Harmless

A thought is harmless unless we believe it.

It’s not our thoughts, but our attachment to our thoughts, that causes suffering.

Attaching to a thought means believing that it’s true, without inquiring.

A belief is a thought that we’ve been attaching to, often for years.

Byron Katie

Calm comes from balance

A bank holiday in Ireland to mark the start of Spring. Helpful in work-life balance

Peace is understood in the Christian tradition as tranquillitas ordinis, the quietness of order, the calm that comes with harmony.

And order is arranging things so that each gives to the other its proper place. Even God must do this. In the Jewish tradition it is said that, in order to create the world, God had to step back

David Steindl-Rast, osb., Music of Silence: A Sacred Journey Through the Hours of the Day

Sunday Quote: Stillness

Empty yourself of everything.
Let the mind become still.
The ten thousand things rise and fall while the Self watches their return.
They grow and flourish and then return to the source.
Returning to the source is stillness, which is the way of nature.

Tao Te Ching, 16

Sit quietly

In moments of darkness and pain

remember all is cyclical.

Sit quietly behind your wooden door

Spring will come again

Loy Ching-Yuen (1873 – 1960) Chinese Taoist tai chi master.

Make peace

Good feelings, bad feelings – we’re never going to get away from them.

The whole teaching is to completely make peace with everything –

to be able to just be with anything, completely.

Soeng Hyang, 1948 – Buddhist teacher

Being open to surprises

Even the long-beloved

was once an unrecognized stranger.

Just so, the chipped lip of a blue-glazed cup,

blown field of a yellow curtain,

might also,

flooding and falling,

ruin your heart.

A table painted with roses.

An empty clothesline.

Each time,

the found world surprises –

that is its nature.

And then

what is said by all lovers:

“What fools we were, not to have seen.”

Jane Hirshfield, Meeting the Light Completely