We spend great energy in mental processes wishing things were different than they are. Wishing the traffic jam didn’t exist. Wishing the boss were a little nicer, wishing our children would take our advice, wishing, wishing, wishing. Acceptance is a key to a happier life. If we can just try to accept what is, and that wanting otherwise is often wasted energy, we will be happier. We would be better able to experience the moment more fully with this state of mind.
William Berry
photo AnRo0002
Let your mind wander in the pure and simple.
Let all things take their course
Chuang Tzu c 370 – 300 BC
Suppose a king might hear the sound of a lute and say “What is that sound – so delightful, so tantalizing, so intoxicating, so ravishing, so enthralling?” They would say “That, sire is called a lute…” Then he would say “Go and fetch me the lute” They would fetch the lute but he then said “Enough of the lute. Fetch me just the sound”.
They had to explain that the sound could not exist independently, but was created by the separate strings, box and arch, all elements working simultaneously.
Just as the king could not find the sound of the lute, so we cannot find our self. When we investigate, any thoughts of ‘me’ or ‘mine’ or ‘I am’ do not occur.
Based on the Buddha, Vina Sutta
The world is full of magic things
patiently waiting for our senses to get sharper
wb Yeats
It is a serious thing
just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in the broken world.
Mary Oliver
photo sharon mollerus
