Contentment is the crown of the spiritual life.
It’s not about having what you want but wanting what you have.
Ajahn Amaro, from a 2015 talk
Sunday Quote: being content
Tag: Mindfulness
Doing Nothing
We humans have lost the wisdom of genuinely resting and relaxing. We worry too much. We don’t allow our bodies to heal, and we don’t allow our minds and hearts to heal. […] The practice of doing nothing is very important. It is the foundation. If you cannot stop, you cannot be.
Thich Nhat Hanh, How to Relax
Unbecoming
We take ourselves so seriously- our opinions, our achievements, our failures -as if they were monumental, eternal things. But really, they’re just fleeting conditions, like bubbles in a glass of soda. Pop! And they’re gone.
The ego wants to be somebody special, to be remembered, to leave a mark. But the Dhamma isn’t about becoming – it’s about unbecoming. It’s about letting go of the illusion that you’re this grand, separate self. When you see through that, life becomes playful.
The Buddha’s enlightenment wasn’t some solemn, pompous event. It was the ultimate release – from all the heaviness of self. So why cling to your burdens? Why not lighten up?”
Ajahn Sumedho, The Sound of Silence
Trust the process
The way to do is to be.
“Wu wei” means doing by not overdoing. It’s the wisdom of the gardener who nurtures growth without yanking on the plants. It’s the skill of the carpenter who follows the grain instead of forcing the wood. It’s the patience of the cook who lets the soup simmer, knowing interference will only spoil the broth.
In our lives, wu wei is the art of trusting the process – not laziness, but the hardest work of all: getting yourself out of the way
Ursula K. Le Guin, Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching – A Book About the Way and the Power of the Way
Uncertainty, beauty and sadness
The bluebells in Emo woods are just beginning to wilt. A brief week of beauty shortly to be gone for this year. The Japanese have a word for this bittersweet awareness of the impermanence of beauty and life – 物の哀れ mono no aware – often observed when the cheery blossoms bloom and evoke both joy and melancholy, reminding us of life’s transience. Every encounter is unique and will never happen again.
If we were never to fade away like the dews of Adashino,
never to vanish like the smoke over Toribeyama,
but lingered on forever in this world,
how things would lose their power to move us!
The most precious thing in life is its uncertainty.
Yoshida Kenkō, 1283–1350, Japanese author and Buddhist monk, Essays in Idleness
Sunday Quote: release
True freedom is not about controlling the world around you; it’s about releasing your reactions to it.
When you stop fighting this moment, you realize it was never your enemy.
Michael Singer, Living Untethered
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