We carry inside us the wonders we seek outside us.
Sir Thomas Browne, 1605 – 1682, Religio Medici 15
photo from judesphotography.wordpress.com
Tag: balance
Being nothing for a while
The weekend allows us place the emphasis on being rather than doing. The mild autumn weather this year allows us do that in the sunshine and under the trees:
The dream of my life
Is to lie down by a slow river
And stare at the light in the trees –
To learn something by being nothing
A little while but the rich
Lens of attention
Mary Oliver, Entering the Kingdom
photo: Lehava activity 2013 Pikiwiki Israel
Blocking ourselves
Most of us find it easier to extend compassion towards others than towards ourselves and our own mistakes. We can be our own biggest critics which just intensifies our preoccupation with “ourselves” as something fixed and needing to be improved.
Most of the shadows of this life
are caused by standing in one’s own sunshine
Ralph Waldo Emerson
A helpful way of using the mind
In the morning when you wake up, reflect on the day ahead and aspire to use it to keep a wide-open heart and mind. At the end of the day, before going to sleep, think over what you’ve done. If you fulfilled your aspiration, even once, rejoice in that. If you went against your aspiration, rejoice that you are able to see what you did and are no longer living in ignorance. This way you will be inspired to go forward with increasing clarity, confidence, and compassion.
Pema Chödrön
photo: virtualage
An unhelpful way of using the mind
Step back
Liberation ….is a process of mentally, emotionally, stepping back from any state and seeing it just as a state, without reactions and attitudes.
This simple skill, which most of us can do from time to time, is what we develop in … practice.
Ajahn Sucitto, Kamma and the End of Kamma
