The secret of the mountain is that the mountains simply exist, as I do myself: the mountains exist simply, which I do not. The mountains have no “meaning,” they are meaning; the mountains are. The sun is round. I ring with life, and the mountains ring, and when I can hear it, there is a ringing that we share.
Peter Matthiessen, the Snow Leopard
In the midst of this vast, unfathomable, ever-changing, dying, and renewing flow of life, the human brain ceaselessly engages in trying to fix for itself a state of permanency and certainty. Having the capacity to think and form pictures of ourselves, to remember them and become deeply attached to them, we take this world of pictures and ideas for real. We thoroughly believe in the reality of the picture story of our personal life. We are totally identified with it and want it to go on forever. The idea of “forever” is itself an invention of the human brain. Forever is a dream.
Toni Packer, The Work of this Moment
photo helgi halldorsson
We think that accomplishing things will complete us,
when it is experiencing life that will.
Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening
Photo from the beautiful site http://www.judesphotography.wordpress.com
Being present, whether with children, with friends, or even with oneself, is hard work.
But isn’t this attentiveness — the feeling that someone is trying to think about us — something we want more than praise?
Stephen Grotz, The Examined Life: How we Lose and Find Ourselves.
With no mind, flowers invite the butterfly;
With no mind, the butterfly visits the flowers.
Yet when flowers bloom, the butterfly comes;
When the butterfly comes, the flowers bloom.
I don’t know others, Others don’t know me.
By not-knowing we follow nature’s course.
Ryōkan Taigu, 1758 – 1831
Just be aware whether you are confused, indifferent, happy, sad, uncertain or whatever.
Be that which allows things to be what they are.
Just be the observer of whatever is. Right now my mood is “this”, “I feel this”..
Ajahn Sumedho
