The most direct way to understand our life situation, who we are and how we operate is to observe it with a mind that simply notices all events equally. This attitude of non-judgmental, direct observation allows all events to occur in a natural way. By keeping attention in the present moment, we can see more and more the true characteristics of our mind and body process
jack Kornfield, Living Buddhist Masters
May I meet this moment fully;
May I meet it as a friend.
Sylvia Boorstein, Happiness is an Inside Job
Welcome the present moment as if you had invited it.
It is all we ever have, so we night as well work with it rather than struggling against it.
We might as well make it our friend and teacher rather than our enemy
Pema Chodron
photo: St Francis and the Wolf, Monterosso al Mare, Italy
Really we operate on a very small basis. We think we are great, broadly significant, and that we cover a whole large area. We see ourselves as having a history and a future, and here we are in our big-deal present. But if we look at ourselves clearly in this very moment, we see we are just grains of sand — just little people concerned only with this little dot which is called newness.
We can only operate on one dot at a time, and mindfulness of mind approaches our experience in that way. We are there, and we approach ourselves on the very simple basis of that. That does not particularly have many dimensions, many perspectives; it is just a simple thing.
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
photo robert lawton
Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,
which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium. The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all ingredients are here,
which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.
from Mary Oliver, Messenger
Wear gratitude like a cloak
and it will feed every corner of your life.
Rumi
