Category: Make the most of life

Remembering we are sustained

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File:Mont Blanc Massif.jpg
A beautiful poem by Denise Levertov, putting the journey of our life and its cares and distractions into perspective
Days pass when I forget the mystery.
Problems insoluble and problems offering
their own ignored solutions
jostle for my attention, they crowd its antechamber
along with a host of diversions, my courtiers, wearing
their colored clothes; cap and bells.
And then
once more the quiet mystery
is present to me, the throng’s clamor
recedes: the mystery
that there is anything, anything at all,
let alone cosmos, joy, memory, everything,
rather than void: and that, O Lord,
Creator, Hallowed One, You still,
hour by hour sustain it.
Denise Levertov, Primary Wonder.  US poet, 1923 – 1997.
photo of the Mont Blanc Massif

Sunday Quote: Paths

Karl Duffy1 Comment

Following your path

There are no wrong turns,

only unexpected paths

Mark Nepo,

Gently, life moves on

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File:Moonlight on the Lossie. - geograph.org.uk - 327949.jpg

Who was the first man to see the moon on the river bank? 

In what year did the moon first shine on man?

Human lives ceaselessly come and go, generation after generation,

but the moon and the river stay constant year after year.

I don’t know who the moon and the river are waiting for,

I only see the waters of the Yangtze flowing away.

Zhnag Ruoxu, Tang Dynasty poet.

photo des calhoun

Kindness

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bleeding-heart

Kindness in words creates confidence,

Kindness in thinking creates profoundness

Kindness in giving creates love.

Lao Tzu

Winds and rain, hot and cold

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Yesterday saw huge winds hit Ireland and England, causing power cuts and fallen trees, and a lot of disruption to travel. This winter has seen a series of storm systems pass over, some more violent than others, each one disrupting routines and delusions of stability.  In a similar way, despite our best efforts to stay constant, our moods can go up and down –  sometimes as  frequently as the weather – and certainly emotions can appear unexpectedly over which we have little control. We have successes that we work for and yet also have things happen that we did not see coming and cannot understand. Life brings its own troubles and there is no need to go looking for them.  Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche once repeated an old teaching which said that  there is no cure for hot and cold.  He meant that in our lives we can have periods of good things and bad, things go well but we have self-doubt,  we are confident but find ourselves anxious. And in our minds we have a succession of thoughts and emotions, good intentions  and petty thoughts, kindness followed by self-seeking aspirations. He reminded us that this is the human condition and also the normal nature of the human mind. As Pema Chodron says in her commentary on this phrase, There is no cure for the facts of life. If we do not struggle with this fact, relaxing into life as it is, we not only can stop the complaining that goes on in our mind, but also be pleasantly surprised by what  each new day blows into our lives.

The way to dissolve our resistance to life is to meet it face to face. When we feel resentment because the room is too hot, we could meet the heat and feel its fieriness and its heaviness. When we feel resentment because the room is too cold, we could meet the cold and feel its iciness and its bite. When we want to complain about the rain, we could feel its wetness instead. When we worry because the wind is shaking our windows, we could meet the wind and hear its sound. Cutting our expectations for a cure is a gift we can give ourselves. There is no cure for hot and cold. They will go on forever.

Pema Chodron

Delusion

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File:Broken umbrella after Sandy.JPG What creates the sense of suffering for me…is the feeling that my mind cannot relax and accommodate the truth of my experience unless it is what I wanted. Perhaps the most painful habit I have is that of delusion, of imagining that somehow I am in charge of how everything turns out. My wishes and my actions have something to do with what happens to me. Ultimately, however I am not in charge. I keep learning this lesson over and over again, both by paying attention in meditation and by paying attention in my life, but when my mind is startled or overwhelmed by stress, I forget

Sylvia Boorstein, in A Year of Living Mindfully

photo ashokajegroo