Tag: Joy

Just enjoy

Karl Duffy5 Comments

When a ray of sunshine comes, open out, absorb it to the depths of your being. Never think that an hour earlier you were cold and that an hour later you will be cold again. Just enjoy. Latch on to the passing minute. Shut off the workings of memory and hope… Take away from suffering its double drumbeat of resonance, memory and fear. Suffering may persist, but already it is relieved by half. Throw yourself into each moment as if it were the only one that really existed.

Jacques Lusseyran, 1924–1971, And there was Light.

Lusseyran became blind after a childhood accident, worked with the Resistance in World War Two and survived the Concentration Camp at Buchenwald.

Thanks to Maura Parolini for the quote suggestion. It is taken from the beautiful site The Marginalian

Sunday Quote: Indifferent

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Learn to be indifferent to what makes no difference

Marcus Aurelius

Dying slowly

Karl Duffy3 Comments

You start dying slowly
if you do not travel,
if you do not read,
if you do not listen to the sounds of life,
if you do not appreciate yourself.

You start dying slowly
If you become a slave of your habits,
Walking everyday on the same paths…
If you do not change your routine,
If you do not wear different colours
Or you do not speak to those you don’t know.

You start dying slowly
If you do not change your life when you are not satisfied with your job, or with your love,
If you do not risk what is safe for the uncertain,
If you do not go after a dream,
If you do not allow yourself,
At least once in your lifetime,
To run away from sensible advice.

Pablo Neruda, You Start Dying Slowly 

Sunday Quote: Like children

Karl Duffy1 Comment

May what I do flow from me like a river,
no forcing and no holding back,
the way it is with children.

Rainer Maria Rilke, I believe in all that has never yet been spoken

Green tea and a scone

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If you have traveled on the spiritual path even a little way, you have probably come across some version of “love what is” — a reminder that you should accept your experience as it is.

However, this teaching easily becomes another injunction. The conditioned mind cannot accept unconditionally. It always has an agenda, even if it is well hidden. It secretly bargains and sends the message, “I will accept you [sotto voce] if you change or leave.” This approach is akin to welcoming guests at your front door while secretly hoping they will exit out the back — the sooner, the better! Guests —our unwanted thoughts, feelings, and sensations — will certainly feel this conditional invitation, even if it is unspoken. As a result, they will be much less willing to enter, relax, and reveal themselves. The result? What we resist, persists.

So when your new arrivals show up at your door, put away your timer and share some aromatic green tea and a raspberry scone with them. Settle in and let them tell their stories and share their feelings. They just want to be heard and understood. Once they feel genuinely received, they will be open to a new perspective.

John Prendergast, Guided Meditation: Accepting Your Experience Just As It Is on the Sounds True blog

To see with the heart

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An eye is meant to see things.
The soul is here for its own joy.

A head has one use: To love a genuine love.
Mysteries are not to be solved: The eye goes blind
when it only wants to see why.

A lover is always accused of something.
But when they find their love, whatever was lost
in the looking comes back completely changed.

Rumi, Night and Sleep