We rarely take a breath without making a judgment.
Don’t mistake naming for knowing.
Ezra Bayda, Saying Yes to Life
Tag: Mindfulness
Part of the path
Our habitual patterns are, of course, well established, seductive, and comforting. Just wishing for them to be ventilated isn’t enough. Mindfulness and awareness are key. Do we see the stories that we’re telling ourselves and question their validity? When we are distracted by a strong emotion, do we remember that it is part of our path? Can we feel the emotion and breathe it into our hearts for ourselves and everyone else? If we can remember to experiment like this even occasionally, we are training as a warrior. And when we can’t practice when distracted but know that we can’t, we are still training well.
Pema Chodron
photo calle eklund
Storms of life
Strong weather systems here in Ireland, the UK, and in the US, dominate the news headlines. A reminder that a lot of things are outside our control and an insight into the fact that impermanence is a part of life: calm and storm, darkness and light, cold and warmth.
The capacity to suffer wounding and learn to adapt to it is crucial to the development of self. . . We have wounds, and the clusters of energy that accompany them, because we have a life history. The deeper question is whether we have the wounds or they have us.
James Hollis, The Eden Project.
photo anro0002
Sunday Quote: Eyes to see
Life’s face is never the same
though we may look at it for all eternity.
Kolbein Falkeid, Norwegian poet, 1933 –
photo paula rey
Windy weather
It has been very windy the past few days, here in Ireland and across the water in England causing coastal surges and flooding. The wind blowing through is another commonly used metaphor for thoughts – how to let them pass without believing their content – and for the stillness of a mind that can hold all things in awareness:
One windy day two monks were arguing about a flapping banner. The first said, “I say the banner is moving, not the wind.” The second said, “I say the wind is moving, not the banner.” A third monk passed by and said, “The wind is not moving. The banner is not moving. Your minds are moving.”
Raymond Kurzweil, The Singularity is Near
photo henning leweke
Passing by
The towns and the countryside that the traveler sees through a train window does not slow down the train, nor does the train affect them. Neither disturbs the other. This is how to should see the thoughts that pass through your mind when you meditate.
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
photo miguel pires da rosa
