Silence is God’s first language;
Everything else is a poor translation.
In order to hear that language, we must learn to be still.
Thomas Keating, Cistercian Monk and writer on Centering Prayer
Tag: Meditation
Trusting the deeper wisdom
Whatever form of meditation you practice, it is in essence simply a method for detaching yourself from thinking (which tends to reinforce the egoic process) long enough for you to begin to trust this other, deeper intelligence moving inside you. It provides you with another way to think: from “beyond the mind” — which, incidentally, is what the word metanoia, usually translated as “repentance,” actually means.
Cynthia Bourgeault, Mystical Hope
Fully here, now
It is not easy to be fully in the moment, every moment. What we notice is that we have a host of thoughts, ideas, expectations, preconceptions, hopes and fears working as a filter between us and the moment – or the person – that stands before us. The ability to be right-here-now is what we practice each day; the capacity to choose between the world in our heads or the real world before us. It is true that we rarely see the world, or another person, as they actually are, but we see them as we are in that moment. So in order to be right here with whatever is going on we need, in one sense, to empty ourselves, to create space. The best way to do that is to pause and focus your attention before beginning something, such as a new task, or a meeting, or indeed, a conversation. Take a few conscious breaths today before you begin something, to allow a gap to open and the mind to relax enough in order to have the space to welcome.
If my eye is to receive an image, it must be free from all other images; for if it already has so much as one, it cannot see another, nor can the ear hear a sound if it be occupied with one already. Any power of receiving must first be empty before it can receive anything.
John Tauler, 14th Century German mystic and preacher.
Being true to what is real
There is only one life you can call your own and a thousand others you can call by any name you want.
Hold to the truth you make
every day with your own body,
don’t turn your face away.
Hold to your own truth
at the center of the image
you were born with.
By the lake in the wood in the shadows
you can whisper that truth
to the quiet reflection
you see in the water.
Whatever you hear from the water, remember,
it wants to carry
the sound of its truth on your lips.
Remember, in this place
no one can hear you
and out of the silence you can make a promise
it will kill you to break,
that way you’ll find
what is real and what is not.
David Whyte, All the true Vows
Life is complex
I used to think that paired opposites were a given, that love was the opposite of hate, right the opposite of wrong. But now I think we sometimes buy into these concepts because it is so much easier to embrace absolutes than to suffer reality. I don’t think anything is the opposite of love. Reality is unforgivingly complex.
Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some instructions on Writing and Life
A simple truth to remember today
The quality of our experience,
Moment by moment,
Will determine the quality of our lives
Matthieu Ricard
