The dream of my life
is to lie down by a slow river
and stare at the light in the trees –
To learn something by being nothing
a little while but the rich
lens of attention
Mary Oliver, Entering the Kingdom
Tag: Be fully present
“If only” this would change …
People [have always] faced the same kinds of issues we face now, but with different window dressing. In the time of the Buddha, men and women were arguing, gossiping, judging others, losing their perspective, overreacting, sexualizing their experiences, chasing after greener pastures, obsessing about non-essentials, feeling lonely and creating too many pipe dreams….. Nothing has fundamentally altered.
How many of us are still convinced, mature as we may be, that if our partner would only change, or if we could meet the perfect person, everything would be fine? These are the dysfunctional myths and illusions that drive our lives in very dissatisfying directions. How many people remember the song from the musical Fiddler on the Roof – “If I were a Rich Man…”
What is your “big if”? The big “if” that leads you away from wisdom and reality?
Lama Surya Das, Awakening the Buddha within
Courage
Whatever you’re meant to do, do it now.
The conditions are always impossible
Doris Lessing
photo np&djjewell
The stories that keep us back
One of the most beautifully disturbing questions we can ask, is whether a given story we tell about our lives is actually true, and whether the opinions we go over every day have any foundation or are things we repeat to ourselves simply so that we will continue to play the game. It can be quite disorienting to find that a story we have relied on is not only not true – it actually never was true. Not now not ever. There is another form of obsolescence that can fray at the cocoon we have spun about ourselves, that is, the story was true at one time, and for an extended period; the story was even true and good to us, but now it is no longer true and no longer of any benefit, in fact our continued retelling of it simply imprisons us.
David Whyte
photo Uwe H. Friese
Meaning for the New Year
Life has no meaning.
Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life.
It is a waste to be asking the question
when you are the answer.
Joseph Campbell
Each moment
Most of us wonder from time to time how to give meaning to some days:
A Lord asked Takuan how he might pass the time, as his days were long in the office,
sitting stiffly to receive the homage of others.
Takuan wrote these 8 Chinese characters and gave them to him:
“Not twice this day
Inch time foot gem
This day will not come again
Each minute is worth a priceless gem”
Takuan Sōhō 1573 – 1645, Japanese Zen Buddhist Master
photo Lorenz Kerscher
