Way back in the ’80s, my guru asked me, “What is stress?” He had never heard of stress because he came from the Himalayas. I told him stress is the perception of threat: physical, emotional and psychological. After a while, he said, “You mean resistance to existence.” And he said, “If you don’t resist existence, you will have flow.” That’s the best advice.
Deepak Chopra in Wall Street Journal, November 2024, Deepak Chopra Doesn’t Believe You’re Too Busy to Meditate
There is a hard truth to be told:
before Spring becomes beautiful
it is plug ugly, nothing but mud and muck…
But in that muddy mess,
the conditions for rebirth are being created
Parker Palmer
We have to cultivate contentment with what we have.
We really don’t need much. When you know this, the mind settles down.
Cultivate generosity. Delight in giving.
Learn to live lightly.
In this way, we can begin to transform what is negative into what is positive. This is how we start to grow up.
Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, No Excuses
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day
Estragon: He could dance first and think afterwards….
Vladimir: Would that be possible?
Pozzo: By all means…. It’s the natural order.
Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot
O God, early in the morning I cry to you.
Help me to pray and gather my thoughts to you. I cannot do it alone.
In me it is dark, but with you there is light.
I am lonely, but you do not desert me.
My courage fails me, but with you there is help.
I am restless, but with you there is peace.
In me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience.
I do not understand your ways, but you know the way for me.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Lutheran pastor imprisoned and executed by Nazis.
What is important is to keep our mind high in the world of true understanding and returning to the world of our daily experience to seek therein the truth of beauty.
No matter what we may be doing at a given moment, we must not forget that it has a bearing upon our everlasting self, which is poetry.
Matsuo Bashō, 1644 – 1694
Mindfulbalance 