Tag: Be fully present

No need to journey

Karl Duffy1 Comment

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Sometimes we take quite a journey – physically or mentally or emotionally – when the very love and happiness we want so much can be found by just sitting down. We spend our lives searching for something we think we don’t have, something that will make us happy. But the key to our deepest happiness lies in changing our vision of where to seek it. As the great Japanese poet and Zen master Hakuin said, “Not knowing how near the Truth is, people seek it far away. What a pity! They are like one who, in the midst of water, cries out in thirst so imploringly.”

Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindness

Holding it all

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What if you are already complete? What if it were possible to hold the whole of it in awareness and allow it to be just as it already is. That would be an incredibly radical act and it would be an act of profound wisdom […] But actually investigate the way things actually are, and you might find that inside of the sadness, the grief, the despair lies something else too — lies some kind of beauty, some kind of humanity, some kind of human understanding, that understands that things are impermanent, that nothing stays the same, that there is loss, that it is not possible to control the whole universe, that even in terms of our body, this is something that is to a large extent a mystery — but it’s not all ugly, it’s not all black. Even in the midst of utter darkness, there’s this other element of beauty, of symmetry, of the natural world.

Jon Kabat Zinn.

Having ideas about ourself

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Whatever assumptions you have about yourself, no matter how reasonable they might be, they are still a creation in the present. By believing in them, by thinking and holding to them, you’re continually creating yourself as a personality. Awakeness is not a creation

Ajahn Sumedho

Right here, right now

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Through recognizing the distinction between appearance and illusion, you give yourself permission to acknowledge that some of your perceptions may be wrong or biased, that your ideas of how things are may have solidified to the degree that you cannot see any other point of view but your own. When I began to recognize the emptiness and clarity of my own mind, my life became richer in ways I never could have imagined. Once I shed my ideas about how things should be, I became free to respond to my experience exactly as it was and exactly as I was, right there, right then.

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, The Joy of Living

Going deeper on this journey

Karl Duffy2 Comments

SM: Pilgrim on the Camino

Every step we take, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity. The question is whether or not we are in touch with it. We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment.

Thich Nhat Hanh

In this part of the world there are not so many English Speaking Retreats available, besides the excellent ones offered all year round at Gaia House in the UK. Therefore, deepening practice through an extended period of silence can be difficult to organize without the extra expense of long travel.  For this reason I am delighted to be able to post that James Baraz, the author of the well-known book and programme Awakening Joy, will be leading a Mindfulness Retreat,   from June 27 – July 5, in the lovely retreat center at Götzis, Austria, just across the border from Switzerland. The title of the retreat is Being Present for Your Life and the emphasis is on quieting the mind, opening the heart, and developing loving-kindness, clarity and depth of practice.  Because the format includes periods of silent sitting and walking meditation along with discussion and mindful movement, this is a great place to start one’s retreat experience, with an excellent teacher. It would be very suitable for all who have completed the MBSR programme and who wish to deepen their practice. More details can be found by clicking on the link : http://www.arbor-seminare.de/being-present-your-life

Here in France,  the 4th International Forum on Buddhism and Medicine will be held at the end of May in Lerab Linn near Montpellier, with a range of international speakers coming.  Again, details can be found by clicking the link  http://2013.buddhismandmedicine.org/en/

Finally, since this is a practical post, the blog had its 200,000 visitor last week, one year after we reached our first 100,000, which took over two and a half years.   I want to thank everyone of you  who stops by for your readership and comments, and all who follow the Blog for your support, practice and presence on this journey.

Simple presence

Karl Duffy2 Comments

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Moments of natural meditation are happening to us all the time. We pause at a stop sign while driving or taking a walk, just for a moment, preoccupations of that important meeting tomorrow or memories of yesterday’s flood of emails fall away. We are simply there, noticing other walkers and drivers, cars and sunlight, clouds and trees.  A dog barks, and in the distance we hear a siren. For a  fleeting moment we have a more intense experience of simple presence.

Gaylon Ferguson, Natural Wakefulness