I dream of a quiet man
who explains nothing and defends
nothing, but only knows
where the rarest wildflowers
are blooming, and who goes,
and finds that he is smiling
not by his own will.
Wendell Berry, from Given
Category: Be fully present
Belonging and not belonging
Interestingly, we belong to life as much through our sense that it is all impossible, as we do through the sense that we will accomplish everything we have set out to do. This sense of belonging and not belonging is lived out by most people through three principal dynamics: first, through relationship to other people and other living things; second, through work; and third, through an understanding of what it means to be themselves, discrete individuals alive and seemingly separate from everyone and everything else.
David Whyte, The Three Marriages
Ready for anything
My teacher Suzuki Roshi would say, “Sitting meditation is to practice being ready for anything.”
Being ready for anything is different than gearing yourself up
to defend or to attack things as they come toward you.
You sit, and you’re ready for anything.
Edward Espe Brown, The Most Important Point
Content in all seasons
If there are mountains, I look at the mountains;
On days it is raining, I listen to the rain.
Spring, summer, autumn, winter.
Tomorrow too will be good.
Tonight too will be good.
Santoka, Japanese author and haiku poet, 1882 -1940
The practice of non-opposition
Do not become annoyed when faced with difficulties.
To do so merely adds difficulty to difficulty and further disturbs your mind.
By maintaining a mind of peace and non-opposition,
difficulties will naturally fall away.
Sheng-Yen (1931-2009) Resident teacher at the Chan Meditation Center in Elmhurst, New York
No destination in mind
The mark of a moderate man
is freedom from his own ideas.
Tolerant like the sky,
all-pervading like sunlight,
firm like a mountain,
supple like a tree in the wind,
he has no destination in view
and makes use of anything
life happens to bring his way.
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, 59, translated Stephen Mitchell
Mindfulbalance 