As one matures, a greater tolerance of ambiguity
is essential both for growth,
and as a measure of respect for the autonomy of the mystery.
James Hollis, Tracking the Gods
Not clear
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.
Embodied
Western culture is astonishingly disembodied and uniquely so. The way I like to say is that we basically come from a post-alcoholic culture. People whose origins are in Northern Europe had only one way of treating distress: with a bottle of alcohol. North American culture continues with that notion. If you feel bad, just take a swig or take a pill.
The notion that you can do things to change the harmony inside of yourself is just not something that we teach in schools and in our culture, in our churches, in our religious practices. But if you look at religions around the world, they always start with dancing, moving, singing, physical experiences. The more “respectable” people become, the more stiff they become, somehow.
Bessel van der Kolk in Krista Tippet, Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living.
Noticing our worry questions
From one perspective we seem to be composed of a bundle of worry-questions, both spoken and unspoken. These worry-questions precede us like a leash dragging us through our day-to-day existence. We are barely aware of them, so routine have they become for us, yet they start when we awaken in the morning. “What am I going to do today?” “What do I have to do?” “What am I going to wear?” “What shall I have for breakfast?” “What will people think of me if…..?” “Will I be liked?” “Will I be happy?” And so many other worry-questions that set the course of our day, questions that are just beyond the periphery of our awareness, silently steering us through the real and imaginary uncertainties of life.
The worry-questions, these anxieties, are expressions of our egocentricity. Their parent is self-bias, the compulsive need to preserve, at all costs, the comfortable sense we have of ourselves. And how fragile that sense is.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be free of this theater!
Gregory Mayers, Listen to the Desert: Secrets of Spiritual Maturity from the Desert Fathers and Mothers
Sunday Quote: just be aware
Thinking is difficult,
that’s why most people judge.
Jung
What kind of light
There are many kinds of light. There’s the light that allows people lost in the dark to find their way home. There’s the light of compassion that comforts everything it touches. There’s the light of truth-telling about ourselves that allows us to see what we are doing — or allowing — that has helped bring this darkness upon us. There’s the light that shows us the way forward toward a better world. There’s the light of courage to walk that path no matter who says “Stop!“
No one of us can provide all of the light we need. But every one of us can shed some kind of light.
Every day we can ask ourselves, “What kind of light can I provide today?”
Parker Palmer, The Light for Another
Magic things ahead
The world is full of magic things
patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.
W. B. Yeats
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