Category: Be fully present

Stop pushing

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

File:African Elephant walking.JPG

In one of his insightful talks Zen master Shunryu Suzuki said that in your practice you should walk like an elephant. “If you can walk slowly, without any idea of gain, then you are already a good Zen student.” There’s a mantra for your religion: Walk like an elephant. It means to move at a comfortable pace. No rushing toward a goal. No push to make it all meaningful.

Thomas Moore, A Religion of One’s Own: A Guide to Creating a Personal Spirituality in a Secular World

photo charlesjsharp

with thanks to the always inspiring and nourishing blog https://davidkanigan.com/

Doing the ordinary

Karl Duffy3 Comments

File:Waiter in a restaurant, Paris 2011.jpg

Our guide for today and this week: doing the ordinary things with attention and with love.

When the mind is at peace,
the world too is at peace.
Nothing real, nothing absent.
Not holding on to reality,
not getting stuck in the void,
you are neither holy nor wise, just
an ordinary fellow who has completed his work.

Layman Pang, 740 – 808, Chinese Chan layman

photo florian plag

Sunday Quote: Fixed outcomes

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Fall leaves in Frick Park 01.jpg

No Appointment

No Disappointment

Swami Satchidananda, Indian religious teacher, 1914 – 2002

photo Cbaile19

Why each moment this day is precious

Karl Duffy2 Comments

File:FL autumn leaves.jpg

Dew evaporates
And all our world is dew…so dear,
So fresh, so fleeting.

Issa, 1763 – 1828, On the death of his child

Beneath

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

File:2016-07-27 Seagull in Zandvoort aan Zee (02) (freddy2001).jpg

Be the silent watcher of your thoughts and behavior.

You are beneath the thinker.

You are the stillness beneath the mental noise.

You are the love and joy beneath the pain.

Eckhart Tolle

photo freddy2001

Contentment: Letting it land

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Acorns falling onto the ground.jpg

One or two practices from different traditions on letting go after work, or at the end of a day or a week, or maybe endings in general. They remind us of the wider perspective mentioned at the start of the week. It is linked to a sense of release, the opposite to the continual striving and adding on which we think will bring contentment.

[When] you get to the end of the meeting, the day, let that unravel. You cultivate the wisdom of no-performance and no-result. You listen to any judgements that are rattling in your mind, establish mindfulness on the mind-state and its feeling, then let the defenses and identities go. It’s a matter of acknowledging the inner helicopter that is hovering over ‘If only this’ and ‘I should have said that’ and ‘How dare they do this!’ and steadily touching the ground. Allow the feeling to be felt and breathe through it. Let it end, even let the wish that it all end come to an end. When the rotor blades stop, just here, on the other side of failure, is purity and release.

Ajahn Sucitto, Happy Deathday

photo muffet