Ripeness is
what falls away with ease.
Not only the heavy apple,
the pear,
but also the dried brown strands
of autumn iris from their core.
To let your body
love this world
that gave itself to your care
in all of its ripeness,
with ease,
and will take itself from you
in equal ripeness and ease,
is also harvest.
And however sharply
you are tested –
this sorrow, that great love –
it too will leave on that clean knife.
Jane Hirshfield, Ripeness
What is right today is wrong tomorrow
Ryokan, 1758 – 1831, Japanese Zen monk and poet
Next time is next time.
Now is now
The words of Hirayama in the beautiful, meditative, film Perfect Days, to his niece who wants to know when they will go to see the ocean.
It sums up his whole philosophy of life
Therefore, tell me:
what will engage you?
What will open the dark fields of your mind,
like a lover
at first touching?
Mary Oliver, Flare
One way of dealing with the inner critic, found in many different traditions, East and West:
So the holy elders,” I added, “claim that the best strategy to cope with troublesome logismoi [thoughts] is simply to ignore them.” “Precisely. Our first defense against destructive logismoi is complete indifference. This is the healthiest and most productive method to head them off right at their inception. Ignore them completely. Never open up a dialogue with these intruders. Do not interact with them either out of curiosity or out of overconfidence.”
Kyriacos C. Markides, The Mountain of Silence: a search for Orthodox Spirituality
We reduce, concretize, or substantialize experiences or feelings, which are, in their very nature, fleeting or evanescent. In so doing, we define ourselves by our moods and by our thoughts. We do not just let ourselves be happy or sad, for instance; we must become a happy person or a sad one. This is the chronic tendency of the ignorant or deluded mind, to make “things” out of that which is no thing.
Mark Epstein, Thoughts Without a Thinker
Let go of what has passed
Let go of what may come in the future
Let go of what is happening now.
Don’t try to figure it out
Don’t try to make anything happen
Rest, let it settle itself
The Six Key Words of Advice from Tilopa, 988 – 1069, an Indian tantric master and scholar, preserved in the Buddhist Mahāmudrā/ Tibetian tradition
Mindfulbalance 