The most important thing, in the show of the temporal and the transient,
is to recognize the substance which is immanent and the eternal which is present.
Hegel, Works, VII, 17.
photo matt jigins
Category: Be fully present
Sunday Quote: Listen
Very mild weather in Ireland these days. Even the daffodils are starting to bloom. Quiet signs of growth and hope everywhere. Better to listen to these than to the angry voices all round.
The silence of creation will speak louder
than the tongues of men or angels.
Thomas Merton
photo paul gilmore
Small things
Whenever I stopped long enough to reflect on such questions as “Why am I here?” and “What is my purpose?” the answer seemed pretty clear. I actually found it long ago in some lines by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, words I’ve quoted often because they’ve served me so well as a kind of north star, timeless wisdom by which to navigate:
“Ours is not the task
of fixing the whole world at once
but of stretching out to mend
the part of the world that is within our reach”
Katrina Kenison, Mending the world
Being aware of our patterns
One reason we strengthen our awareness in meditation is to see more clearly the patterns laid down in our childhood, how we believe these to be our personality and the limiting stories which they often tell us about our abilities.
According to neuroscience, even before events happen the brain has already made a prediction about what is most likely to happen, and sets in motion the perception, behaviors, emotions, physiologic responses and interpersonal ways of relating that best fit with what is predicted. In a sense, we learn from the past what to predict for the future and then live the future we expect.
Regina Pally, The Predicting Brain
photo MarcCooperUK
Sunday Quote: our inner resource
May we all grow in grace and peace,
and not neglect the silence that is printed
in the centre of our being.
It will not fail us.
Thomas Merton
Saturday: learning by doing nothing
The dream of my life
is to lie down by a slow river
and stare at the light in the trees –
To learn something by being nothing
a little while but the rich
lens of attention
Mary Oliver, Entering the Kingdom
