Tag: Mindfulness

Midsummer

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There lives the dearest freshness deep down things.

Gerard Manley Hopkins, God’s Grandeur

This morning the Summer Solstice occurred at 04:31 in Ireland, beginning the northern hemisphere’s longest day. Different cultures knew the significance of this date and marked it by bonfires – as I will this evening – to recognize the ongoing gift of each day of light and to celebrate the energy of life.

These rituals remind us that we are at a midpoint in the year, which hints at every midpoint in our lives, every letting go and starting over.  Life passes and we discover again its “dearest freshness”. We relax into its mystery, without looking for answers, without clinging to security.

Each morning we awaken to the light and the invitation to a new day in the world of time; each night we surrender to the dark to be taken to play in the world of dreams where time is no more. At birth we were awakened and emerged to become visible in the world. At death we will surrender again to the dark to become invisible.

Awakening and surrender: they  frame each day and each life; between them the journey where anything can happen, the beauty and the frailty.

John O’Donohue.

Sunday quote: Be happy

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The present moment is filled with joy and happiness.

If you are attentive,  you will see it

Thich Nhat Hahn

Fresh

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Now it is raining, but we don’t know what will happen in the next moment. By the time we go out, it may be a beautiful day or a stormy day. Since we don’t know, let’s appreciate the sound of the rain now

Shunryu Sukuki, Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind: Informal talks on Zen Meditation and Practice.

I love this bit of wisdom from Shunryu Suzuki. It comes back to me often when I hear the rain (or find myself in or anticipating a storm of whatever kind). Suzuki is better known for another saying ……”In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities”…They both point to the same place – our capacity to come fresh to the moment and to not make a buffer between ourselves and the world.

Bonnie Myotai Treace, in the nice introductory book, Wake Up: How to Practice Zen Buddhism

Part of the world’s peace

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Recently I’ve been pondering a process I call “bewilderment”—or, as I like to pronounce it, be-wilder-ment. I figure if we all become a little wilder, a little more present, a little more connected to whatever it is that makes dogs so damn happy, we’ll feel better and do better things. The first step in the bewilderment process is simple: CALM DOWN.

The whole world functions this way: Real threats do exist, but when we approach life with fear, we see threats in everything, including unconditional love. We puff up in self-defense, which others perceive as aggression. We use violent, extreme words and actions when peaceful attentiveness would work far better.

If you’d like to be-wilder yourself, try this: Whenever you notice that the monologue in your head is fear-based (worrying about the future, belittling yourself, fussing over what others may think) stop, breathe deeply, and switch to a silent loving-kindness meditation, repeating phrases like: “May I be happy. May I be calm. May I feel safe and protected.”

It sounds so simple, because it is. Wild things don’t make speeches, they just notice what’s really in front of them. What’s in front of us is a world where far more goes right than wrong. Make your mind part of the world’s peace, instead of its fear, and I promise, life will get better and better.

Martha Beck, Make your Mind part of the Peace,

Join the dance

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The only way to make sense out of change

is to plunge into it,

move with it,

and join the dance.

Alan Watts

Natural unfolding

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We think we’re supposed to figure out how life should be, and then make it that way. Only someone who looks deeper, and questions why we need the events of life to be in a particular way, will question this assumption. How did we come up with the notion that life is not okay just the way it is, or that it won’t be okay the way it will be? Who said that the way it naturally unfolds is not all right?

The answer is, fear says so. The part of you inside that is not okay with itself can’t face the natural unfolding of life because it’s not under your control. We define the entire scope of our outer experience based on our inner problems.

Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul