No one grows old by living
– only by losing interest in living
Marie Beynon Rey
Getting old
Tag: heart
the ability to bend
When filled with qi, the body is like a tree branch filled with sap; it can bend and flow with the breeze, but it does not snap or lose its connection with the root. On the other hand, a stiff, dead branch is easily broken. Thus the adage of Lao Zi, “Concentrate the qi and you will achieve the utmost suppleness…
Suppleness is the essence of life“
Kenneth S. Cohen, The Way of Qigong
Aliveness
a new month begins…
imagine! imagine!
The wild and wondrous journeys
still to be ours
Mary Oliver, Last Night the Rain Spoke to Me [extract]
When your mind is raging
Enemies tried to kill the Buddha by releasing an intoxicated bull elephant named Nalagiri into the narrow street where the Buddha was walking. Those who saw the mad elephant charging shouted warnings to the Buddha and his monks to get out of the way. All the monks fled except for the Buddha and his faithful attendant Ananda [who] bravely moved in front of his master. Gently, the Buddha pushed Ananda to one side and faced the immensely powerful charging elephant alone.
Perhaps the Buddha thought something like this “Dear Nalagiri, the door of my heart is open to you, no matter what you ever do to me. You may swat me with your trunk or crush me under your feet, But I will give you no ill will”
The Buddha gently placed peace in the space between him and the dangerous elephant.…in a few seconds the elephant’s rage had subsided, and he was meekly bowing before the Compassionate One…
When your mind is raging, use kindfulness and letting go. Make peace with your crazy mind instead of fighting it. Don’t use force to subdue your raging bull elephant of a mind.
Ajahn Brahm, Kindfulness
Healthy energies
The more you can free yourself from
your internalization of the gaze of others,
the more liberated you feel…[and]…the more you will unleash the healthy energies of the mind.
Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Under your Skin
Let it flow
Can’t just “let it go”?
That’s because emotions are not like rocks we can drop and throw.
They are more like drops of water that need to run through us.
So don’t let it go
Let it flow
Lori Deschene, Tiny Buddha blog
Mindfulbalance 