Tag: balance

Grateful

Karl Duffy3 Comments

A special greeting for Thanksgiving for all those who read and follow the Blog in the United States. Gratitude helps us to focus on what we have, and not on what we lack, 

I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite – only a sense of existence. I am ready to try this for the next ten thousand years, and exhaust it. How sweet to think of my extremities well charred, and my intellectual part too, so that there is no danger of worm or rot for a long while. My breath is sweet to me. O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on the bank can drain it, for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment. 

Henry David Thoreau, Letter, Friends and Followers, 1856

Relating to what is going on

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Often in popular culture, mindfulness is taken to mean simply “be present” rather than how we are relating to the present. I think that is a significant understanding that it would be helpful to clarify.

Joseph Goldstein

This is it

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Try: Reminding yourself from time to time: ‘This is it.’ See if there is anything at all that it cannot be applied to. Remind yourself that acceptance of the present moment has nothing to do with resignation in the face of what is happening. It simply means a clear acknowledgement that ‘what is happening is happening.’ Acceptance doesn’t tell you what to do. What happens next, what you choose to do, that has to come out of your understanding of this moment. You might try acting out of a deep knowing of ‘This is it.’ Does it influence how you choose to proceed or respond? Is it possible for you to contemplate that in a very real way, this may actually be the best season, the best moment of your life? If that was so, what would it mean for you?

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever you Go, There You are

Our monastery

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Our hermitage is the act of living with attention in the midst of things; amid the rhythms of work and love, the bath with the child, the endlessly growing paperwork, the ever-present likelihood of war, the necessity for taking action to help the world. For us, a good spiritual life is permeable and robust. It faces things squarely, knowing the smallest moments are all we have, and that even the smallest moment is full of happiness.

John Tarrant, The Light inside the Dark

Everything has meaning

Karl Duffy3 Comments

Whatever is in front of you today,  that’s what you need to deal with. There is no point waiting for another life to come along.

‘Whatever you meet is the path.’  To practice this slogan is to know that no matter what is going on – no matter how distracted you think you are, no matter how much you feel like a terribly lazy individual who has completely lost track of her good intentions and is now hopelessly astray – even then you have the responsibility and the ability to take all negativity, bad circumstance, and difficulty and turn it into the path. You are constantly being found, whether you know it or not. 

Norman Fischer, Life is Tough. Here Are Six Ways to Deal With It.

Headlong

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If I am not careful – if I rise frantic from my bed, full of small concerns – the mystical flow of imagination at rest will be broken, the past and the future will rush in to claim my mind and I will be swept up into life’s petty details and  myriad obligations…Something precious is lost if we rush headlong into the details of life without pausing for a moment to pay homage to the mystery of life and the gift of another day.

Kent Nerburn, Small Graces, The Quiet Gifts of Everyday Life