Tag: Be fully present

Grow, even in difficult times

Karl Duffy1 Comment

One of the challenges of ongoing lockdowns is that we postpone life until this is all over, and because of this, the possibilities that are there in every day can pass us by.

Be present. Make love. Make tea. Avoid small talk. Embrace conversation. Buy a plant, water it. Make your bed. Make someone else’s bed. Have a smart mouth, and quick wit. Run. Make art. Create. Swim in the ocean. Swim in the rain. Take chances. Ask questions. Make mistakes. Learn. Know your worth. Love fiercely. Forgive quickly. Let go of what doesn’t make you happy. Grow.

Paulo Coelho

The blue sky

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The guest is inside you, and also inside me;
you know the sprout is hidden inside the seed.
We are all struggling; none of us has gone far.
Let your arrogance go, and look around inside.

The blue sky opens out farther and farther,
the daily sense of failure goes away,
the damage I have done to myself fades,
a million suns come forward with light,
when I sit firmly in that world.

I hear bells ringing that no one has shaken,
inside “love” there is more joy than we know of,
rain pours down, although the sky is clear of clouds,
there are whole rivers of light.

Kabir, Ecstatic Poems

Close the book

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The mind is constantly trying to figure out what page it’s on in the story of itself.

Close the book. Burn the bookmark.

End of story.

Now the dancing begins.


Ikko Narasaki, roshi, died 1996

Sunday quote: Trust

Karl Duffy1 Comment

Faith requires at times marching into the waters before they part.

Walter Wink, 1935 – 2012, American Biblical scholar and theologian

Without freaking out

Karl Duffy3 Comments

The question we need to ask ourselves is whether there is any place we can stand in ourselves where we can look at all that’s happening around us without freaking out, where we can be quiet enough to hear our predicament, and where we can begin to find ways of acting that are at least not contributing to further destabilization.

Ram Dass

Be strong

Karl Duffy1 Comment

The ongoing news about the pandemic activates the anxious side of our brain and leaves us feeling shaky, imagining worst-case scenarios for the future. These words from Kabir remind us that much of the time we are not grounded in where we actually are.

Be strong then, and enter into your own body; There you have a solid place for your feet. Think about it carefully! Don’t go off somewhere else!

Kabir says this: just throw away all thoughts of imaginary things,
And stand firm in that which you are.

Kabir, 15th-century Indian mystic poet