Riches, in the ordinary

It was like this:
you were happy, then you were sad,
then happy again, then not.

Like a lover, your life bends down and kisses your life.

It doesn’t matter what they will make of you
or your days: they will be wrong,
they will miss the wrong woman, miss the wrong man,
all the stories they tell will be tales of their own invention.

Your story was this: you were happy, then you were sad,
you slept, you awakened.
Sometimes you ate roasted chestnuts, sometimes persimmons.

Jane Hirshfield, It Was Like This: You Were Happy [extracts]

Lived many lives

One should say before sleeping,

“I have lived many lives. I have been a slave and a prince. Many a beloved had sat upon my knees and I have sat upon the knees of many a beloved.

Everything that has been shall be again

W.B. Yeats

Don’t get carried away

Bodhidharma said“Expel all concurrent causes. Do not give rise to a single thought.”

This is an important part of our training. Concurrent causes are the ones we are carrying with us when we come to sit in meditation. Not giving rise to thoughts means not letting them carry us away. You are not your thoughts.

Daniel Scharpenburg, The Essence of Buddhist Training.

The perfect prayer

When I rise up
let me rise up joyful
like a bird

When I fall
let me fall without regret
like a leaf.

Wendell Berry, Prayers and Sayings of the Mad Farmer

Often we don’t know

It’s like driving a car at night.

You never see further than your headlights,

but you can make the whole trip that way.

E. L. Doctorow, 1931 – 2015, American novelist

…at peace

What a gift when we can finally make peace with ourselves.

It is time to apply some self-acceptance whenever we find ourselves trying to impress others, wondering whether we’re good enough, or trying too hard to say the right thing.

Melody Beattie