Category: Be fully present

The weather has been unseasonably warm, even until late. So last evening I just sat out, listening to the wind and looking up at the sky. It was the right way to wind down at the end of the day. It was so lovely sitting there, for a few moments, being grateful for all that had happened that day, listening to the sound of the wind, not saying anything, not even thinking.

We can be so self-involved that we fail to hear the sounds all around us, birdsong during the day, wind chimes in the evening. We do not notice the wonder of a sun rise or sun set. We do not take the time to look up in the darkness and be entertained by by a large slow cloud passing over. We can do this looking over the fields or looking out from a balcony, as long as we take the time to do so. When we do, the moment becomes special, as it did last night.

Slowing down doesn’t necessarily mean meditating. Slowing down means paying more attention to the space in your life – inside and out. It means not running off to the movie theatre or becoming a zombie in front of the TV whenever you have free time. Do something more natural to slow down: Take time to rock in a rocking chair or sit in the garden and look at the lilies.

Dzigar Kongtrul, It’s up to You

Sometimes it is just the simple things. A walk on a country lane, the good weather, a field full of wild flowers. A riot of colour. Even King Solomon in all his riches was not dressed as beautifully as they are. Nothing needed to be added to that moment.

The ironic thing is that this beautiful colour came from a field of dandelions. Weeds. Often considered a nuisance, dug up, overlooked, while we value other flowers, other scenes. Our life is sometimes like that. We often ignore what is right in front of us while seeking what we think is our path. We cannot turn to what is right beside us. The problem with this is that our actual life is the only one we have. We search for meaning and happiness in ideas, in other places, in other people, in the future. This perpetuates our preference for relating to life through our discursive minds, our planning minds. Meanwhile, right in front of us, our actual life offers happiness. If we have the eyes to see it.

Beware the barrenness
of a busy life

Socrates

When we learn to face the fear we habitually avoid, we begin to awaken from a trance.
By pausing and accepting our experience, we free ourselves to respond to our circumstances in ways that bring genuine peace and happiness.

In a pause, we simply discontinue whatever we are doing. We become wholly present, attentive and, often, physically still.

Try it now: Stop reading and sit there, doing “no thing,” and simply notice what you experience.

Taking our hands off the controls and pausing lets us clearly see the wants and fears that drive us. We become conscious of how the feeling that something is missing or wrong keeps us leaning into the future. We can continue our futile attempt to manage our experience, or we can meet our vulnerability with the wisdom of what I call “radical acceptance.”

Tara Brach

Sometimes nature gives us little glimpses of perfect joy, complete, with no struggle or strain. These can be a beautiful, silent, sunset or the quiet of a hedgehog crossing the road. Time slows down. We know we do not have to add anything to that moment for our happiness to be full.

It is in contrast to the pace that sometimes accompanies our working day.

I cannot tell if what the world considers ‘happiness’
is happiness or not.
All I know is that when I consider the way they go about attaining it,
I see them carried away headlong, serious and obsessed,
in a general rush,
unable to stop themselves or to change their direction.

And all the while they claim to be
just on the point of attaining happiness….

Chuang-tzu.