The meaning of life is just to be alive.
It is so plain and so obvious and so simple.
And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic
as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.
Alan Watts.
photo asio otus
Category: Be fully present
Sunday Quote: Restless
Today marks the start of Advent – the start of a new year in the Christian Calendar, this year occurring between the shopping festivals of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Two different views of what makes us happy. One feeds the ever wanting heart, which sees only what can be bought. The other feeds, as a friend reminded me yesterday, that part of us which cannot be seen, that which is hidden:
If your soul is un-wanting, you will see what is hidden.
The ever-wanting soul is forever chasing
only what it wants.
Lau Tzu, Tao Te Ching
photo amada44
Saturday: Moments which contain everything
Look, I want to love this world
as though it’s the last chance I’m ever going to get
to be alive
and know it.
Mary Oliver, October
photo CSIRO
A challenge for this Friday
Accept – then act
Whatever the present moment contains,
accept it as if you had chosen it
This will miraculously transform your whole life
Eckhart Tolle
photo MOs810
Being thankful ……or closing our eyes
Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which garden we will tend … When we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives, but when we are grateful for the abundance that is present — love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature and personal pursuits that bring us pleasure – the illusion of wasteland falls away and we experience heaven on earth.
Sarah Ban Breathnach
photo takashi hososhima
Principles for today
I follow four principles:
Face it,
Accept it,
Deal with it,
Then let it go.
Sheng Yen, 1930 – 2009, Chinese Buddhist monk
