Tag: Present moment

For the good

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Albert Einstein once said that the most important question a human being could answer is, ‘Is the universe a friendly place?’ A spiritually optimistic point of view holds that the universe is woven out of a fabric of love. Everything that is happening is ultimately for the good if we are willing to face it head-on and use our adversities for soul growth. As soon as we begin to …..open to faith in a friendly universe, the proverbial path opens before us. The people, events and teachings we need are supplied. This is the action of grace.

Joan Borysenko, Fire in the Soul: A New Spirituality of Spiritual Optimism

Unhurried

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Of all ridiculous things the most ridiculous seems to me, to be busy — to be a man who is brisk about his food and his work.

 Søren Kierkegaard, 1813– 1855), philosopher.

Like an elephant

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In one of his insightful talks Zen master Shunryu Suzuki said that in your practice you should walk like an elephant.

It means to move at a comfortable pace. No rushing toward a goal. No push to make it all meaningful. The … texts of Taoism and Zen teach that it’s important to do what you do without trying to accomplish anything.

You don’t have to get anywhere. There are no goals and objectives: nothing to succeed in, and nothing in which to fail. You can sit in your house, as Thoreau did, and be attentive – his suggestion. “We are surrounded by a rich and fertile mystery. May we not probe it, pry into it, employ ourselves about it – a little? . . . If by watching all day and all night I may detect some trace of the Ineffable, then will it not be worth the while to watch?”
 

Thomas Moore, A Religion of One’s Own: A Guide to Creating a Personal Spirituality in a Secular World

The voice of the mind

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There is nothing more important to true growth

than realizing you are not the voice of the mind –

You are the one who hears it

Michael Singer

What causes our agitation

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There is a Noble truth about the arising of suffering:

It arises with a thirst for more, that is …always running here and there.

That is, a thirst for sense-input, a thirst to be something, a thirst to not be something.

The Buddha, The Turning of the Wheel Sutta

Sunday Quote: Underneath all the noise

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Water is free from the birth
and death of a wave.

Thich Nhat Hahn