Seven offerings that cost nothing . . .
A compassionate eye, a smiling face, loving words, a warm heart, physical service, a seat, and lodging.
The Buddha
Costs nothing today
Tag: Mindfulness
It doesn’t matter
If we don’t pay attention to every little this, we miss the whole thing. And the contents of this can be anything. This can be straightening our sitting mats, chopping an onion, talking to one we don’t want to talk to. It doesn’t matter what the contents of the moment are; each moment is absolute. That’s all there is, and all there ever will be. If we could totally pay attention, we would never be upset. If we’re upset, it’s axiomatic that we’re not paying attention. If we fill our days and we miss not just one moment, but one moment after another, we’re in trouble.
Charlotte Joko Beck
Sunday Quote: real progress
What progress, you ask, have I made?
I have begun to be a friend to myself.
Hecato of Rhodes, c. 100 BC, Stoic philosopher, quoted in Seneca, Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium VI
The end of negative patterns
One of our frequent chants includes this phrase: May this holy life lead us to the end of this whole mass of suffering.
Essentially, we’re looking at a way of life, of living. It’s not a particular detail but the whole thing. Of course, we can have special sessions, retreats or occasions within that, but they’re all part of the bigger picture. The big picture is one of purifying kamma, and ending kamma. This means that through our actions and intentions, we purify from delusion, hatred, greed, fear, jealously, mistrust, avarice, ambitions, the whole lot of obsessiveness. It is through this that the mind can be level, open, and realize. Realization can occur; deathlessness. The beauty of this is the very web of training – the forms and instructions we use in order to open and let go – cover our entire way of living.
Ajahn Sucitto
Be patient
Sometimes things work out when you do not force them, but rather let your inner wisdom make itself clear through a period of quiet or rest.
If any one cannot grasp this matter,
let them be idle
and the matter will grasp them.
Henry Suso, German Dominican friar, 1295- 1366, The Exemplar
Tensions are part of life
We could say that New Age people in general are addicted to harmony.
The alchemical woodcut says that a child will not become an adult until it breaks the addiction to harmony, chooses the one precious thing, and enters into a joyful participation in the tensions of the world.
Robert Bly, Iron John
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