Happiness and not judging anything

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Some of the early Christian Desert Fathers saying are almost  Zen-like in their simplicity. In this example we find echoes of yesterdays post. It contains an instruction on what leads to us being content –  finding rest from our inner agitations: Turn the mind away from judgments, either about ourselves or others, keep the self fluid and in this way stop sticking labels on what is happening. Good advice for today.

Abba Poeman said to Abba Joseph, “Tell me how to become a monk”

He said, “If you want to find rest here below…in all circumstances say ‘who am I’ and do not judge anyone”

Why we get no rest

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The mind never stops looking for identity and  this identity always defines itself through attributes: “the beautiful  one”, “the smart one”, “the creative one”,  “the successful one”… We are always searching for something to be.

Dzigar Kongtrul,  Light Comes Through

Sunday Quote: Deep within

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Keep your feet on the top of the mountain

and sound deep to that

of God in everyone

George Fox, 1624 – 1691, founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers)

With thanks to Cilla at http://www.weaversjournal.wordpress.com for the thought

photo wyldnthewoods

A middle way

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Our task is to find a balance, to find a middle way, to learn not to overextend ourselves with extra activities and preoccupations, but to simplify our lives more and more.

The key to finding a happy balance in modern life is simplicity

Sogyal Rimpoche, Glimpse after Glimpse

photo b traeger

Remaining astonished by life

tearmann

It seems to me that almost all our sadnesses are moments of tension,

which we feel as paralysis because

we no longer hear our astonished emotions living.

Rilke, Letter to a Young Poet

photo of the coffee shop in Kilcullen, called An Tearmann,  which is Irish for “Refuge” or “Sanctuary”

We never know the full picture

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At the center of his existence man is unknown to himself and must remain so,

for that part of being that calls itself man could be known fully

only if the community of being and its drama in time were finally known as a whole.

Eric Voegelin, American political philosopher, 1901 – 1985

photo bert kaufman