Tag: Be fully present

How to be at peace

Karl Duffy3 Comments

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How to be at peace now? By making peace with the present moment. The present moment is the field on which the game of life happens. It cannot happen anywhere else. Once you have made peace with the present moment, see what happens, what you can do or choose to do, or rather what life does through you. There are three words that convey the secret of the art of living, the secret of all success and happiness: One With Life. Being one with life is being one with Now. You then realize that you don’t live your life, but life lives you. Life is the dancer, and you are the dance.

Eckhart Tolle, A new Earth: Awakening to your Life’s Purpose

photo tony hisgett

A simple practice

Karl Duffy4 Comments

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Tibetan monks frequently practice a moment of mindfulness each and every time they walk through a door. Sometimes they do this by remembering to recite a certain verse or mantra as they do so. Try this yourself for a day. Every time you walk through a door, pause, take a moment, breathe in and out. Bring yourself back to the moment. Then cross the threshold and walk on.

      Lama Surya Das, Awakening to the Sacred: Creating a Spiritual Life from Scratch

photo joanbanjo

Able to hold contradictions

Karl Duffy2 Comments

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Contradictions have always existed. But it is only when we prefer analysis to silence that they become a constant and insoluble problem. We are not meant to resolve all contradictions but to live with them and rise above them and see them in the light of exterior and objective values which make them trivial by comparison.

Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude.

Greek figure, c. 510 BC

Simply letting life appear

Karl Duffy3 Comments
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We need to frame our practice in such a way that we do not get lost in dualisms of right or wrong, progress or the lack of it. I have found that a good way of maintaining this perspective is to liken sitting to looking in a mirror. When you sit down on your cushion, the state of your mind and body automatically appears to you, the way your face instantly appears in a mirror. The mirror does all the work. You can’t do it right or wrong. Approach your sitting in the same way. You can’t do it wrong. It’s not a technique to master or something you can fail at. It’s just being yourself, being your experience of this moment, over and over.
Barry Magid, Practice: You cant do it wrong

Rushing

Karl Duffy3 Comments

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As we go through our daily activities, we frequently get lost in thoughts of past and future, not staying grounded in the awareness of our bodies. For simple, useful feedback when we’re lost in thought, we can use the very common feeling of rushing. Rushing is a feeling of toppling forward. Our minds run ahead of us, focusing on where we want to go, instead of settling into our bodies where we are.

Learn to pay attention to this feeling of rushing — which does not particularly have to do with how fast we are going. We can feel rushed while moving slowly, and we can be moving quickly and still be settled in our bodies. The feeling of rushing simply reminds us that we’re not present. If you can, notice what thought or emotion has captured the attention. Then, just for a moment, stop and settle back into the body: feel the foot on the ground, feel the next step.

Joseph Goldstein, A Heart Full of Peace

photo blkutter

Not getting stuck in passing thoughts

Karl Duffy6 Comments

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One should learn from nature by observing the fact that flowing water never stagnates

and a busy door with active hinges never rusts

Sun Ssu–mo

photo dhowes9