Tag: balance

Life is filled with many wonders

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

We often ask, “What’s wrong?” Doing so, we invite painful seeds of sorrow to come up and manifest. We feel suffering, anger, and depression, and produce more such seeds. We would be much happier if we tried to stay in touch with the healthy, joyful seeds inside of us and around us. We should learn to ask, “What’s not wrong?” and be in touch with that. There are so many elements in the world and within our bodies, feelings, perceptions, and consciousness that are wholesome, refreshing, and healing. If we block ourselves, if we stay in the prison of our sorrow, we will not be in touch with these healing elements.

Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step

Enough

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

If you have one pot

And can make your tea in it

That will do quite well.

How much he is missing

who must have a lot of things.

Sen no  Rikyu, 1522 – 1591, Japanese tea master

an antidote to the rhetoric of growth

Karl Duffy1 Comment

A Bank Holiday in Ireland; wise words

But beyond self-care and the ability to (really) listen, the practice of doing nothing has something broader to offer us: an antidote to the rhetoric of growth.

In the context of health and ecology, things that grow unchecked are often considered parasitic or cancerous. Yet we inhabit a culture that privileges novelty and growth over the cyclical and the regenerative.

Jenny Odell, How to do Nothing

Sunday Quote: Gratitude or grievance

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

At every moment we have the choice of either feeling gratitude for what has been given to us or indulging in grievance about what is missing. 

Grievance and gratitude are polar opposites.

John Welwood, Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships.

Set your mind

Karl Duffy1 Comment

At every moment, we always have a choice,

even if it feels as if we don’t.

Sometimes that choice may simply be to think a more positive thought.

Tina Turner, American singer, 1939 – May 24, 2023

Holding on and letting go

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

Letting go is about carefully revealing assumptions, biases, and life messages (‘There’s something wrong with me, I’m unworthy’) and releasing them.

You can liken the process to a gradual descent out of the tumult and the gridlock of your personal world into the free space of the unconditioned. It’s rather like lowering oneself down a rope. You have to know how to do that. It is a matter of holding on to something you trust, even though it seems like a thin strand, then letting go a little bit and trusting the downward pull.

Ajahn Sucitto