Everything that happens to you is your teacher…
the secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your own life and be taught by it.
Polly Berrien Berends, US author
Ordinary everyday wisdom: The grass is green
We have to be patient with ourselves. Over and over again we think we need to be somewhere else, and we must find the truth right here, right now; we must find our joy here, now. How seductive it is, the thought of tomorrow. We must find our understanding here. We must find it here; it is always here; this is where the grass is green.
John Tarrant, Calling on the name of Avalokiteshvara
Monday morning encouragement: Keep going….trust
We come here to search…
to go on searching through silence and meditation,
to get in touch with our inner life.
Christ always said,
Do not worry,
give yourself.
Br Roger of Taize
Sunday Quote: Where God appears
God comes to you disguised as your life
Paula D’Arcy, Writer and retreat leader
Seeing what troubles our natural calm
After a certain amount of sitting, the world looks brighter, sounds are sharper,
and there’s a richness of sensory input,
which is just our natural state if we are not blocking out experience with our tense worrying minds
Charlotte Joko Beck, Nothing Special
Offer no resistance
Sometimes you do your best but you are met with mistrust, or things don’t quite work out as planned:
Somebody says something to you that is designed to hurt. Instead of going into unconscious reaction and negativity, such as attack, defense, or personal withdrawal, you let it pass right through you. Offer no resistance. It is as if there is nobody there to get hurt anymore. That is forgiveness. In this way, you become invulnerable. You can still tell that person that his or her behavior is unacceptable, if that is what you choose to do. But that person no longer has the power to control your inner state. You are then in your power — not in someone else’s, nor are you run by your mind. Whether it is a car alarm, a rude person, a flood, an earthquake, or the loss of all your possessions, the mechanism is the same.
Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now.
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