Here, Ajahn Sucitto, who gave a talk last evening in Geneva, sums up the whole of practice in an insightful way: Getting to know the mind, and the unskilful habits which lead to suffering:
We are all in this together
— wanting peace and harmony – but disappointing and irritating each other nonetheless.
‘It shouldn’t be this way, there shouldn’t be any suffering.’
But then isn’t understanding and letting go of suffering what it’s all about.
What else are we here for?
Ajahn Sucitto, Parami
At times, I guess we all see life through our fears and our conditioning. In these moments we fail to relate to what is actually here, but filter life through our ideas of where things should be, or how others are out to get us and who is to blame and how we should defend ourselves.
The aim of our practice is to release the mind from suffering and stress. This is best achieved by dropping these judgmental filters and by being willing to be here with whatever is arising, in an open way. The day as it unfolds is always within our reach. We just have to stay connected to it.
The great blessings of humankind are within us and within our reach;
but we shut our eyes,
and, like people in the dark,
we fall foul upon the very thing we search for, without finding it.
Seneca, Roman Stoic philosopher, 4 BC – 65 AD
When we do not expect anything we can be ourselves.
That is our way, to live fully in each moment of time.
Shunryū Suzuki, 1904 – 1971, Shikantaza: Living Fully In Each Moment
A prayer, this time from the Hebrew tradition, encouraging us to embrace each moment and the “ordinary blessings” of this day:
Days pass and the years vanish and we walk sightless among miracles. Lord, fill our eyes with seeing and our minds with knowing. Let there be moments when your presence, like lightning, illumines the darkness in which we walk. Help us to see, wherever we gaze, that the bush burns, unconsumed. And we, clay touched by God, will reach out for holiness and exclaim in wonder, “How filled with awe is this place and we did not know it.”
Jewish Sabbath Prayer
When you possess light within, you see it externally.
Today is the Summer Solstice, the northern hemisphere’s longest day – the official start of Summer – when the longer days of sunlight follow. Unusually for Ireland we are actually forecast a day of very warm sunshine. Traditionally, cultures knew the significance of this date and marked it by the lighting of bonfires. It reminds us that we are at a midpoint of the year, which hints at every midpoint on a journey. Life is short and there are many challenges each day. However, we choose how to use time, bringing the light of beauty to each moment, long or short
We live between the act of awakening and the act of surrender.
Each morning we awaken to the light and the invitation to a new day in the world of time; each night we surrender to the dark to be taken to play in the world of dreams where time is no more. At birth we were awakened and emerged to become visible in the world. At death we will surrender again to the dark to become invisible.
Awakening and surrender: they frame each day and each life; between them the journey where anything can happen, the beauty and the frailty.
John O’Donohue.
photo SK
Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary.
What we need is to love without getting tired.
Be faithful in small things
because it is in them that your strength lies.
Mother Theresa
Mindfulbalance 