Do not say, ‘It is morning,’
and dismiss it with a name of yesterday.
See it for the first time
as a new-born child that has no name.
Every child comes with the message
that God is not yet discouraged of man. Everything comes to us that belongs to us, if we create the capacity to receive it.
Rabindranath Tagore
When we recognize and become grounded in awareness of awareness, the “wind” of emotion may still blow.
But instead of being carried away by the wind, we turn our attention inward, watching the shifts and changes with the intention of becoming familiar with that aspect of consciousness that recognizes Oh, this is what I’m feeling, this is what I’m thinking. As we do so, a bit of space opens up within us. With practice, that space — which is the mind’s natural clarity — begins to expand and settle.
We can begin to watch our thoughts and emotions without necessarily being affected by them quite as powerfully or vividly as we’re used to. We can still feel our feelings, think our thoughts, but slowly our identity shifts from a person who defines him or herself as lonely, ashamed, frightened, or hobbled by low self-esteem to a person who can look at loneliness, shame, and low self-esteem as movements of the mind.
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, The Aim of Attention
Ireland is under a red storm warning for today, but what is being called the worst storm ever to hit the country passing over. People have been asked to “shelter in place”…
If you live the life you love, you will receive shelter and blessings.
Sometimes the great famine of blessings in and around us derives from the fact that we are not living the life we love; rather, we are living the life that is expected of us. We have fallen out of rhythm with the secret signature and light of our own nature.
John O’Donohue
The question is not, never, ever, whether or not we will be given challenges and limitations. We will.
The question is, how will we hold them, how will we be changed, how will they shape us, what will we bring to the healing of them, what, if anything will be born in its place.
Wayne Muller, A Life of Being, Having and Doing Enough
As one matures, a greater tolerance of ambiguity
is essential both for growth,
and as a measure of respect for the autonomy of the mystery.
James Hollis, Tracking the Gods
Western culture is astonishingly disembodied and uniquely so. The way I like to say is that we basically come from a post-alcoholic culture. People whose origins are in Northern Europe had only one way of treating distress: with a bottle of alcohol. North American culture continues with that notion. If you feel bad, just take a swig or take a pill.
The notion that you can do things to change the harmony inside of yourself is just not something that we teach in schools and in our culture, in our churches, in our religious practices. But if you look at religions around the world, they always start with dancing, moving, singing, physical experiences. The more “respectable” people become, the more stiff they become, somehow.
Bessel van der Kolk in Krista Tippet, Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living.
Mindfulbalance 