Sitting quietly, just breathing in and out, we develop strength, concentration and clarity.
So sit like a mountain.
No wind can blow the mountain down
Thich Nhat Hanh
Tag: balance
Sunday Quote : Holding things lightly
Coming, going,
the waterbirds
don’t leave a trace,
don’t follow a path.
Dogen, On Non-Dependence of Mind
photo Thermos
Like a therapist
We are trying to develop a different relationship with the mind. Awareness contributes to the subduing of harmful emotions and this awareness extends to everything, including ourselves. We need to treat ourselves with the same objective distance that a therapist uses for her clients. By subduing the harmful emotions and afflictive states of mind, our aim is to increase our helpful emotions or mental states, like empathy, gentleness, compassion, wisdom, generosity, warmth and so on. The more we become aware of our inner workings, the more adept we become at applying the mental balancing techniques that will offer us true mental health
Karuna Cayton, The Misleading Mind
U.S. Navy photo of physical therapist Rachel Oden
On being gentle
The most difficult times for many of us
are the ones we give ourselves
Pema Chodron, When Things Fall Apart
In the ordinary
One of the monks asked a renowned Forest Ajahn: ‘What’s it like to see things as they really are?’ There was an understandable air of expectation in the room: to ‘see things as they really are’ is the vision of the Awakened Mind. What mystical insight was about to be revealed?
‘It’s ordinary’, said the Ajahn in his customary succinct and matter-of-fact way.
Ajahn Sucitto, Awakening: Nameless and Stopped
Heartfulness
“How cruel the whites are: their lips are thin, their noses sharp, their faces furrowed and distorted by holes. Their eyes have a staring expression. They are always seeking something. What are they seeking? The whites always want something, they are always uneasy and restless. We do not know what they want, we do not understand them, we think that they are mad.”
I asked him why he thought the whites were all mad.
“They say they think with their heads,” he replied.
“Why, of course. What do you think with?” I asked him in surprise.
“We think here,” he said, indicating his heart”.
C. G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Conversation with Ochwiay Biano, an elder of the Taos Pueblo Tribe, New Mexico, 1925
