Awareness – Page 443 – Mindfulbalance

Sunday Quote: What is here

November 25, 2012November 25, 2012 Karl DuffyLeave a comment

I discovered the secret of the sea
in meditation upon the dew drop.

Kahil Gibran

Preferring to be elsewhere

November 23, 2012November 23, 2012 Karl DuffyLeave a comment

Our minds are such that we are often more asleep than awake

to the unique beauty and possibilities

of each present moment as it unfolds.

Jon Kabat Zinn

Transparent thoughts

November 22, 2012November 22, 2012 Karl DuffyLeave a comment

What makes thoughts problematic for most of us is that we are compulsively prone to believing in their contents – their stories and value-judgements – so maintaining any kind of real objectivity with thought, as we might be able to do with other sense objects like sight or sound or smell or taste or touch, seems like an impossibility. Thought seems to be in a totally different category, although in truth it’s not. With time and the skilful development of meditation, we might well be able to learn to focus and calm the mind to the point where conceptual thought stops altogether. I would see this as a pleasant bonus rather than a final goal. More useful is to aspire and practise to see thought as transparent, insubstantial. In this way, when thought is there – whether deliberate or not – there is no sense of cluttering or entangling within the heart and mind. Its presence is just like a fragrance or a physical feeling, a visual image or a sound – it embellishes the silence and stillness of the mind, rather than occluding or corrupting it.

Ajan Amaro, Finding the Missing Peace

What we have to work with

November 22, 2012November 22, 2012 Karl Duffy1 Comment

The plain concerns of ordinary work are the raw material – the materia prima as the alchemists called it – for working out the soul’s matter.

We work with the stuff of the soul by means of the things of life.

Thomas Moore

Awareness of good and bad

November 21, 2012November 21, 2012 Karl DuffyLeave a comment

The difference between misery and happiness

depends on what we do with our attention

Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindness

…is direct knowing

November 20, 2012November 20, 2012 Karl DuffyLeave a comment

The years to come — this is a promise — will grant you ample time

to try the difficult steps in the empire of thought where you seek for the shining proofs you think you must have.

But nothing you ever understand will be sweeter, or more binding,
than this deep affinity between your eyes and the world.

Mary Oliver, Terns

About this Blog

Mindfulbalance supports the slow, patient practice of mindfulness meditation, as a way to find balance and meaning in life, reduce stress and develop health and wellbeing. It contains reflections to encourage the practice of meditation as well as occasional posts from psychology, spirituality and the wisdom traditions. The daily posts are prompted by Rilke's advice: "Write about what your everyday life offers you, your sorrows and desires, the thoughts that pass through your mind, and your belief in some kind of beauty". Written in County Laois, Ireland