For one who is free, there is no more accumulation;
For one who is released, there is no more clinging.
Like a drop of water on a lotus leaf,
Or a mustard seed on the tip of a needle,
Nothing sticks to one who does not grasp
The Buddha, Sutta Nipāta 4.14
The liberated mind is like water on a lotus – untouched, unstained. Even pleasant or painful experiences no longer leave a trace when the heart is free.
Ajahn Amaro, The Island
Enjoy each season of your life. Patiently prepare the soil, sow the seeds, and do the work, and you’ll harvest the abundant fruits of your labors. Accept both good fortune and adversity as you accept the shifting seasons. Enjoy the glazed beauty of a winter’s day and the sultry days of summer, for soon enough, each season, each day, each moment, passes into history, and its exact likeness shall not be seen again. So rather than longing for summer in the midst of a winter’s chill, or wishing for cool winds in the dog days of summer, embrace each season for its own gifts. Align yourself with the cycles of time and transformation, riding change as ships ride the waves.
Dan Millman, The Laws of Spirit
One method I learned from my teacher, Diana Winston, is elegantly simple. In your meditation, simply add a few words to each time you notice your attention wandering: May I meet this too with kindness. Whatever comes up, repeat this phrase of loving-kindness toward your thoughts, feelings, or sensations.
See if you can notice how it feels to meet yourself with kindness instead of judgment or reaction. And then, as you move through the day, try repeating the same phrase – “may I meet this, too, with kindness” – whenever you notice you are being hard on yourself, judgmental toward yourself, or unkind in any way. Often, learning to meet yourself with kindness can feel like the medicine your heart and inner life yearns for, especially if you’re used to meeting yourself with all kinds of judgment and past conditioning.
Finally, see if you can extend this intention toward anything that happens in your day, or to anyone you encounter, especially when things aren’t going the way you would like them to. Lean into the intention to meet all that is here with kindness.
Amanda Gilbert, May I Meet This, Too, With Kindness
Michaelmas: Traditionally in Ireland the day to mark the end of harvest The traditional greeting – “May Michaelmas féinín on you.” – wished for an abundant harvest
The feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Archangels. Those sent to help or guide us.
Where is the angel
to wrestle with me and wound
not my thigh but my throat,
so curses and blessings flow storming out
and the glass shatters, and the iron sunders?
Denise Levertov, Where is the Angel [extract]
Ideas create idols,
only wonder leads to knowing
Gregory of Nyssa
Fear not the pain.
Let its weight fall back into the earth;
for heavy are the mountains, heavy the seas.
The trees you planted in childhood have grown
too heavy. You cannot bring them along.
Give yourselves to the air, to what you cannot hold.
Rilke
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