Older now,
you find holiness in anything
that continues,
dream after dream.
Naomi Shihab Nye
Author: Karl Duffy
This is a Mindfulness Practice Blog written in Laois, Ireland, containing reflections on meditation practice, psychological growth, spirituality and wellness which hopefully may encourage and benefit others as they reflect on their lives and seek to develop a more balanced, mindful and conscious approach to it.
Where we place our energies
The quality in our life is related to where we place our attention. We go of all the things that are cluttering our minds, and free up space and time to live each moment and each encounter with others more fully. This is true for each moment, but also sets the tone for the values which we choose, the direction we are going.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:21
What is important is not what someone is
but what they are waiting for.
Not the events of life, but its possibilities.
Dorothee Solle
New to Mindfulness Practice 11: Kindness, not judging
Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way
— on purpose, in the present moment,
and without judgment.
Jon Kabat Zinn
New to Mindfulness Practice 10: Just watch
If you need something to do in meditation , then watch the breathing. This is a very simple process. When you are breathing out, know that you are breathing out. When you breath in, know that you are breathing in, without supplying any kind of extra commentary or internalized mental gossip, but just identifying with the breath.
Sogyal Rinpoche
Moments when we see
Sometimes, admittedly, the world can still of a sudden assume a resonance beyond
the one-dimensional, as the sun sometimes breaks through the Irish summer’s ample blanket of cloud cover.
And sometimes even in the rain there comes a moment when
the bird on the neighbouring roof is an ancient symbol or a hieroglyph
in the book of the riddle’s meaning.
And this is poetry, when the bird preaches to you, and you respond
By preaching strictly for the birds.
Ciaran O’Donnell, A Former Franciscan visits Assisi
Noticing, right now, this morning
Normally, fantasies are spinning out , one after another, usually about being someplace else or being different from what we are right now. What about a moment of stopping and checking whether this is going on right now? Simply waking up this moment to what is taking place right now, opening up to……nothing special. Just wind blowing, windows rattling, birds calling, breath flowing in and out, bright sunlight flowing through the shades making patterns on the floor. When that happens it is clear that no wishing has brought it about! Being here and now in unadorned simplicity is our true state – whole and inseparable from anything else.
Toni Parker, The Silent Question
