One of the symptoms of approaching nervous breakdown
is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.
Bertrand Russell, British Philosopher.
Tag: Life
Ending confusion: How to find the meaning in life
Separated by centuries and traditions, but the same message:
The meaning of life is to see
Hui Neng ( Chinese Zen monk, 7th century).
The whole of life lies in the verb “seeing”
Teilhard de Chardin, (Jesuit priest, 20th Century).
Devotion proceeds through various stages of unmasking until we reach the point of seeing the world directly and simply without imposing our fabrications.
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
Confusion: Seeking outside for what can only come from within
The confused heart, having lost joy within itself, seeks…..consolation outside.
The more it seeks exterior goods, the more it lacks the interior joy to which it can return
Hugh Feiss, osb
Facing our past …..
A central truth of practice is that in order to come to the present, we must go through the past. This does not mean we have to relive or analyse our childhood, but it does mean that when our attention steadies itself in the here and now, we will be met with the residue of our past conditioning. Awakening means exposing and investigating areas of this past conditioning where the sense-of-self remains identified within a pattern, thought or emotion.
Rodney Smith, Stepping out of Self Deception.
The paradox is indeed that new life is born out of the pains of the old.
Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out.
Facing our pain
Some of us have a hard time believing that we are actually able to face our own pain. We have convinced ourselves that our pain is too deep, too frightening, something to avoid at all costs. Yet if we finally allow ourselves to feel the depth of that sadness and gently let it break our hearts, we may come to feel a great freedom, a genuine sense of release and peace, because we have finally stopped running away from ourselves and from the pain that lives within us.
Wayne Muller, Legacy of the Heart
Today – notice something you never noticed before
….Go into the fields, consider
the orderliness of the world. Notice
something you have never noticed before….
A lifetime isn’t long enough for the beauty of this world
and the responsibilities of your life.
Scatter your flowers over the graves, and walk away.
Be good-natured and untidy in your exuberance.
In the glare of your mind, be modest.
And beholden to what is tactile, and thrilling.
Live with the beetle, and the wind.
Mary Oliver, The Leaf and the Cloud: A Poem
