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

A Lesson in Letting Things Be

Things are as they are.

Looking out into the universe at night,

we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars,

nor between well and badly arranged constellations.

Alan Watts