Tag: Life

Realizing what is happening

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Above the mountains
the geese turn into the light again

painting their black silhouettes
on an open sky.

Sometimes everything
has to be
enscribed across the heavens

so you can find
the one line
already written inside you.

Sometimes it takes
a great sky to find that

first, bright and indescribable
wedge of freedom
in your own heart.

Sometimes with
the bones of the black
sticks left when the fire
has gone out

someone has written
something new in the ashes
of your life.

You are not leaving
you are arriving.

David Whyte, The House of Belonging

A natural lightness of heart

Karl Duffy1 Comment

Meditation comes alive through a growing capacity to release our habitual entanglement in the stories and plans, conflicts and worries that make up the small sense of self, and to rest in awareness. In meditation we do this simply by acknowledging the moment-to-moment changing conditions—the pleasure and pain, the praise and blame, the litany of ideas and expectations that arise. Without identifying with them, we can rest in the awareness itself, beyond conditions, and experience what my teacher Ajahn Chah called jai pongsai, our natural lightness of heart.

Jack Kornfield, A Mind like Sky: Wise Attention, Open Awareness

 

In meditation as in life

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So much of what is involved in meditation instruction is a matter of finding ways to keep it simple. Everyone knows how to breathe: anyone can feel the breath as it fills the chest and moves it in and out of the nose. It’s like climbing stairs. We all know how to take that first step; what is not so easy is taking one step after another after another, especially since in our practice the staircase is never-ending and we can’t be sure where it leads. Yet at each step, all we have to do is take the next step, the next breath.

Barry Magid, Ending the pursuit of Happiness

Joy is linked to holding things lightly

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Joy only comes after the self-surrender and sacrifice. I think as a culture, we are afraid of sacrifice. We feel that we must own and accumulate things in order to be complete, and not just material objects but people and relationships as well. It is hard for us to understand that letting go is not a loss, not a  bereavement. Of course, when we lose something that is beautiful or dear to us, there is a shadow that crosses the heart. But we enlighten that shadow with the understanding that the feeling of loss is just the result of assuming that we owned anything in the first place.

Ajahn Amaro

Sunday Quote: Solvitur ambulando*

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I learn by going where I have to go.

Theodore Roethke

 

* It is solved as we walk along: Diogenes

How some of the world’s biggest companies are embracing mindfulness

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The Financial Times is probably not the first paper that comes to mind if you were considering reading  about mindfulness. However, recently they ran a very good report on how meditation and mindfulness are  part of a huge change in some parts of corporate culture. Some of it is in response to the challenging economic climate we work in, as 25% of all large U.S. companies have launched stress reduction initiatives in recent years. However, some is due to a change in understanding, a recognition of the health needs of employees, and a belief that inner and outer life has to be balanced in a happy and productive employee.  What is encouraging is seeing how some companies are structuring this holistic balance into their environments. For example, General Mills, the company behind Cheerios cereal and Häagen-Dazs ice cream, have a meditation room in every building in their Campus, where employees can drop in to recharge batteries, renew focus or simply take a break from meetings or conference calls. A lot of the U.S and world’s leading companies are involved in this new dialogue, such as Google. Twitter, LinkedIn and Target, and the article goes on to show that, besides health benefits, it also seems to have an impact on cost savings, productivity and leadership quality.

It’s about training our minds to be more focused, to see with clarity, to have spaciousness for creativity and to feel connected, says Janice Marturano, General Mills’ deputy general counsel, who founded the programme there. That compassion to ourselves, to everyone around us – our colleagues, customers – that’s what the training of mindfulness is really about.

There is a lot of interesting stuff in this article and the whole of it is worth a read. You can check it out here:

The mind business – FT.com (3)