Tag: Be fully present

Beyond the story

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

File:Stillness (24389492169).jpg

In meditation one tries to calm the body and the senses, to calm the mind, and become what’s called “the silent witness,” the witness beyond the mind. We in the West think that the mind is everything, but all Eastern practice is to get beyond the mind to the point of the silent witness, where you’re witnessing yourself, where you’ve gone beyond the ego, beyond the self.

The Indian tradition rests on what the West has largely lost: that there are three levels. There is the level of the body and the level of the mind, which the Western world thinks is the end. But beyond the body is the spirit. And that is the goal of life, to get to that.

Bede Griffiths

photo uros novina

Quiet Minds

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

File:Grandfather Clock Face Waters building EXPLORE 4-8-08 2828.jpg

Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened

but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, just

like a clock during a thunderstorm.

Robert Louis Stevenson

photo steven depolo

Quietly, quietly

Karl Duffy2 Comments

File:Sunshine and snow falling on the footpath to Durgan - geograph.org.uk - 1149785.jpg

Suppose we did our work
like the snow, quietly, quietly.
leaving nothing out.

Wendell Berry

photo rod allday

Wishing

Karl Duffy2 Comments

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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

Allowing

Karl Duffy1 Comment

river88

Let your mind wander in the pure and simple.

Let all things take their course

Chuang Tzu c 370 – 300 BC

 

Moment by moment

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

File:Rosso Fiorentino - Madonna dello Spedalingo - Google Art Project.jpg

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