Tag: Life

Be firm like a rock

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Green cliffs in Ireland.jpg

This prayer is attributed to Saint Patrick, when he was in danger of being ambushed by the High King,  Lóegaire mac Neill.  To defend himself he takes in the energies associated with different elements of the natural world. The early Celtic Christians developed their inner life through paying attention  rather than seeking direct visions. They cultivated this skill, rooted in the body, tuning into the 5 senses, or as they said, learning to play  ‘the 5 stringed Harp’.

I bind onto myself today through the power of heaven!

The Light of the Sun
Brilliance of moon
Splendour of fire
Speed of lightning
Swiftness of the wind
Depth of sea
Stability of earth
Firmness of rock.

St Patrick’s Shield, 8th Century

How can you help but grow wise with such teachings as these –

the untrimmable light of the world, the oceans shine

the prayers that are made

out of grass

Mary Oliver, Why I Wake Early

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

Go through your vulnerability

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Second Doorway.JPG

The only choice we have as we mature is how we inhabit our vulnerability, how we become larger and more courageous and more compassionate through our intimacy with disappearance, our choice is to inhabit vulnerability as generous citizens of loss, robustly and fully, or conversely, as misers and complainers, reluctant and fearful, always at the gates of existence, but never bravely and completely attempting to enter, never wanting to risk ourselves, never walking fully through the door.

David Whyte, Vulnerability

photo aditya maurya

Sunday Quote : Life is always changing

Karl Duffy12 Comments

You live,

not by securing yourself against impermanence, 

but by finding yourself as impermanence

Michael Stone, Awake in the World

Our cat Barney  who died on Tuesday, aged 19

The value of being lost

Karl Duffy1 Comment

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  A little more on wandering in a desert  or going through a barren or difficult period in our lives

Not knowing what to do is just as real and just as useful as knowing what to do.

Not knowing stops us from taking false directions. Not knowing what to do, we start to pay real attention. Just as people lost in the wilderness, on a cliff face or in a blizzard pay attention with a kind of acuity that they would not have if they thought they knew where they were. Why? Because for those who are really lost, their life depends on paying real attention. If you think you know where you are, you stop looking.

David Whyte

The danger of compulsive working

Karl Duffy2 Comments

File:PCCW Home monitor Eye2 Now TV selection panel Feb-2012 a.jpg

Western laziness ……consists of cramming our lives with compulsive activity, so there is no time at all to confront the real issues. This form of laziness lies in our failure to choose worthwhile applications for our energy. We are so addicted to looking outside ourselves that we have lost access to our inner being almost completely. We are terrified to look inward, because our culture has given us no idea of what we will find.  So we make our lives so hectic that we eliminate the slightest risk of looking into ourselves. … in a world dedicated to distraction, silence and stillness terrify us; we protect ourselves from them with noise and frantic busyness. Looking into the nature of our mind is the last thing we would dare to do.

Sogyal Rinpoche

photo: wusirichard

Sunday Quote: Making space to listen

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Bench near English Bay.jpg

Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it,

listen for what it intends to do with you

Parker Palmer

photo patrick doheny