Let your mind wander in the pure and simple.
Let all things take their course
Chuang Tzu c 370 – 300 BC
Sunday Quote: Being attentive
This is the first, the wildest, and the wisest thing I know:
That the soul exists and is built entirely out of attentiveness
Mary Oliver
photo juanedc
Moment by moment
Suppose a king might hear the sound of a lute and say “What is that sound – so delightful, so tantalizing, so intoxicating, so ravishing, so enthralling?” They would say “That, sire is called a lute…” Then he would say “Go and fetch me the lute” They would fetch the lute but he then said “Enough of the lute. Fetch me just the sound”.
They had to explain that the sound could not exist independently, but was created by the separate strings, box and arch, all elements working simultaneously.
Just as the king could not find the sound of the lute, so we cannot find our self. When we investigate, any thoughts of ‘me’ or ‘mine’ or ‘I am’ do not occur.
Based on the Buddha, Vina Sutta
Ordinary life
When it’s time to get dressed, put on your clothes. When you must walk, then walk. When you must sit, then sit. Just be your ordinary self in ordinary life, unconcerned in seeking for enlightenment. When you’re tired, lie down. The fool will laugh at you but the wise man will understand.
Linji Yixuan, Chan Buddhist, died 866
photo pavel
The intelligence of nature
How surely gravity’s law,
strong as an ocean current,
takes hold of even the strongest thing
and pulls it toward the heart of the world.
Each thing – each stone, blossom, child – is held in place.
Only we, in our arrogance,
push out beyond what we belong to
for some empty freedom.
If we surrendered
to earth’s intelligence
we could rise up rooted, like trees.
Instead we entangle ourselves
in knots of our own making
and struggle, lonely and confused.
So, like children, we begin again
to learn from the things,
because they are in God’s heart;
they have never left him.
This is what the things teach us: to fall,
patiently trusting our heaviness.
Even a bird has to do that
before he can fly.
Rainer Maria Rilke, Book of Hours, II, 16
The right attitude
This is the real secret of life
to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now.
And instead of calling it work, realize it is play
Alan Watts
photo vatobob
Mindfulbalance 