Tag: Awareness

Round in circles

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When we see how compulsively thoughts repeat themselves, we begin to understand the psychological truth of samsara, the Sanskrit word for circular, repetitive existence. In Buddhist teaching, samsara most commonly refers to the wheel of life… Samsara also describes the unhealthy repetitions in our daily life. On a moment-to-moment level, we can see our samsaric thought patterns re-arise, in unconscious and limited ways. For example, we see how frequently our thoughts include fear, judgment, or grasping. Our thoughts try to justify our point of view. As an Indian saying points out: “He who cannot dance claims the floor is uneven.”

Jack Kornfield, The Wise Heart

when you feel stuck

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If any person cannot grasp this matter, 

let them just be still

and the matter will grasp them.

Henry Suso o.p. 1295–1366, German Dominican friar.

Open

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A long weekend in Ireland, a day without to-do lists.

Once your mind contains no plan
wherever you are, it is alert

Ryokan, 1758 – 1831, Japanese Zen monk and poet

parts of holiness

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I don’t know who God is exactly. But I’ll tell you this. I was sitting in the river named Clarion, on a water splashed stone and all afternoon I listened to the voices of the river talking.

Whenever the water struck a stone it had something to say, and the water itself, and even the mosses trailing under the water. And slowly, very slowly, it became clear to me what they were saying. Said the river I am part of holiness. And I too, said the stone. And I too, whispered the moss beneath the water.

Mary Oliver

Always leaning forward

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You will never experience the future.

You are always and only in the present moment

If you’re waiting on the future to feel joy, you will never feel joy

Katherine Morgan Schlafler, The Perfectionist’s guide to Losing control

abstractions

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Anicca [impermanence] is very good for helping us break out of our sense of time. Time is an abstraction. We create it as a linear fund, something that moves forward.

But contemplate that. How long has this week been? Ten days? Some said that yesterday felt like 48 hours. And yet, whats ten seconds of pain? How long is a shower? How long is a cold shower?

Time then is a measure of desire – desire for continuity, desire for a certain outcome. It paralyzes us into expectation and anticipation or dread and worry. We skip over the present moment and get lost in something we imagine as out there in the virtual reality we call the future. But in the purest sense there isn’t any future. We are only ever here

Ajahn Sucitto, What you Take Home with You