We all have well-established habits of thought, emotion, reaction and judgement,
and without the keen awareness of practice, we’re just acting out these patterns.
When they arise, we’re not aware they’ve arisen.
We get lost in them, identify with them, act on them
— so much of our life is just acting out patterns.
Joseph Goldstein
I love you, gentlest of Ways,
who ripened us as we wrestled with you.
you, the great homesickness we could never shake off,
you, the forest that always surrounded us,
you, the song we sang in every silence,
you dark net threading through us,
on the day you made us you created yourself,
and we grew sturdy in your sunlight…
let your hand rest on the rim of heaven now and mutely bear the darkness we bring over you.
Rainer Maria Rilke, Book of Hours, translation anita barrows and joanna macy
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
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
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
A 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
