Tag: balance

Drop away

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

There is a famous phrase in Japanese Buddhism that tries to explain this. “Learn the backward step that turns your light inward to illuminate your self,” it suggests. Then “body and mind of themselves will drop away, and your original face will be manifest.” This backward step is another way of describing Right Action.

You settle into yourself rather than trying to make the troubling thing go away. If anything drops away, it does so by itself. You cannot make it happen directly.

Mark Epstein, Advice not Given: A Guide to Getting Over Yourself

Shelter and Blessings

Karl Duffy1 Comment

We need to return to the solitude within, to find again the dream that lies at the hearth of the soul. We need to feel the dream with the wonder of a child approaching a threshold of discovery. The false burdens fall away. We come into rhythm with ourselves. If you live the life you love, you will receive shelter and blessings. The divine has such passionate creativity and instinct for the fully inhabited life.

John O’Donoghue

Don’t get in the way

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

 

We have been given bad advice about the ego. 

We know we need it

but we think we are it.

Mark Epstein, Advice not Given: A Guide to Getting Over Yourself

Let the Universe handle it

Karl Duffy1 Comment

When someone says or does something that I find either obnoxious or unattractive – anything that my ego uses to separate myself from others –  I’ll just soften my eyes and fall back into that “something else.” That something else is what does the transforming – it is the grace that makes it work. My only effort is to be aware enough to realize what’s happening. The moment of realizing is actually, in itself, a form of healing. The moment I see that and am willing to fall back into grace, then there’s a possibility for something different to happen within myself. Instead of judging an experience – which makes more separation- I can fall back into letting the universe handle it. This is a gift that’s quite freeing.    

Kathleen Dowling Singh, The Grace in Living: Recognize It, Trust It, Abide in It

Wait in silence

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

There are some things that we simply must wait in silence to receive.

We live our questions and wait for the knowing to happen.

Like the tree, we wait for the sap to rise.

Sue Monk Kidd, When The Heart Waits

More on letting go in autumn

Karl Duffy1 Comment

There are so many things that hold us back from our dreams

Freedom is not given to us by anyone; we have to cultivate it ourselves. It is a daily practice.

By freedom I mean freedom from afflictions, from anger, and from despair.

Thich Nhat Hanh,  Be Free Where You Are