Losing touch with the real

blossom falling

A person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts,

so he loses touch with reality and lives in a world of illusion.


Alan Watts

Another passing thing

Looking Outside

Clinging is weakened by the activity of meditation. For example, we sit quietly and experience the flow of feeling, the dependent and changing experience of our bodily form, and all the “I should do it” programs twitching in the mind. And through meditating we can unhook the reactions and reflex-activities by focusing on their changeability. This practice, although based on ethics and sense-restraint, doesn’t attempt to affect the topics that the mind is carrying in its perceptions and volitions….so that whatever our impulse or perception is, it’s just seen as another passing thing.

Ajahn Sucitto, Turning the Wheel of Truth

 

Miracle is all around us

Noticing the extraordinary in the ordinary

Faith does not spring out of nothing.
It comes with the discovery of the holy dimension of our existence.
Suddenly we become aware that our lips touch the veil
That hangs before the Holy of Holies.
Our faith is lit up for a time with the light from behind the veil.
Faith opens our hearts for the entrance of the holy.
This is how close we are to the holy.
When we open ourselves up to the possibility
That God can be there in any moment,
Miracle is all around us.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Suddenly we become Aware

Early Saturday morning thoughts

skyA rare bright and sunny morning here in Ireland. This poem gets close to the spacious feeling which the early sun stirs up inside:

Got up on a cool morning. Leaned out a window.
No cloud, no wind. Air that flowers held
for awhile. Some dove somewhere.

Been on probation most of my life. And
the rest of my life been condemned. So these moments
count for a lot — peace, you know.

Let the bucket of memory down into the well,
bring it up. Cool, cool minutes. No one
stirring, no plans. Just being there.

This is what the whole thing is about.

William Stafford, 1914 – 1993 Just Thinking

Each moment is complete in itself

MilkThistle

Nothing we see or hear is perfect.

But right there in the imperfection

is perfect reality

Shunryu Suzuki-roshi

Content

File:Domestic Cat Enjoys Her Rest.jpg

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not

Epicurus