Month: September 2017

Like a blank sheet on a coffee table

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The aim of meditation then, is to let go of the conditions of the mind. This doesn’t mean denying, getting rid of, or judging them. It means not believing them or following them. Instead we listen to them as conditions of the mind that arise and cease. We learn to trust in just being the listener, the watcher, with an attitude of awakened, attentive awareness, rather than be somebody trying to meditate to get some kind of result. Then through mindfulness we are able to get beyond the conditioning of the mind to the pure consciousness that isn’t conditioned, but which is like the background, the emptiness, the blank sheet on which words are written. Our perceptions arise and cease on that blank sheet, that emptiness.

Ajahn Sumedho, True but not right, Right but not true

Solid

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File:Cottage furniture.JPG

One of the fundamental ways of bringing the mind into the present moment is to focus on how we sense our own body. This bodily sense – that is awareness of the sensations and energies that manifest in the body – is something immediate that we can contemplate. It gives us ground and balance. It gives us the sense of being where we are. Although this may seem basic and obvious, much of the time we are not grounded in where we really are. Instead we are ‘out there’ in a world of changing circumstance and reactions to that, without having a central reference.

Ajahn Sucitto, Meditation: A Way of Awakening

photo helenonline

Who you already are

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Don’t go looking elsewhere. Let go of all those ideas about lacking something or needing to attain something

The core essence of it all [life].. is to be who you already are –  rather than get lost in who you are afraid you are,  or think you might be and want to be – in the only moment we ever get, which is just this one. That’s easy to say, but it’s a non-trivial thing to actually engage in.

Jon Kabat Zinn

Be strong then, and enter into your own body;
there you have a solid place for your feet.
Just throw away all thoughts of
imaginary things,
and stand firm in that which you are.

Kabir

Sunday Quote: What keeps us going

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“Grace is everywhere” were the final words of the priest in Bernanos’ book Journal d’un Curé de Campagne. Some weekends we see it easily in nature. Other times in the presence of a friend:

It is light that matters,
The light of understanding.
Who has ever reached it
Who has not met the furies again and again?
Who has reached it without
Those sudden acts of grace?

May Sarton, The Angels and the Furies

More than our fears

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In Ireland,  Summer is officially over at the end of August, and, as if to acknowledge this, yesterday began foggy and grey. Typically,  however, the rest of the day turned out better than most of the Summer. The fog passed through, the sun came out. Today, we are told to expect heavy rain.  Small upsets or bigger storms…the sky can hold whatever passes through it.

It is essential to understand that an emotion is merely something that arises, remains and then goes away. A storm comes, it stays a while, and then it moves away. At the critical moment remember you are much more than your emotions. This is a simple thing that everyone knows, but you may need to be reminded of it: you are more than your emotions.

Thich Nhat Hahn, Healing Pain and Dressing Wounds

A new month: Living fully, without regrets

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File:Tully Cross thatched cottage.jpg

John O’Donohue told a story once about an occasion when he was still a priest and was sitting at the bedside of a dying man, offering his comfort and his presence. The man turned to him and said, with a great sense of calm, that he had no regrets, because he had taken a great big bite out of life.

It would be a significant thing if we could say that, not just at the end of life, but at the end of each day.

 Most people think they will regret foolish actions more than foolish inactions. But studies show that nine out of ten people are wrong. Indeed, in the long run, people of every walk of life seem to regret not having done things much more than they regret things they did.

Dan Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness

photo Linda Buckley