Everyone’s mind likes saying “but.”
Thinking you are doing it wrong, that the conditions of your life stop you from making friends with yourself – these thoughts might get in the way of noticing what it is like to be you. You might disapprove of who you are, but disapproving is just another way of not being here.
In this case, making friends with yourself could mean lowering your standards….
John Tarrant, What’s it Like to be You?
photo Ian Kirk
Wherever you are, just try being the host.
You will always be at home.
Linji Yixuan, Chan Buddhist, died 866
There is an inner wakefulness…
that will eventually
startle us back
to the truth of
who we are.
Rumi
You will always find an answer
in the sound of water
Chuang Tzu
photo of Coumeenoole beach Dingle, by sharon loxton
We never start to be grateful unless we wake up. Wake up to what? To surprise. As long as nothing surprises us, we walk through life in a daze. We need to practice waking up to surprise. I suggest using this simple question as a kind of alarm clock: “Isn’t this surprising?” “Yes, indeed!” will be the correct answer, no matter when and where and under what circumstances you ask this question. After all, isn’t it surprising that there is anything at all, rather than nothing? Ask yourself at least twice a day, “Isn’t this surprising?” and you will soon be more awake to the surprising world in which we live.
David Steindl-Rast, Awake, Aware and Alert
photo tony hisgett
