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
Tag: impermanence
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
Ordinary life
When it’s time to get dressed, put on your clothes. When you must walk, then walk. When you must sit, then sit. Just be your ordinary self in ordinary life, unconcerned in seeking for enlightenment. When you’re tired, lie down. The fool will laugh at you but the wise man will understand.
Linji Yixuan, Chan Buddhist, died 866
photo pavel
Darkness and light
One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light,
but by making the darkness conscious
Jung
Today is Lá Féile Bríde, St. Brigid’s Day, celebrated on the ancient Celtic festival of Imbolc, a word meaning perhaps “in the womb”, and linked with the feminine, fertility and the birth of lambs. The Celts were much more in touch with the rhythms of nature and with symbols than we are, and so lit fires in the darkness to mark the fact that they had arrived at the midway point between the winter and the spring solstice. They celebrated the lengthening days and the early signs of Spring, in a declaration of trust that the darkness of winter was not going to last. It was the start of a period of planting and birth: a time for looking forward and beginning again. For us too, some form of death and rebirth is always happening in our inner selves, even if we are unaware of it. We are never really in just one place, but always somewhat in-between, re-working our own myths and adding depth and meaning to our journey.
For last year’s words
belong to last year’s language
and next year’s words
await another voice.
And to make an end
is to make a beginning
T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding
