Be content with the moment, and be willing to follow the flow;
then there will be no room for grief or joy.
Chuang-tzu
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.
Preoccupied with becoming, not being
Craving can be future-oriented – trying to become successful, powerful, thin, or beautiful; dreaming about being with the perfect partner; worrying about losing your job and so on. It can be fixed on the past, replaying a painful incident over and over again, stirring up old hurts with resentment and revenge, or dwelling on nostalgic replays of the good old days. It takes many shapes and forms but its hallmark is a lack of peace. If our attention is taken up with this energy of dissatisfaction we are not available for spiritual inquiry. As long as we are preoccupied we are distracted by experiences that come and go, preoccupied with changing experiences, preoccupied with being born and dying. This precludes any possibility of noticing deeper realities.
Ajahn Viradhammo
We are where we are supposed to be
Drop into the moment that is now.
No need to judge, no need to have an agenda as to what will be, no need to say, “I am meditating”.
Just be here, drink in all that this moment has to offer as if it is the only one that you have – because it truly is.
Jon Kabat Zinn
Noticing the sun shine today
Creatures of a day, what is anyone? What are they not?
We are just a dream of a shadow.
But when there comes, as a gift from heaven, a gleam of sunshine
Then rests on the heart a light of glory,
And blessed are the days.
Pindar (518-438 BCE)
Not having a fixed idea of progress
The individuation process, as the way of development and maturation of the psyche, does not follow a straight line, nor does it always lead onwards and upwards. The course it follows is rather “stadial”, consisting of progress and regress, flux and stagnation in alternating sequence. Only when we glance back over a long stretch of the way can we notice the development. If we wish to mark out the way somehow or other, it can equally well be considered a “spiral”, the same problems and motifs occurring again and again on different levels.
It is always a matter of something obsolete that must be left behind to die in order that the new may be born.
Jolande Jacobi, Jungian psychologist
Holding everything lightly
We should always remember that meditation is the cultivation and practice of nonattachment….Mindfulness is nothing but the middle way. It is neither an intense practice, nor can it be done without effort. It must be done with balance. Properly done, it is neither detached pushing away nor egoistic clinging. Be very careful about sitting down with ideas like, “I am sitting, I am watching, I am breathing, I am meditating, I am this, that is mine”.
Buddhadasa Bhikku
