From the beginning
the flying birds have left
no footprints on the blue sky
Musō Soseki, Zen Buddhist Monk, calligraphy artist, poem writer, and garden designer, 1275 – 1351
photo wing chi poon
Hold everything lightly
Tag: impermanence
….Not taking things personally
In fully allowing conditions to be what they are, we stabilize our hearts and find peace. It’s like putting a boat into water. We make an ark of truth: ‘the conditions are like this,’ and in that truth, we don’t adopt the conditions as our own. This is important: you can’t drain the sea, but you don’t have to drown.
Ajahn Sucitto, Parami
photo pmalkowski
…
The basic choice….
When I was about six years old I received an essential …. teaching from an old woman sitting in the sun. I was walking by her house one day feeling lonely, unloved, and mad, kicking anything I could find. Laughing, she said to me, “Little girl, don’t you go letting life harden your heart.” Right there, I received this pith instruction: We can let the circumstances of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us and make us kinder and more open to what scares us. We always have the choice.
Pema Chodron, The Places that Scare you
photo vivian eng
Sunday Quote: Perspective
Sometimes one waits too long for the perfect moment before snapping the picture.
You never realize that all you needed was to change perspective.
Miguel Syjuco, Illustrado, 2008 Man Asian Literary Prizewinner
A lot of thinking
The concept of beginning and ending is time, produced by thought. Can we see, right now, that beginning and end, getting somewhere, being somebody, wanting to get the something I lack, are all products of the imagination. As long as this isn’t clear, this bodymind remains tied up in knots. Can we see that a thought is always away from this present moment, where time does not exist?
Toni Parker, The Wonder of Presence.
photo adam jwc
There is nothing ahead
Some of the sentiments expressed around New Year – or the current fad of people posting pictures online – can lead us to think that looking to the future, or looking for happiness somewhere other than where we are, is good for our mental health. These beautiful few lines from Rumi – an extract from a longer inspiring poem – reminds us that it is in this moment, in what is right here, and not in our concepts, is where we need to keep our awareness.
Forget the future.
I’d worship someone who could do that.
On the way you may want to look back, or not.
But if you can say, There’s nothing ahead,
there will be nothing there.
Rumi,
from Coleman Barks, Rumi: The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing
photo kevin law
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