Don’t prolong the past,
don’t invite the future,
don’t be deceived by appearances,
just dwell in present awareness.
Patrul Rinpoche
Tag: Nature
Preoccupied
I often think that if the rest of creation could actually speak,
it would be looking at us wondering why we quibble about the details of living out our lives
when everything around us and everything inside us is so utterly and totally unique.
David Whyte, What to Remember when Waking
Breaking problems down
Gentle, slow, walking – best done in nature – sends a signal to the brain and by slowing down the body we slow down the rushing mind. It can put things in perspective and prevent us from living all the time in our heads:
In my room, the world is beyond my understanding;
But when I walk I see that it consists of three or four
hills and a cloud.
Wallace Stevens, Of the Surface of Things
The slow pace of creation
Slowing how we think and feel and take in the world is directly related to being centered. The wisdom traditions all have some form of meditation and prayer that is aimed at slowing us into this center, where the very pace of creation breathes…..At the pace of creation, all things breathe the same way….So, when we slow and open and center ourselves, we breathe in unison with all of life, and breathing this way we draw strength from all of life. At the pace of creation, the beginning enters us and we are new.
Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening
photo josh hallett
Light after darkness
It was a nice bright morning here in Ireland and it is always heartening when we see the sun beginning to brighten the sky. So, here are another few words from Mary Oliver, on how darkness, in different senses, can give way to light, and how nature can soothe the spirit. Often at night the fixing side of our mind gets stuck in some problems or challenges we face and it can seem very dark. The light of morning or of nature can sometimes put things into perspective:
All night my heart makes its way
however it can over the rough ground
of uncertainties, but only until night
meets and then is overwhelmed by
morning, the light deepening, the
wind easing and just waiting, as I
too wait (and when have I ever been
disappointed?) for redbird to sing.
Mary Oliver, A Thousand Mornings
Dreams that purify
I have noticed in my life that all men have a liking for some special animal, tree, plant, or spot of earth. If men would pay more attention to these preferences and seek what is best to do, in order to make themselves worthy of that toward which they are so attracted, they might have dreams which would purify their lives.
Brave Buffalo, Teton Sioux, By the Power of their Dreams (late 19th century)
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