Tag: Life

Who you already are

Karl Duffy1 Comment

Don’t go looking elsewhere. Let go of all those ideas about lacking something or needing to attain something

The core essence of it all [life].. is to be who you already are –  rather than get lost in who you are afraid you are,  or think you might be and want to be – in the only moment we ever get, which is just this one. That’s easy to say, but it’s a non-trivial thing to actually engage in.

Jon Kabat Zinn

Be strong then, and enter into your own body;
there you have a solid place for your feet.
Just throw away all thoughts of
imaginary things,
and stand firm in that which you are.

Kabir

Sunday Quote: What keeps us going

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

“Grace is everywhere” were the final words of the priest in Bernanos’ book Journal d’un Curé de Campagne. Some weekends we see it easily in nature. Other times in the presence of a friend:

It is light that matters,
The light of understanding.
Who has ever reached it
Who has not met the furies again and again?
Who has reached it without
Those sudden acts of grace?

May Sarton, The Angels and the Furies

Not giving up on our dreams

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We should never give up on our dreams or let them be blocked by the limitations of our own or others fears; but rather believe in that voice within and trust our capacity to achieve it.

Since the powers of nature in this dreamer, in that dreamer, and in the macrocosm of nature itself, are the same, only differently inflected,

the powers personified in a dream are those that move the world.

All the gods are within you

Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God

per Laura V, ritrovata dopo molti anni ma mai veramente andata dal cuore

A Saturday walk

Karl Duffy2 Comments

 

Do not speak to me of angels 
unless you want to lie by 
their side on the surface of emerald lake 
and live forever with your eyes open. 
My own angels take many forms. 
Today they are trees.

Etel Adnan, born Beruit 1925 Lebanese-American poet

When things are not clear, be patient

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If each day falls

inside each night,

there exists a well

where clarity is imprisoned.

We need to sit on the rim

of the well of darkness

and fish for fallen light

with patience.


Pablo Neruda

Beyond our feeble words

Karl Duffy3 Comments

Some Taoist wisdom for the journey. Real relationship with what is deepest in our hearts is something we know instinctive and survives our poor words and concepts: 

I confess that there is nothing to teach:

There is no religion, no science, no writings, which will really show your mind the Way.

Today I speak in this way, tomorrow in another,

but always the Path is beyond words and beyond mind.

Lao Tzu (attributed),  The Huahujing

 

The Buddhists say there are 149 ways to God.

I’m not looking for God, only for myself, and that is far more complicated.

Jeanette Winterson, Sexing the Cherry