Tag: balance

Don’t hold on

Karl Duffy1 Comment

leaf-4777

[Our] knowing awareness gets lost when we cling to states of mind, because these are always in motion. We get pulled off balance by emotionally powered thoughts that demand that we follow them, fix them, get rid of them or worry about them. So we have to learn to undo the habit of reaching for, adopting or clinging. You can never satisfy a driven mind. A wise person is someone who can give up the ranting of the self to find a more natural tune; they can see the clamouring and the clutching, the fearing and the grasping, are unnecessary and not worth hosting. 

Ajahn Sucitto, Parami

Guarded

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

File:Boxing match fighter poses for camera - NARA - 285831.jpg

We often go through our day or our life with our defenses up…

I seemed to hear God saying, “Put down your gun and we’ll talk.”

C.S. Lewis

Principles for today

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

File:Afghan woman at Bagram medical entry control point.JPG

I follow four principles:

Face it,

Accept it,

Deal with it,

Then let it go.

Sheng Yen, 1930 – 2009, Chinese Buddhist monk

 

Paying attention

Karl Duffy3 Comments

File:Efterår i Mollerup Skov.jpg

Friday…a little more space appears…we can perhaps notice the beauty all around us, in the little things, new colours, some time for ourselves:

I do not think there is anyone who takes quite such a fierce pleasure in things being themselves as I do.

The startling wetness of water excites and intoxicates me; the fieriness of fire, the steeliness of steel,

the unutterable muddiness of mud…

GK Chesterton

On change, choice, life and death

Karl Duffy3 Comments

paths

Two paths diverge in a wood….

You start dying slowly
If you become a slave of your habits,
Walking everyday on the same paths…
If you do not change your routine,
If you do not wear different colours
Or you do not speak to those you don’t know.

You start dying slowly
If you avoid to feel passion
And their turbulent emotions;
Those which make your eyes glisten
And your heart beat fast.

You start dying slowly
If you do not change your life when you are not satisfied with your job, or with your love,
If you do not risk what is safe for the uncertain,
If you do not go after a dream,
If you do not allow yourself,
At least once in your lifetime,
To run away from sensible advice…

Pablo Neruda from Dying Slowly

One step at a time

Karl Duffy3 Comments

mellerey

Ideals exist in the mind, with absolutes of right and wrong, which tend to give us a sense of striving, of not being good enough  On the contrary, once we touch into the heart faculty, we connect more with the actual here and now and let go of the need to be prefect and certain. This brings about a deeper sense of balance and groundedness:

Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how.

The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. 

Agnes George de Mille, American dancer and Choreographer.