Meditation is like a mirror or coin with two sides.
Facing out is letting go
and facing in is compassion.
Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje
photo of old Irish Three penny coin.
Tag: balance
Nothing to become
Mindfulness provides a simple but powerful route for getting ourselves unstuck, back in touch with our own wisdom and vitality. The most important point is to be really yourself and not try to become anything that you are not already.…. being in touch with your deepest nature, and letting it flow out of you unimpeded.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, Mindfulness Meditation for Everyday Life
Where our time goes
If we strive to be happy by filling all the silences of life with sound,
productive by turning all life’s leisure into work,
and real by turning all our being into doing,
we will only succeed in producing a hell on earth.
Thomas Merton, The Silent Life
Happiness is not dependent
Avoidance of discomfort is one of the most powerful drives in us, yet much of its power derives from the belief – the false belief – that we can’t be happy if we’re uncomfortable. One of the great benefits of practice is learning that this belief is not, in fact, an unalterable truth.
Ezra Bayda, Zen Heart
…but noticing blessings
Beannachtai na Féile Padraig oraibh go léir!
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day (literally “The Blessings of St Patrick’s Day be with you all”)
The word “blessing” is related in English to the word “blood.” Blessing is like the spiritual bloodstream that flows through the universe. When we bless something we are returning what we have received to its source. We know we receive life and breath from a source which is beyond us. We haven’t bought it or earned it. We are just put here and life comes to us from some mysterious source, and we can give it back. That is like the blood coming from the heart and going back to the heart. That blood keeps on flowing and if we tune in to the bloodstream of blessing the world comes alive. The same thing happens if we cut off the bloodstream or drain the sap from a tree; life withers.
The gifts or blessings of life are always there but if we are not aware of them, they don’t do much for us. That is where gratefulness comes in. Gratefulness makes us aware of the gift and makes us happy. As long as we take things for granted they don’t make us happy. Gratefulness is the key to happiness.
David Steindl-Rast.
Sunday Quote: Home
Your body is your first home:
“Breathing in, I arrive in my body.
Breathing out, I am home.”
Thich Nhat Hahn
