Everything changes once we identify with being the witness to the story, instead of the actor in it.
Ram Dass
Witness
Month: July 2021
One day at a time
With the ongoing uncertainty about the virus, some wisdom from the Desert Fathers
Do not be anxious about tomorrow Matthew 6:34
Abba Poeman said: This is said for the person who is struggling and has not much strength, so that he should not be worried, saying to himself “How long must I have this struggle?”.
He should rather say to himself “Today”.
David G. R. Keller, Desert Banquet: A Year of Wisdom from the Desert Mothers and Fathers
Sunday quote: our deep sense
We should not give up on our dreams or any deep sense that persists over time, or let it be blocked by our fears.
Since the powers of nature in this dreamer, in that dreamer, and in the macrocosm of nature itself, are the same, only differently inflected,
the powers personified in a dream are those that move the world.
All the gods are within you,
Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God
Need to breathe
Find meaning. Distinguish melancholy from sadness. Go out for a walk. It doesn’t have to be a romantic walk in the park, spring at its most spectacular moment, flowers and smells and outstanding poetical imagery smoothly transferring you into another world. It doesn’t have to be a walk during which you’ll have multiple life epiphanies and discover meanings no other brain ever managed to encounter. Do not be afraid of spending quality time by yourself. Find meaning or don’t find meaning but ‘steal’ some time and give it freely and exclusively to your own self. Opt for privacy and solitude. That doesn’t make you antisocial or cause you to reject the rest of the world.
But you need to breathe.
And you need to be.
Albert Camus, Notebooks 1951-1959
The eight worldly winds
Praise and blame,
gain and loss,
fame and disrepute,
pleasure and sorrow come and go like the wind.
To be happy, rest like a giant tree in the midst of them all.
The Buddha
Running after something
If you do not trust yourself completely, you will just hurriedly go along with whatever happens in all situations. You cannot be independent: all these myriad situations cause you to undergo changes.
If you were able to put a stop to the mentality in which every thought is running after something, then you would be no different from a Zen master or a Buddha.
Lin-chi Yixuan, died 866, founder of the Linji school of Chan Buddhism
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