Month: March 2017

Giving power over to the situation

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File:Rainbows.jpg

When a rainbow appears vividly in the sky, you can see its beautiful colors, yet you could not wear as clothing or put it on as an ornament. It arises through the conjunction of various factors, but there is nothing about it that can be grasped. Likewise, thoughts that arise in the mind have no tangible existence or intrinsic solidity. There is no logical reason why thoughts, which have no substance, should have so much power over you, nor is there any reason why you should become their slave.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

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Our original mind

Karl Duffy2 Comments

File:White osteospermum.jpg

Mind has no colour; it is not long or short;

it does not vanish or appear; it is free from purity and impurity alike; and its duration is eternal.

It is utter stillness.

Such, then, is the form and shape of our original mind,

which is also our original body.

Hui Hai 720 – 814

photo alvesgaspar

The light is always there

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Porthole Window (4869420700).jpg

A beautiful idea, similar to the Eastern understanding of natural goodness, or original mind:

Our hands full or not:
The same abundance.
Our eyes open or shut:
The same light.

Yves Jean Bonnefoy, French poet and art historian, 1923 – 2016

with, as before, thanks to david kanigan, Live and Learn blog

photo carrotmadman6

Holding both sides

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Baoding Balls Qi Gong Kugeln01.jpg

Our problems are a big deal for us.

So we need to make space for an attitude of honouring things completely and at the same time not making them a big deal. It’s a paradoxical idea, but holding these two attitudes simultaneously is the source of enormous joy: we hold a sense of respect toward all things, along with the ability to let go. In Buddhist terms, the space that opens is referred to as ‘shunyata,’ or emptiness.  It’s basically just a feeling of lightness. When you begin to see life from the point of view that everything is spontaneously arising and that things aren’t ‘coming at you’ or ‘trying to attack you,’ in any given moment you will likely experience more space and more room to relax into. So shunyata refers to the fact that we actually have a seed of spaciousness, of freshness, openness, relaxation, in us.

Pema Chodron

photo Manfred Werner

The difficulties of being on this journey

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

File:Gfp-texas-big-bend-national-park-path-through-the-sands.jpg

We use the word heartbreak as if it only occurs when things have gone wrong: an unrequited love, a shattered dream, a child lost before their time. Heartbreak, we hope, is something we can avoid; something to guard against, a chasm to be carefully looked for and then walked around; the hope is to find a way to place our feet where the elemental forces of life will keep us in the manner to which we want to be accustomed and which will keep us from the losses that all other human beings have experienced without exception since the beginning of conscious time. But heartbreak may be the very essence of being human, of being on the journey from here to there, and of coming to care deeply for what we find along the way…

David Whyte,