Tag: Awareness

As it is

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

Meditation is a form of training the mind, so that it does  not get hooked by all our inner storms, but rather relates to the world, or other people, in a fresh way, just as they are:

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche used the phrase “first thought, best thought” to refer to that first moment of fresh perception, before the colorful and coloring clouds of judgment and personal interpretation take over. “First thought” is “best thought” because it has not yet got covered over by all our opinions and interpretations, our hopes and fears, our likes and dislikes. It is direct perception of the world as it is.

Dr Jeremy Hayward, First Thought

 

Have confidence that you are enough

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

Good instructions when you are feeling fragmented or small, or when you are giving too much power over to others.

Settle the self on the self

and let your life force blossom

Zen instruction, from my current reading : Blanche Hartman, Seeds for a Boundless Life: Zen Teachings from the Heart

Ways into life

Karl Duffy1 Comment

I believe that anybody can find a way into the world:  

some landscape, a particular room, neighborhood street, a  building such as a barn with its smells, or a thing privately treasured,  for instance a baseball glove or a pair of shoes. “All things are full of Gods” is an ancient Greek saying; “In my Fathers house are many mansions”, a Christian one. These suggest that there is something divine even in the baseball glove and the neighborhood street.

James Hillman

Sunday Quote: Hear the bird’s song

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The forest is peaceful, why aren’t you?

You hold on to things, causing your confusion.

Let nature teach you.

Hear the bird’s song,  then let go.

Ajahn Chah

Understand that things change, drop the struggle

Karl Duffy3 Comments

The line from the Dhammapada, a compilation of sayings attributed to the Buddha, that seems the best expression of wisdom, is: “Anyone who understands impermanence, ceases to be contentious.”

Does that make sense to you on as many levels as it does to me? I understand it, primarily, as meaning “I have only a certain span of life allotted to me, so I don’t want to waste a single moment of it fighting.” Other times, if I catch myself on the brink of contention, the instruction reminds me, “Whatever is happening will change, and what I add to this situation is part of the change. Agonizing makes it worse.” And sometimes, if I remember that whatever is happening will cause results that I really cannot anticipate (although I often do and worry needlessly), I say to myself, “I have no idea whether this changed circumstance, which I resent, is actually a good or a bad thing in the long run. I can wait to see.”

Sylvia Boorstein, Happiness is an Inside Job

The teachers we need

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

Life always gives us 
exactly the teacher we need 
at every moment. 
This includes every mosquito, 
every misfortune, 
every red light, 
every traffic jam, 
every obnoxious supervisor (or employee), 
every illness, every loss, 
every moment of joy or depression, 
every addiction, 
every piece of garbage, 
every breath. 

Every moment is the guru.

Charlotte Joko Beck