Every single moment of consciousness is a moment of practice, whether we like it or not. We are practicing to become ourselves. The important question is really just how much we want to participate in the process.
Andrew Olendzki, Unlimiting Mind
Tag: Mindfulness
Making time for ourselves
We need to find a way of balancing our ‘inner’ work and our ‘outer’ work and we begin to appreciate a basic paradox: that in order to be truly generous, truly of service to others, we actually need to be completely ‘self-centred’. We need to be able to stay in touch with our own hearts, listening carefully to what they tell us, even while engaged in external activity or interaction. We need to remain attentive to our own needs, and to really make sure that these are well taken care of even if it means disappointing people, letting them down, not living up to the expectations they may have of us (or that we have of ourselves). This is not at all easy, with the conditioning most of us have: ‘Don’t be sel fish’.
Ajahn Candasiri, A Question of Balance
A fresh start
Start close in, don’t take the second step
or the third, start with the first
thing close in,
the step you don’t want to take.
Start with the ground you know,
the pale ground
beneath your feet,
your own way of starting
the conversation.
Start with your own
question, give up on other
people’s questions,
don’t let them smother something
simple.
To find another’s voice
follow your own voice,
wait until that voice
becomes a private ear
listening to another.
Start right now, take a small step
you can call your own
don’t follow someone else’s
heroics, be humble
and focused, start close in,
don’t mistake that other
for your own.
Start close in,don’t take the second step
or the third, start with the first
thing close in,
the step you don’t want to take.
David Whyte, Start Close in
Placing things in a deeper context
A person is satisfied not by the quantity of food, but by the absence of greed. Gurdjieff
If we are silly enough to remain at the mercy of the people who want to sell us happiness, it will be impossible for us ever to be content with anything. How would they profit if we became content? We would no longer need their new product. The last thing the salesman wants is for the buyer to become content. You are of no use in our society unless you are always wanting to grasp what you never have. The Greeks were not as smart as we are. In their primitive way they put Tantalus in hell. [Advertising]…on the contrary, would convince us that Tantalus is in heaven.
Thomas Merton
Sunday Quote: Being alive
We have lived,
not in proportion to the number of years that we have spent on the earth,
but in proportion as we have enjoyed
Henry David Thoreau, Journals
The end of the year: Allowing things move on
We may think that letting go means not having, or getting rid of something; but actually we can just allow it to go, rather than holding on to it or trying to throw it away. Sometimes just accepting and recognising is enough. It is a way of letting go of the aversion, the negativity. Like every other condition that we experience: if it arises, it will cease. And usually it ceases much more quickly if we can really let it go. Sometimes people use the expression ‘just letting be’.
Ajahn Candasiri, Simple Kindness
