Tag: Awareness

Waiting

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

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In the Islamic tradition,  during Ramadam,  there is a special night called the Night of Power, when angels are said to descend to earth, bringing peace. It is not known which night it is exactly, so the only attitude to have is one of waiting and watching. This is true for Advent also, but it even applies not just to special seasons but to the mystery in every moment:

God,
just like the Night of Power,
is hidden amidst the other nights
So that the soul
will go on seeking every night.

Oh young one,
not every night is the Night of Power
And yet,
not every night
is bereft of the Night of Power

Rumi

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Grace and wonder and mystery

Karl Duffy1 Comment

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Everything we need or want is waiting inside each day … right before us in flawed abundance …nothing is clean or perfect, and nothing unfolds as planned.  For the Universe is vital, not perfect.  Full of endless seeds attempting to be one thing, colliding with another, and becoming a third.

 One of the more difficult paradoxes to accept is that this abundance of gifts is always quietly present and it is we who drift in and out of seeing it.  The one recurring doorway to this vitality is our simple participation in life.  When we slip into heartless watching, the abundance seems to vanish.  When we dare to show up and be fully present, grace and wonder and mystery start to appear, even in the midst of pain.  Not as planned dreams, or as images of lovers, or as scripts of success designed by our fantasies of ourselves.  But as oddly shaped pods of vitality bursting to multiply and bring us further into the mystery of living.

Mark Nepo, The Exquisite Risk.

photo anemoneprojectors

Lightly

Karl Duffy1 Comment

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It’s dark because you are trying too hard.
Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly.
Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply.
Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.

Lightly, lightly – its the best advice ever given me, so throw away your baggage and  go forward.

Aldous Huxley, Island

photo agence comas you are

Sunday Quote: Free

Karl Duffy1 Comment

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If you don’t break your ropes
while you’re alive,
do you think ghosts will do it after?

Kabir

photo: maizeam

Living each moment fully

Karl Duffy2 Comments

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A long time ago three elders were talking about impermanence. One elder said “Of all those who attend this years party, who knows who will be missing next year”. Another elder said “What you are talking about is far away. When we take off our shoes and socks tonight, we don’t know if we will put them on again tomorrow.”. The third elder said “What you are talking about is still remote. When we exhale this breath, we don’t know if we will breathe in again”

photo markus michalczyk

Space for gratitude

Karl Duffy2 Comments

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Then there was Jim, who said that for many years he took walks that were ‘ranting’ walks. He would walk and contemplate all the things that angered him about the world. One day he decided to begin taking ‘gratitude’ walks. ‘Now while I walk I recount all the things I am grateful for in my life and don’t allow myself to think of negative things at all. I have found this simple practice to be a great gift.’

John Izzo, The Five Secrets you must Discover before Your Die