I practice meditation
so that I can notice the small purple flowers by the roadside
that I would otherwise miss
Anagarika Shri Munindra, 1915 – 2003, Vipassana teacher
photo matt lavin
Tag: Awareness
Sunday Quote: Open our eyes
Happiness is available.
Please help yourself.
Thich Nhat Hahn
photograph of glendalough Co Wicklow
Not a dress rehearsal
Treat every moment as your last
It is not a preparation for something else
Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginners Mind
photo by Alan light
Absence
We are asked to live in companionship with patterns and dynamics that are either disappearing, have not fully emerged or can never be fully named;
patterns perhaps already changing into forms for which we have yet no language.
It might be liberating to think of human life as informed by losses and disappearances
as much as by gifted appearances,
allowing a more present participation and witness to the difficulty of living
David Whyte, The Poetic Narrative of our Times
The way of all things
In a dark time, the eye begins to see
Roethke, In a Dark Time
A day like Good Friday bears witness to a truth that runs through all the different wisdom traditions, namely, that the times when we are challenged and hurt are often the moments when we grow the most. Thus places of darkness are difficult and fruitful at the same time. This truth needs to be remembered in a culture that focuses on perpetual youth, continual progress and ongoing self-improvement: :
Life may be brimming over with experiences,
but somewhere, deep inside,
all of us carry a vast and fruitful loneliness wherever we go.
Etty Hillesum
photo mark 10:43
Sunday quote: learning
I keep looking for one more teacher,
only to find that fish learn from water
and birds learn from sky.
Mark Nepo, Behind the Thunder
