Tag: impermanence

taking the light within

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

The Summer Solstice

Each morning we awaken to the light and the invitation to a new day in the world of time; each night we surrender to the dark to be taken to play in the world of dreams where time is no more. At birth we were awakened and emerged to become visible in the world. At death we will surrender again to the dark to become invisible.

Awakening and surrender: they  frame each day and each life; between them the journey where anything can happen, the beauty and the frailty.

John O’Donohue.

photo of the Grianán of Aileach in County Donegal by Mark McGaughey on Wikipedia

They come and they go

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When energies inside start to move, you do not have to go there. For instance, when your thoughts start, you do not have to go with them.

Let’s say you’re outside taking a walk and a car drives by. Your thoughts say, ‘Boy, I wish I had that car.’ You could just keep on walking, but instead you start getting upset. You want a car like that, but your salary isn’t high enough. So you begin thinking about how you can get a raise or a different job. You didn’t have to do all that. It could have just been – here comes the car and there it goes, and here comes the thought and there it goes.

They’re both gone together because you didn’t go with them.

Michael A. Singer, The Untethered Soul

a poppy blooms

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Our daily efforts and failings. And all the while, there is beauty around us

I write, erase, rewrite,
Erase again, and then
A poppy blooms

Hokushi, 1603-1868, Japanese haiku poet.

Today I pass the time reading
a favorite haiku,
saying the few words over and over.

It feels like eating
the same small, perfect grape
again and again.

Billy Collins, PIcnic, Lightning [excerpt]

Just live out your life

Karl Duffy1 Comment

Suzuki Roshi once said about questioning our life, our purpose, “It’s like putting a horse on top of a horse and then climbing on and trying to ride. Riding a horse by itself is hard enough. Why add another horse? Then it’s impossible”

We add that extra horse when we constantly question ourselves rather than just live out our lives, and be who we are at every moment.

Natalie Goldberg, Long Quiet Highway.

Joyful and free

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Just imagine becoming the way you used to be as a very young child, before you understood the meaning of any word, before opinions took over your mind.

The real you is loving, joyful, and free.

The real you is just like a flower, just like the wind, just like the ocean, just like the sun.

Miguel Angel Ruiz

the ability to bend

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When filled with qi, the body is like a tree branch filled with sap; it can bend and flow with the breeze, but it does not snap or lose its connection with the root. On the other hand, a stiff, dead branch is easily broken. Thus the adage of Lao Zi, “Concentrate the qi and you will achieve the utmost suppleness…

Suppleness is the essence of life“

Kenneth S. Cohen, The Way of Qigong