Tag: impermanence

All will be well

Karl Duffy1 Comment

One of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite teachers: “Most things do not matter very much. The rest do not matter at all!” (Stylianos Ateshlis, aka Daskolos). I read it not cynically, but in the form of a statement not to worry so much over this and that. There is a bigger picture, and, I imagine it to be one in which all is well, and all will be well.

Right within each and every one of us the whole creation is thrumming freshly formed and alive. Enjoy that!

Gil Hedley, founder of the Somanautics Workshop approach to the body. [from the Alive on All Channels blog]

How naïve.

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A wooden spoon for stirring jam,
Dripping sweet tar, while in the pan
Plum magma’s bubbles blather.
For someone who can’t grasp the whole
There’s salvation in the remembered detail.
What, back then, did I know about that?
The real, hard as a diamond,
Was to happen in the indefinable
Future, and everything seemed
Only a sign of what was to come. How naïve.
Now I know inattention is an unforgivable sin
And each particle of time has an ultimate dimension.

Janisz Szuber, 1947 – 2020, Polish Poet, About a Boy Stirring Jam

Sunday Quote: Not seeing clearly

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In its deepest sense, suffering is intimately linked to a misapprehension of the nature of reality.

Matthieu Ricard, Happiness

Never satisfied

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According to Buddhism, the root of suffering is neither the feeling of pain nor of sadness nor even of meaninglessness. Rather, the real root of suffering is this never-ending and pointless pursuit of ephemeral feelings, which causes us to be in a constant state of tension, restlessness and dissatisfaction. Due to this pursuit, the mind is never satisfied. Even when experiencing pleasure, it is not content, because it fears this feeling might soon disappear, and craves that this feeling should stay and intensify. People are liberated from suffering not when they experience this or that fleeting pleasure, but rather when they understand the impermanent nature of all their feelings, and stop craving them.

Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

What life is like

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Our life is becoming more and more inundated with TV shows, movies, videos, magazines and newspaper articles that seem to show and tell us what life is like. And then the inevitable comparisons arise: “My life isn’t like that” or “I wish it were” or “It is exactly like that”. The moment we notice sad and painful feelings arising, from thoughts like “I’m unloved; I feel separate and isolated” can we immediately stop, look and listen instead of  going on weaving fancy narratives about ourselves? Can we stop and ask, “Where is this feeling coming from? ” Right now. Asking right this moment. Becoming more transparent to the thoughts and images that evoke these feelings and then deepen, embellish and propagate them. Becoming aware, let us taste directly how stories run our lives.

Toni Parker, The Silent Question.

A natural process

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The intelligent way of working with emotions is to try to relate to their basic substance. The basic “isness” quality of the emotions, the fundamental nature of the emotions, is just energy. And if one is able to relate with the energy, then the energies have no conflict with you. They become a natural process.


Chögyam Trungpa, The Myth of Freedom and the Way of Meditation