It all depends on how we look at things, and not on how they are in themselves.
The least of things with a meaning is always worth more in life than the greatest of things without it.
Jung, The Collected Works of C. G. Jung: The practice of psychotherapy
The world is full of magic things,
patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.
W.B. Yeats
wild flower photo by Ellen van Kalmthout
Many of us don’t allow ourselves to be relaxed. Why do we always try to run and run, even while having our breakfast, while having our lunch, while walking, while sitting? There’s something pushing and pulling us all the time. We make ourselves busy in the hopes of having happiness in the future. In the sutra “Knowing the Better Way to Live Alone,” the Buddha said clearly, “Don’t get caught in the past, because the past is gone. Don’t get upset about the future, because the future is not yet here. There is only one moment for you to be alive, and that is the present moment. Go back to the present moment and live this moment deeply, and you’ll be free.”
Thich Nhat Hanh, The Moment is perfect
Walker, your footsteps
are the road, and nothing more.
Walker, there is no road, the road is made by walking.
Walking you make the road,
and turning to look behind
you see the path you never
again will step upon.
Walker, there is no road,
only foam trails on the sea.
Antonio Machado, Proverbs and songs #29
photo arbget47j
You cannot understand life and its mysteries as long as you try to grasp it. Indeed, you cannot grasp it just as you cannot walk off with a river in a bucket. If you try to capture running water in a bucket, it is clear that you do not understand it and that you will always be disappointed, for in the bucket the water does not run. To “have” running water you must let go of it and let it run.
Alan Watts, The Wisdom of Insecurity
photo Paul Glazzard
