Slow down

Walking takes longer..than any other known form of locomotion, except crawling. Thus, it stretches time and prolongs life.

Life is already too short to waste on speed.

Edward Abbey, 1927 – 1989, American author, essayist and environmental advocate.

Joyful and free

Just imagine becoming the way you used to be as a very young child, before you understood the meaning of any word, before opinions took over your mind.

The real you is loving, joyful, and free.

The real you is just like a flower, just like the wind, just like the ocean, just like the sun.

Miguel Angel Ruiz

the ability to bend

When filled with qi, the body is like a tree branch filled with sap; it can bend and flow with the breeze, but it does not snap or lose its connection with the root. On the other hand, a stiff, dead branch is easily broken. Thus the adage of Lao Zi, “Concentrate the qi and you will achieve the utmost suppleness…

Suppleness is the essence of life

Kenneth S. Cohen, The Way of Qigong

Apart from the current

In the West, many of us can live in physical comfort, yet, because we are continually being presented with more refined commodities or changing standards by which to measure ourselves, there is not much contentment.

People can become depressed if their bodies don’t match up to the current standards of beauty, or if their personality is not smart enough – whatever the current fashion is. So there can be a nervous feeling of inadequacy and insecurity which deprives us of a sense of trust in our innate worth as a human being.

So because of just this , its important that we sense and define ourselves as “being” apart from those currents, if only to get onto some firmer ground...what really helps is to be able to calm and collect the mind …How you attend creates the dwelling place of the mind.

Ajahn Sucitto, Kamma and the End of Kamma

Sunday Quote: In charge

True mastery can be gained

by letting things go their own way.

Byron Katie, Stephen Mitchell, A Thousand Names For Joy: How To Live In Harmony With The Way Things Are

Grounded

A lovely image of the solid ground we strive for:

By effort and conscious awareness [Apramāda],

discipline and self-mastery,

a wise person makes for themselves

an island which no flood can overwhelm.

The Dhammapada, 2.25