If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death.
Perhaps the earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive.
Paolo Neruda, Keeping Quiet
We had such welcome rain last night. We are already on water restrictions here. Ok, maybe not good for the planned barbecue, but great for the plants and the garden, and especially for the farmers. There is a freshness that only comes after a storm, as well as growth that only comes with the rain. The law is universal, not just for Nature but also for our inner life. There are times we need to shelter a while but in the morning after we find everything fresher and more alive.
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
John Muir
At any given moment, you can choose to follow the chain of thoughts, emotions, and sensations that reinforce a perception of yourself as vulnerable and limited — or you can remember that you true nature is pure, unconditioned, and incapable of being harmed.
If you’re determined to think of yourself as limited, fearful, vulnerable, or scarred by past experience, know only that you have chosen to do so.
The opportunity to experience yourself differently is always available.
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
While giving a talk at an All Day Retreat on Saturday I came across a familiar concern. When encouraging participants to be “at home” in the moment and widen this to being at ease in their lives as they actually are, one person wondered whether this meant we will never improve. It is true that some people may use acceptance as an excuse for passivity or to mask an already existent depression. However, for most people the practice is to go against the deeply-conditioned habit of judging oneself and trying to “fix” one’s life – normally in response to the internalized early demands of parents or from the exigencies of today’s continually comparing society – and see if they can relax in their history and their personality as it is. Practically, this means noticing the way the mind likes to compare our life as it is with better lives and how it finds it hard to believe that where it is at this moment is enough. In this poem, May Sexton seems to try this. She decides, finally, to become herself and stop wearing the faces which others demand of her. She has the courage to stand still and be in her life as it is.
Now I become myself. It’s taken Time, many years and places;
I have been dissolved and shaken, Worn other people’s faces,
Run madly, as if Time were there, Terribly old, crying a warning,
“Hurry, you will be dead before—”
(What? Before you reach the morning? Or the end of the poem is clear?
Or love safe in the walled city?)
Now to stand still, to be here, Feel my own weight and density!
The black shadow on the paper Is my hand; the shadow of a word
As thought shapes the shaper Falls heavy on the page, is heard.
All fuses now, falls into place From wish to action, word to silence,
My work, my love, my time, my face Gathered into one intense
Gesture of growing like a plant. As slowly as the ripening fruit
Fertile, detached, and always spent, Falls but does not exhaust the root,
So all the poem is, can give, Grows in me to become the song,
Made so and rooted by love.
Now there is time and Time is young.
O, in this single hour I live All of myself and do not move.
I, the pursued, who madly ran, Stand still, stand still, and stop the sun!
The complete teaching …… is how to rediscover who we are. We are continuously distracted from coming to our natural state, our natural being. Throughout our day everything pulls us away from natural mindfulness, from being on the spot. We’re either too scared or too embarrassed or too proud, or just too crazy, to be who we are. This is what we call the journey or the path: continuously trying to recognize that we can actually relax and be who we are.
So practicing meditation begins by simplifying everything. We sit on the cushion, follow our breath and watch our thoughts. We simplify our whole situation. What we’re doing is taming our mind. We’re trying to overcome all sorts of anxieties and agitation, all sorts of habitual thought patterns, so we are able to sit with ourselves. Life is difficult, we may have tremendous responsibilities, but the odd thing, the twisted logic, is that the way we relate to the basic flow of our life is to sit completely still. It might seem more logical to speed up, but here we are reducing everything to a very basic level.
Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche
All the suffering in the world comes from seeking pleasure for oneself.
All the happiness in the world comes from seeking pleasure for others.
Shantideva
Mindfulbalance 