Some thoughts, prompted by having to queue to get into the déchetterie – the recycling depot – this morning, which are in the same vein as some of the quotes over the past few days. The good weather motivates people to tidy up their houses and garages after the enforced restricted time that is winter. I was working in the garden yesterday, digging up the plants that did not survive the winter and cutting back those which will now grow more strongly in the Summer. Getting rid of the old and letting the new grow stronger or in different directions. And all around Nature is budding now, revealing what has been going on unseen and underground for months. In our own life path it is the same. We get rid of elements that no longer accord with who we are now, or let go of that which we can no longer hold onto. While waiting in the queue I listened to “Don’t Look Back” by Van Morrison which prompted these thoughts. Maybe the words will speak to someone this evening. If not, any excuse to play early Van the Man is good….
Tag: Nature
Early Spring morning walk
Walking the lanes near my house early this morning, with the spring chorus of the birds. At times one is just struck by the beauty and freshness of nature. Practice is easy then. Nothing needs to be added to this moment or to this step. We need not worry about getting anywhere, or measuring up or competing the journey. Just this step, and this moment, that bird singing, those three ducks flying overhead.
What activity is most important in your life? To pass an exam, get a car or a house, or get a promotion in your career? There are so many people who have passed exams, who have bought cars and houses, who have gotten promotions, but still find themselves without peace of mind, without joy, and without happiness. The most important thing in life is to find this treasure… In order to have peace and joy, you must succeed in having peace within each of your steps. Your steps are the most important thing. They decide everything.
But often in our daily life, our steps are burdened with anxieties and fears. Life itself seems to be a continuous chain of insecure feelings, and so our steps lose their natural easiness. Our earth is truly beautiful. There is so much graceful, natural scenery along paths and roads around the earth! They are all available to us, yet we cannot enjoy them because our hearts are not trouble-free, and our steps are not at ease.
Thich Nhat Hahn
Thoughts from the garden on a beautiful morning
This early morning saw beautiful sunshine and finally the cherry tree at the end of the garden burst into flower. A picture of growth and life. And yet this last week I have gotten some news that reminded me that we are all subject to illness and change. There are times that we cannot predict or even understand all that happens to us or to those who are dear to us. And my work brings me into almost continual contact with the struggles and inner yearnings of people and also the deep-rooted patterns and habits that keep them locked in fear and anxiety. When things go well, as they have been for some time now, or when I am blessed to sit early in the garden on a day such as this, I easily fall into the belief that this will remain the case for ever. However, the news of this week and events over the last few weeks – with the disaster in Japan and the outbreak of war in Libya and the struggles of people in Syria and the Ivory Coast – remind me that our life here is unsatisfactory in a fundamental way. We can never be certain of the permanence of any external thing to which we look for our feelings of wellbeing. So this throws me back inside myself and to the ongoing cultivation of a quality of awareness that can work with everything that happens, good and bad. Moments like this help me to focus on the question of how I are living this life which is constantly subject to change. It reminds me to work with life as it is and not just with the parts that are as I like. What are the priorities I choose and which I want to endure? Can I practice mindfulness in all my choices? Where am I focusing my energy? In the small corner of the world where I am, can I stay in contact with people around that which is important and let go of all that contributes to the suffering of the world?
You are like a candle. Imagine you are sending light out all around you. All your words, thoughts and actions are going in many directions. If you say something kind, your kind words go in many directions, and you yourself go with them. We are …transforming and continuing in a different form at every moment.
Thich Nhat Hahn
Seasons
Today is the first day of Spring. The weather is beautiful here at the moment and it is easy to feel the “joys of spring”. The cherry blossom and magnolia trees are in bloom. Time passes quickly. I can remember taking photographs of the same magnolia tree last year. Short term joys come easily; Long term happiness develops when we see into their true nature:
In Spring, hundreds of flowers.
In Summer, refreshing breeze.
In Autumn, a harvest moon.
In Winter, snowflakes accompany you.
If you do not have
the upside-down views
every season is
a good season for you.
Buddhist classic texts (translated by Eido Shimano Roshi)
Be struck by life today
Another lovely poem by Mary Oliver on how we can look at the world – and everything we see today – as a doorway to deeper mysteries and as a place where our heart can grow. Her words reconnect us with all that is around us and with a deep sense of acceptance of our journey here.
As for life, I’m humbled,
I’m without words sufficient to say
how it has been hard as flint,
and soft as a spring pond,
both of these and over and over,
and long pale afternoons besides,
and so many mysteries, beautiful as eggs in a nest,
still unhatched
though warm and watched over
by something I have never seen—
a tree angel, perhaps, or a ghost of holiness.
Every day I walk out into the world
to be dazzled, then to be reflective.
It suffices, it is all comfort—
along with human love,
dog love, water love, little-serpent love,
sunburst love, or love for that smallest of birds
flying among the scarlet flowers.
There is hardly time to think about
stopping, and lying down at last
to the long afterlife, to the tenderness
yet to come, when
time will brim over the singular pond, and become forever,
and we will pretend to melt away into the leaves.
Mary Oliver, Long Afternoon at the Edge of Little Sister Pond
(Photograph courtesy of Jasmine Trotter http://killdollphotographies.tumblr.com/)
Cultivating appreciation
Today was another beautiful day here, with early Spring sunshine. And in the afternoon I was fortunate to walk the lanes near my house and look over the fields at the Jura mountains nearby. It was another day where I was struck by the ordinary, simple, kindness of people and their support, as well as moved by the struggles and pains of others who are simply trying to make the best of life with the gifts and talents at their disposal. On days like this it is easy to find space in one’s mind for kindness and spaciousness and practice appreciation for all the good things, big and small, that come our way. This wakens us up to all the gifts which are given to us. When we do this we strengthen our capacity to be calm and relax with life as it is, not as how we want it to be. We are looking at the abundance that it already present in our heart and in our life, not complaining about what we do not have.
Appreciation is a relaxing and peaceful state of mind. It creates a space in which we can accommodate the vicissitudes of life and even think of the welfare of others. Complaint, on the other hand, is frustrating and painful. There’s an element of anger and fixation involved. We are believing our thoughts, taking them to be real. Our attachment to the concept of how we want things to be is stressful, because that concept is always disintegrating. What we wanted to happen is not happening. We think complaining is going to get the world back on our track, but really it results in our being deaf, dumb and blind to the present moment. Narrowing our mind with complaint is unpleasant and claustrophobic, the opposite of contentment.
When we complain, we’re saying that the world needs to change in order for us to be okay. If only our parent or partner would behave differently, if only the food were better, if only there were less traffic, if only the service were quicker—then we’d be happy.
Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.
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