Tag: Awareness

Do not interact

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

One way of dealing with the inner critic, found in many different traditions, East and West:

So the holy elders,” I added, “claim that the best strategy to cope with troublesome logismoi [thoughts] is simply to ignore them.” “Precisely. Our first defense against destructive logismoi is complete indifference. This is the healthiest and most productive method to head them off right at their inception. Ignore them completely. Never open up a dialogue with these intruders. Do not interact with them either out of curiosity or out of overconfidence.”

Kyriacos C. Markides, The Mountain of Silence: a search for Orthodox Spirituality

Nature

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

Feastday of Saint Francis of Assisi

The tree which moves some to tears of joy, is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way.

Some see nature all ridicule and deformity … and some scarce see nature at all.

But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.

William Blake

Find strength

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

You have power over your mind, not outside events.

Realize this, and you will find strength

Marcus Aurelius

a new day, a new month

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

Abba Poemen said of Abba Pior that every single day he made a fresh beginning.

Sayings of the Desert Fathers

Six words

Karl Duffy1 Comment

Let go of what has passed

Let go of what may come in the future

Let go of what is happening now.

Don’t try to figure it out

Don’t try to make anything happen

Rest, let it settle itself

The Six Key Words of Advice from Tilopa, 988 – 1069, an Indian tantric master and scholar, preserved in the Buddhist Mahāmudrā/ Tibetian tradition

Don’t wait

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

How do we enter our lives fully? How do we want to live?

Can we allow all our joys and sorrows to enliven us? Or do we just go along with all our patterns and habits? People who are dying always remind me: ‘I can’t believe I wasn’t here for most of my life.’ That’s one of the most common things I hear, and the biggest regrets. Many people have not inhabited their life because they’re just waiting for other moments. Are we waiting for life to happen in the midst of life? How can we give ourselves fully to our lives, moment to moment?

Don’t wait. Life is always right here.

Koshin Paley Ellison