He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe,
is as good as dead;
his eyes are closed.
Albert Einstein
photo at Kippure, Co Wicklow by joe king
Tag: Life
Living in the present moment, not our fears
Another way, which is our practice here, is slowly to open ourselves to the wonder of what life is, by meticulous attention to the anatomy of the present moment. Slowly, slowly, we become more sophisticated and knowledgeable…in this approach everything in our life becomes grist for the mill… as this anatomy becomes clear, freedom increases.
Charlotte Joko Beck
Becoming silent
As my prayer become more attentive and inward
I had less and less to say.
I finally became completely silent.
I started to listen
– which is even further removed from speaking.
I first thought that praying entailed speaking.
I then learnt that praying is hearing,
not merely being silent.
This is how it is.
To pray does not mean to listen to oneself speaking,
Prayer involves becoming silent,
And being silent,
And waiting until God is heard.
Søren Kierkegaard, 1813 – 1855, Danish Philosopher
photo miguel virkkunen calvalho
How to look at things today
Keep your eyes fresh and open and joyful.
And move with sure steps, yet flexibly
through the fields of world so richly endowed
Goethe
photo saadbintariq
What distracts us
In a consumer society there are inevitably two kinds of slaves:
the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy.
Ivan Illich, Tools for Conviviality
photo Karin Beate Nøsterud/norden.org
Love does that
All day long the little donkey labours, sometimes
with heavy loads on her back and sometimes just with worries
about the things that bother only donkeys.
And worries, as we know, can be more exhausting
than physical labour.
Once in a while a kind monk comes
to her stable and brings a pear, but more
than that,
he looks into the donkey’s eyes and touches her ears
and for a few seconds the donkey is free
and even seems to laugh,
because love does that.
Love frees.
Meister Eckhart
photo dave whalley
