Tag: Nature

Some practical advice for living

Karl Duffy1 Comment

All the different wisdom traditions have the same message. And yet sometimes when we read these texts we see them as eternal laws, impacting sometime in the future, without realizing that they are giving practical guidelines about happiness, and how to live right now, moment by moment.  The conditions for real contentment are fully present in our life now, if we can just notice.  We have such a strong desire to control, and our fears about not being in control are so strong, that we frequently  fall into the trap of believing that we will gain security by  thinking excessively about situations. Texts like this remind us of a different strategy towards happiness.  These simple flowers that I saw in in the field today remind me. There is a rhythm deep down in nature. We can trust and let go.

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

Luke 12:25f

Hold on lightly – let feelings pass through awareness

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Meditation is a special kind of dance in which we commit ourselves wholeheartedly to the practice of deconstructing the materialistic view of reality. The challenge is simultaneously to hold on and to let go; it is to see clearly what we are doing and at the same time see through it.

Ajahn Amaro

Making space for the words under the words

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A morning walk in the cool woods, with the sounds of the birds and the sight of the poppies flourishing at the sides of the fields. Summer is incredible early and beautiful this year. Walking without expectation or goal. The Eastern idea of apranihita –  aimlessness. No need to have a purpose or to run after something. Making light space on the journey after some full, rich days. What is important is not necessarily what we are experiencing,  but how we relate to it.

My grandmother’s voice says nothing can surprise her.

She knows the spaces we travel through,  the messages we cannot send — our voices are short  and would get lost on the journey.

Farewell to the husband’s coat, the ones she has loved and nourished, who fly from her like seeds into a deep sky.   They will plant themselves. We will all die.

My grandmother’s eyes say Allah is everywhere, even in death.  

When she talks of the orchard and the new olive press,  

when she tells the stories of Joha and his foolish wisdoms,  

He is her first thought, what she really thinks of is His name.

“Answer, if you hear the words under the words—

otherwise it is just a world with a lot of rough edges,  

difficult to get through, and our pockets full of stones.“

Naomi Shihab Nye, The Words Under the Words


	


				
	






	
	

		
It is the heart that notices
	


	
					

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The weather has changed these days. Not as settled or as consistently warm as it has been in the previous weeks. However, the wind brings a different texture. Why do we prefer one thing to another? Things are different, but equally beautiful.


The dance of the flower in the wind, in the sun, in the rain, 


cannot be understood by the head;


the heart has to be open for it.


Osho

	


				
	






	
	

		
Sunday freshness after the rain
	


	
					

			 Karl Duffy1 Comment		

	
	


		
After the warmth of the  past weeks we have had  one or two days of welcome rain showers. This morning one can see the meadows and hedgerows filled with an abundance of wild flowers, their movement and colour contrasting with the formality of the fields of wheat and barley.  Butterflies are also moving everywhere, flitting from flower to flower, or keeping ahead on the path as you walk.  Nature has a deep-down energy at this time – as Manley Hopkins says – and is not confined to straight lines.  We too have this capacity within, we adapt and move on, continually seeking out the light and new places to grow. Mary Oliver sees this life in the small hummingbird,  and she too realizes how rich we are when we take time to notice the little moments of each day and be moved by such sights.


When the hummingbird sinks its face

into the trumpet vine,

into the funnels


of the blossoms and the tongue leaps out

and throbs,


I am scorched to realize once again

how many small, available things

are in this world


that aren’t pieces of gold or power –

that nobody owns


or could but even for a hillside of money 


that just float in the world, or drift over the fields,

or into the gardens,

and into the tents of the vines,

and now here I am


spending my time, as the saying goes,

watching until the watching turns into feeling,

so that I feel I am myself


a small bird with a terrible hunger,

with a thin beak probing and dipping

and a heart that races so fast


it is only a heart beat ahead of breaking – 

and I am the hunger and the assuagement,

and also I am the leaves and the blossoms,

and, like them, I am full of delight, and shaking.


Summer Story

	


				
	






	
	

		
Using the weather today as a metaphor for life
	


	
					

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The warmth of the Spring weather this year means that plants and fruits are in bloom ahead of time and any memories of winter is far behind. We can look at the weather and nature today and be reminded of a number of lessons, which help us live our life mindfully:


Spring is a metaphor for transitions. It moves from lifelessness to life and we move from lifelessness to life in each cycle of breathing. If we know change is going to occur we are in a better place to accept it. If we expect things to stay constant we are vulnerable to frustration, disappointment, and resistance.


Spring is also a metaphor for forgiveness. Whatever happened in the last season, life begins anew with no carryover resentment from the past. Spring reminds us, as Pema Chodron says, to start where we are.


Spring shows us the cycle of living and dying on a bigger scale do. Everything comes into being and goes out of being — changing its form.  Spring invites us not to become attached to things, even the most precious things in our life. The invitation is to love things wholeheartedly with the awareness that they will not be with us forever. And, indeed, we, ourselves, will not be here forever. The invitation is to not be afraid to grieve when that grief becomes necessary. Grief is, at times, the admission price to the present moment.


The renewal of spring is the healing from grief, from the inexorable impermanence of things. Spring also demonstrates the tenacity of life and encourages us to persist in whatever we are doing.


So welcome spring and your multifaceted metaphors for mindful living!


Arnie Kozak, on Beliefnet