Hell is timely, for hell is the thought
that hell will go on, on and on, without end.
Heaven is only present, instantaneous and eternal,
a mayfly, a blue dayflower, a life entirely given,
complete forever in its hour.
Wendell Berry, VIII
In a moment
Tag: impermanence
Life is filled with many wonders
We often ask, “What’s wrong?” Doing so, we invite painful seeds of sorrow to come up and manifest. We feel suffering, anger, and depression, and produce more such seeds. We would be much happier if we tried to stay in touch with the healthy, joyful seeds inside of us and around us. We should learn to ask, “What’s not wrong?” and be in touch with that. There are so many elements in the world and within our bodies, feelings, perceptions, and consciousness that are wholesome, refreshing, and healing. If we block ourselves, if we stay in the prison of our sorrow, we will not be in touch with these healing elements.
Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step
Nothing solid
Through meditation practice you begin to realize that:
- Your thoughts have no birthplace, they just pop up out of nowhere…
2. Thoughts are nevertheless unceasing….
3. They appear but are not solid….
4. Putting that all together, there is no birth, no dwelling, no cessation…
This understanding gives the unsurpassable protection of realizing what is called complete openness [shunyata]. There’s nothing solid to react to. You have made much ado about nothing.
Pema Chodron, Always Maintain a Joyful Mind
Holding on and letting go
Letting go is about carefully revealing assumptions, biases, and life messages (‘There’s something wrong with me, I’m unworthy’) and releasing them.
You can liken the process to a gradual descent out of the tumult and the gridlock of your personal world into the free space of the unconditioned. It’s rather like lowering oneself down a rope. You have to know how to do that. It is a matter of holding on to something you trust, even though it seems like a thin strand, then letting go a little bit and trusting the downward pull.
Ajahn Sucitto
Let things pass.
As a new month is about to begin….
If I had to sum up [meditation] practice in three words, without hesitation, I’d go for “Let things pass.”
In the midst of chaos or deep in one’s inner battlefields, dare to make the experiment of not controlling, of dropping the self. It’s mayhem, but there’s no problem! Far from giving up and far from resignation, letting things pass means distinguishing between the psychodramas (the problems created by conceptual mind) and the genuine tragedies of existence, which call for solidarity, commitment, and perseverance.
Meditating is stripping down, daring to live nakedly in order to give oneself, contributing to the welfare of the world, giving one’s share. Why don’t we look at the day that lies ahead of us not as a store where we can acquire things, but as a clinic, a dispensary of the soul, where together we can recover and advance?
Alexandre Jollien, 1975 – Swiss philosopher and writer
Reflect constantly
Watch the stars in their courses as though you were accompanying them,
and reflect constantly on the changing of the elements into one another.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.47
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