not the most important

What we see is not the most important.
Could dust rise without the invisible
hand of the wind?
Could a fan turn without any current?
Could lungs breathe without breath?
Tell me
What is the shape of Love?
How much does joy weigh
when held in the palm of your hand?
Can you catch the Spirit of Life in a jar?

All things seen depend
upon the Unseen.

All sounds depend upon Silence.
All things felt depend
upon what is not felt.

Adyashanti

Rest

Sabbath, in the first instance, is not about worship. It is about work stoppage. It is about withdrawal from the anxiety system of Pharaoh, the refusal to let one’s life be defined by production and consumption and the endless pursuit of private well-being.

Walter Brueggemann, 1933 – American Old Testament scholar 

non-opposition

Do not become annoyed when faced with difficulties.

To do so merely adds difficulty to difficulty and further disturbs your mind.

By maintaining a mind of peace and non-opposition, difficulties will naturally fall away

Sheng Yen, 1931 – 2009, Taiwanese Buddhist monk, 

How to get happiness to follow you

Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought.

If with a pure mind a person speaks or acts, happiness follows him like his never-departing shadow.

Dhammapada, Yamakavagga (Chapter on the Pairs)

No fixed timetable

Repetition is not failure. Ask the waves, ask the leaves, ask the wind. There is no expected pace for inner learning. What we need to learn comes when we need it, no matter how old or young, no matter how many times we have to start over, no matter how many times we have to learn the same lesson. We fall down as many times as we need to, to learn how to fall and get up…. No one really likes this, of course, but we deal with our dislike in the same way, again and again, until we learn what we need to know about the humility of acceptance.

Mark Nepo, Book of Awakening

Sunday Quote: Light

Every day you play with the light of the Universe

Pablo Neruda