I do not live happily or comfortably
with the cleverness of our times.
The talk is all about computers,
the news is all about bombs and blood.
This morning, in the fresh field,
I came upon a hidden nest.
It held four warm, speckled eggs.
I touched them.
Then went away softly,
having felt something more wonderful
Than all the electricity of New York City.
Mary Oliver, With Thanks to the Field Sparrow Whose Voice is So Delicate and Humble
Here’s my new favorite meditation: Load up your washing machine, press the buttons, and then sit by the magical cube as it does its magic. When it roars and sloshes, hear the echo of your fear, anger, and despair. When it spins, recognize your own times of confusion, of apparently pointless repetition. When it seems to have finished, only to rev up again, think of the times you’ve had to start over. And realize that all this bashing and crashing is your soul being cleaned, renewed, and made fresh again.
Once you relax into the process, you’ll learn the great secret: It is through doing the laundry that we find our way to the ecstasy.
Martha Beck, Blog, The Turbulent Secrets to Soul Renewal
I have a room all to myself;
it is nature.
Henry David Thoreau
Surrender to the way things want to happen next,
even though this often involves a vast and terrifying loss of control.
Trust the magic that was born into your soul.
Martha Beck
To a disciple who begged for wisdom the Master said,
“Try this out: Close your eyes and see yourself and every living being thrown off the top of a precipice.
Each time you cling to something to stop yourself from falling understand that that is falling too.”
The disciple tried it out and never was the same again.
Anthony de Mello, sj., One Minute Wisdom
“I’m never free of fear,” some people say, implying that there should be a state of mind and body that is free of fear.
How can we possibly be free from fear when we live in the conditioned mode of the me-story most of the time? We’re deeply programmed to believe in this separate me by inaccurate language and by growing up in a world of other mes, all of whom think of and experience themselves as separate entities. . . . With separation inevitably goes fear and pain.
Toni Packer, Touching Fear
Mindfulbalance 