For to know nothing is nothing,
not to want to know anything likewise,
but to be beyond knowing anything, to know you are beyond knowing anything,
that is when peace enters in.
Samuel Beckett, Molloy
Tag: balance
The unknown is an answer
It was in the process of asking that I came upon a truth:
that the unknown is an answer.
That there are answers upon answers,
and sometimes no questions at all.
Mary Oliver, Breakage
Winds may blow
Awareness is the basis, or what you might call the “support,” of the mind. It is steady and unchanging, like the pole to which the flag of ordinary consciousness is attached. When we recognize and become grounded in awareness, the “wind” of emotion may still blow. But instead of being carried away by the wind, we turn our attention inward, watching the shifts and changes with the intention of becoming familiar with that aspect of consciousness that recognizes Oh, “this is what I’m feeling, this is what I’m thinking”. As we do so, a bit of space opens up within us. With practice, that space – which is the mind’s natural clarity – begins to expand and settle.
Yongey Mingpur Rinpoche
Sunday Quote: Trust the process
La ruta nos aportó otro paso natural.
The path provides the natural next step.
Spanish palindrome – reading the same backwards as forwards. It is on the subject of pilgrimage or life’s journey , which, as we walk, returns us to our origins
Grounded
Some of these old teachings are very beautiful. The fundamental insight is that we are always whole and alive, even right in the midst of difficulties. We thus loosen our identification with our story as something solid, as a permanent sense of agitation, weakness or illness.
A monk asked, “How can a person escape from birth, old age, sickness and death?”
Lingyun replied, “The green mountain is fundamentally unmoving,
But the floating clouds pass back and forth”
(Little is known of Lingyun Zhiqin, a disciple of Chinese Zen Master Guishan Lingyou (771 – 853). “Birth, old age, sickness and death” are shorthand for all the difficulties of life and its overall unsatisfactory nature).
Excitement
We cannot live without excitement. However, when excitement becomes the sole purpose in life that’s out of balance, that does not work. It seems, we strive to be on a constant high all the time. Having fun almost becomes an addiction. But the craving for the extraordinary dulls the palate, and we lose our sense for the ordinary.
When our practice is calm and ordinary, nothing is lacking and our everyday life itself is enlightenment.
Don’t engage disturbances, and emotional reachings gradually fade away.
Don’t engage distractions and spiritual practice naturally grows.
Wilbur Mushin May Sensei
Mindfulbalance 