I have noticed in my life that all men have a liking for some special animal, tree, plant, or spot of earth. If men would pay more attention to these preferences and seek what is best to do, in order to make themselves worthy of that toward which they are so attracted, they might have dreams which would purify their lives.
Brave Buffalo, Teton Sioux, By the Power of their Dreams (late 19th century)
Sabbath honors the necessary wisdom of dormancy. If certain plant species, for example, do not lie dormant for winter, they will not bear fruit in the spring. If this continues for more than a season, the plant begins to die. If dormancy continues to be prevented, the entire species will die. A period of rest – in which nutrition and fertility most reality coalesce – is not simply a human psychological convenience; it is a spiritual and biological necessity.
Wayne Muller, Sabbath
photo werner100359
When we train in letting go of thinking that anything — including ourselves — is either good or bad, we open our minds to practice with forgiveness and humor. And we practice opening to a compassionate space in which good/bad judgments can dissolve. We practice letting go of our idea of a “goal” and letting go of our concept of “progress,” because right there, in that process of letting go, is where our hearts open and soften — over and over again.
Pema Chodron
photo: pete
At every moment we have the choice of either feeling gratitude for what has been given to us or indulging in grievance about what is missing. Grievance and gratitude are polar opposites. Grievance focuses on what is not there – the imperfections of relational love – and looks for someone to blame. Gratitude recognises what is here – the simple beauty of human presence and contact – and responds to it with appreciation
John Welwood, Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships.
photo from Saint Roch Cemetery, New Orleans
When you are identified on the level of “I am the body and I am my feelings, thoughts and memories”, you’re always limiting, binding yourself to unsatisfactory conditions. These conditions can never satisfy you, because they’re changing: when you try to find security and lasting happiness in things that are forever changing, you’re going to be terribly disappointed. You going to feel this… sense of lack, and we tend to take that as a very personal flaw: “There’s something wrong with me. What’s wrong with me that I should feel lonely, inadequate, incomplete, or unfulfilled?“
Ajahn Sumedho, The Sound of SIlence
John Keats, the great English Romantic poet, writing about the qualities needed for full openness to the infinite depth of the world and of the person:
When man is capable of being in uncertainties,
Mysteries, doubts,
without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.
Letter to George and Tom Keats, December 1817
photo: heather
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