Sunday quote: light

C’est la Nuit qu’il est beau de croire à la lumière

It is at night that it is beautiful to believe in the light

Edmond Rostand, 1868 – 1918, French poet and dramatist

Flow

You cannot do yoga.

Yoga is your natural state.

What you can do are yoga exercises, which may reveal to you where you are resisting your natural state.

Sharon Gannon, 1951 – , yoga teacher, animal rights advocate, musician and author

Running after something

If you do not trust yourself completely, you will just hurriedly go along with whatever happens in all situations. You cannot be independent: all these myriad situations cause you to undergo changes.

If you were able to put a stop to the mentality in which every thought is running after something, then you would be no different from a Zen master or a Buddha.

Lin-chi Yixuan, died 866, founder of the Linji school of Chan Buddhism

A wonderful day

A day at the sea…

We cannot enjoy life if we spend our time and energy worrying about what happened yesterday and what will happen tomorrow.

If we’re afraid all the time, we miss out on the wonderful fact that we’re alive and can be happy right now

Thich Nhat Hahn

Warm sunlight

Incredibly warm, sunny weather here this last week. A world bathed in warmth and life and love.

Look at the sunlight.

You see it is near, yet if you follow it ….you can’t catch it in your hands. Then you say it’s far away and yet you see it right before your eyes. Follow it and you see that it escapes you; Run away from it and it follows you close. You can neither hold onto it, nor be finished with it.

From this you come to see what is the true nature of all things

and then understand: There is no need to be sad or worry about things.

Huang Po, died 850, Zen Buddhist master

Who we are

Growth and transformation occur not by changing who we are

…….but as we summon the courage to be who we are.

And that means bringing our own true, vulnerable, imperfect selves out of hiding and into the world

Katrina Kenison, Magical Journey: An Apprenticeship in Contentment