Even in a country you know by heart
it’s hard to go the same way twice
The life of the going changes.
The chances change and make a new way
Any tree or stone or bird
can be the bud of a new direction. The
natural correction is to make intent
of accident.
To get back before dark
is the art of going.
Wendell Berry, Travelling at Home
photo: padawane
The secret of the mountain is that the mountains simply exist, as I do myself: the mountains exist simply, which I do not. The mountains have no “meaning,” they are meaning; the mountains are. The sun is round. I ring with life, and the mountains ring, and when I can hear it, there is a ringing that we share.
Peter Matthiessen, the Snow Leopard
Your life is your practice. Your spiritual practice does not occur someplace other than in your life right now, and your life is nowhere other than where you are. You are looking for answers, insight, and wisdom that you already possess. Live the life in front of you, be the life you are, and see what you find out for yourself.
Karen Maezen Millar, Momma Zen, Walking the Crooked path of Motherhood
photo of pedestrian bridge over the Drac near near the Lac De Monteynard-Avignonet, France, by herby
With no mind, flowers invite the butterfly;
With no mind, the butterfly visits the flowers.
Yet when flowers bloom, the butterfly comes;
When the butterfly comes, the flowers bloom.
I don’t know others, Others don’t know me.
By not-knowing we follow nature’s course.
Ryōkan Taigu, 1758 – 1831
Just be aware whether you are confused, indifferent, happy, sad, uncertain or whatever.
Be that which allows things to be what they are.
Just be the observer of whatever is. Right now my mood is “this”, “I feel this”..
Ajahn Sumedho
If you don’t look at things through your concepts, you’ll never be bored.
Every single thing is unique.
Every sparrow is unlike every other sparrow despite the similarities.
It’s a great help to have similarities, so we can abstract, so that we can have a concept.
It’s a great help, from the point of view of communication, education, science.
But it’s also very misleading and a great hindrance to seeing this concrete individual.
If all you experience is your concept, you’re not experiencing reality, because reality is concrete.
The concept is a help, to lead you to reality, but when you get there,
you’ve got to intuit or experience it directly.
.
Anthony de Mello. sj.
photo david friel
