Mindfulness also means to remember… what? Mindfulness pulls us back to a greater living reality, reminding us that life is more than our own repetitive thoughts or fears or desires. Rooted in the present tense world of the body rather than the thoughts, the strangely named mindfulness (bodyfulness? Lifefulness?) delivers us from the hellish centrifugal force of our own egos.
Tracy Cochran, The Open Door
photo justin 1569
It is hard to feel afraid without thinking something is going wrong. We readily react by judging ourselves and others, in an attempt to escape the pain of fear. It doesn’t work – neither does running off into the wilds. Even sacred places are deemed to fail us if we are motivated by a wish to escape. Can we experience the fear sensation without ‘becoming’ afraid? Fear is still fear but it is perceived from an expanded, less cramped and less threatened awareness. We can even begin to see that fear too is ‘just so’. A non-judgemental, whole body-mind acknowledgement of the condition of fear, here and now, can transform our pain into freedom. Willingness to meet ourselves where we find ourselves is the way.
Ajahn Munindo, Dhammapada Reflections
photo russavia
No seed ever sees the flower.
Zen saying
As I said yesterday, November marks the beginning of the “darker half” of the year in the Celtic Calendar, as the balance between light and darkness in the day continues to shift. The earth becomes colder and nature more dormant, with a different rhythm from one of growth and maturity. Parallel process can occur in our lives. For example, difficulties occur which can seem dark or unclear and without hope, or we can have parts of our lives that seem dormant. However, darkness in nature, and in our lives, does not mean that nothing is happening. Things that are now hidden or buried will eventually become seen. That what is now unconscious will become conscious in time. At times, all we can do is wait and trust.
photo by friedrich bohringer
A thought prompted by the traditional fires lit on this important Celtic feast day of Samhain which marks the start of winter or the “darker half” of the year and which have transferred over into the celebration of Halloween.
When you do something,
you should burn yourself completely,
like a good bonfire,
leaving no trace of yourself.
Shunryu Suzuki
photo janne karaste
Mindfulness helps us get better at seeing the difference between what’s happening and the stories we tell ourselves about what’s happening, stories that get in the way of direct experience. Often such stories treat a fleeting state of mind as if it were our entire and permanent self.
Sharon Salzberg
photo experience kissimmee
Not always easy to do when a piece of work or a meeting does not go to plan, but since we often cannot really evaluate something until much later, it is best to rest in the present, and not in a story about what it means, or with the passing mood which it provokes.
For us, as people wanting to live a full, unrestricted, adventurous, real kind of life, there is a concrete instruction we can follow: see what is. Acknowledge it without judging it as right or wrong. Let it go and come back to the present moment. Whatever comes up, see what it is without calling it right or wrong. Acknowledge it. See it clearly without judgment and let it go. Come back to the present moment.
Pema Chodron, The wisdom of No Escape
photo takahashi hososhima
