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
Often we don’t know
Tag: Life
…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
No Matter what
If you remember nothing else, always remember this one great secret: we don’t have to feel any particular way. We don’t have to have special experiences, nor do we have to be any particular way. With whatever arises, whether it’s pleasing or not, try to remember that all we can do is experience and work with whatever our life is right now. No matter what life is and no matter how we feel about it, all that matters in practice is whether we can honestly acknowledge what is going on, and then stay present with the physical experience of that moment.
Ezra Bayda, Zen Heart
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
More conscious choices
As said before, the period of the pandemic can become a moment of reflection, where we come to know who we are and what we are our most important values. The challenge is, can we mindfully commit to living the rest of our lives from this place of truth?
Society … was regarded (by the Desert Fathers) as the shipwreck from which each single individual man had to swim for his life … These were men who believed that to let oneself drift along, passively accepting the tenets and values of what they knew as society, was purely and simply a disaster.
Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart
Whatever side of the balance
It’s human to have expectations, but clinging to them causes suffering.
If we can loosen our grip on expectations and settle down on whichever side of the balance we fall at this moment, we find unshakable peace of mind, and a truly stable life unfolds. [Meditation] is ceasing to be a person always gauging gain and loss and evaluating life according to such calculations.
Kosho Uchiyama Roshi, Zen Teaching of homeless Kodo
Mindfulbalance 