Each day we take a lot of things for granted…
Mountains and oceans have whole worlds, with innumerable wonderful features.
However, we should understand that it is not only our distant surroundings that are like this,
but even what is right here,
even a single drop of water.
Dogen, 1200 – 1253, Buddhist monk, founder of the Soto school of Zen.
If you have one pot
And can make your tea in it
That will do quite well.
How much he is missing
who must have a lot of things.
Sen no Rikyu, 1522 – 1591, Japanese tea master
A Bank Holiday in Ireland; wise words
But beyond self-care and the ability to (really) listen, the practice of doing nothing has something broader to offer us: an antidote to the rhetoric of growth.
In the context of health and ecology, things that grow unchecked are often considered parasitic or cancerous. Yet we inhabit a culture that privileges novelty and growth over the cyclical and the regenerative.
Jenny Odell, How to do Nothing
Like it or not,
this moment is all we really have ot work with
Jon Kabat-Zinn
At every moment, we always have a choice,
even if it feels as if we don’t.
Sometimes that choice may simply be to think a more positive thought.
Tina Turner, American singer, 1939 – May 24, 2023
Letting go is about carefully revealing assumptions, biases, and life messages (‘There’s something wrong with me, I’m unworthy’) and releasing them.
You can liken the process to a gradual descent out of the tumult and the gridlock of your personal world into the free space of the unconditioned. It’s rather like lowering oneself down a rope. You have to know how to do that. It is a matter of holding on to something you trust, even though it seems like a thin strand, then letting go a little bit and trusting the downward pull.
Ajahn Sucitto
Mindfulbalance 