We tend to think that life will occur sometime later. However, this moment – exactly as it is – is the full disclosure of reality.
When you find your place right where you are,
the Way itself is being lived out,
and we realize the entire universe in the present moment.
Dōgen, Genjōkōan,
Life is completely still.
It is without excitement.
It is always still, indifferent to
whether or not your life is dramatic
Joko Dave Haselwood, 1931 – 2014, Zen teacher
Maggie and I are doing our best. Our parents did their best. Everyone is doing their best.
What if we assumed that about each other?
What a gentle world it would be.
Elizabeth Lesser, Marrow: A Love Story
The second in three posts from the Thai Forest Tradition, this one from their most influential teacher who has had a significant impact on Western mindfulness practice, through the many Western monks who trained under him.
Try to be mindful, and let things take their course.
Then your mind will become quieter and quieter in any surroundings
It will become still like a clear forest pool.
All kinds of wonderful and rare animals will come to drink at the pool,
and you will clearly see the nature of all things. You will see many strange and wonderful things come and go,
But you will be still. Problems will arise and you will see through them immediately. This is the happiness of the Awakened One.
Ajahn Chah A Still Forest Pool
Today, give yourself permission to be supported by something larger than personal strength. Suffering decreases when phenomena are allowed to move through rather than be contained.
Your body is holding all of this.
Give it to a bigger body.
Give it to the sky.
Jaiya John, author, poet, speaker
Komorebi (木漏れ日) is a beautiful Japanese word for the light filtering through trees – everchanging – reminding us of the fleeting uniqueness of each moment.
Understanding this leads to a contentment with the Universe and with oneself.
Not a bad philosophy for a New Year…
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”
Mary Oliver, When I am Among the Trees
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