Tag: heart

Underneath

Karl Duffy6 Comments

Meditation is based on the premise that the natural state of the mind is calm and clear. It provides a way to train our mind to settle into this state. Our first reason for meditating might be that we want some freedom from our agitated mind. We want to discover the basic goodness of our natural mind. To do this requires us first to slow down and experience our mind as it is. In the process, we get to know how our mind works. We see that wherever the mind is abiding—in anger, in desire, in jealousy, or in peace—that is where we also are abiding. We begin to see that we have a choice in the matter: we do not have to act at the whim of every thought. We can abide peacefully. Meditation is a way to slow down and see how our mind works.

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche

Let things come in and go out

Karl Duffy2 Comments

When you are practicing … do not try to stop your thinking. Let it stop by itself. If something comes into your mind, let it come in, and let it go out. It will not stay long. When you try to stop your thinking, it means you are bothered by it. Do not be bothered by anything. It appears as if something comes from outside your mind, but actually it is only the waves of your mind, and if you are not bothered by the waves, gradually they will become calmer and calmer. […] Nothing outside yourself can cause any trouble. You yourself make the waves in your mind. If you leave your mind as it is, it will become calm.

Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind

Sunday Quote: Share

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The Joy that isn’t shared,
I’ve heard,
dies young.
 
Anne Sexton, Welcome Morning

From dawn to dusk, compete and yet not

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Light filters through tinted windows over a set of stairs at United Evangelical Lutheran Church on Sunday, March 25, 2012, in Swiss Alp , Texas. ( Smiley N. Pool / Houston Chronicle ) Photo: Smiley N. Pool, Staff / © 2012 Houston ChronicleAs the house of a person
in age sometimes grows cluttered
with what is too loved or too heavy to part with,
the heart may grow cluttered.
And still the house will be emptied,
and still the heart.

As the thoughts of a person
in age sometimes grow sparer,
like a great cleanness come into a room,
the soul may grow sparer;
one sparrow song carves it completely.
And still the room is full,
and still the heart.

Empty and filled,
like the curling half-light of morning,
in which everything is still possible and so why not.

Filled and empty,
like the curling half-light of evening,
in which everything now is finished and so why not.

Jane Hirshfield, (extract), Standing Deer

A practice for seeing difficulties differently today

Karl Duffy2 Comments

1. Consider that in order to build character the practice of patience is essential.

2. See that the best way to practice patience requires an enemy.

3. Understand that in this way enemies are very valuable for the opportunities they provide.

4. Decide that instead of getting angry with those who block your wishes, you will inwardly  respond with gratitude.

By seeing things this way you will change your attitude toward adversity. This is very difficult but very rewarding. For only when faced with the work of adversity can we discover real inner strength.

The Dalai Lama, How to be Compassionate, A Handbook for Creating Inner Peace and a Happier World

Facing into our avoidance

Karl Duffy4 Comments

We first learnt to reject our experience when we were growing up. As children our feelings were often too overwhelming for our fledgling nervous system to handle, much less understand. So when an experience was too much, and the adults in our environment could not help us relate to it, we learnt to contract our mind and body, shutting ourselves down, like a circuit breaker. This was our way of preserving and protecting oursleves…….In time, these contractions  form the nucleus of an overall style of avoidance and denial.

Thus our psychological distress is composed of at least three elements: the basic pain of feelings that seem overwhelming, the contracting of mind and body to avoid feeling this pain; and the stress of continually having to prop up and defend an identity based on this avoidance and denial.

John Welwood, Toward a Psychology of Awakening