Nothing which is ready-to-hand or present-to-hand within the world functions…. in the face of which anxiety is anxious.
Martin Heidegger, Being and Time
Tag: impermanence
True genius
It is not “human genius”
that makes us human, but an old love,
an old intelligence of the heart
we gather to us from the world,
from the creatures, from the angels
of inspiration, from the dead —
an intelligence merely nonexistent
to those who do not have it, but
to those who have it more dear than life.
Wendell Berry, Some Further Words (extract)
The surrendering part
Control and surrender have to be kept in balance. That’s what surfers do – take control of the situation, then be carried, then take control. In the last few thousand years, we’ve become incredibly adept technically. We’ve treasured the controlling part of ourselves and neglected the surrendering part
Brian Eno, English musician and record producer,
Every moment is good
Returning to our relationship with the present moment, is an attempt to arrive at a total grasp of the universe, and thus keep …anchored in the moving stream of life, which embraces known and unknown.
Any and every moment, from this viewpoint, is therefore good or right, the best for whoever it be, for on how one orients himself to the moment depends the failure or fruitfulness of it.
Henry Miller, The Wisdom of the Heart
Empty Time
Finding yourself doesn’t require that you fly to Tibet, join a convent, or build a meditation room.
Just consistently keep a minimal commitment to empty time.
Martha Beck
Seeds of wakefulness
Every time you’re willing to acknowledge your thoughts, let them go, and come back to the freshness of the present moment, you’re sowing seeds of wakefulness in your unconscious. After a while what comes up is a more wakeful, more open thought. You’re conditioning yourself toward openness rather than sleepiness. You might find yourself caught, but you can extricate yourself by how you use your mind, how you actually are willing to come back just to nowness, the immediacy of the moment. Every time you’re willing to do that, you’re sowing seeds for your own future, cultivating this innate fundamental wakefulness by aspiring to let go of the habitual way you proceed and to do something fresh.
Pema Chödrön, The Wisdom of No Escape and the Path of Loving-Kindness
Mindfulbalance 