Tag: inspiration

The body needs a song, a soul….

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

Have posted this poem before, but I saw this bird – the American Northern Cardinal – for the first time last week. Although, unlike Mary Oliver, I did not hear it sing, its bright colour still taught something about life, the heart, and the relationship between the body and the mind .

And this was my true task, to be the
music of the body.
Do you understand? for truly the body needs a song, a spirit, a soul.
And no less, to make this work,
the soul has need of a body,
and I am both of the earth and I am of the inexplicable beauty of heaven where I fly so easily, so welcome, yes,
and this is why I have been sent,
to teach this to your heart.

Mary Oliver,  Red Bird

Noticing

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

The beauty even in the most ordinary.

Wonder even in the most commonplace:

Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it

and whispers, “Grow, grow”.

The Talmud

Sunday Quote: Be still and move forward

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

We must be still and still moving

Into another intensity 

For a further union, a deeper communion.

T.S. Eliot,  East Coker

Learning to be

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

Meanwhile, we miss the fact that we are losing the main point and that what we are doing has turned into a self-based program. We get caught in the illusion, trying to make the self become something other. We can relax without switching off, and consequently we can enjoy the fruits of our work. This is what we mean by letting go of becoming and learning to be. If we’re too tense and eager to get to the other end, we’re bound to fall off the tight rope.

Ajahn Amaro

Training with perseverence

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

We all well know, as the contemporary Tibetan master Jogme Khyentse Rinpoche reminds us, that ” we don’t need to train our minds to improve our ability to get upset or jealous. We don’t need an anger accelerator or a pride amplifier”. By contrast, training the mind is crucial if we want to refine and sharpen our attention, develop emotional balance, inner peace and wisdom, and cultivate dedication to the welfare of others. We have within ourselves the potential to develop these qualities, bit they will not develop by themselves or just because we want them to. They require training. And all training requires perseverance and enthusiasm. We won’t learn to ski by practising one or two moments a month.

Matthieu Ricard, The Art of Meditation

Sunday Quote: Where we focus our energies

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

It is not up to us to believe in God,

but only to not grant our love to false gods.

Simone Weil