Take rest;
a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop
Da requiem; requietus ager bene credita reddit
Ovid
Category: Be fully present
Kindness
When I was young, I admired clever people.
Now that I am old, I admire kind people
Abraham Joshua Heschel
No perfect way
Two quotes for today from the great Suzuki Roshi.
Life – or work – can contains elements of mess or chaos and we often approach them with a belief that a resolution can be, or should be arrived at. However, in reality, most of the time, it is rather a question of holding the irresolution or the problem in a new awareness.
Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality.
There is no way set up for us. Moment after moment we have to find our own way.
Some idea of perfection, or some perfect way which is set up by someone else, is not the true way for us. Each one of us must make his own true way, and when we do, that way will express the universal way.
Shunryū Suzuki Roshi, 1904 – 1971
Do not resist
Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes.
Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow.
Let reality be reality.
Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like
attributed to Lao Tzu
Whichever happens, be patient
In Tibetan Buddhism there’s a set of teachings for cultivating compassion called mind training, or lojong. One of the lojong teachings is, “Whichever of the two occurs, be patient.” This means if a painful situation occurs, be patient, and if a pleasant situation occurs, be patient. This is an interesting point. Usually, we jump all the time; whether it’s pain or pleasure, we want resolution. So if we’re happy and something is great, we could also be patient then, and not fill up the space, going a million miles an hour — impulse shopping, impulse talking, impulse acting out.
Pema Chodron, Practicing Peace
Keep going
Posted this once before but I really like the encouragement at the end of a working week which contained 10,000 things arising and passing away:
He has shown you what is good, and what is required of you: To do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8
Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief.
Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now.
You are not obligated to complete the work,
but neither are you free to abandon it.
The Talmud
