Tag: Joy

Using time wisely

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For those of us who live in nanosecond time, a moment becomes very, very short, and in each moment we ask how much we have gotten done. How much did I cram into it? Was I successful in multitasking? As one woman in a class I was working with said to me, “I have finally figured out how to relax. When I go from my job teaching to my consulting job and I’m driving in my car, I listen to a self-help tape, I eat lunch on the way, I talk on my cellular phone, and I relax at the same time.”

This approach to time management simply turns up the speed on the treadmill of our lives. I propose we evolve beyond time management to “timeshifting”-which is different from merely “downshifting.” The practice of timeshifting recognizes that every single moment has a particular rhythm to it, and that we have the capacity to expand or contract an individual moment as appropriate. One way to shift what’s going on in our world is not to try to rush to do more, but to allow ourselves to go deeper into that moment of being present. Our ability to shift gears, to shift our rhythm to meet that moment and be present in it, is what allows us to experience the fullness of life – to create our life in the way we want it to be.

Stephan Rechtschaffen.

How to make the most out of life

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There is an old story of a famous rabbi living in Europe who was visited one day by a man who had traveled by ship from New York to see him. The man came to the great rabbi’s dwelling, a large house on a street in a European city, and was directed to the rabbi’s room, which was in the attic. He entered to find the master living in a room with a bed, a chair, and a few books. The man had expected much more. After greetings, he asked, “Rabbi, where are your things?” The rabbi asked in return, “Well, where are yours?” His visitor replied, “But, Rabbi, I’m only passing through,” and the master answered, “So am I, So am I.”

This is not a lesson to be put off. One great teacher explained it this way: “The trouble with you is that you think you have time.” We don’t know how much time we have. What would it be like to live with the knowledge that this may be our last year, our last week, our last day? In light of this question, we can choose a path with heart.

Jack Kornfield,  Path With Heart

Trusting in goodness

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In order to communicate very openly with the world, you need to develop fundamental trust. This kind of trust is not trusting“in”something, but simply trusting. It is very much like your breath. You do not consciously hold on to your breath, or trust in your breath, yet breathing is your very nature. In the same way, to be trusting is your very nature. To be trusting means you are fundamentally free from doubt about your goodness and about the goodness of others.

Dr. Jeremy Hayward

Being fully present

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Today’s liturgy read from the gospel of Saint Luke,  the story of Martha and Mary. It is a well known tale. Jesus arrives in the house of his friends after a long journey. Martha is bothered, gets stressed and loses her  calm as she prepares something for him to eat. She complains that Mary is not helping but Jesus states that Mary has chosen the better part – the better way of being –  by simply sitting with him and listening.  It is frequently used to argue for the superiority of reflection over action; I think it is better understood as a priority in the cultivation of aspects of ourseves, both of which are necessary.

However, it also points to another teaching, namely one on being present. One of the greatest gifts we can all experience – and it seemed to have been true for Jesus also –   is knowing that another person is fully tuned into us. Sometimes we have to learn the art of being still so as to better support another person. In this story,  the greatest gift that Mary could offer was not to be useful,  but to be present. When we are lucky enough to have that connection with someone who is there for us, who really listens –  who instinctively senses deep down how we are –  then we are truly blessed.

Most people think of love as a feeling, but love is not so much a feeling as a way of being present.

David Richo

Don’t listen to yourself

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The trick is not how much pain you feel but how much joy you feel.

Any idiot can feel pain. Life is full of excuses to feel pain, excuses not to live, excuses not to love, excuses, excuses, excuses.

Erica Jong

True connection

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Out beyond ideas
of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field.

I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.

Ideas, language, – even the phrase “each other” –
do not make any sense.

Rumi