Month: May 2014

Content

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Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not

Epicurus

An opportunity

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Whether we are on the busy streets of New York or in the solitude of a mountain cave in Nepal, our happiness and contentment are completely in our own hands. Sitting meditation enables us to rest our mind in a present and cheerful way. When we sit, we make a direct relationship to the source of happiness. At the base of that experience is a quality of happiness, which is not a sense of giddiness, but of relaxation. Wherever we are, life is going to be coming at us. But if we use our lives as an opportunity to develop and enhance our mind, we will always be able to acknowledge that we are in a precious situation.

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche

photo of Grafton st Dublin by Oliver Dixon

Simply

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sitting

A thousand secrets are hidden in simply sitting still.

Karlfried Graf Dürckheim, German psychtheorapoist and zen teacher

The stones and bricks that make up life

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Just this day, with its work, and travel, its meetings and discussions, and its weather, roads,  stones and plants. We do not need to add more.

Mind as fences, walls, tiles, and pebbles

is nothing other than fences, walls, tiles, and pebbles.  

There is no additional mud or water.

Dogen.

photo ardfern.

This very life

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Pause and Wake up

Our intention is to affirm this life,

not to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation,

but simply to wake up to the very life we’re living,

which is so excellent once  one gets one’s mind and one’s desires our of its way

and lets it act of its own accord.

John Cage, (1912 – 1992)  American composer, writer, and artist

Not too tight, not too loose

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In meditation practice, we neither hold the mind very tightly nor let it go completely.

If we try to control the mind, then its energy will rebound back on us. If we let the mind go completely, then it will become very wild and chaotic. So we let the mind go, but at the same time, there is some discipline involved …

The basic practice is to be present, right here.

The goal is also the technique: precisely being in this moment, neither suppressing nor wildly letting go, but being precisely aware of what you are.

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche