A new month: Living fully, without regrets

File:Tully Cross thatched cottage.jpg

John O’Donohue told a story once about an occasion when he was still a priest and was sitting at the bedside of a dying man, offering his comfort and his presence. The man turned to him and said, with a great sense of calm, that he had no regrets, because he had taken a great big bite out of life.

It would be a significant thing if we could say that, not just at the end of life, but at the end of each day.

 Most people think they will regret foolish actions more than foolish inactions. But studies show that nine out of ten people are wrong. Indeed, in the long run, people of every walk of life seem to regret not having done things much more than they regret things they did.

Dan Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness

photo Linda Buckley

Not giving up on our dreams

We should never give up on our dreams or let them be blocked by the limitations of our own or others fears; but rather believe in that voice within and trust our capacity to achieve it.

Since the powers of nature in this dreamer, in that dreamer, and in the macrocosm of nature itself, are the same, only differently inflected,

the powers personified in a dream are those that move the world.

All the gods are within you

Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God

per Laura V, ritrovata dopo molti anni ma mai veramente andata dal cuore

When things are not clear, be patient

If each day falls

inside each night,

there exists a well

where clarity is imprisoned.

We need to sit on the rim

of the well of darkness

and fish for fallen light

with patience.


Pablo Neruda

Beyond our feeble words

Some Taoist wisdom for the journey. Real relationship with what is deepest in our hearts is something we know instinctive and survives our poor words and concepts: 

There is no religion, no science, no writings, which will really show your mind the Way.

Today I speak in this way, tomorrow in another,

but always the Path is beyond words and beyond mind.

Lao Tzu (attributed),  The Huahujing

 

The Buddhists say there are 149 ways to God.

I’m not looking for God, only for myself, and that is far more complicated.

Whats really important

Often we run around busy, giving importance to this and that, and yet what is deepest in our heart remains there unchanged, like flowers within.

We have been sold a lifestyle,

when what our soul desired was life.

Oriah Mountain Dreamer

 

 The mountain slopes crawl with lumberjacks

Axing everything in sight

Yet crimson flowers burn along the stream.

Chin-doba

Have confidence that you are enough

Good instructions when you are feeling fragmented or small, or when you are giving too much power over to others.

Settle the self on the self

and let your life force blossom

Zen instruction, from my current reading : Blanche Hartman, Seeds for a Boundless Life: Zen Teachings from the Heart