Our task is to listen to the news
that is always arriving out of silence.
Rainer Maria Rilke
photo gwen and james anderson
Category: Be fully present
Springing up and falling back
Happiness is not to be found through great effort and willpower.
It is already present in open relaxation and letting go. Don’t strain.
There’s nothing to do or to undo. Whatever momentarily arises in body–mind has no real import at all, has very little reality whatsoever.
Why identify with it and become attached to it, passing judgment on it and on yourself and others?
Far better simply to let the entire play just happen on its own, springing up and falling back again like waves, without ‘rectifying’ things or manipulating things.
Just noticing how everything vanishes and then magically reappears, again and again and again. Time without end.
It’s only our searching for happiness that prevents us from seeing it.
Lama Gendun Rinpoche, Free and Easy
Touch
Being aware of subtle emotional qualities you may be embodying at various times of the day. Pay particular attention to your hands. See if you don’t become more mindful by becoming more “bodyful.” Everything from opening a door to making love involves touch. It is possible to open a door so mindlessly that your hand doesn’t know what your body is doing and you hit yourself in the head with it. Imagine the challenge of touching another person without automaticity, with no gaining idea, just presence and caring.
Jon Kabat Zinn, Wherever you go, There you are
photo agustin ruiz
The secret
The present moment
contains past and future.
The secret of transformation,
is in the way we handle this very moment.
Thich Nhat Hahn, Understanding Our Mind
A sea of light
The more a man enters the light of understanding, the more aware he is of his own ignorance. And when the light reveals itself fully and unites with him and draws him into itself, so that he finds himself alone in a sea of light, then he is emptied of all knowledge and immersed in absolute unknowing
Simeon the New Theologian, 949–1022
Simply being aware
When you meditate, do not try to have good thoughts, do not try to keep away bad thoughts,
do not try to stop thoughts, and do not try to go after them.
Rather, rest in a state of being aware of the thoughts as they arise.
Kalu Rinpoche
