Faith is hope in the unseen. Often we cannot see the results of the efforts we are putting in …
Even if the Hour of Resurrection comes up,
and one of you is holding a sapling in your hand….
finish planting it.
The Prophet Mohammed
Tag: Mindfulness
Mindful of just one cup of tea
Just look around you and you will see that the world never ceases to churn out more and more of the same thing, and that the result is unremitting pain and unbearable suffering. It’s no surprise, then, that the masters have pointed out, that to maintain mindfulness for as long as it takes to drink a cup of tea accumulates more merit than years of practicing generosity, discipline, and asceticism.
Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse
When thinking doesn’t help
Think of a problem that has plagued you for a long time — your weight, a loved one’s bad habits, fear of terrorism, whatever. No doubt you’ve tried valiantly to control this issue, but are your efforts working? The answer has to be no; otherwise you would have solved the problem long ago. What if your real trouble isn’t the issue you brood about so compulsively, but the brooding itself.
Martha Beck, Victory by Surrender, Creating your right life
Put all your cares into one
The person who makes all cares into one care
– the care for simply staying present –
will be cared for by that presence which is creative love
Kabir Helminski
Resting
Not an image that I had heard before, but the ideas behind it are quite useful:
The practice of “remaining like a log ” is based on refraining, not repressing. When you realize you’re thinking, just acknowledge that. Then turn your attention to your breath flowing in and out, to your body, to the immediacy of your experience. Doing this allows you to be present and alert, and thoughts have a chance to calm down.
With this practice, it can be helpful to gently breathe in and out with the restlessness of the energy. This is a major support for learning to stay present. Basic wakefulness is right here, if we can just relax. Our situation is fundamentally fluid, unbiased, and free, and we can tune into this at any time. When we practice “remaining like a log, ” we allow for this opportunity.
Pema Chodron, No Time to Lose: A Timely Guide to the Way of the Bodhisattva
Either holding on or pushing away
Building on the ideas in yesterday’s post…
The way we know things depends on the mind, nothing more.
Most of us have moments of deep contentment when we don’t feel a need to alter, express, run from, or invest some special meaning in our experience in any way. Deep contentment shows us that, at least momentarily, our habit of cherishing and protecting ourselves from what we call “other” has subsided. In moments like these we have stopped objectifying things. We can let things be. And when the mind rests at ease in this way, it accommodates everything, like space.
Elizabeth Mattis–Namgyel, The Power of an Open Question
