Category: Be fully present

Our own path

Karl Duffy3 Comments

There is a tendeOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAncy in January to want to get away from our life, to compare it with other, “better”,  possible lives. Advertising encourages this, offering to get us away from this life to a sunnier life on holidays, or from this shape to a better one in the gym.  Practice encourages us to start where we are and find our own way, in the life that is given us:

There is no form that in and of itself is closer to God. All forms are just forms…..Each individual must therefore listen very carefully to hear her or his way or path. For one person it will be as mother, for another a celibate. For one it will be a householder, for another a wandering monk. Not better or worse. To live another’s life, to try to be Buddha or Christ because Christ did it, doesn’t get us there; it just makes us mimickers. This game is much more subtle: we have to listen to hear what our path through is, moment by moment, choice by choice.

Ram Dass, Grist for the Mill.

Bare awareness

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

Looking Outside

If everything is noted, all your emotional difficulties will disappear.

When you feel happy, don’t get involved with your happiness.

And when you feel sad, don’t get involved with it.

Whatever comes, don’t worry. Just be aware of it.

Dipa Ma, Knee Deep in Grace

More on being kind to ourselves

Karl Duffy1 Comment

acceptWhen we apply the instruction to be soft and nonjudgmental to whatever we see at this very moment, the embarrassing reflection in the mirror becomes our friend. We soften further and lighten up more, because we know it’s the only way we can continue to work with others and be of any benefit in the world. This is the beginning of growing up.

Pema Chodron, Comfortable with Uncertainty

Meeting without resisting

Karl Duffy1 Comment

Open arms

Meeting each moment without resistance, we discover unsuspected beauty in our hearts, minds, and bodies and in the world around us. We perceive the movement of nature within us. We feel sad without needing to justify or eliminate the emotion. We feel happy without needing to believe that we will never again know sadness. This is the way of meditation.

Gavin Harrison, In the Lap of the Buddha

Holding inward and outward together

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

Meditation11The awareness of the so-called outward and the inward movement of life is meditation. The simultaneous awareness of the total movement is meditation. If I am aware of the nature of my reactions, and movement of my reactions, naturally that awareness will result in freedom from the reaction. I cannot stop the reaction, because the reactions have been rooted in the subconscious, in the unconscious. I cannot prevent, I cannot renounce, I cannot check them. But if I am aware, simultaneously of the objective challenge, the subjective reactions and the causes of these reactions, then it results in freedom. Then the momentum of reaction will not carry me over with it, but I will be ahead of the reactions. I will not be a victim of my reactions, but I will see them as I see the objective challenge. That for me is meditation. All inclusive attention while moving in life.

Vimala Thakar, Mutation of Mind

Starting again, with this moment

Karl Duffy1 Comment

Mindfulness practice means that we commit fully in each moment to being present. There is no “performance”. There is just this moment. We are not trying to improve or get anywhere else. We are not even running after special insights or visions. Nor are we forcing ourselves to be non-judgmental, calm, or relaxed. And we are certainly not promoting self-consciousness or indulging in self-preoccupation. Rather, we are simply inviting ourselves to interface with this moment in full awareness, with the intention to embody as best we can an orientation of calmness, mindfulness and equanimity right here and right now.

Jon Kabat Zinn