Category: Be fully present

A motto for the new month

Karl Duffy4 Comments
20150919_085205(1)

Awareness is your refuge:

Awareness of the changingness of feelings, of moods, of material change and emotional change:

Stay with that, because it’s a refuge that is indestructible.

It’s not something that changes. It’s a refuge you can trust in.

This refuge is not something that you create. It’s not a creation. It’s not an ideal.

It’s very practical and very simple, but easily overlooked or not noticed.

When you’re mindful, you’re beginning to notice: 

It’s like this

Ajahn Sumedho, The Sound of Silence

A special place and time

Karl DuffyLeave a comment
File:You are here.jpg
The Place where you are right now
God circled on a map for you.
 
 Hafiz

Life passing by

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

File:Leaf leaves streams water reflections.jpg

Wake up my heart! The world is passing by;
Life froths and flows by, free for the asking.
Don’t sleep in your body, oblivious,
As the caravan of life goes by your house.

 Rumi

A poem for the start of autumn: to be a witness

Karl Duffy5 Comments

File:Apples on Ground (8399553959).jpg

I do not know if the seasons remember their history or if the days and
nights by which we count time remember their own passing.

I do not know if the oak tree remembers its planting or if the pine
remembers its slow climb toward sun and stars.

I do not know if the squirrel remembers last fall’s gathering or if the
bluejay remembers the meaning of snow.

I do not know if the air remembers September or if the night remembers
the moon.

I do not know if the earth remembers the flowers from last spring or if
the evergreen remembers that it shall stay so.

Perhaps that is the reason for our births — to be the memory for
creation.

Perhaps salvation is something very different than anyone ever expected.

Perhaps this will be the only question we will have to answer:
“What can you tell me about September?”

Burton D. Carley, September Meditation

photo leslie seaton

 

Note, dont react

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

File:Old Hands.jpg

Buddhadasa Bhikkhu said, “If there was to be a useful inscription to put on a medallion around your neck it would be This is the way it is’.” This reflection helps us to contemplate: wherever we happen to be, whatever time and place, good or bad, ‘This is the way it is.’ It is a way of bringing an acceptance into our minds, a noting rather than a reaction.

Ajahn Sumedho, The Way it is

photo : sharada prasad

Noticing

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:I see peanuts! (8408863048).jpg

A lesson on really paying attention, from an unusual guide:

“Holmes you see everything!”  Watson exclaimed.

“I see no more than you,

but I have trained myself to notice what I see“, said Holmes.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier

photo ian kirk