Whatever is happening, whatever is changing, whatever is going or not going according to my plans
— I release my hold on all of it.
I leave behind who I think I am, who I want to be, what I want the world to be.
I come home to the great peace of the present moment.
Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open, How Difficult Times Can Help us Grow
photo Daniel Mayer
The practice of silence nourishes vigilance, self-knowledge, letting go, and the compassionate embrace of all whom we would otherwise be quick to condemn. Gradually we realize that whatever it is in us that sees the mind games we play, is itself free of all such mind games and is utterly silent, pure, vast, and free. When we realize that we are the awareness and not the drama unfolding in our awareness, our lives are freer, simpler, more compassionate.
Fear remains frightening but we are not afraid of fear.
Pain still hurts, but we are not hurt by pain.
from Martin Laird’s beautiful book, Into the Silent Land: The Practice of Contemplation
photo Per Ola Wiberg
We don’t know a lot. We don’t know much more than we know.
And it’s a relief to let go of our attachment to views, our attachment to opinions, especially about things we don’t know.
A new mantra began to form in my mind: “Who knows?”
This not-knowing is not a quality of bewilderment; it’s not a quality of confusion. It actually is like a breath of fresh air, an openness of mind.
Not knowing is simply holding an open mind regarding these very interesting questions to which we might not yet have answers.
Joseph Goldstein
photo Taro Taylor
I heard a man say a poem once,
he said,
‘All that lives is holy.’
John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
We have forgotten the age-old fact
that God speaks chiefly through dreams and visions
Carl Jung
The Lord has spread the delicate net of his presence across the world.
See how He gets under your skin, inside your bones.
If you can’t see Him while you’re alive,
don’t expect a special vision once you’re dead.
Lal Ded (Mother Lalla), 1320 – 1392, Kashmiri Hindu poet and mystic
