Tag: Be fully present

Patient

Karl Duffy1 Comment

The monk who bakes bread

no longer believes in the measure-for-measure God of the recipe books,

has little faith, if any, in the predestined endings set forth by timers,

the finely sifted claims to inerrancy held by cups and spoons.

Blended to life, call his a leavened devotion to resurrection

appearing from within each cracked tomb of grain,

the hunger that presses his hands dawn after dawn,

deep into the just-risen flesh.

Cowl white as the flour he scoops, mixes,

forms pat pat into loaves shaped like naves,

it is his chest, filled with the invisible yeast of breath,

that knows by heart the patient kneading together of days,

how long love takes to rise.

Daniel Skach-Mills, American poet.

In front of you

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A drop of water has the tastes of the water of the seven seas: there is no need to experience all the ways of worldly life.

The reflections of the moon on one thousand rivers are from the same moon: the mind must be full of light.


Hung Tzu-Ch’eng, 1572-1620, Chinese Philosopher

This is where I stand

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I want to know
if you are prepared to live in the world
with its harsh need
to change you. If you can look back
with firm eyes
saying this is where I stand….

I have heard, in that fierce embrace, even
the gods speak of God.

David Whyte, Fire in the Earth

The mind’s natural state

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Silent illumination is the realization of … wakefulness, still­ness and awareness… all of which are different ways to describe mind’s natural state. Experiencing it for the first time is like suddenly dropping a thousand pounds from your shoulders – the heavy burdens of self-attachment, vexations, and habitual tendencies. Self-attachment, vexations, and habitual ten­dencies run deep. So practitioners must work hard to experience enlightenment again and again until they can simply rest in mind’s natural state. The key is to practice diligently but seek no results.

Guo Gu, You Are Already Enlightened

In the face of loss

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It’s natural for us to fall apart in the face of loss. No need to stop it. Often our old coming mechanisms simply don’t work in this new context. However, finding our ground or recalling what has been most meaningful can help us stay present with what we are experiencing. We don’t have adequate language to describe this sort of incomprehensible experience, so we name it Mystery with a capital M.

Over the years, I have found that what we can experience or know directly may be much more important than our ability to explain or measure it.

Frank Ostaseski

Fast food

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Authentic God experience is always “too much”! It consoles our True Self only after it has devastated our false self.

We must begin to be honest about this instead of dishing out fast-food religion, which only wants consolation – and largely about non-essentials.

Richard Rohr, The Container and the Contents