Without darkness nothing comes to birth,
As without light nothing flowers.
May Sarton
photo olybrius
Tag: Mindfulness
Trust in darkness
No seed ever sees the flower.
Zen saying
As I said yesterday, November marks the beginning of the “darker half” of the year in the Celtic Calendar, as the balance between light and darkness in the day continues to shift. The earth becomes colder and nature more dormant, with a different rhythm from one of growth and maturity. Parallel process can occur in our lives. For example, difficulties occur which can seem dark or unclear and without hope, or we can have parts of our lives that seem dormant. However, darkness in nature, and in our lives, does not mean that nothing is happening. Things that are now hidden or buried will eventually become seen. That what is now unconscious will become conscious in time. At times, all we can do is wait and trust.
photo by friedrich bohringer
On being fully in the moment
A thought prompted by the traditional fires lit on this important Celtic feast day of Samhain which marks the start of winter or the “darker half” of the year and which have transferred over into the celebration of Halloween.
When you do something,
you should burn yourself completely,
like a good bonfire,
leaving no trace of yourself.
Shunryu Suzuki
photo janne karaste
When we get caught up in the drama
Mindfulness helps us get better at seeing the difference between what’s happening and the stories we tell ourselves about what’s happening, stories that get in the way of direct experience. Often such stories treat a fleeting state of mind as if it were our entire and permanent self.
Sharon Salzberg
photo experience kissimmee
A concrete instruction
Not always easy to do when a piece of work or a meeting does not go to plan, but since we often cannot really evaluate something until much later, it is best to rest in the present, and not in a story about what it means, or with the passing mood which it provokes.
For us, as people wanting to live a full, unrestricted, adventurous, real kind of life, there is a concrete instruction we can follow: see what is. Acknowledge it without judging it as right or wrong. Let it go and come back to the present moment. Whatever comes up, see what it is without calling it right or wrong. Acknowledge it. See it clearly without judgment and let it go. Come back to the present moment.
Pema Chodron, The wisdom of No Escape
photo takahashi hososhima
Where to look
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.
