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
Lived many lives
Tag: Joy
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
Sunday Quote: Resilience
So few grains of happiness
measured against all the dark
and still the scales balance.
The world asks of us
only the strength we have and we give it.
Then it asks more, and we give it.
Jane Hirshfield, The Weighing
