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 little light

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Often we want to be able to see into the future. We say “How will the next year be for me? Where will I be five or ten years from now?” There are no answers to these questions. Mostly we have just enough light to see the next step: what we have to do the coming hour or the following day. The art of living is to enjoy what we can see and not complain about what remains in the dark. When we are able to take the next step that follows, with the trust that we will have enough light for the step that follows, we can walk through life with joy and be surprised at how far we go. Let’s rejoice in the little light we carry and not ask for the great beam that would take all shadows away.

Henri Nouwen

Constructing our self

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mirrorEvery single moment of consciousness is a moment of practice, whether we like it or not. We are practicing to become ourselves. The important question is really just how much we want to participate in the process.

Andrew Olendzki, Unlimiting Mind

Making time for ourselves

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474676v1We need to find a way of balancing our ‘inner’ work and our ‘outer’ work  and we begin to appreciate a basic paradox: that in order to be truly generous, truly of service to others, we actually need to be completely ‘self-centred’. We need to be able to stay in touch with our own hearts, listening carefully to what they tell us, even while engaged in external activity or interaction. We need to remain attentive to our own needs, and to really make sure that these are well taken care of  even if it means disappointing people, letting them down, not living up to the expectations they may have of us (or that we have of ourselves). This is not at all easy, with the conditioning most of us have: ‘Don’t be selfish’.

Ajahn Candasiri, A Question of Balance

A fresh start

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/files/Stepping Stones/stepping-stones-1.jpgStart close in, don’t take the second step
or the third, start with the first
thing close in,
the step you don’t want to take.

 Start with the ground you know,
the pale ground
beneath your feet,
your own way of starting
the conversation.

 Start with your own
question, give up on other
people’s questions,
don’t let them smother something
simple.

To find another’s voice
follow your own voice,
wait until that voice
becomes a private ear
listening to another.

 Start right now, take a small step
you can call your own
don’t follow someone else’s
heroics, be humble
and focused, start close in,
don’t mistake that other
for your own.

 Start close in,don’t take the second step
or the third, start with the first
thing close in,
the step you don’t want to take.

David Whyte, Start Close in

Placing things in a deeper context

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A person is satisfied not by the quantity of food, but by the absence of greed. Gurdjieff

If we are silly enough to remain at the mercy of the people who want to sell us happiness, it will be impossible for us ever to be content with anything. How would they profit if we became  content? We would no longer need their new product. The last thing the salesman wants is for the buyer to become content. You are of no use in our society unless you are always wanting to grasp what you never have. The Greeks were not as smart as we are. In their primitive way they put Tantalus in hell. [Advertising]…on the contrary, would convince us that Tantalus is in heaven.

Thomas Merton

Some things change, some stay the same

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We often have expectations about the way things are and the way things should be. We have expectations about life, practice, and the results that we should get. How many of us are really willing to simply be aware and present with the mind, here and now, and see it clearly as it is? Isn’t that what the teaching is constantly pointing to? The cultivation of awareness, the development of wisdom, and the Four Foundations of Mindfulness are all teachings pointing to being in the here and now, and from this perspective, clearly seeing the nature and content of the mind. The training of the heart is about awareness of the simplicity of the present moment. It is refreshing and freeing to be awake and to be content where we are and with what we have.

Ajahn Sundara, Fearless Presence