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.

Comparing

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As long as the mind is comparing, there is no love, and the mind is always judging, comparing, weighing, looking to find where the weakness is. So where there is comparison, there is no love. When the mother and father love their children, they do not compare them, they do not compare their child with another child; it is their child and they love their child. But you want to compare yourself with something better, with something nobler, with something richer, so you create in yourself a lack of love. You are always concerned with yourself in relationship to somebody else. As the mind becomes more and more comparative, more and more possessive, more and more depending, it creates a pattern in which it gets caught, so it cannot look at anything anew, afresh.

And so it destroys that very thing, that very perfume of life, which is love.

J. Krishnamurti

If only

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The current situation in the world gives rise to many “if onlies” in our minds

Along with our sense of entitlement, we have many specific ideas and expectations about what will make us feel happy. “If only I had the right partner I’d be happy.” “If only I had a better job, or more money, I’d no longer be anxious.” “If only I had a better body I’d be content.” The one thing all of our “if onlies” have in common is an underlying unwillingness to actually be with the present-moment circumstances of our life. Instead, we choose to live in endorphin-producing fantasies about the future. From one point of view this is understandable, in that it’s certainly more comfortable to hold onto our expectations of a different and better reality than it is to be with what is. Yet, where does this leave us? It leaves us living a life that is neither real nor satisfying. But remember, the path to genuine happiness entails first recognizing what blocks it. We have to clearly acknowledge our many “if onlies,” our subtle demands that life be different from what it is.

Ezra Bayda, Beyond Happiness, The Zen Way to True Contentment.

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New month

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Living is the constant adjustment of thought to life and life to thought in such a way that we are always growing, always experiencing new things in the old and old things in the new.

Thus life is always new.

Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude

Micro Moments

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Find a micro-moment of happiness.

Enjoy spring flowers or favorite songs. Have chocolate or tea.

What matters is your intention to be happy

Haemin Sunim, The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down

Sunday Quote: Not anxious

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The unwanting soul sees what’s hidden,
but the ever-wanting soul sees only what it wants

Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, 1

The bigger context

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The work of sacred rituals like initiation was to situate life in a bigger frame, so nature, beauty, suffering, work, sexuality, and ordinary moments were seen to have transcendent significance. They gave life meaning —  the one thing the soul cannot live without…Initiation was always, in some form, an experience of the tension and harmony of opposites: of loss and renewal, darkness and light, the cycle of seasons, death and resurrection, yin and yang, the paschal mystery. 

In my cross-cultural research on male initiation rites, I perceived five consistent lessons or truths communicated to the initiate, meant to separate initiates from their attachment to who they think they are and reattach them to who they really are. In this time of global disruption, these lessons can help us align to reality..[and] …our own belonging in it.
These five essential messages of initiation are:
Life is hard.
You are not important.
Your life is not about you.
You are not in control.
You are going to die.

You may be shocked by the seemingly negative character of these five truths. We typically want to flee from our current anxiety, grief and pain, but I encourage you to stay with these messages. They are truths for your soul that can help you find meaning and a sense of God’s compassionate presence inside of the chaos.

Richard Rohr, The Patterns That Are Always True