The question of meaning in life is, as the Buddha thought, not edifying.
One must immerse oneself into the river of life and let the question drift away.
Irvin Yalom, The Gift of Therapy
Dropping the question
Tag: Joy
Inside and all around
The Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. What we need is already here, inside or all around us
If your spiritual guides say to you,
‘Look, the divine Realm is
in the sky’……. well then the birds
will get there ahead of you.
If they say, ‘It is in the sea’….. then the fish will precede you.
No, divine Reality exists inside and all around you.
When you come to know your true Self, you will be fully known —
realizing at last that you are a child of the Living One.
If, however, you never come to know
who you truly are,
you are a poverty-stricken being,
and it is your ‘self’ which will be impoverished.
The Gospel of Thomas, c 120 AD.
Be patient
A way of working with difficult moments, difficult emotions and with these difficult times:
When you’re like a keg of dynamite just about to go off, patience means just slowing down at that point – just pausing- instead of immediately acting on your usual, habitual response. You refrain from acting, you stop talking to yourself, and then you connect with the soft spot. But at the same time you are completely and totally honest with yourself about what you are feeling. You’re not suppressing anything; patience has nothing to do with suppression. In fact, it has everything to do with a gentle, honest relationship with yourself. That frustration, that uneasiness and vulnerability is nothing solid. And yet it is painful to experience. Just wait and be patient with your anguish and with the discomfort of it. This means relaxing with that restless energy – knowing it’s the only way to find peace for ourselves.
Pema Chodron, Practicing Peace in Times of War
Sunday Quote: Drained
Limp along until your legs are spent, and you fall flat and your energy is drained.
Then the grace of the Divine will lift you.
Rumi
Everyday miracles
It is incredible that humans manage to forget the miracle of being here. Rilke said, ‘Being here is so much,’ and it is uncanny how social reality can deaden and numb us so that the mystical wonder of our lives goes totally unnoticed. We are here. We are wildly and dangerously free.
John O’Donohue
Everything is the way
If you view everything as practice,
your suffering will disappear.
Shido Bunan, 1603-1676, Japanese Zen master
