Tag: balance

Through the mist

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Forest valley in mist - geograph.org.uk - 346599.jpg

It might be liberating to think of human life as informed by losses and disappearances just as much as by gifted appearances, allowing a more present participation and witness to the difficulty of living. What is real can never be fully taken away; its essence always remains. It might set us a little freer to believe that there is no path in life – in the low valley… or abroad in the mountain night –  that does not lead to some form of heartbreak when the outer narrative disappears and then reappears in a different form. If we are sincere, every … relationship will break our hearts in order to enlarge our understanding of our self and that strange other with whom we have promised ourselves to the future.  We learn, grow and become compassionate and generous as much through exile as homecoming; as much through loss as gain, as much through giving things away as in receiving what we believe to be our due.

David Whyte, The Poetic Narrative Of Our Times

photo lis burke

Relating to all

Karl Duffy6 Comments

File:Baby Crane with Breakfast - Flickr - Andrea Westmoreland.jpg

One of the most toxic new-age ideas is that we should “keep a positive attitude.” What a crazy, crazy idea that is. It is much healthier, much more healing, to allow yourself to feel whatever is coming up in you, and allow yourself to work with that anxiety, depression, grief. Because, underneath that, if you allow those feelings to come up and express themselves, then you can find the truly positive way of living in relationship to those feelings. That’s such an important thing…..It’s not  about some “spiritual experience” of being high all the time. Not at all. It is about living with the ongoing stresses and strains and difficulties – and joys –  of life, but doing so in a way that we feel whole. Living in relationship with the struggles of life is what makes us human.

Michael Lerner, The Difference between Healing and Curing

photo andrea westmorland

Where to hold on

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

File:Climbing, Owl Rock (6550009887).jpg

It seems to me that one of the key features of mindfulness is that it’s about bearing something in mind. You don’t exactly do letting go: What occurs – through carefully holding and moderating attention around a specific theme – is that the stuff that the mind projects is deprived of a foothold. So it lets go of its pre-occupations. To me, appropriate meditation practice is about aligning one’s attention to a specific object (breathing, body, mental image) and out of the store of moods, phobias and desires that the mind holds in its archives.

Ajahn Sucitto, The Low Point

Photo Arches National Park

Darkness and light

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

File:Candle-flame-and-reflection.jpg

Today is the Christian feast of Candlemas,  which traditionally involved the blessing of candles for use in the home. It was a reminder that light will return, sustaining people around this midway point of winter, giving encouragement when the cold and darkness seemed to be never-ending.  It helped people to realise that darkness  and not-knowing are natural parts of the cycle of life and death, just as are periods of cold and lack of growth. Stepping into unknown territory  is necessary from time to time.

Life is a good teacher and a good friend. Things are always in transition if we could only realize it. Nothing ever sums itself up in the way that we would like to dream about. The spiritual journey involves going beyond hope and fear, stepping into unknown territory, continually moving forward. The most important aspect of being on the spiritual path may be to just keep moving. Usually, when we reach our limit, we  freeze in terror. Our bodies freeze and so do our minds. Rather than indulge or reject our experience, we can somehow let the energy of the emotion, the quality of what we’re feeling pierce us to the heart. This is a noble way to live. It’s the path of compassion – the path of cultivating human bravery and kindheartedness.

Pema Chodron.

Sunday Quote: Nowhere to go

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Beaumont bench.jpg

We have what we seek

it is there all the time

and if we give it time,

it will make itself known to us.

Thomas Merton

photo the mightyquill

We are held

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Wet blade of grass.jpg

I hadn’t noticed
till a death took me outside
and left me there
that grass lifts so quietly
to catch everything
we drop and we drop
everything.

Leonard Nathan,  Kind, American Poet, 1924 – 2007

photo jenny downing