Little things may seem nothing, but they give peace, like those meadow flowers which individually seem odourless but all together perfume the air.
George Bernanos
The little things
Tag: Be fully present
The journey itself
We humans have a tendency to lean into the future or to seek something “more exciting” than what is in front of us. The challenge is to be fully awake and fully invested in the completeness of the present moment.
The moon and the sun are eternal travellers.
Even the years wander on.
A lifetime adrift in a boat or old age leading a tired horse into the years,
every day is a journey and the journey itself is home
Matsuo Basho, 17th century Japanese poet, Narrow Road to the Interior.
Already quietly here
Only our searching for happiness
prevents us from seeing it.
It’s like a vivid rainbow which you pursue
without ever catching,
or a dog chasing its own tail.
Although peace and happiness
do not exist as an actual thing or place,
it is always available and accompanies you every instant.
Don’t believe in the reality of good and bad experiences;
they are like today’s ephemeral weather,
like rainbows in the sky.
Wanting to grasp the ungraspable,
you exhaust yourself in vain.
As soon as you open and relax
this tight fist of grasping,
infinite space is there –
open, inviting and comfortable.
Make use of this spaciousness,
this freedom and natural ease.
Don’t search any further
looking for the great awakened elephant,
who is already resting quietly at home
in front of your own hearth.
from a ‘vajra poem’ by Lama Gendun Rinpoche, 1918-1997, Tibetan Buddhist teacher
Being alive
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.
He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder, or stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. His eyes are closed.
Albert Einstein
Wherever we are
Fundamentally, the practice of love begins with acceptance – the recognition that wherever we are is the appropriate place to practice, that the present moment is the appropriate time.
But for so many of us, our longing to love and be loved has always been about a time to come, a space in the future when it will just happen, when our hungry hearts will finally be fed, when we will find love.
Bell Hooks, Toward a Revolution of Love
It doesn’t matter
If we don’t pay attention to every little this, we miss the whole thing. And the contents of this can be anything. This can be straightening our sitting mats, chopping an onion, talking to one we don’t want to talk to. It doesn’t matter what the contents of the moment are; each moment is absolute. That’s all there is, and all there ever will be. If we could totally pay attention, we would never be upset. If we’re upset, it’s axiomatic that we’re not paying attention. If we fill our days and we miss not just one moment, but one moment after another, we’re in trouble.
Charlotte Joko Beck
Mindfulbalance 