Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which garden we will tend … When we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives, but when we are grateful for the abundance that is present — love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature and personal pursuits that bring us pleasure – the illusion of wasteland falls away and we experience heaven on earth.
Sarah Ban Breathnach
photo takashi hososhima
Peace is the result of retraining your mind
to process life as it is,
rather than you think it should be.
Wayne Dyer
photo 4028mdk09
Two paths diverge in a wood….
You start dying slowly
If you become a slave of your habits,
Walking everyday on the same paths…
If you do not change your routine,
If you do not wear different colours
Or you do not speak to those you don’t know.
You start dying slowly
If you avoid to feel passion
And their turbulent emotions;
Those which make your eyes glisten
And your heart beat fast.
You start dying slowly
If you do not change your life when you are not satisfied with your job, or with your love,
If you do not risk what is safe for the uncertain,
If you do not go after a dream,
If you do not allow yourself,
At least once in your lifetime,
To run away from sensible advice…
Pablo Neruda from Dying Slowly
Lessons learnt from the week that has passed. Two different personalities using words in different ways: one path ascends, the other descends.
This was reinforced in a conversation with a close friend yesterday: The Western mind is performance driven, with value being given to the highest achiever. This might be good for external advancement and achievement, but will it last in terms of wisdom and inner peace?
The birds they sang
at the break of day
Start again, I heard them say
Don’t dwell on what has passed away
or what is yet to be.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in
Leonard Cohen, Anthem, died Friday November 11th
photo of centuries old rock in Glendalough
The only true antidote to always wanting more, as this 8th Century reminds us, is to be aware of, and rooted in, our inherent completeness, an awareness which will contradict the arising feeling of never being satisfied.
There is a solitary brightness without fixed shape or form.
It knows how to listen to the teachings,
it knows how to understand the teachings,
it knows how to teach.
That solitary brightness is you.
Linji Yìxuán, Chinese Zen Buddhist monk, died 866
In the past days, how many times have we run this way and that, expending energy in places that don’t really align with the deepest sense of where we are going?
Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save;
they just stand there shining
Anne Lamott
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