Month: October 2016

Morning rituals

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File:Ceremonial Tea in Japan.jpg

In our daily activities we often get caught up in a rush from one thing to the next. The morning is a good time to develop slow habits where we can pause and reflect, before the activities of the day begin. In the cup of tea we take time for ourselves. We can pause, and as Tuesday’s post said, hear the song and remember the lake:

In my own hands I hold a bowl of tea;

I see all of nature represented in its green color.

Closing my eyes I find green mountains and pure water within my own heart.

Silently sitting alone and drinking tea, I feel these become part of me

Soshitsu Sen XIV, 1893-1964, Japanese Tea Master

photo hyougushi

How to stay calm

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rock

Draw alongside the silence of stone
Until its calmness can claim you.
Be excessively gentle with yourself.

Stay clear of those vexed in spirit.
Learn to linger around someone of ease
Who feels they have all the time in the world.

Gradually, you will return to yourself,
Having learned a new respect for your heart
And the joy that dwells far within slow time.

John O Donohue, A Blessing for One who is Exhausted

Hearing the song

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river-glendalough

I spent the weekend in Glendalough and was able to walk in nature early in the morning among the trees and rivers. Some say even the rocks there vibrate with life. It was easy to feel grace and see wonder, just as we did as children.  So what we strive for in our working days – in the “chambers of commerce” –  is to remember that beauty and grace are never far from us. They are in the leaf, the stone, the heart.  If we listen,  there is wonder all around, and it sings. Can we hear it today?

What can I say that I have not said before? So I’ll say it again.
The leaf has a song in it.
Stone is the face of patience.
Inside the river there is an unfinishable story
and you are somewhere in it
and it will never end until all ends.

Take your busy heart to the art museum and the chamber of commerce
but take it also to the forest.
The song you heard singing in the leaf when you
were a child is singing still.
I am of years lived, so far, seventy-four,
and the leaf is singing still

Mary Oliver,  What can I say?

In the shelter of now

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The Chinese character for “mindfulness” is nian. It is a combination of two separate characters,  each with its own meaning.

The top part of the character means “now” and the bottom part of the character means “heart” or “mind”.

Literally, the combined character means the act of experiencing the present moment with your heart. So mindfulness is the moment-to-moment awareness of what is occurring in and around us. By being present and mindful of the present moment, we can accept what is at that moment as it is, allowing change to happen naturally, without struggle, without the usual resistance and judgment that cause us to suffer more.

Thich Nhat Hahn and Dr Lilian Cheung, Savor

Sunday Quote: Stilling the mind

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File:DUN AONGHASA FORT INIS MOR ARRAN ISLANDS IRELAND JULY 2013 (9212255198).jpg

I came to the very edge
where nothing at all needs saying …

Pablo Neruda, It is Born

photo calflier001

 

Not always rushing

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File:Wicklow Mountains National Park Glendalough Valley 04.JPG

The Buddhists define spirituality as shamatha, or “tranquil abiding.” We are drawn to a spiritual path out of a desire for tranquil abiding. Just saying the words feels wonderful, like an antidote to the fear, unhappiness, and anxiety with which we often approach life. Fear of what? Fear of our basic human condition. If we stop long enough to take a quiet look at our situation, we’ll hear the tick-tick-ticking of time’s impersonal progress. For each of us, time’s march breeds a different fear: for some it is the terror of death; for others it is the worry of a life unlived; for some it signifies the loss of what we hold dear and familiar. These are not thoughts with which we usually enjoy lingering. Spirituality invites us to linger. It gives us a way of standing naked in the truth of the human condition; meeting it head-on with curiosity and openness. This is serious work, but the mysterious outcome of the work is a lightness of heart — what we call happiness.

Elizabeth Lesser, The Seekers Guide: Making your life a Spiritual Adventure

photo of Glendalough in autumn by  J.-H. Janßen