Start again: A gentle way in a harsh world

File:Mount Baldy Zen Center Meditation Path.jpg

Be patient with everyone, but above all, with yourself.

I mean, do not be disheartened by your imperfections, but always rise up with fresh courage.

I am glad you make a fresh beginning daily.

There is no better means of attainment to the spiritual life than by continually beginning again…

How are we to be patient in dealing with our neighbor’s faults if we are impatient in dealing with our own.

All profitable correction comes from a calm and peaceful mind.

from the ever gentle Saint Francis de Sales,

photo LinSu Hill

Trust

File:Soft shades of autumn - geograph.org.uk - 1585929.jpg

Sometimes it is hard to see what what is really going on in our lives or where they are leading to. Underneath, something is happening. We just have to be patient for it to emerge.

If you break open the cherry tree

Where are the flowers?

But in the Springtime

see how they bloom!

Ikkyu, 1394 – 1481 Japanese Zen monk and poet

 

Doing the ordinary

File:Waiter in a restaurant, Paris 2011.jpg

Our guide for today and this week: doing the ordinary things with attention and with love.

When the mind is at peace,
the world too is at peace.
Nothing real, nothing absent.
Not holding on to reality,
not getting stuck in the void,
you are neither holy nor wise, just
an ordinary fellow who has completed his work.

Layman Pang, 740 – 808, Chinese Chan layman

photo florian plag

Sunday Quote: Fixed outcomes

File:Fall leaves in Frick Park 01.jpg

No Appointment

No Disappointment

Swami Satchidananda, Indian religious teacher, 1914 – 2002

photo Cbaile19

Saturday Rest

File:Fall in Cleveland.jpg

Here close to earth be cherished, mortal heart,
Hold your way deep as roots push rocks apart
To bring the spurt of green up from the dark.

Where music thundered let the mind be still,
Where the will triumphed let there be no will,
What light revealed, now let the dark fulfill.

Here close to earth the deeper pulse is stirred,
Here where no wings rush and no sudden bird,
But only heart-beat upon beat is heard.

Here let the fiery burden be all spilled,
The passionate voice at last be calmed and stilled
And the long yearning of the blood fulfilled.

Now voyager, come home, come home to rest,
Here on the long-lost country of earth’s breast
Lay down the fiery vision, and be blest, be blest.

extract May Sarton, Now Voyager

photo Yu-hong Wen

Without regret

File:Frangula-alnus-autumn-leaf.JPG

When I rise up
let me rise up joyful
like a bird

When I fall
let me fall without regret
like a leaf.

Wendell Berry, Prayers and Sayings of the Mad Farmer

photo sten