You understand so little of what is around you
because you do not use what is within you
Hildegard of Bingen, 1098 – 1179, German Benedictine abbess and polymath, writer, composer, philosopher and medical practitioner
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Tag: Awareness
Everywhere
Layman Pang’s daughter said:
“The hundred grass tips:
The teachings of the ancestors
Are shining from them”
Wherever you look, whatever you see, think, feel…the teachings are shining from them
This is the invitation to come back into our life
Henry Shukman, Zen teacher, Mountain Cloud Zen Center
Sunday Quote: Change
Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower,
We will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind
In the primal sympathy which, having been, must ever be.
William Wordsworth, Splendour in the Grass
A slow nourishing
I thought of happiness how it is woven
Out of the silence in the empty house each day,
And how it is not sudden and it is not given
But is creation itself like the growth of a tree.
No one has seen it happen, but inside the bark
Another circle is growing in the expanding ring.
No one has heard the root go deeper in the dark,
But the tree is lifted by this inward work,
And its plumes shine, and its leaves are glittering.
So happiness is woven out of the peace of hours,
And strikes its roots deep in the house alone.
May Sarton, The work of Happiness [extract]
Always other moments
Today is All Souls Day and November was traditionally a time of remembering those who have gone before us.
Once a monk made a request of Joshu.
“I have just entered the monastery,” he said. “Please give me instructions, Master.”
Joshu said, “Have you had your breakfast?”
“Yes, I have,” replied the monk.
“Then,” said Joshu, “wash your bowl.”
The monk had an insight.
I love this koan. I am the student in the midst of my life, waiting for life to happen. I am the teacher pointing to this latte on my desk. I am the bowl that needs washing and the breakfast already eaten. How do we enter our life fully? It is right here. How do we want to live? Can we allow all the 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, Co-Founder of the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care
In-between places
In a similar fashion, they believed that Halloween was the time in the year when these two worlds were closest.
The ancient Druids are said to have taken a special interest in in-between things like mistletoe, which is neither quite a plant nor quite a tree, and mist, which is neither quite a rain nor quite air, and dreams, which are neither quite waking nor quite sleep. They believed that in such things as those they were able to glimpse the mystery of the two worlds at once
Frederick Buechner 1926 – 2022, American author, Presbyterian minister, preacher, and theologian
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