The origin of suffering – the idea that we need to have something, become something or get rid of something – has the power to get any of us heated up.
It is the mind’s relationship to the senses that is the problem
Ajahn Sucitto, Turning the Wheel of Truth
Everything can be used as an invitation to meditation. A smile, a face in the subway, the sight of a small flower growing in the crack of cement pavement, a fall of rich cloth in a shop window, the way the sun lights up flower pots on a windowsill. Be alert for any sign of beauty or grace. Offer up every joy, be awake at all moments “to the news that is always arriving out of silence”.
Slowly, you will become a master of your own bliss, a chemist of your own joy, with all sorts of remedies always at hand to elevate, cheer, illuminate and inspire your every breath and movement.
Sogyal Rinpoche
Another poem by Mary Oliver, about a flower that blooms in Springtime. It is a lovely affirmation of love for life, and the willingness to open and stand firm in one’s own purpose. To share with others, and to shine.
All my life, so far,
I have loved more than one thing,
including the mossy hooves of dreams, including’
the spongy litter under the tall trees.
In spring, the moccasin flowers
reach for the crackling lick of the sun
and burn down. Sometimes,
in the shadows, I see the hazy eyes,
the lamb-lips
of oblivion, its deep drowse,
and I can imagine a new nothing
in the universe,
the matted leaves splitting
open, revealing the black planks
of the stairs.
But all my life – sofar –
I have loved best how the flowers rise
and open, how
the pink lungs of their bodies
enter the fore of the world
and stand there shining and willing – the one
thing they can do before they shuffle forward into the floor of darkness, they become the trees.
As adults we can sometimes fall into the trap of blaming others for where or who we are. Instead we work at letting go of resentments and becoming responsible for nurturing ourselves. Our parents may not have provided the care we needed deep down, or others may have failed to support us in our lives. However, now we take on that role by acknowledging our own deepest needs and listening to what our inner self has to say.
We are, in a sense, our own parents, and we give birth to ourselves by our own free choice of what is good.
St Gregory of Nyssa, Homily on the Book of Ecclesiastes
A traditional Jewish tale says: Rabbi Levi saw a man running in the street, and asked him, “Why do you run?” He replied, “I am running after my good fortune!” Rabbi Levi tells him, “Silly man, your good fortune has been trying to chase you, but you are running too
fast.”
Wayne Muller, Sabbath
Everything inside and everything around us wants to reflect itself in us.
We don’t have to go anywhere to obtain the truth.
We only need to be still and things will reveal themselves in the still water of the heart
Thich Nhat Hahn
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