The lesson of spiritual life is not about gaining knowledge,
but about how we love.
Are we able to love what is given to us,
love in the midst of all things,
love ourselves and others?
Jack Kornfield, After the Ecstasy, the Laundry
Tag: heart
A Generous spirit
When we are stressed we have a tendency to close in on ourselves, to measure our time, fixate on our problems and not notice a lot that is happening around us. We think that this is the best way to protect our energy and our heart. Paradoxically, however, it seems that another strategy is more helpful, going against the voice within us and turning outwards, noticing small details in the day and reaching out to others. An East African proverb reminds us You can share even if you have a little. It may be just noticing how good the coffee tastes, a smile, a friendly phone call, a helping hand, making someone welcome. This quotation from Cormac McCarthy reminds us to create little moments of generosity, of connection, of celebration, even when our life seems barren. There will be innumerable little moments in a day to be kind, even if our hearts do not feel like it.
When you’ve got nothing else, construct ceremonies out of the air and breathe upon them.
Cormac McCarthy, The Road
A generous heart is never lonesome. A generous heart has luck. The lonesomeness of contemporary life is partly due to the failure of generosity. Increasingly we complete with each other for goods, for image, and for status.
John O’Donoghue, Eternal Echoes
Sunday Quote: Staying close to our roots
At any moment you have a choice
that either leads you closer to your spirit
or further away from it
Thich Nhat Hanh
Fixated
There are actually two reasons why people in general are out of touch with their subjective experiences: They have ‘low definition’ bodies and they are continuously fixated in thought, especially verbal thought. Of course, there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with thinking. Indeed complex thought is evolution’s wonderful gift to humankind, giving our species special powers that the others lack. Thought per se is not the problem. The problem is the driven and fixated way in which we think.
Shinzen Young, Bringing the Monastery Home
Stillness through non-interference.
Ajahn Chah would explain that the mind’s nature is still, yet it’s flowing. It’s flowing, yet it is still. He would use the word “citta” for the knowing mind, the mind of awareness. The citta itself is totally still. It has no movement; it is not related to all that arises and ceases. It is silent and spacious. Mind objects — sights, sounds, smell, taste, touch, thoughts, and emotions — flow through it. Problems arise because the clarity of the mind gets entangled with sense impressions. By contemplating our own experience, we can make a clear distinction between the mind that knows (citta) and the sense impressions that flow through it. By refusing to get entangled with any sense impressions, we find refuge in that quality of stillness, silence, and spaciousness, which is the mind’s own nature. This policy of non-interference allows everything and is disturbed by nothing.
Ajahn Amaro, Small Boat
Nothing to become
Mindfulness provides a simple but powerful route for getting ourselves unstuck, back in touch with our own wisdom and vitality. The most important point is to be really yourself and not try to become anything that you are not already.…. being in touch with your deepest nature, and letting it flow out of you unimpeded.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, Mindfulness Meditation for Everyday Life
