In Ireland today’s forecast is for sun, so we can sit outdoors or maybe even have a barbecue. We are always wishing for sun but in reality, we encounter clouds and bad humour, and rain has its uses in nature as in life…
Sunshine all the time makes a desert
Arab Proverb
One of the most persistent of all delusions
is the conviction that the source of our dissatisfaction
lies outside ourselves
Alan Wallace
The breath is not something that we create or imagine; it is a natural process of our bodies that continues as long as life lasts, whether we concentrate on it or not. So it is an object that is always present; we can turn to it at any time. We don’t have to have any qualifications to watch our breath. We do not even need to be particularly intelligent — all we have to do is to be content with, and aware of, one inhalation and exhalation.
Wisdom does not come from studying great theories and philosophies, but from observing the ordinary.
Ajahn Sumedho, Now is the Knowing
Our minds are often very intent on knowing the outcome, on fixing things down into this or that:
Water, stories, the body,
all the things we do, are mediums
that hide and show what’s hidden.
Study them,
and enjoy this being washed
with a secret we sometimes know,
and then not.
Rumi, Story Water
Very stormy weather in Ireland this past week, continuing overnight with heavy rain. The Eastern tradition called the causes of emotional pain ‘worldly winds’: gusts of blame and loss, happiness and unhappiness. They blow through the heart and throw us off balance, making us feel that we never feel good enough where we are or how our life actually is:
Nothing outside yourself can cause any trouble.
You yourself make the waves in your mind.
If you leave your mind as it is, it will become calm.
This mind is called big mind.
Shunryu Suzuki
We are so attentive to our devices, making sure they are charged. Do we show the same care and concern for our hearts? Do we wait until we are running on fumes? How lovely and wise to make sure that the recharging is not through being a “weekend warrior” or even once-every-few-years vacations (both are lovely), but rather a matter of daily practice. […]
Let us, you and I, friends, find what sustains our soul.
Let us find what nurtures our heart, who nurtures our heart, where our heart is nurtured.
Omid Safi, Tending Our Inner Life to Make the World Whole
