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
Tag: Awareness
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
Everything arises and passes away
One of the most popular bits of poetry in Zen.
Simple, and yet it contains all of practice.
I stroll along the stream up to where it ends.
I sit down watching the clouds as they begin to rise.
Wang Wei, Chinese poet ( 699-761)
photo phil catterall
The full moon
Prompted by seeing a beautiful (almost) full moon in the clear Kildare sky last evening:
At night, deep in the mountains
I sit in meditation
The affairs of men never reach here
Everything is quiet and empty
The incense has been swallowed up
by the endless night;
My robe has become a garment of dew.
Unable to sleep, I walk into the woods;
Suddenly, above the highest peak,
the full moon appears.
Ryokan, Zen Buddhist monk, 1758 – 1831
photo Andrew Choy
Begin afresh
I was reminded of Larkin’s beautiful poem by the buds opening on the trees in the garden and on the hedgerows around here in County Kildare. This time of year moves him from a reflection on loss and grief, to thoughts on being born again, to finally being convinced to begin over again. The message is like something “almost being said”, so we need to create time to see this: we learn from nature and from this season if we are still enough to listen.
The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of grief.Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too,
Their yearly trick of looking new
Is written down in rings of grain.Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.Philip Larkin, The Trees
