The wind whistles in the bamboo and the bamboo dances.
When the wind stops, the bamboo grows still.
A silver bird flies over the autumn lake.
When it has passed,
the lake’s surface does not try to hold on to the image of the bird.
Huong Hai
Tolerating uncertainty
Life’s energy is never static. It is as shifting, fluid, changing as the weather. How we relate to this dynamic flow of energy is important. We can learn to relax with it, recognizing it as our basic ground, as a natural part of life; Or the feeling of uncertainty, of nothing to hold on to, can cause us to panic, and instantly a chain reaction begins.We panic, we get hooked, and then our habits take over and we act in a very predictable way.
Pema Chodron, Taking the Leap
photo kevin higgins
When thinking gets in the way
I think 99 times and find nothing.
I stop thinking,
swim in silence,
and the truth comes to me.
Albert Einstein
Sunday Quote: Our guide
On this path
let the heart be your guide
for the body is hesitant and full of fear
Rumi
Absence
A poem for this time of year, when – with the fall of autumn leaves – it seems that letting go is the lesson we have to learn, even if we don’t want to:
May you know that absence is alive with hidden presence,
that nothing is ever lost or forgotten.
May the absences in your life grow full of eternal echo.
May you sense around you the secret Elsewhere,
where the presences that have left you dwell.
May you be generous in your embrace of loss.
May the sore well of grief turn into a seamless flow of presence.
May your compassion reach out to the ones we never hear from.
May you have the courage to speak for the excluded ones.
May you become the gracious and passionate subject of your own life.
May you not disrespect your mystery through brittle words or false belonging.
May you be embraced by God in whom dawn and twilight are one.
May your longing inhabit it’s dreams within the Great Belonging.
John O’Donohue, A Blessing for Absences
photo massimocuaz
Pause and notice
In parting, I would like to give you one small piece of advice to keep in your heart. You may have heard me say this before, but it is the key point of the entire path, so it bears repeating: All that we are looking for in life — all the happiness, contentment, and peace of mind — is right here in the present moment. Our very own awareness is itself fundamentally pure and good. The only problem is that we get so caught up in the ups and downs of life that we don’t take the time to pause and notice what we already have.
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, from Farewell letter before beginning a period of extended solitary retreat in 2011
photo benson kua
