Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow,
it empties today of its strength
Corrie ten Boom, Clippings from my Notebook
with thanks to Laura Syrat for the photo of cat sleeping in Nice, France.
Category: Be fully present
Deep silence
In different traditions and at different times there were many attempts to express the value of setting aside some time for silence or creating some space to listen and yet they all agree on its benefits. What was true in the 12th century is even more true today. When we get caught up in relentless activity we are in danger of not hearing what our deep needs are, or indeed what are those of others close to us. Finding some time for quiet in our lives is not a luxury but rather is essential for protecting our health.
Let all my world be silent in your presence so that I may hear what you may say in my heart. Your words are so softly spoken that no one can hear them except in a deep silence. But to hear them lifts the person who sits alone and in silence completely above their natural powers, because those who humble themselves will be lifted up. Those who sit alone and listen will be raised above themselves.
Guigo II, Carthusian monk, died 1188, Ladder of Monks and Twelve Meditations
photo brian stansberry
Where to start
Be gentle with yourself. Be kind to yourself.
You may not be perfect, but you are all you’ve got to work with.
The process of becoming who you will be begins first with the
total acceptance of who you are.
Bhante Henepola Gunaratana
photo hunterdt
Lost in our moods
This mind of ours is naturally peaceful. It’s still and calm like a leaf that is not being blown about by the wind…
Why the mind doesn’t feel peaceful right now is because it gets lost in its own moods. There’s nothing to mind itself. It simply abides in its natural state, that’s all. That sometimes the mind feels peaceful and other times not peaceful is because it has been tricked by moods. The untrained mind lacks wisdom. Moods come and trick it into feeling pleasure one minute and suffering the next. Happiness then sadness. But the natural state of a person’s mind isn’t one of happiness or sadness. This experience of happiness and sadness is not the actual mind itself, but just these moods which have tricked it. The mind gets lost, carried away by these moods with no idea what’s happening. It still isn’t very clever. And we go on thinking that it’s our mind which is suffering or our mind which is happy, when actually it’s just lost in its various moods.
Ajahn Chah, Training this Mind
A new loveliness.
You cannot live without dying.
You cannot live if you do not die psychologically every minute.
This is not an intellectual paradox. To live completely,
wholly, every day as if it were a new loveliness,
there must be dying to everything of yesterday,
otherwise you live mechanically,
and a mechanical mind can never know what
love is or what freedom is.
Krishnamurti, Freedom from the Known
photo: early morning mist on Blessington Lake, Co Wicklow, by IrishFlyfisher
The origin of suffering
Be attentive and notice that whatever arises passes away; that whatever condition of your mind or body – whether it is a sensation of pleasure or pain, feeling or memory, sight, sound, smell, taste or touch, inside or outside – is just a condition. It’s important to reflect on what ‘ignorance’ really means when .. called … the origin of all suffering. ‘Being ignorant’ means that we identify with these conditions, by regarding them as ‘me’ or ‘mine’, or as something that we don’t want to be ‘me’ or ‘mine’. We’ve got the idea that we’ve got to find some permanent pleasant condition, we have to achieve something, get something we don’t have. But you can notice that desire in your mind is a moving thing, looking for something, so it’s a changing condition that arises and passes away – it’s not-self.
Ajahn Sumedho, Everything that arises passes away
photo sean p bender
