Why didn’t I learn to treat everything like it was the last time?
My greatest regret was how much I believed in the future.
Jonathan Safran Foer, 1977 – American Novelist
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.
No substance
The “10, 000 things” is a shorthand way of talking about all the experiences – good and bad – which arise and pass away in our lifetime.
The ten thousand things are all reflections
The moon originally has no light
Han shen, 9th Century
Ups and Downs
Soothe the anguish of your soul.
Nobody is destined only to happiness or to pain.
The wheel of life takes one up and down by turn.
Kālidāsa, Sanskrit poet and dramatist, 4th–5th century
Sunday Quote: Just notice
Unexpected intrusions of beauty.
This is what life is.
Saul Bellow, 1915 – 2005, Canadian-American writer, winner of Nobel Prize for literature
Maintaining an underlying confidence
If you get into agreeable circumstances, then shine through agreeable circumstances. If you fall into adverse situations, then shine through adverse situations. When greed or desire arise, shine through greed and desire; when hatred or anger arise, shine through hatred and anger; when you act out of ignorance, shine through ignorance. When the three poisons of hatred, greed, and ignorance are not more, and the mind is pure, shine through that pure mind. At all times, in all places, be it desires, senses, gain, loss, right, wrong…..in all things shine through with your whole body
Hakuin, 1686 – 1769, On Kensho, The Four Ways of Knowing
How we work with our minds
Love and concern for all are not things some of us are born with and others are not. Rather, they are results of what we do with our minds. We can choose to transform our minds so that they embody love, or we can allow them to develop habits and false conceptions of separation.
Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindness
