Tag: Meditation

Sunday Quote: The key to a relaxed mind

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buttercup-field

Anyone who understands impermanence

ceases to be contentious.

The Dhammapada

The bridge

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Breath is the bridge that connects life to consciousness, the bridge that unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again

Thich Nhat Hanh

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Step by step

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You do not need to know precisely what is happening,

or exactly where it is all going.

What you need, is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment,

and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.

Thomas Merton

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A simple three part practice

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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 that moment, a way of saying, “This is my experience right now, and it’s okay.”

Then,  go into the next moment without any agenda

Pema Chodron, Living Beautifully

Moving beyond concepts

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We must not portray you in king’s robes,
you drifting mist that brought forth the morning.

Once again from the old paintboxes
we take the same gold for scepter and crown
that has disguised you through the ages.

Piously we produce our images of you
till they stand around you like a thousand walls.
And when our hearts would simply open,
our fervent hands hide you.

Rilke, Book of Hours, I 4

A way to freedom

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The attempt to look at your attitude — what you are feeling and thinking and the frame that holds it –

and then your attitude to your attitude,

is one of the routes to freedom

John Tarrant, In the Wild Places