Touch

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Being aware of subtle emotional qualities you may be embodying at various times of the day. Pay particular attention to your hands.  See if you don’t become more mindful by becoming more “bodyful.” Everything from opening a door to making love involves touch. It is possible to open a door so mindlessly that your hand doesn’t know what your body is doing and you hit yourself in the head with it. Imagine the challenge of touching another person without automaticity, with no gaining idea, just presence and caring.

Jon Kabat Zinn, Wherever you go, There you are

photo agustin ruiz

Security from letting go of it

Falling

The bad news is: you are falling through the air,

nothing to hang on to, no parachute.

The good news is: there’s no ground

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Birds make great sky-circles of their freedom.
How do they learn it?

They fall, and falling, they’re given wings.

Rumi

 

Developing a refuge

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As I age I am grateful to find that a silence has begun to gather in me,

coexisting with my tempers and my fears,

unchanged by my joys or my pain. 

Rachel Naomi Remen

photo of monastery garden Bolton Abbey Kildare

Getting closer to real meaning

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May my silences become more accurate

Theodore Roethke, American poet, 1908 – 1963, Words for Young Writers 

photo richard outram

Gatekeepers

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The words of the tongue should have three gatekeepers:

Is it true?

Is it kind?

Is it necessary?”

 Sufi Proverb

Not knowing but loving

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The lesson of spiritual life is not about gaining knowledge,

but about how we love.

Are we able to love what is given to us,

love in the midst of all things,

love ourselves and others?

Jack Kornfield, After the Ecstasy, the Laundry