Make the most of life – Page 63

Sunday Quote: Impermanence

May 24, 2015May 22, 2015 Karl Duffy2 Comments

A self that goes on changing

is a self that goes on living

Virginia Wolff

Kindness with ourselves today

May 19, 2015May 16, 2015 Karl Duffy2 Comments

In actual life it requires the greatest art to be simple, and so acceptance of oneself is the essence of the moral problem and the acid test of one’s whole outlook on life. That I feed the beggar, that I forgive an insult, that I love my enemy… all these are undoubtedly great virtues… But what if I should discover that the least amongst them all, the poorest of all beggars, the most impudent of all offenders, yea, the very fiend himself – that these are within me, and that I myself stand in need of the alms of my own kindness, that I myself am the enemy who must be loved – what then?

Jung, Psychology and Religion: West and East, Chapter V, “Psychotherapy or the Clergy,” 519-520

photo ras67

Sunday Qute: Space

May 17, 2015May 17, 2015 Karl Duffy3 Comments

Develop a mind that is vast like space

where experiences both pleasant and unpleasant can appear

without conflict, struggle, or harm

The Buddha, Majjhima Nikaya

photo ESA/Hubble

Holding on too tightly

May 16, 2015May 15, 2015 Karl Duffy3 Comments

Not that difficult to grasp in the weather here in Ireland this last week. Not so easy to grasp in our inner lives:

Nothing in its essence is one way or the other. All around us the wind, the fire, the earth, and the water, are always taking on different qualities; they’re like magicians. We also change like the weather. We ebb and flow like the tides, we wax and wane like the moon. We fail to see that like the weather, we are fluid, not solid.

And so we suffer.

Pema Chodron, Comfortable with Uncertainty

photo of clouds in Malahide, Dublin, by Miguel Mendez

How we choose to tell the story

May 15, 2015May 13, 2015 Karl DuffyLeave a comment

We stick to the wrong thing quite often, not because it will come to fruition by further effort, but because we cannot let go of the way we have decided to tell the story and we become further enmeshed even by trying to make sense of what entraps us, when what is needed is a simple, clean breaking away. To remove our selves entirely and absolutely, abruptly and at times un-compromisingly is often the real and radically courageous break for freedom.

David Whyte, ‘Withdrawal’ From Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words.

photo waffen5

Sunday Quote: Self-care

May 10, 2015May 9, 2015 Karl Duffy5 Comments

You have to learn to get up from the table

when love is no longer being served.

Nina Simone

photo mrfinch

About this Blog

Mindfulbalance supports the slow, patient practice of mindfulness meditation, as a way to find balance and meaning in life, reduce stress and develop health and wellbeing. It contains reflections to encourage the practice of meditation as well as occasional posts from psychology, spirituality and the wisdom traditions. The daily posts are prompted by Rilke's advice: "Write about what your everyday life offers you, your sorrows and desires, the thoughts that pass through your mind, and your belief in some kind of beauty". Written in County Laois, Ireland