Enlightenment is not something you achieve. It is the absence of something.
All your life you have been going after something, pursuing some goal.
Enlightenment is dropping all that.
Charlotte Joko Beck
Tag: Awareness
The limitations of our labels
The Real …expects nothing of speech
Le réel …n’attend rien de la parole.
Jacques Lacan, French Psychoanalyst, Ecrits
Noticing beauty
Sometimes I can take things or people for granted and everything becomes part of the “normal everydayness.” At times like this I can drift from one moment to another, doing the best to fit into this place called life. And because of this I can get lost and lose heart. We all can lose each other. It can take reminders to make us step back and realize what a blessing it is to be immersed in a life that is just full of meaning. As de Chardin said “Nothing here is profane for those who know how to see”.
Beauty surrounds us,
but usually we need to be walking
in a garden to know it.
Rumi, Story Water
Our approach
What you encounter, recognize or discover depends to a large degree on the quality of your approach. Many of the ancient cultures practiced careful rituals of approach. An encounter of depth and spirit was preceded by careful preparation. When we approach with reverence, great things decide to approach us. Our real life comes to the surface and its light awakens the concealed beauty in things. When we walk on the earth with reverence, beauty will decide to trust us. The rushed heart and arrogant mind lack the gentleness and patience to enter that embrace
John O’Donohue, Beauty: The Invisible Embrace
A new month: The greatest gift
Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now.
William Stafford, You Reading this, Be Ready
photo: niranjan ramesh
Being pulled away
In our world we are constantly pulled away from our innermost self
and encouraged to look for answers,
instead of listening to the questions.
Henri Nouwen, Reaching out: the Three movements of the Spiritual Life
