Leave the door open for the unknown, the door into the dark.
That’s where the most important things come from,
where you yourself came from, and where you will go.
Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost
Open door
Tag: heart
The silent witness
I think there is only one subject worth my attention and that is the precognition of the spiritual side of the world and, within this recognition, the condition of my own spiritual state.
Mary Oliver, Winter Hours
We in the West think that the mind is everything, but all Eastern practice is to get beyond the mind to the point of the silent witness, where you’re witnessing yourself, where you’ve gone beyond the ego, beyond the self. The Indian tradition rests on what the West has largely lost: that there are three levels. There is the level of the body and the level of the mind, which the Western world thinks is the end. But beyond the body is the spirit. It’s the Atman, the pneuma of St. Paul, another dimension where we go beyond the mind, the senses, and the feelings, and we’re aware of the transcendent reality.
And that is the goal of life, to get to that.
Bede Griffiths
Already here
Whenever we are seeking happiness,
it is in fact our innate happiness that is seeking us.
The happiness we seek is the happiness we are.
Rupert Spira
What Are You Carrying?
If you put down the stories you tell yourself about your life for one minute, what remains?
Let go of a hundred years;
Rest from the ten thousand concerns.
Let go with both hands and walk on,
Free from judgment and division
Shitou Xiqian, Chan Master and hermit, 700–790 Song of the Grass-Roof Hermitage
Sunday Quote: What Is Already Here?
Our minds are always asking “How can this moment be better?”
What if we tried asking today, “What is already here?” and stop wishing that reality become something else:
A monk asked Yaoshan
What is the essenital truth in all your teaching?
Yaushan replied
Clouds are in the blue sky;
water is in the bottle
Chan master Yaoshan Weiyan , 751–834, found in the Transmission of the Lamp
Sunday Quote: balance
Keep your thoughts and feelings steady, and your breathing (qi) relaxed and even.
心平气和
Heart-mind calm,
breath harmonious
Common Chinese saying
Mindfulbalance 