Two quotes from Emerson on surprise and wonder to prompt us to look with fresh eyes today :
In liberated moments, we know that a new picture of life is already possible
The one thing which we seek with insatiable desire, is to forget ourselves, to be surprised out of our propriety, to lose our sempiternal memory and to do something without knowing how or why; in short, to draw a new circle.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Circles
photo D Sharon Pruitt
I was reminded of Larkin’s beautiful poem by the buds opening on the trees in the garden and on the hedgerows around here in County Kildare. This time of year moves him from a reflection on loss and grief, to thoughts on being born again, to finally being convinced to begin over again. The message is like something “almost being said”, so we need to create time to see this: we learn from nature and from this season if we are still enough to listen.
The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of grief.Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too,
Their yearly trick of looking new
Is written down in rings of grain.Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.Philip Larkin, The Trees
The quality of mind we are talking about……. is a mind which responds to something with attention and then returns to its own natural state. It doesn’t elaborate on it, doesn’t get caught up in it, doesn’t get excited about it. It just notes that this is what is happening. Every time it happens, it notes it. It doesn’t get blasé. It doesn’t become conditioned. In this way, it is like a child’s mind.
Tenzin Palmo, Reflections on a mountain lake
God is not all in one place complete,
God is in the bits and pieces of everyday,
a kiss here, a smile there,
and sometimes tears.
Patrick Kavanagh
photo Grafton st Dublin by executioner
Feelings arise within the state of calm. The mind is experiencing feelings and calm at the same time, without being disturbed. When there is calm like this, there are no harmful consequences. Problems occur when the chicken gets out of the coop. For instance you may be watching the breath entering and leaving and then forget yourself, allowing the mind to wander away from the breath, back home, off to the shops or any number of different places. Perhaps even a half hour may pass before you suddenly realize that you’re supposes to be practicing meditation and you reprimand yourself for your lack of mindfulness. This is where you have to be really careful because this is where the chicken gets out of the coop – the mind leaves its base of calm.
Ajahn Chah, What’s What
photo erik christensen
We are paying full attention when there is nothing between us and the task at hand. If you are facing a sink full of dirty dishes and the mind is taken up with aversion to the task, impatience with how long it is taking, thinking about what movie you’re going to see that night, you are separated from what you are doing. The hands are washing but the mind is not. To be divided this way is to be less than fully alive. Giving our whole body and mind over to a task being undivided and intimate in your action is what the Chinese masters called giving life to life
Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath
photo adam jones
