Most people want to have pure clarity,
but sweep as you will,
you cannot empty the mind.
Keizan Jokin, Zen master, 1268–1325
Tag: Mindfulness
Getting real
It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work
and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey.
Wendell Berry
photo steve f
No gap
At the moment of going there, just go there.
At the moment of coming here, just come here.
There is no gap
Dogen, Guidelines for Studying the Way
….is to receive
Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your teacher…..
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.
William Wordsworth, The Tables Turned
Sunday Quote: Our main task….
Our task is to listen to the news
that is always arriving out of silence.
Rainer Maria Rilke
photo gwen and james anderson
A part of life
Movement and change are interesting aspects of life to work with. On one level change is obvious – such as the rain last night in Ireland after a few days of lovely sun – and we frequently resist this, acting as if we expect things to always remain the same. On another level, we have an inner restlessness which is constantly moving us to want change, that things be different, “better”, a constant inner “becoming” that does not make contentment in the present moment easy. This quote deals with impermanence, but both aspects – impermanence and becoming – have to be worked with, if we are to become fully human.
Change of one sort or another is the essence of life, so there will always be the loneliness and insecurity that come with change. When we refuse to accept that loneliness and insecurity are part of life, when we refuse to accept that they are the price of change, we close the door on many possibilities for ourselves; our lives become lessened, we are less than fully human.
If we try to prevent, or ignore, the movement of life, we run the risk of falling into the inevitable depression that must accompany an impossible goal. Life evolves; change is constant. When we try to prevent the forward movement of life, we may succeed for a while but, inevitably there is an explosion; the groundswell of life’s constant movement, constant change, is too great to resist.
Jean Vanier, Becoming Human
photo xlibber
