Too often, people think that solving the world’s problems is based on conquering the earth,
rather than touching the earth,
touching ground
Chogyam Trungpa
Tag: Be fully present
A solid place
I spent the weekend on retreat with Ajahn Sucitto in the West of Ireland, so the posts for the next day or two will focus on how we can ground ourselves in the face of changing moods or challenging circumstances, prompted by some of his words :
One of the fundamental ways of bringing the mind into the present moment is to focus on how we sense our own body. This bodily sense – that is awareness
of the sensations and energies that manifest in the body – is something immediate that we can contemplate. It gives us ground and balance. It gives us the sense of being where we are. Although this may seem basic and obvious, much of the time we are not grounded in where we really are. Instead we are ‘out there’ in a world of changing circumstance and reactions to that, without having a central reference.
Ajahn Sucitto, Meditation: A Way of Awakening
Do you believe there is some place that will make the soul less thirsty?
In that great absence you will find nothing.
Be strong then, and enter into your own body; There you have a solid place for your feet. Think about it carefully! Don’t go off somewhere else!
Kabir says this: just throw away all thoughts of imaginary things,
And stand firm in that which you are.
Kabir
photo chris phutully
A quiet happiness
I have no power of miracle
other than the attainment of quiet happiness.
I have no tact
except the exercise of gentleness
The Oracle of Sumuyoshi, Shinto Shrine, Osaka, Japan.
Photo Bill Nicholls
Ordinary
The sacred is in the ordinary…
it is to be found in one’s daily life, in one’s neighbors, friends, and family, in one’s own backyard…
travel may be a flight from confronting the scared — this lesson can be easily lost.
To be looking elsewhere for miracles is to me a sure sign of ignorance that everything is miraculous
Abraham Maslow, American Psychologist, 1908 – 1970
photo shopping trollies ireland by ardfern
Seeing life as a gift
Every morning I vow to be grateful for the precious gift of my human birth. It’s a big gift, and it includes a lot of stuff I never particularly wanted for my birthday. Some of the things in the package I wish I could exchange for a different size or color. But I want to find out what it means to be a human being — my curiosity remains intense even as I get older — so I say thanks for the whole thing. It’s all of a piece.
In thirteenth-century Japan, Zen Master Dogen wrote, ‘The Way is basically perfect and all-pervading.’ I’m already in it. We are all in it; we are made of it.
Susan Moon
photo mattbuck
Courage
The whole process of meditation is one of creating a good ground, a cradle of loving-kindness where we actually are nurtured. What’s being nurtured is our confidence in our own wisdom, our own health, and our own courage, our own goodheartedness. We develop some sense that the way we are — the kind of personality that we have and the way we express life — is good, and that by being who we are completely and by totally accepting that and having respect for ourselves, we are standing on the ground of warriorship.
Pema Chodron, The Wisdom of No Escape
photo of Croagh Patrick, Co Mayo by Kanchelskis
