Dropping the Struggle with life

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

My friend Jack Kornfield tells his story of asking a venerable Tibetan meditation teacher for advice many years ago: “There are so many students wanting to be on retreat,” Jack said to the teacher. “I’m teaching continuously, and I’m very tired.” Jack hoped, it seems, that he would be given a special practice for strength – perhaps a mantra. But the teacher said, “Maybe you should take more vacations.”

Almost everyone laughs when they hear that story. It’s funny because it isn’t the answer most people are expecting. It’s also good dharma: life is difficult, the Buddha taught, and it becomes more difficult when we struggle with it. There is no end to challenge. Not everything needs to get solved today.

Sylvia Boorstein, Just Don’t Do It

Working with the daily pressures

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

Peace is within oneself – to be found in the same place as agitation and suffering.

It is not found in a forest or on a hilltop, but within

Ajahn Chah

When things bother you today

Karl Duffy1 Comment

Do not become annoyed when faced with difficulties.

To do so merely adds difficulty to difficulty and further disturbs your mind.

By maintaining a mind of peace and non-opposition, difficulties will naturally fall away

Master Sheng-Yen

with life, as it is

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

So many glimpses of heaven are in front of us each day, but we do not notice.

What do I know?
But this: it is heaven itself to take what is given,
to see what is plain; what the sun lights up willingly;
for example – I think this
as I reach down, not to pick but merely to touch —
the suitability of the field for the daisies, and the
daisies for the field.

Mary Oliver, Daisies

Appreciation

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

What carries us into living freedom

is not the holding of attention

so much as the holding of appreciation

Adyashanti

Sunday quote: infinite

Karl Duffy3 Comments

In these days of political and economic turmoil, fuelled by fear and disrespect, we need to learn from those who have faced similar times and touch into a space within.

The sky within me

is as wide as the one stretching above my head

Etty Hillesum, 1914 – 1943, deported by the Nazi regime to Auschwitz and killed there