While sitting on the floor of a room in Japan and looking out on a small garden with flowers blooming and dragon flies hovering in space, I sensed that this small world, almost underfoot, shall I say, had a validity all its own, but must be realized and appreciated from its own level in space.
I suddenly felt I had too long been exclusively above my boots.
Mark George Tobey, 1890 – 1976, American painted, strongly influenced by Asian calligraphy.
A monk once asked Joshu, ‘Who is my teacher?’
Joshu said, ‘Clouds rising out of the mountains, streams entering the valley without a sound.’
The monk said, ‘I wasn’t asking about them.’
Joshu said, ‘Though they are your teachers, you don’t recognize them.‘
from Henry Shukman, One Blade of Grass: Finding the Old Road of the Heart
We have had bright Summer weather all week here, spacious blue skies, something of a rarity in Ireland
I thank God for most this
amazing day; for the leaping greenly
spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;
and for everything which is natural, which is
infinite, which is yes.
e. e. cummings
Meditation comes alive through a growing capacity to release our habitual entanglement in the stories and plans, conflicts and worries that make up the small sense of self, and to rest in awareness. In meditation we do this simply by acknowledging the moment-to-moment changing conditions… Without identifying with them, we can rest in the awareness itself, beyond conditions, and experience what my teacher Ajahn Chah called “jai pongsai”, our natural lightness of heart.
Wise attention has a gracious witnessing quality, acknowledging each event – whether boredom or jealousy, plans or excitement, gain or loss, pleasure or pain – with a slight bow. Moment by moment we release the illusion of getting “somewhere” and rest in the timeless present, witnessing with easy awareness all that passes by. As we let go, our innate freedom and wisdom manifest. Nothing to have, nothing to be. Ajahn Chah called this “resting in the One Who Knows.”
Jack Kornfield, A Mind Like Sky Meditation
The more I remove myself from nature and the more I increase my availability to the modern world, the more restless I become. I am no scientist and realize that I may be mistaken, but my experience is that feelings of insecurity, loneliness and depression to a large extent stem from the flattening of the world that occurs when we are alienated from nature. There is, of course, a lot to be said in favour of man-made environments and new technology, but our eyes, nose, ears, tongue, skin, brain, hands and feet were not created for choosing the road of least resistance.
Mother Nature is 4.54 billion years old, so it seems to me arrogant when we don’t listen to nature and instead blindly place our trust in human invention.
Erlinge Kagge, Philosophy for Polar Explorers
Deep in their roots,
all flowers keep the light.
Theodore Roethke
Birdsong brings relief
to my longing
I’m just as ecstatic as they are,
but with nothing to say!
Please universal soul, practice
some song or something through me!
Rumi
Mindfulbalance 