Nobody sees a flower really: it is so small
We haven’t time, and to see takes time
Georgia O’Keefe, American painter
photo abertran
Tag: Meditation
An inner work
We are more interested in making others believe we are happy
than in trying to be happy ourselves.
de La Rochefoucauld,
Learning
Suffering is our best teacher because it hangs onto us and keeps us in its grip until we have learned that particular lesson. Only then does suffering let go. If we haven’t learned our lesson, we can be quite sure that the same lesson is going to come again, because life is nothing but an adult education class. If we don’t pass in any of the subjects, we just have to sit the examination again. Whatever lesson we have missed, we will get it again. That is why we find ourselves reacting to similar situations in similar ways many times.
Ayya Khema, Being Nothing, Going Nowhere
photo nigel callaghan
Not everything is grasped by thinking
After learning from Dogen and the Japanese Zen tradition yesterday, today we can learn from Bodhidharma, (6th Century), the larger-than-life transmitter of Chan Buddhism to China, who similarly reminds us that direct knowing is often richer than understanding reality just by thinking.
If you use your (thinking) mind to study reality,
You won’t understand either your mind or reality.
If you study reality without using your mind
You’ll understand both.
photo oxfordian kissuth
A calm mind
In the heart of the night,
The moonlight framing
A small boat drifting,
Tossed not by the waves
Nor swayed by the breeze.
Dogen, 1247, one of the verses he prepared for the Shogun in Kamakura
photo jeff chenqinyi
A kind practice
First, come into the present. Flash on what’s happening with you right now. Be fully aware of your body, its energetic quality. Be aware of your thoughts and emotions.
Next, feel your heart, literally placing your hand on your chest if you find that helpful. This is a way of accepting yourself just as you are in this moment, a way of saying “This is my experience right now, and it’s ok”
Then go into the next moment without any agenda.
Pema Chodron, Living Beautifully
photo elvert barnes
