Category: Be fully present

A balanced wholeness

Karl Duffy7 Comments

File:Glendalough upper lake autumn.jpg

In the visible world of nature, a great truth is concealed in plain sight: diminishment and beauty, darkness and light, death and life are not opposites. They are held together in the paradox of the “hidden wholeness.” In a paradox, opposites do not negate each other; they cohere in mysterious unity at the heart of reality. Deeper still, they need each other for health, as my body needs to breathe in as well as breathe out. But in a culture that prefers the ease of either-or thinking to the complexities of paradox, we have a hard time holding opposites together. We want light without darkness, the glories of spring and summer without the demands of autumn and winter, and the Faustian bargains we make fail to sustain our lives.

Autumn constantly reminds me that my daily dyings are necessary precursors to new life. If I try to “make” a life that defies the diminishments of autumn, the life I end up with will be artificial, at best, and utterly colorless as well. But when I yield to the endless interplay of living and dying, dying and living, the life I am given will be real and colorful, fruitful and whole.

Parker Palmer, Autumn: To Cohere in Mysterious Unity

photo of Glendalough by bananenfalter

Picking flowers

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:LA Cathedral Mausoleum Jesus and the children detail2.jpg

This is as nice a description of moment-to-moment awareness that I have read in a while, from a non “meditation” source:

There’s actually no such thing as an adult. We never grow up. We’re not supposed to. We’re born and that’s it. We get bigger. We live through great storms. We get soaked to the bone. We realize we’re waterproof. We strive for calm. We discover what makes us feel good. We do those things over and over. We learn what doesn’t feel good. We avoid those things at all cost. Sometimes we come together: huge groups in agreement. Sometimes we clap and dance. Sometimes we look like a migration of birds. We need to remind ourselves — each other — that we’re mere breaths. Like every time you see the low, full moon. We keep on eating: chewing, pretending we know what’s going on. The secret is that we don’t. We don’t, and don’t, and don’t. Each day we’re infants: plucking flower petals, full of wonder.

Micah Ling, Bon Iver: Holocene

Following the way of nature

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File:Pair of birch leafs.jpg

Returning to the source is stillness,

which is the way of nature.

Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

photo watchduck

Let go

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File:Swan in lake Bled (8697758735).jpg

The wind whistles in the bamboo and the bamboo dances.

When the wind stops, the bamboo grows still.

A silver bird flies over the autumn lake.

When it has passed,

the lake’s surface does not try to hold on to the image of the bird.

Huong Hai

When thinking gets in the way

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ducks

I think 99 times and find nothing.

I stop thinking,

swim in silence,

and the truth comes to me.

Albert Einstein

Pause and notice

Karl Duffy3 Comments

File:Here they are!! Part 1 (3161323177).jpg

In parting, I would like to give you one small piece of advice to keep in your heart. You may have heard me say this before, but it is the key point of the entire path, so it bears repeating: All that we are looking for in life — all the happiness, contentment, and peace of mind — is right here in the present moment. Our very own awareness is itself fundamentally pure and good. The only problem is that we get so caught up in the ups and downs of life that we don’t take the time to pause and notice what we already have.

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, from Farewell letter before beginning a period of extended solitary retreat in 2011

photo benson kua