Tag: balance

Subtract

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The notion of a spirituality of subtraction comes from Meister Eckhart (c.1260-1327), the medieval Dominican mystic. He said the spiritual life has much more to do with subtraction than it does with addition. Yet I think most Christians today are involved in great part in a spirituality of addition.

The capitalist worldview is the only one most of us have ever known. The nature of the capitalist mind is that things (and often people!) are there for me. Finally, even God becomes an object for my consumption. Religion looks good on my résumé, and anything deemed “spiritual” is a check on my private worthiness list. Some call it spiritual consumerism. It is not the Gospel.

Richard Rohr, Radical Grace

As it goes

Karl Duffy2 Comments

The true purpose [of Zen] is to see things as they are,

to observe things as they are,

and to let everything go as it goes…


Shunryu Suzuki roshi, Zen Mind, Beginners Mind

Sunday Quote: Attention

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What you look hard at

seems to look hard at you.

Gerald Manley Hopkins

Each matter

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You should speak appropriately about the affairs of your own life,

for each matter you encounter

constitutes the meaning of your existence.

Mazu Daoyi, 709–88, renowned ancient Chinese Zen master

Reality, as it is

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Zen is not some fancy, special art of living.

Our teaching is just to live,

always in reality, in its exact sense.

 Shunryu Suzuki Roshi 

Ordinary

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We need to remember that in sharp contrast to … self-seeking exceptionality, God works through the ordinary. Meister Eckhart gives us a word here: “If you are doing anything special, you’re not seeking God.”

Maggie Ross, Anglican hermit and theologian