Tag: Be fully present

The Basics of Practice 1: Learning by doing

Karl Duffy1 Comment

I am starting a number of mindfulness courses these days and so the first posts this week will be on the basics of practice. However, in a sense, we all start over each day, each new week, each moment, discovering how little we actually like to be in the present moment….

Cultivating mindfulness is not unlike the process of eating. It would be absurd to propose that someone else eat for you. And when you go to a restaurant, you don’t eat the menu, mistaking it for the meal, nor are you nourished by listening to the waiter describe the food. You have to actually eat the food for it to nourish you. In the same way, you have to actually practice mindfulness in order to reap its benefits and come to understand why it is so valuable.

Jon Kabat Zinn

Letting life’s lessons sink in

Karl Duffy1 Comment

allondon1 rocks

Another post inspired by the season of Lent, but a reminder for all of the value in slowing down, making space, “meandering” in life, rather than always focusing on driven, purpose-filled activities.

More than giving up or self-denial, Lent, when practiced intentionally, can allow time for self-examination, reflection, and preparation. It’s a time of slowing down, intentionally, so that life is given a chance to sink in, not just run off in so many directions. Induced meandering, if you will.  The slowing that is an inherent part of Lent is not just for the sake of slowing down, but so that life can sink in. In so doing, this season of irrigation provides health and vitality long after its rains have passed. Lent offers us an opportunity to slow down, to meander rather than to rush, to allow life to sink in a bit, to find ways to go deeper and not always stay on the surface. A time to observe, to pay attention, and then to act — and in so doing provide the space to move from rush to replenish. When we take this practice seriously, we plant its blessings so that they benefit not only us in our lives for this season, but also extend to the world around us.

Erin Dunigan, The Induced Meandering of the Lenten Season

The open space

Karl Duffy6 Comments

File:Wicklow Mountains National Park Glenealo Valley 02.JPG

Yesterday was a lovely Spring morning and I was driving through the beautiful countryside of Co Wicklow to start an MBSR Course in Arklow. The mountains in the distance, the lambs playing in the fields, and the brightness of the light made it easy to feel a mind that was spacious. When that happens I find that I do not struggle with life as much. And our meditation practice is simply that – letting the mind settle, become more spacious and resting in that.

There is a foundation for our lives, a place in which our life rests. That place is nothing but the present moment, as we see, hear, experience what is. If we do not return to that place, we live our lives out of our heads. We blame others; we complain; we feel sorry for ourselves. All of these symptoms show that we’re stuck in our thoughts. We’re out of touch with the open space that is always right here.

Charlotte Joko Beck, Nothing Special

photo j h jansens

Moment by moment

Karl Duffy2 Comments

File:Child pushing grandmother on plastic tricycle.jpg

We do not remember days,

We remember moments

Cesare Pavese 1908 – 1950 Italian poet and novelist

photo Catherine Scott

Where else

Karl Duffy2 Comments

Primula_aka

If you are unable to find the truth right where you are,

where else do you expect to find it?

Dōgen

Fully here

Karl Duffy2 Comments

calligraphy_circle_black(2)Just actualize all time as all being.

There is nothing extra

Dōgen, Uji