Tag: Autumn

Leaves in the wind

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When you encounter difficulties, the feelings and stories that arise in reaction are just that, feelings and stories.

They are whirlwinds of confusion, based not in what is happening now but in deeply held beliefs about you and your relationship to the world.

Let them swirl- leaves in the wind.

Sometimes you fall back into them and lose touch with the present, but a moment of recognition always comes. Right then, come back to your body, come back to your breath, and rest. The confusion, the stories and the feelings are still there.

They continue to swirl, but you are not lost in them. 

Ken McLeod, Reflections on Silver River, teachings on Tokmé Zongpo’s 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva’

Leaves and Rivers

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Separate the leaves in your life from the river which keeps flowing.

Boundless,

without end

the leaves fall,

rustling down.

Endlessly,

unceasing,

the great river flows on,

rolling along in swirling waves.

Du Fu, 712-770, Tang Dynasty.

(This poem is considered the greatest example of lushi poetry in the Chinese language)

it too will leave

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Ripeness is
what falls away with ease.
Not only the heavy apple, the pear,
but also the dried brown strands
of autumn iris from their core.

To let your body
love this world
that gave itself to your care
in all of its ripeness, with ease,
and will take itself from you
in equal ripeness and ease,
is also harvest.

And however sharply
you are tested —
this sorrow, that great love —
it too will leave on that clean knife

Jane Hirshfield,

Cares drop away

Karl Duffy1 Comment

Climb the mountains and get their glad tidings.

Nature’s peace will flow to you as the sunshine flows into the trees.

The winds blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy,

while cares drop away from you

like the leaves of autumn

John Muir

Let it go

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

A very windy day yesterday.

As the leaves fall, my favourite Autumn chant, the final lines of the Heart Sutra – finding an inner rest, beyond all coming or going.

Gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā

[“Gone, Gone, Gone beyond, Gone completely beyond. Awakening, So be it”]

Gone. I release my grip on the small self. I let it go.
Gone. I let thoughts, opinions, and ideas drift away like clouds.
Gone beyond. I cross to the other shore, beyond division.
Gone completely beyond. Nothing is left to cling to, I rest in vast openness.
Awakening. Clear seeing dawns, the truth shines quietly.
So be it. May this awakening be sealed in my heart.

What we notice

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Abundance is not something we acquire.

It is something we tune into

Wayne Dyer