The most important thing, in the show of the temporal and the transient,
is to recognize the substance which is immanent and the eternal which is present.
Hegel, Works, VII, 17.
photo matt jigins
Tag: Be fully present
Let’s try quiet eyes today
The theologian Howard Thurman said, “Look at the world with quiet eyes.” Isn’t that lovely? Just look at the world with quiet eyes. Usually when we are in the midst of life’s circumstances — whatever they are — we can be very reactive and therefore miss the many gifts for which we can have gratitude and also miss opportunities to give, thus making our very presence a blessing. It reminds me of some cartoon characters with eyeballs on springs that pop out when they see something surprising. But looking upon the world with quiet eyes, we can feel a sense of simply coming back into ourselves and into receptive mode. Ready to give and to receive the blessings of our life.
Gina Sharpe
photo Yuya Sekiguchi
The wonder of this day
All that is eternal in me
Welcomes the wonder of this day,
The field of brightness it creates
Offering time for each thing
To arise and illuminate.
May my mind come alive today
To the invisible geography
That invites me to new frontiers,
To break the dead shells of yesterdays,
To risk being disturbed and changed.
May I have the courage today
To live the life I would love,
To postpone my dream no longer
But do at last what I came here for
And waste my heart on fear no more.
John O’Donohue, Morning Prayer
Being aware of our patterns
One reason we strengthen our awareness in meditation is to see more clearly the patterns laid down in our childhood, how we believe these to be our personality and the limiting stories which they often tell us about our abilities.
According to neuroscience, even before events happen the brain has already made a prediction about what is most likely to happen, and sets in motion the perception, behaviors, emotions, physiologic responses and interpersonal ways of relating that best fit with what is predicted. In a sense, we learn from the past what to predict for the future and then live the future we expect.
Regina Pally, The Predicting Brain
photo MarcCooperUK
Keep starting over
Research by Carol Dweck at Stanford University says that it is better if we develop a “growth mindset” which sees challenges and mistakes as opportunities to grow and does not give up when things go wrong. A learning organization is one that is prepared to make mistakes. And, as someone said to me yesterday, even the challenge of a person’s mood can be an occasion to learn:
If I had a message to my contemporaries it is surely this: Be anything you like…. but at all costs avoid one thing: success . . .
If you are too obsessed with success, you will forget to live.
If you have learned only how to be a success,
your life has probably been wasted
Thomas Merton
photo: cc-by-2.5
The life that’s waiting
We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned,
so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
Joseph Campbell
