Tag: balance

No longer rushing after something

Karl Duffy2 Comments

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The mind can be free only when it is completely still. Though it has problems, innumerable urges, conflicts, ambitions, if — through self-knowledge, through watching itself without acceptance or condemnation — the mind is choicelessly aware of its own process, then out of that awareness there comes an astonishing silence, a quietness of the mind in which there is no movement of any kind. It is only then that the mind is free because it is no longer desiring anything; it is no longer seeking; it is no longer pursuing a goal, an ideal — which are all the projections of a conditioned mind.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

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Calm weather

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

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The rain has stopped, the clouds have drifted away

and the weather is clear again.

If your heart is clear, then all things in your world are clear

Ryokan, Zen poet, 1758 – 1831

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Not buying into it

Karl Duffy2 Comments

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To acknowledge that suffering has an origin is already an abandonment of sorts. It means rather than thiniking, “I am a victim of a frustrating world that refuses to conform to my wishes”,  we acknowledge that suffering is an inevitable part of life and it is something we take into ourselves by the way we react to circumstances.

Ajahn Sucitto, Turning the Wheel of Truth

….and accepting

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

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Both our upbringing and our culture provide the immediate breeding ground for this contemporary epidemic of feeling deficient and unworthy. Many of us have grown up with parents who gave us messages about where we fell short and how we should be different from the way we are. We were told to be special, to look a certain way, to act a certain way, to work harder, to win, to succeed, to make a difference, and not to be too demanding, shy or loud. An indirect but insidious message for many has been, “Don’t be needy.” Because our culture so values independence, self-reliance and strength, even the word needy evokes shame. To be considered as needy is utterly demeaning, contemptible. And yet, we all have needs —physical, sexual, emotional, spiritual. So the basic message is, “Your natural way of being is not okay; to be acceptable you must be different from the way you are.”

Tara Brach, Awakening From the Trance of Unworthiness

Doing less today

Karl Duffy1 Comment

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We do less by taking the time to rest mentally and physically in between or outside of our usual activities, perhaps instituting a regular practice of meditation, retreats, breaks, and reflection.

 We do less by pausing in the midst of activities: mindfulness practice (such as coming in touch with our breath in between reading or sending emails) and walking meditation are two examples.

 We do less by identifying and reducing unnecessary activities. In this case, “unnecessary” means those things that are not in alignment with what we want to accomplish.

Marc Lesser, Accomplishing More by Doing Less

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Take a step back

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

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The engine that makes this go is taking a step back and trusting the body, trusting the breath, trusting the heart. We’re living our lives madly trying to hold onto everything, and it looks like it might work for awhile but in the end it always fails, and it never was working, and the way to be happy, the way to be loving, the way to be free is to really be willing to let go of everything on every occasion or at least to make that effort. So the practice really works with sitting down, returning awareness to the body, returning awareness to the breath. It usually involves sitting up straight and opening up the body and lifting the body so that the breath can be unrestrained. And then returning the mind to the present moment of being alive, which is anchored in the breath, in the body. Then, of course, other things happen. You have thoughts, you have feelings. You might have a pain … memories, reflections. All these things arise, but instead of applying yourself to them and getting entangled in them, you just bear witness to it, let it go, come back to the breathing and the body, and what happens is you release a whole lot of stuff in yourself.

Normal Fischer

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