What do Sad people have in
Common?
It seems
They have all built a shrine
To the past
And often go there
And do a strange wail and
Worship.
What is the beginning of
Happiness?
It is to stop being
so religious
Like that.
Hafiz
Photo: Fahan, Co Donegal, Ireland by Andreas Borchert
Here in the Irish and Celtic calendar, the season of Autumn began on Monday, the 1st of September. Although the weather is still very mild, the mornings are misty and some leaves have already started to fall. We are moving into a period which helps us reflect on impermanence and on the fact that all things change. Our meditation practice reminds us that there is only suffering to be had when we try to fix things solid, or hold onto them, like the long days of summer or the memories of times past. We instinctively prefer permanence and how it tells a story of a solid, single identity. Instead, in reality, like the seasons, we are always changing; things come and go in our lives. Nature lets go and moves on. Maybe we can learn from that.
If I can let you go as trees let go
Their leaves, so casually, one by one;
If I can come to know what they do know,
That fall is the release, the consummation,
Then fear of time and the uncertain fruit
Would not distemper the great lucid skies
This strangest autumn, mellow and acute.
If I can take the dark with open eyes
And call it seasonal, not harsh or strange
(For love itself may need a time of sleep),
And, treelike, stand unmoved before the change,
Lose what I lose to keep what I can keep,
The strong root still alive under the snow,
Love will endure – if I can let you go.
May Sarton, Autumn Sonnets
photo of the Barrow river at Bagenalstown, Co. Carlow.
I spent the weekend on retreat with Ajahn Sucitto in the West of Ireland, so the posts for the next day or two will focus on how we can ground ourselves in the face of changing moods or challenging circumstances, prompted by some of his words :
One of the fundamental ways of bringing the mind into the present moment is to focus on how we sense our own body. This bodily sense – that is awareness
of the sensations and energies that manifest in the body – is something immediate that we can contemplate. It gives us ground and balance. It gives us the sense of being where we are. Although this may seem basic and obvious, much of the time we are not grounded in where we really are. Instead we are ‘out there’ in a world of changing circumstance and reactions to that, without having a central reference.
Ajahn Sucitto, Meditation: A Way of Awakening
Do you believe there is some place that will make the soul less thirsty?
In that great absence you will find nothing.
Be strong then, and enter into your own body; There you have a solid place for your feet. Think about it carefully! Don’t go off somewhere else!
Kabir says this: just throw away all thoughts of imaginary things,
And stand firm in that which you are.
Kabir
photo chris phutully
The Comet Jacques passed over Ireland these last few days, but unfortunately cloud cover made it difficult to experience this “once in a lifetime” event. It will not be back for another 20,000 years. The night sky tends to put things into perspective:
If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night I’ll bet they’d live a lot differently.
When you look into infinity you realize that there are more important things than what people do everyday.
Calvin in Bill Watterson‘s Calvin and Hobbes
Mindfulbalance 