When we do not expect anything we can be ourselves.
That is our way, to live fully in each moment of time.
Shunryū Suzuki, 1904 – 1971, Shikantaza: Living Fully In Each Moment
Month: June 2017
Simple treasures
The little things? The little moments?
They aren’t little.
Jon Kabat Zinn
Oh Soul,
You worry too much
Your arms are filled with treasures of all kinds
Rumi
Sightless among wonders
A prayer, this time from the Hebrew tradition, encouraging us to embrace each moment and the “ordinary blessings” of this day:
Days pass and the years vanish and we walk sightless among miracles. Lord, fill our eyes with seeing and our minds with knowing. Let there be moments when your presence, like lightning, illumines the darkness in which we walk. Help us to see, wherever we gaze, that the bush burns, unconsumed. And we, clay touched by God, will reach out for holiness and exclaim in wonder, “How filled with awe is this place and we did not know it.”
Jewish Sabbath Prayer
Light which gives meaning
When you possess light within, you see it externally.
Today is the Summer Solstice, the northern hemisphere’s longest day – the official start of Summer – when the longer days of sunlight follow. Unusually for Ireland we are actually forecast a day of very warm sunshine. Traditionally, cultures knew the significance of this date and marked it by the lighting of bonfires. It reminds us that we are at a midpoint of the year, which hints at every midpoint on a journey. Life is short and there are many challenges each day. However, we choose how to use time, bringing the light of beauty to each moment, long or short
We live between the act of awakening and the act of surrender.
Each morning we awaken to the light and the invitation to a new day in the world of time; each night we surrender to the dark to be taken to play in the world of dreams where time is no more. At birth we were awakened and emerged to become visible in the world. At death we will surrender again to the dark to become invisible.
Awakening and surrender: they frame each day and each life; between them the journey where anything can happen, the beauty and the frailty.
John O’Donohue.
photo SK
The small things contain all
From the Zen Buddhist tradition…
The whole moon and the entire sky
are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.
Dōgen Zenji, 1200 – 1253
Monday morning instructions for the week
Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary.
What we need is to love without getting tired.
Be faithful in small things
because it is in them that your strength lies.
Mother Theresa
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