Month: November 2018

Sunday Quote: The path

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It is the heart that knows the path. The mind is just there to organize the steps

Jeff Brown

What if

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What if you stepped into the shower
each morning only to be baptized anew
and sent forth to serve the grocery bagger,
the bank teller, and the bus driver
through simple kindness?
And what if the things that make
your heart dizzy with delight were
no longer stuffed into the basement
of your being and allowed out to play
in the lush and green fields?
There are two ways to live in this world:
As if everything were enchanted
or nothing at all.
There is no in between, although you
keep trying to live this divided life knowing
deep down something is awry.
You have lived long enough
with this tearing apart.
Come out into the wide world
and discover there companions and guides
at every turn, and even those who summon
curses from your heart have
a divine spark within them bright enough
to invite wonder.

Christine Valters Paintner, To Invite Wonder

A heart that can see

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When Munindra Ji, a vipassana meditation teacher, was asked why he practiced, his response was, ‘So I will see the tiny purple flowers by the side of the road as I walk to town each day.’

Tara Brach,   A Heart That Is Ready for Anything

Bit by bit

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Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely. It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good. What is needed for dramatic change is an accumulation of acts, adding, adding to, adding more, continuing. 

Clarissa Pinkola-Estes, You Were Made For This

Our monastery

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Our hermitage is the act of living with attention in the midst of things; amid the rhythms of work and love, the bath with the child, the endlessly growing paperwork, the ever-present likelihood of war, the necessity for taking action to help the world. For us, a good spiritual life is permeable and robust. It faces things squarely, knowing the smallest moments are all we have, and that even the smallest moment is full of happiness.

John Tarrant, The Light inside the Dark

Everything has meaning

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Whatever is in front of you today,  that’s what you need to deal with. There is no point waiting for another life to come along.

‘Whatever you meet is the path.’  To practice this slogan is to know that no matter what is going on – no matter how distracted you think you are, no matter how much you feel like a terribly lazy individual who has completely lost track of her good intentions and is now hopelessly astray – even then you have the responsibility and the ability to take all negativity, bad circumstance, and difficulty and turn it into the path. You are constantly being found, whether you know it or not. 

Norman Fischer, Life is Tough. Here Are Six Ways to Deal With It.