The only choice we have as we mature is how we inhabit our vulnerability,
how we become larger and more courageous and more compassionate
through our intimacy with disappearance.
David Whyte
Tag: impermanence
All is grace
When you are no longer preoccupied with asking for more and more stuff, then you just take what is given and give what is taken. Life is simple again. A farmer explained it to us this way: “You cannot make the clouds rain more, you cannot make the sun shine less. They are just nature’s gifts — take it or leave it.”
When the things around you are seen as gifts, they are no longer a means to an end; they are the means and the end.
Nipum Mehta Paths are made for Walking
photo Purple Sherbet Photography
Everyday epiphanies
Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world
John Milton
Celebrating just as it is
We are having a strange mix of weathers this year in Ireland. Daffodils already in bloom, buds on the trees, followed by snow and sleet yesterday, and having to avoid large puddles when getting out of the car. Good practice in celebrating little moments of beauty amid everyday changes
In the scenery of spring,
we can’t say one thing is better, the other worse;
The flowering branches are
of themselves, some are short, some others long.
Ryōkan, 1758 – 1831
photo light snow on Lough Dan in Wicklow by bea&txm
Allowing
Let your mind wander in the pure and simple.
Let all things take their course
Chuang Tzu c 370 – 300 BC
Moment by moment
Suppose a king might hear the sound of a lute and say “What is that sound – so delightful, so tantalizing, so intoxicating, so ravishing, so enthralling?” They would say “That, sire is called a lute…” Then he would say “Go and fetch me the lute” They would fetch the lute but he then said “Enough of the lute. Fetch me just the sound”.
They had to explain that the sound could not exist independently, but was created by the separate strings, box and arch, all elements working simultaneously.
Just as the king could not find the sound of the lute, so we cannot find our self. When we investigate, any thoughts of ‘me’ or ‘mine’ or ‘I am’ do not occur.
Based on the Buddha, Vina Sutta
Mindfulbalance 