Tag: Be fully present

Putting labels

Karl Duffy3 Comments

File:Verona - maschera veneziana2.jpg

A label is a mask life wears. We put labels on life all the time. ‘Right,’ ‘wrong,’ ‘success,’ ‘failure, ‘ lucky’, ‘unlucky’ may be as limiting a way of seeing things as ‘diabetic’, ‘epileptic’, ‘manic-depressive’ ….. Labeling sets up an expectation of life that is often so compelling we can no longer see things as they really are. This expectation often gives us a false sense of familiarity toward something that is really new and unprecedented. We are in relationship with our expectations and not with life itself.. Belief traps or frees us. Labels may become self-fulfilling prophecies. 

Rachel Naomi Remen

photo rinina25

Seeds

Karl Duffy3 Comments

File:Crocus Buds Flowers March 16, 2010.jpg

I have posted this before but, like most of our practice, it is something we need to remember, or be mindful of. At times we fall into the trap of complaining,  causing suffering for ourselves or others:

We often ask, ‘what’s wrong?’  Doing so, we invite painful seeds of sorrow to come up and manifest. We feel suffering, anger, and depression, and produce more such seeds. We would be much happier if we tried to stay in touch with the healthy, joyful seeds inside of us and around us. We should learn to ask, ‘what’s not wrong?’ and be in touch with that.

Thich Nhat Hahn

photo steven depolo

Look differently

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Cats of Moni Arkadi -) (14075379976).jpg

Things don’t change.

You change your way of looking, that’s all

Carlos Castanada

photo roberto strauss

Time rushing by

Karl Duffy1 Comment
File:Border collie running down the beach at low tide.jpg
A leap year, so we “gain” an extra day, some extra time.  How will we use it?
Why has time disappeared in our culture? How is it that after decades of inventions and new technologies devoted to saving time and labor, the result is that there is no time left?
We are a time-poor society; we are temporally impoverished. And there is no issue, no aspect of human life, that exceeds this in importance.
The destruction of time is literally the destruction of life.
Jacob Needleman, American philosopher, born 1934
photo kyknoord

Sunday Quote: Blessings

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Wuxi Taihu lake Changchun bridge.jpg

But listen to me.

For one moment quit being sad.

Hear blessings dropping their blossoms
around you.

Rumi

photo synyan

The path

Karl Duffy7 Comments

File:Coast path at Higher Sharpnose Point - geograph.org.uk - 1570182.jpg

We can learn to recognize that the difficulty is our path instead of trying to escape from it. This is a radical yet necessary change in our perspective. When uncomfortable things happen to us, we rarely want to have anything to do with them. We might respond with the belief ‘Things shouldn’t be this way’ or ‘Life shouldn’t be so messy.’ Who says? Who says that life shouldn’t be a mess? When life is not fitting our expectations of how it’s supposed to be, we usually try to change it to fit our expectations. But the key to practice is not to try to change our life but to change our relationship to our expectations — to learn to see whatever is happening as our path.

Ezra Bayda, Being Zen

photo philip halling