A vale of soul-making

Our path will always be strewn with broken branches and stones, yet even the obstacles in our path are part of the path. They make it real. We are not angels and the hard edges of the physical world offer a resistance that, if they do not break us first, can temper the soul and open it to another world, which is nowhere if not here .

This life is a “vale of Soul-making” Keats says. When we see it that way, being lost is not only part of the journey; it is the royal way of becoming real, meaning that our outer knowing can be an accurate reflection of our inner knowing.

Roger Housden, Ten poems for Difficult Times

Every moment

Treat every moment as your last.

It is not preparation for something else.

Shunryu Suzuki roshi, 1904 – 1971

Sunday Quote: Change

Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower,

We will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind

In the primal sympathy which, having been, must ever be.

William Wordsworth, Splendour in the Grass

The nature of things

All Saints Day. We sometimes think that saints and bodhisattvas have the ability to float above everything.

Life does continually go up and down. People and situations are unpredictable and so is everything else.

Everybody knows the pain of getting what we don’t want: saints, sinners, winners, losers. I feel gratitude that someone saw the truth and pointed out that we don’t suffer this kind of pain because of our personal inability to get things right.

Pema Chodron

A clean bright heart

Phenomenon are preceded by the heart, ruled by the heart, made of the heart.

If you speak or act with a calm, bright heart, then happiness follows you, like a shadow that never leaves

Dhammapada Twin Verses, 2

At peace

Peace can only exist in the present moment. It is ridiculous to say “Wait until I finish this, then I’ll be free to live in peace”. What is “this”? A diploma, a job, a house, the payment of debt? If you think that way peace will never come. There is always another “this” that will follow the present one. If you are not living in peace at this moment, you’ll never be able to. If you truly want to be at peace, you must be at peace right now. Otherwise there is only hope for peace “some day.” 

Thich Nhat Hahn, The Sun my Heart