Hundreds of open flowers
all come from the one branch.
Look, all their colours appear in my garden.
I open the door, and in the wind
I see the spring sunlight.
Already it has reached
worlds without number.
Sekiso, Worlds without number
Tag: inspiration
Today, can you….
Right now, can you make an unconditional relationship with yourself? Just the height you are, the weight you are, with the intelligence that you have, and your current burden of pain? Can you enter into an unconditional relationship with that?
Pema Chodron, Comfortable with Uncertainty
Just let go and fall into the now
If we can let go for just a moment, if we can relax, if we can fall into the center of now, we can encounter directly the freedom that we’ve all been seeking. It is right here, right now. It doesn’t lie in the future. It’s not going to come when life changes, when the circumstances of our day-to-day reality become different. Freedom is something that’s right in the midst of this moment. When we begin to surrender our demand that life change, that life alter itself to suit our ideas, then everything opens. We begin to awaken from this dream of separateness and struggle, and we realize that the grace we were always seeking is actually right there at the center of our own existence. This is the heart of spiritual awakening: to realize that what we have always yearned for is the very thing, in our deepest source, that we have always been. Freedom is always available to us. In those very moments when we know we don’t know, when we take the “backward step,” heart wide open, we fall into grace. Adyshanti
Who are you comparing yourself to this day?
A samurai, a very proud warrior, came to see a Zen Master one day. The samurai was very famous, but looking at the beauty of the Master and the grace of the moment, he suddenly felt inferior.
He said to the Master, “Why am I feeling inferior? Just a moment ago everything was okay. As I entered your court suddenly I felt inferior. I have never felt like that before. I have faced death many times, and I have never felt any fear — why am I now feeling frightened?”
The Master said, “Come outside.”
It was a full moon night, the moon was just rising on the horizon. And he said, “Look at these trees. This tree is high in the sky and this small one beside it. They both have existed beside my window for years, and there has never been any problem. The smaller tree has never said to the big tree, ‘Why do I feel inferior before you?’ This tree is small, and that tree is big — why have I never heard a whisper of it?”
The samurai said, “Because they can’t compare.”
The Master replied, “Then you need not ask me. You know the answer.”
Zen Parable
Spring cleaning, uprooting, not looking back, new growth….
Some thoughts, prompted by having to queue to get into the déchetterie – the recycling depot – this morning, which are in the same vein as some of the quotes over the past few days. The good weather motivates people to tidy up their houses and garages after the enforced restricted time that is winter. I was working in the garden yesterday, digging up the plants that did not survive the winter and cutting back those which will now grow more strongly in the Summer. Getting rid of the old and letting the new grow stronger or in different directions. And all around Nature is budding now, revealing what has been going on unseen and underground for months. In our own life path it is the same. We get rid of elements that no longer accord with who we are now, or let go of that which we can no longer hold onto. While waiting in the queue I listened to “Don’t Look Back” by Van Morrison which prompted these thoughts. Maybe the words will speak to someone this evening. If not, any excuse to play early Van the Man is good….
Teen Day 10: You as a witness
When you listen to a thought, you are aware not only of the thought but also of yourself as the witness of the thought.
Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Being
Mindfulbalance 