Year: 2016

The basic truth about happiness

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Blackberries, Swindon and Cricklade Railway - geograph.org.uk - 549615.jpg

“All is always now,” says T. S. Eliot.

This statement implies a profound insight: Not only is the now not in time; time is in the now.

When the future comes, it will be now, and any past event becomes now as we remember it. There is only one now. It cannot be multiplied; it simply is.

The now is the opposite of time.

In fact, this is Augustine’s definition: “Eternity is the now that does not pass away.”

A happiness anchored in the now is eternal.

David Steindl-Rast, A Basic Human Approach to Happiness

photo Brian Robert Marshall

At home

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autumn_leaves

Why do we always think that happiness is to be found in the future, or when this or that happens,

and not seek it in the life that we have or in the here and now?

I was passionate,
filled with longing,
I searched
far and wide.

But the day
that the Truthful One
found me,
I was at home.

Lal Ded, (Mother Lalla), 1320 – 1392, Kasmiri Hindu poet and mystic

Keeping space in the mind

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Blue grapes in vineyard.jpg

Another Monday morning. For some the beginning of a work week can come too soon, the weekend not allowing enough time to relax and wind down. Even from early the mind starts to speed up and get sucked into the details. To balance this, the wisdom and faith traditions place our daily and weekly activities in a wider context, allowing us to see beyond the dramas which play out in our minds,  with us at the center. They remind us that to hold a bigger, slower,  perspective, and to notice little moments of wonder as they present themselves to us, this day.

The sun,

with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it,

can still ripen a bunch of grapes

as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.

Galileo

Sunday Quote: Still heart

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File:TofukujiReiunin1.jpg

In the still heart that refuses nothing,

the world is twice born.  

Jane Hirshfield

Beautiful (Saturday) morning instructions

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File:Fruit for Breakfast (3994802719).jpg

1.

 Japanese teacher says:
At first light, rise.
Don’t hover between
sleep and waking,
this makes you heavy,
puts a stone inside your heart.

The minute you drift back to shore,
anchor. Breathe.
Remember your deepest name.

2.

Sometimes objects stun me,
bamboo strainer, gray mug,
sitting exactly where
they were left.

They have not slept
or dreamt of lost faces.

I touch them carefully,
saying, tell me what you know.

3.

Cup of waves,
strawberry balanced
in a seashell.

In morning the water seems
clear to the bottom.

No fish blocks my view.

Naomi Shihab Nye, Breaking the Fast

photo thor

Release

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Balloon released at 2007 Atlanta Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk closing ceremony.JPG

Whatever is happening, whatever is changing, whatever is going or not going according to my plans

— I release my hold on all of it.

I leave behind who I think I am, who I want to be, what I want the world to be.

I come home to the great peace of the present moment.

Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open, How Difficult Times Can Help us Grow

photo Daniel Mayer