Tag: Nature

Being in nature makes the heart bigger

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Took this photo on this beautiful morning,  walking near the barley fields at the foot of the Jura. It does scant justice to the sweep of the mountains and the wideness of nature. We draw such scenes into our heart and take a sense of openness from them. In their space we find space.

By association with nature’s enormities, a man’s heart may truly grow big also. There is a way of looking upon a landscape as a moving picture and being satisfied with nothing less big as a moving picture, a way of looking upon tropic clouds over the horizon as the backdrop of a stage and being satisfied with nothing less big as a backdrop, a way of looking upon the mountain forests as a private garden and being satisfied with nothing less as a private garden, a way of listening to the roaring waves as a concert and being satisfied with nothing less as a concert, and a way of looking upon the mountain breeze as an air-cooling system and being satisfied with nothing less as an air-cooling system. So do we become big, even as the earth and firmaments are big. Like the “Big Man” described by Yuan Tsi, one of China’s first romanticists, we “live in heaven and earth as our house.”

Lin Yutang

Setting an intention for this day

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I have noticed that folks are generally as happy

as they make up their minds to be

Abraham Lincoln

Holding on to things lightly

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Nothing that is can pause or stay;

The moon will wax, the moon will wane,

The mist and cloud will turn to rain,

The rain to mist and cloud again,

Tomorrow be today.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

….and see clearly…

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When we condemn or justify we cannot see clearly, nor can we when our minds are endlessly chattering; then we do not observe what is; we look only at the projections we have made of ourselves. Each of us has an image of what we think we are or what we should be, and that image, that picture, entirely prevents us from seeing ourselves as we actually are.

It is one of the most difficult things in the world to look at anything simply. Because our minds are very complex we have lost the quality of simplicity.  I don’t mean simplicity in clothes or food……but the simplicity that can look directly at things without fear – that can look at ourselves as we actually are without any distortion – to say we lie when we lie, not cover it up or run away from it

Krisnamurti, Freedom from the Known.

Take time today to see….

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Nobody sees a flower – really – it is so small it takes time

– we haven’t time – and to see takes time,

like to have a friend takes time.

Georgia O’Keeffe,  American Painter.

Trying to make things permanent

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When we sit in meditation, we practice observing our thoughts, emotions, and sensations as they arise and fall away,  while we rest on the breath or on a wider calm. The key word here is practice. It is not always easy, but we work at paying attention to our mental events, not hooking into them, simply  allowing them and letting them be.  We quickly learn that emotions and their associated thoughts change as frequently as the weather in Ireland. We open the mind up to more possibilities than what can be easily predicted, or our fixed views of persons.  This helps us develop a real understanding of the changing ups and downs of life, leading to the development of  equanimity towards the times when things or people are not as reliable as we thought they were. The word equanimity comes from Latin aequus “even” and animus ”mind, soul”.  Enjoying life and reducing stress is related to a mind which is even,  not having a preference for one thing or another, not  holding on to something good or something bad.

Everything we gain is subject to loss. Although this is as true as the sky is blue, we keep trying to make gain permanent in order to try to bring about happiness for “me.” We think, “If only So-and-So would love me, I would be happy,“ “If only things would change, I would be happy,” “If only things would stay the way they are, I would always be happy,” and it only leads to heartache. This kind of wanting involves a lot of hope and fear, all based on denial of a simple truth: all the pleasure the world can offer eventually turns to pain. Trying to hold onto pleasure only causes more pain.

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, Easy Come Easy Go