Tag: Mindfulness

Where to look

Karl Duffy2 Comments

File:Ordinary-seamen-swabbing-deck.JPG

A similar thought to that seen in the last two posts, but this time from the Western tradition, showing a corresponding understanding of the need to stay in the present moment and not in some thought about how an ideal life or an ideal day should be.

You seek perfection, but it lies in everything that happens to you.

Setbacks, actions and impulses  are the mysteries under which God reveals himself to you.

He will never show himself in the shape of that exalted image to which you are attracted to.

Jean Pierre de Caussade, 1675 – 1751, a French jesuit,  whose ideas Alan Watts compared to ones found in Zen Buddhism.

Serenity

Karl Duffy5 Comments

IMG_2566

A long weekend here in Ireland,  so a chance to refresh and nourish ourselves, taking a step back to notice compulsive running, outside and inside our minds.  Meditation practice is more about settling back into something that is already present,  rather than a need to “achieve” a goal, even a “good” or “calm” goal. Often this desire to achieve is based on a perfect image of ourselves and just fuels an underlying feeling that we are lacking in a fundamental way, needing to be supported and held up.

Empty your mind of all thoughts. Let your heart be at peace.
Watch the turmoil of beings,  but contemplate their return.

Each separate being in the universe returns to the common source.
Returning to the source is serenity.

Lao Tzu

with thanks to dear friend Patrick for the picture from his mountain walks in France

Sunday Quote: Nowhere to go, nothing to say

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mellerey

Beyond words,

in the silencing of thought,

we are already there

Alan Watts

photo monastery walk, mount mellerey October 11

Waiting

Karl Duffy3 Comments

File:Chihuahua waiting in vehicle IMG 0541.JPG

Life is not somewhere waiting for you, it is happening in you. It is not in the future as a goal to be arrived at, it is here now, this very moment — in your breathing, circulating in your blood, beating in your heart – whatsoever you are is your life, and if you start seeking meaning somewhere else, you will miss it. Man has done that for centuries

Osho

photo Billy Hathorn

Staying open

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File:Shy Chital Stags.jpg

For things to reveal themselves to us,

we need to be ready to abandon our views about them

Thich Nhat Hanh

 photo sumeet moghe

Not break but bend

Karl Duffy2 Comments

File:Windswept tree in Clare.jpg

Some thoughts  from St Francis de Sales, who lived in the beautiful French town  of Annecy, on  the soft approach we should take toward challenges and towards ourselves:

When you encounter difficulties and contradictions,

do not try to break them,

but bend them with gentleness and time

St Francis de Sales

photo of tree in County Clare by Maureen