Its not so much what happens in a day that causes suffering, but our response to it:
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms —
to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances,
to choose one’s own way.
Viktor Frankl, Mans Search for Meaning
The creator of the universe loves circles: time and space are circles, the day is a circle, the year is a circle, the earth is a circle.
But when creating and fashioning the human heart, the creator only created a half-circle, so that there is something ontologically unfinished in human nature.
The beautiful irony is that even though we’re housed in separate bodies there is a profound hidden tissue of absolute connection between us. The Celtic tradition sensed that no one lives for herself alone. Your call to discover who you are and to bring your soul into birth is also a great act of creativity toward everyone else.
John O’Donohue, The Presence of Compassion
Our life is not defined by its experiences
but by the heart that receives them
Stephen Levine
Cold weather forecast for today, with snow possible on higher ground:
A monk wanted to know what was Mahaprajna, Great or Absolute Wisdom. The Master answered:
“The snow is falling fast and all is enveloped in mist.”
The monk remains silent. The Master asks: “Do you understand?”“No, Master, I do not”.
Thereupon the Master composed a verse for him:
Great Wisdom: It is neither taking in nor giving up.
If one understands it not, The wind is cold, the snow is falling.
The monk is ‘trying to understand” when in fact he ought to try to look. The apparently mysterious and cryptic sayings become much simpler when we see them in the whole context of “mindfulness” or awareness, which in its most elementary form consists in “bare attention” which simply sees what is right there and does not add any comment, any interpretation, any judgment, any conclusion. It just sees.
If one reaches the point where understanding fails, this is not a tragedy:
it is simply a reminder to stop thinking and start looking.
Perhaps there is nothing to figure out after all: perhaps we only need to wake up.
Thomas Merton, Zen and the Birds of Appetite,
As for life, I’m humbled,
I’m without words
sufficient to say
how it has been hard as flint,
and soft as a spring pond,
both of these
and over and over
Mary Oliver, Long Afternoon at the Edge of Little Sister Pond
Healing depends on listening with the inner ear – stopping the incessant blather, and listening. Fear keeps us chattering – fear that wells up from the past, fear of blurting out what we really fear, fear of future repercussions. It is our very fear of the future that distorts the now that could lead to a different future if we dared to be whole in the present.
Marion Woodman, Jungian Analyst
Mindfulbalance 