I like this, I don’t like that” but recognize that whatever is in this space belongs here at this moment. It doesnt matter whether I approve or disapprove of it or whether it is good or bad. It is here, this is the way it is, and this is learning to trust in awareness, which doesn’t pick or choose.

Ajahn Sumedho

 

Keeping one’s day light

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still water

Develop a mind that rests on no thing whatsoever

The Diamond Sutra

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Being at home in our deepest self

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stupa

At times in life we can have a sense of just wandering on, feeling a bit lost, when the moments we find ourselves in don’t seem to quite fit with what we were hoping for. At other times we find ourselves at home, when a spacious sense of acceptance becomes the more constant abiding. This can happen whether we are in Ireland or Geneva, at work or on pilgrimage, when the mind gets in contact with its own essential goodness and we switch off the need to be elsewhere. We realize that we are not really going anywhere, but not really staying anywhere either.

Meditation is …. not about getting somewhere else, 

but about allowing yourself to be where you already are.

Jon Kabat Zinn,  Wherever you go, there you are

photo of Ruwanweliseya Stupa, Anuradhapura, by dear friends Patrick and Bow on pilgrimage in Sri Lanka

Giving up the fight

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Buddha-Flowers

I’ve discovered there are only two modes of the heart. We can struggle, or we can surrender. Surrender is a frightening word for some people, because it might be interpreted as passivity, or timidity. Surrender means wisely accommodating ourselves to what is beyond our control. Getting old, getting sick, dying, losing what is dear to us, what the Buddha taught as the first Noble Truth or life’s unsatisfactoriness –  is beyond our control. I can either be frightened of life and mad at life –  or not. I can be disappointed and still not be mad.  Stopping being mad – when I can – translates, for me as being compassionate – to myself as well as to other people.

Sylvia Boorstein, That’s Funny you don’t look Buddhist

All events equally

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cats-watching-television

The most direct way to understand our life situation, who we are and how we operate is to observe it with a mind that simply notices all events equally. This attitude of non-judgmental, direct observation allows all events to occur in a natural way. By keeping attention in the present moment, we can see more and more the true characteristics of our mind and body process

jack Kornfield, Living Buddhist Masters

Simple practice for today

Karl Duffy2 Comments

welcomeMay I meet this moment fully;

May I meet it as a friend.

Sylvia Boorstein, Happiness is an Inside Job