Tag: Be fully present

In every moment

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What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment.

To put the question in general terms would be comparable to the question posed to a chess champion: “Tell me, Master, what is the best move in the world?” There is simply no such thing as the best or even a good move apart from a particular situation in a game and the particular personality of one’s opponent. The same holds for human existence. One should not search for an abstract meaning of life.

Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

Beautiful

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But now his liberated eyes remained on this side, he saw and acknowledged visibility, he sought his home in this world, did not seek reality, did not aim at any beyond.

Beautiful was the world if you contemplated it like this, with no seeking, so simple, so childlike. Beautiful were the moon and stars, beautiful were brook and bank, forest and rock, goat and rose beetle, flower and butterfly. It was beautiful and delightful to go through the world like this, so childlike, so awake, so open to what was near, so without distrust. The sun burned his head differently, the forest shade cooled him differently, brook and cistern tasted differently, as did pumpkin and banana. Short were the days, short the nights, every hour flew by swiftly like a sail across the sea, under the sail a ship full of treasures, full of joys.

All this had always existed, and he had never seen it, he had never been present. Now he was there, he belonged to it. Light and shadow ran through his eyes, star and moon ran through his heart

Herman Hesse, Siddhartha

Our greatest treasures

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Each line is worth a deep reflection in itself.

Simplicity, patience, compassion: These three are your greatest treasures.

Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being.

Patient with both friends and enemies, you accord with the way things are.

Compassionate toward yourself, you reconcile all beings in the world.

Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching 67, Stephen Mitchell translation

Taking care of yourself

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A welcome new Bank Holiday here in Ireland, to mark the start of Spring and Saint Brigid’s Day

Love is the capacity to take care, to protect, to nourish. If you are not capable of generating that kind of energy toward yourself — if you are not capable of taking care of yourself, of nourishing yourself, of protecting yourself — it is very difficult to take care of another person

In the Buddhist teachings, it’s clear that to love oneself is the foundation of the love of other people. Love is a practice. Love is truly a practice.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Sunday Quote: More

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Who you are ….is more
than you are thinking you are
most of the time.

Ram Dass

In a dream

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The Gate of Liberation is always open. Dogen

Liberation from what? Liberation from walking around in a dream, like a zombie looking for contentment outside your immediate and precious life. If only you could recognize and receive what was actually here in front of you, rather than what you wish were here instead.

Why is that so hard? I don’t know, but I do know that I certainly have a tendency to want to adjust my environment to myself, not the other way round. Instead is it possible for us to constantly give thanks for whatever our life gives us? This is how to practice being truly content with what we have – even when that seems impossible

Koshin Paley Ellison, Wholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up