Our task is to listen to the news
that is always arriving out of silence.
Rainer Maria Rilke
photo gwen and james anderson
Tag: Awareness
Touch
Being aware of subtle emotional qualities you may be embodying at various times of the day. Pay particular attention to your hands. See if you don’t become more mindful by becoming more “bodyful.” Everything from opening a door to making love involves touch. It is possible to open a door so mindlessly that your hand doesn’t know what your body is doing and you hit yourself in the head with it. Imagine the challenge of touching another person without automaticity, with no gaining idea, just presence and caring.
Jon Kabat Zinn, Wherever you go, There you are
photo agustin ruiz
Security from letting go of it
The bad news is: you are falling through the air,
nothing to hang on to, no parachute.
The good news is: there’s no ground
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
Birds make great sky-circles of their freedom.
How do they learn it?
They fall, and falling, they’re given wings.
Rumi
The secret
The present moment
contains past and future.
The secret of transformation,
is in the way we handle this very moment.
Thich Nhat Hahn, Understanding Our Mind
A sea of light
The more a man enters the light of understanding, the more aware he is of his own ignorance. And when the light reveals itself fully and unites with him and draws him into itself, so that he finds himself alone in a sea of light, then he is emptied of all knowledge and immersed in absolute unknowing
Simeon the New Theologian, 949–1022
A real miracle
I like to walk alone on country paths, rice plants and wild grasses on both sides, putting each foot down on the earth in mindfulness, knowing that I walk on the wondrous earth. In such moments, existence is a miraculous and mysterious reality. People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child – our own two eyes. All is a miracle.
Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness
photo richard webb
