The lesson of spiritual life is not about gaining knowledge,
but about how we love.
Are we able to love what is given to us,
love in the midst of all things,
love ourselves and others?
Jack Kornfield, After the Ecstasy, the Laundry
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.
A real miracle
I like to walk alone on country paths, rice plants and wild grasses on both sides, putting each foot down on the earth in mindfulness, knowing that I walk on the wondrous earth. In such moments, existence is a miraculous and mysterious reality. People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child – our own two eyes. All is a miracle.
Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness
photo richard webb
Sunday Quote : When we stay quiet
Silence is the closest thing to God we know.
Meister Eckhart
photo briyyz
The value of waiting
Waiting is not a very popular attitude. Waiting is not something that people think about with great sympathy. In fact, most people consider waiting a waste of time. Perhaps this is because the culture in which we live is basically saying, “Get going! Do something! Show you are able to make a difference! Don’t just sit there and wait!” For many people, waiting is an awful desert between where they are and where they want to go. And people do not like such a place. They want to get out of it by doing something…
Most of us think of waiting as something very passive, a hopeless state determined by events totally out of our hands…But there is none of this passivity in scripture. Those who are waiting are waiting very actively. They know that what they are waiting for is growing from the ground on which they are standing…Active waiting means to be present fully to the moment, in the conviction that something is happening where you are and that you want to be present to it… Waiting is essential to the spiritual life.
Henri Nouwen, Waiting for God
photo nir b
A day to be still
Let the mind rest at peace.
The Ten Thousand Things rise and fall, while the self watches their return.
They grow and flourish and then return to the source.
Returning to the source is stillness, which is the way of nature.
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
photo eric hill
Everything arises and passes away
One of the most popular bits of poetry in Zen.
Simple, and yet it contains all of practice.
I stroll along the stream up to where it ends.
I sit down watching the clouds as they begin to rise.
Wang Wei, Chinese poet ( 699-761)
photo phil catterall
