Something very deep and mysterious, very holy and sacred, is taking place in our lives right where we are, and the more attentive we become the more we will begin to see and hear it. The more our spiritual sensitivities come to the surface of our daily lives, the more we will discover – uncover – a new presence in our lives.
Henri Nouwen
“My dear friend, has the most wonderful moment of your life arrived?“
He wants to know if the most wonderful moment of your life has arrived. It would be a pity if such a moment does not arrive. We may have a tendency to say “It does not seem that it has arrived, this wonderful moment, but I am sure that it will arrive soon, sometime in the future”. That’s our tendency to answer.
But if we keep living like the way we have lived for the past twenty years, it will not arrive in the next twenty years. It might not arrive at all, that moment we call the “most wonderful moment in our lives“.
The Buddha said, you have to make the present moment into the most wonderful moment of your life. And this is possible, Because if you are able to go home to the present moment, to the here and the the now, become fully alive, become fully present, you can touch all the wonders of life within yourself and around you.
Transcribed from a talk by Thich Nhat Hanh
We devour heaven in bites too small to be measured.
Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost
As I gaze on the icon of Mother and child, I realize that despite the enormous difficulty the world has always been in, Christ as a child was content to be in the world in the arms of one woman, his mother.
God’s action in the world is sufficient while operating in the limited dimensions of one individual, here shown contented in the arms of his mother.
Paul Quenon, Matter of the Heart, A Monk’s Journal, – a lovely profound book of reflections.
As I grew up, I experimented with many traditional religious patterns. I soon discovered that, too often, form only has been preserved at the expense of content. Many “religious” people, as a result, are more interested in romantic projection and fulfilment of stereotypes than in learning the difficult self-forgetfulness of the exchange of Love with the Other.
They use religion to make themselves feel good, and call it the search for God. They invest all their energy to create a fantasy world where they will not experience any pain.
Maggie Ross, Seasons of Death and Life: A Wilderness Memoir
The important thing is not the finding, it is the seeking,
it is the devotion with which one spins the wheel of prayer and scripture, discovering the truth little by little.
If this machine gave you the truth immediately, you would not recognize it.
Ursula K. Le Guin
Mindfulbalance 