I cannot tell if what the world considers ‘happiness’
is happiness or not.
All I know is that when I consider the way they go about attaining it,
I see them carried away headlong, serious and obsessed,
in a general rush, unable to stop themselves or to change their direction.
And all the while they claim to be
just on the point of attaining happiness….
Chuang-Tzu.
photo emery way
Today I’m flying low and I’m
not saying a word.
I’m letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep.
The world goes on as it must,
the bees in the garden rumbling a little,
the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten.
And so forth.
But I’m taking the day off.
Quiet as a feather.
I hardly move though really I’m traveling
a terrific distance.
Stillness. One of the doors
into the temple.
Mary Oliver, Today
photo yanajin33
Some wisdom on the place of meditation and non-doing in overcoming the difficulties of each day, from one of the Desert Fathers, 3rd Century Christian monks in Egypt
Abba Pastor said
“Any challenge that comes to you
can be overcome by silence”
photo itzafineday
Frequently we don’t know the answers to some of the questions that life throws at us. We come to see that there is always a balance between knowing and not knowing. We prefer knowing, certainty, clear ideas. But maybe wisdom comes from being able to allow what we don’t know, and from learning to trust.
This is how we become wise:
When the formed
is taught by the unformed.
Chuang Tzu
photo taro taylor
All the world is full of suffering.
It is also full of overcoming
Helen Keller
photo evgord
Simplify the problem of life:
distinguish the necessary and the real.
Probe the earth to see where your main roots run.
Thoreau
