I am in love with the Ocean, lifting her thousands of white hats in the chop of the storm, or lying smooth and blue, the loveliest bed in the world.
In the personal life, there is always grief more than enough, a heart-load for each of us on the dusty road.
I suppose there is a reason for this, so I will be patient, acquiescent.
But I will live nowhere except here, by Ocean, trusting equally in all the blast and welcome of her sorrowless, salt self.
Mary Oliver, Red Bird
Our lives are not just on the surface; their greater part is concealed from casual observation. If we would like our obscure fears come into the open and dissolve, the conscious mind must be somewhat still, not everlastingly occupied; then, as the fears come to the surface, they must be observed without let or hindrance, for any form of condemnation or justification only strengthens fear. To be free from all fear, we must be awake to its darkening influence,a and only constant watchfulness can reveal its many causes.
Krishnamurti, Education and the Significance of Life
We often find ourselves blown by this wind or that, unsettled, subject to varying emotions. Inside ourselves we are restless, uncertain, or can feel entangled. This experience is nothing unusual, but rather is at the heart of the human condition. In most moments, even after periods when things go well, there is an underlying hum of disquiet, of shifting ground. Some writers call this ongoing feeling “groundlessness”, others “loneliness”. Our first thought is to consider this as negative and it often leads us to feel disturbed. In today’s culture, the idea that one is unsettled or not completely happy is often considered a sign of failure. It does not harmonize with the media insistence on happy people or the myth of easily established social relationships. So we can react to this inner sense by doing more, seeking to improve ourselves, or by keeping ourselves busy and distracting ourself or by looking to a relationship to take the feeling away. However, at the heart of mindfulness practice is the understanding that life is always shifting and changing, that this change is unpredictable, that we always have some inner sense of incompleteness and that this is ok. It does not mean that there is something wrong with us or our life. It can be a liberation to use this as our starting point. Life has a changing and unsatisfactory character. It is hard to establish a consistent oneness of mind and heart that remains stable in such a way that there is never any disappointment. Accepting this truth opens the way to wisdom.
And this is the simple truth – that to live is to feel oneself lost.
He who accepts it has already begun to find himself to be on firm ground.
José Ortega y Gasset, Spanish Philosopher, Who Rules the World.
I often suggest that my students ask themselves the simple question: Do I know how to live? Do I know how to eat? How much to sleep? How to take care of my body? How to relate to other people?….Life is the real teacher and the curriculum is all set up. The question is: Are there any students?
Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath
And so we are, daily, becoming more enslaved to and more compulsive in our use of mobile phones and the Internet. For many of us it is now existentially impossible to take off a day, let alone several weeks, and be on a genuine holiday. Rather, the pressure is on us to constantly check for texts, e-mails, phone messages and the like. The expectation from our families, friends, and colleagues is precisely that we are checking these regularly. The sin du jour is to be, at any time, unavailable, unreachable or non-communicative.
Ron Rolheiser
What I most want
is to spring out of this personality,
then to sit apart from that leaping.
I’ve lived too long where I can be reached
Rumi
