We are going through some days of unseasonable weather here, very mild, almost Spring-like. The leaves have not yet fully fallen from the trees, and the garden is still flowering. It reminded me today of this old poem on the changing seasons:
Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,
a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.
If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things,
this is the best season of your life.
Wu-Men, 1183 – 1260
Mindfulness meditation doesn’t change life: lIfe remains as fragile and unpredictable as ever: Meditation changes the heart’s capacity to accept life as it is. It teaches the heart to be more accommodating, not by beating it into submission, but by making it clear that accommodating is a gratifying choice. accommodation of the heart is not always easy. Knowing that it is a possibility is a great inspiration. Having an accommodating heart is the ultimate freedom. Practicing accommodation on the small, moment-to-moment disappointments of life – not forgetting our preferences but remaining spacious and relaxed when they are not met – prepares us to deal with the larger challenges of life.
Sylvia Boorstein, Don’t just do something, sit there
Cheerfulness comes naturally with meditation. It is a quality of space created within the mind. When there’s space in the mind, the mind relaxes, and we feel a simple sense of delight. We experience the possibility of living a life in which we are not continuously aggravated by emotions, discursiveness, and concepts about the nature of things…. Despite all the ups and downs of our life, we are fundamentally awake individuals who have a natural ability to become compassionate and wise. Our nature is to be cheerful. This cheerfulness is deeper than temporary conditions. The day does not have to be sunny for us to be cheerful.
Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche
Today is the Feast of St Martin, which was traditionally seen as the start of winter. It was a day for feasting, because from tomorrow a forty day period of preparation for Christmas began. These forty days were a time of reflection and a simplification of activity and intake. Ironically this older way of marking this season is in marked contrast to the modern emphasis for this period, one of speeding up, of acquiring more, or consuming. I wonder which is the wiser way, a way that is closer to the rhythm of nature?
Nature has its periods of growth and its periods of rest. After the colours of autumn with its clear, brisk days, the quiet of winter begins to sneak up on us. All seems still and peaceful, but it is a necessary part of growth and underneath much is going on. In this, nature becomes for us a symbol and a model in its beckoning our inner life to rest, reflect and simplify. The Cistercian monk Thomas Merton reminded us of the value of “winter, when the plant says nothing.” There is a time for us also to slow down, to say little, to wait and watch.
Our task is to find a balance, to find a middle way, to learn not to overextend ourselves with extra activities and preoccupations, but to simplify our lives more and more. The key to finding a happy balance in modern life is simplicity.
Sogyal Rimpoche, Glimpse after Glimpse
No seed ever sees the flower
Zen Saying
Simplification of outward life is not enough. It is merely the outside. But I am starting with the outside. I am looking at the outside of a shell, the outside of my life — the shell. The complete answer is not to be found on the outside, in an outward mode of living. This is only a technique, a road to grace. The final answer, I know, is always inside. But the outside can give a clue, can help one to find the inside answer.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh, American writer and aviator, Gift from the Sea
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