Stress is caused by being “here”
but wanting to be “there”.
It is a split that tears you apart inside
Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now
Tag: Be fully present
Not getting tired
I saw a programme recently on G.K Chesterson and was reminded of this quote, similar in theme to the poem published yesterday morning. In it he encourages us to have eyes like children, seeing things as if for the first time, not tired and dulled by the fact that we have seen them before:
Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.
G.K Chesterson
Moment by moment, here is where I am
Meditation is the only intentional, systematic human activity which at bottom is about not trying to improve yourself
or get anywhere else,
but simply to realize where you already are.
Jon Kabat Zinn, Wherever you Go, There you are.
Seeing today for the first time
Do not say, ‘It is morning,’
and dismiss it with a name of yesterday.
See it for the first time
as a newborn child that has no name.
Every child comes with the message
that God is not yet discouraged of man.
Everything comes to us that belongs to us
if we create the capacity to receive it.
Faith is the bird that feels the light
when the dawn is still dark.
From the solemn gloom of the temple
children run out to sit in the dust,
God watches them play and forgets the priest.
I have become my own version of an optimist.
If I can’t make it through one door,
I’ll go through another door – or I’ll make a door.
Something terrific will come
no matter how dark the present.
Rabindranath Tagore
Being where you are
When snow falls and slows down the traffic, we get plenty of opportunities to practice mindfulness, here explained in its simplest form. Often our way is blocked and we are forced to stay where we are for a long time. Being with our life “as it is” is the key to our practice, even when we don’t particularly want to be there:
You don’t need to try to get anywhere when you practice meditation. You only need to really be where you already are and realize it (make it real). In fact in this way of looking at things there is no place else to go, so efforts to get anywhere else are ill-conceived. They are bound to lead to frustration and failure. On the other hand, you cannot fail to be where you already are. So you cannot ‘fail’ in your meditation practice if you are willing to be with things as they are.
Jon Kabat Zinn, Full Catastrophe Living
Meeting without resisting
Meeting each moment without resistance, we discover unsuspected beauty in our hearts, minds, and bodies and in the world around us. We perceive the movement of nature within us. We feel sad without needing to justify or eliminate the emotion. We feel happy without needing to believe that we will never again know sadness. This is the way of meditation.
Gavin Harrison, In the Lap of the Buddha
