Stopping the endless pursuit of getting somewhere else
is perhaps the most beautiful offering we can make to our spirit
Tara Brach
Stopping
Tag: Present moment
The Three times
The past is already past — Don’t try to regain it.
The present doesn’t stay — Don’t try to hold onto it over and over.
The future isn’t here yet — Don’t ponder it beforehand.
When we can see the three times as non-existent,
the mind is the same as awakened nature.
Layman P’ang, c740 – 808, Chinese Zen
We preoccupy ourselves
The thing that blinds us and deafens us is the ceaselessly moving mind, the preoccupation we have with our thoughts. It is the incessant internal dialogue that shuts out everything else. ….All day long we talk to ourselves. We preoccupy ourselves with the past, or we preoccupy ourselves with the future, and while we preoccupy ourselves, we miss the moment and miss our lives. Looking, we do not see. It is as if we were blind. Listening, we do not hear. It is as if we were deaf. Loving, we do not feel. It is as if we were dead. Preoccupied, we do not notice the reality around us. How can we be present? How can we taste and touch our lives?
The answer to these questions is not outside yourself. To see this truth requires the backward step, going very deep into yourself to find the foundation of reality and of your life. To see it is not the same as understanding it or believing it. To see it means to realize it with the whole body and mind.… Know that deep within each and every one of us, under layers of conditioning, there is an enlightened being, alive and well. In order to function, it needs to be discovered.
John Daido Loori, 4, 1931 – 2009, Zen Buddhist rōshi
Everywhere
Happiness is available.
Please help yourself.
Thích Nhất Hạnh
Overthinking
It is imperative to cut off the mind road.
If you do not cut off the mind road, you will be a ghost, clinging to the grass.
Wu Men Hui-k’ai,, 1183–1260, Chinese Chán master
Magic all around
There’s always a lot of magic, but our way of seeing it is very small and we mostly just call it Nature.
Why, we are not at all surprised that we can pick up an apple in autumn that was a pink flower in the spring.
That’s natural magic and we don’t really notice it.
Pat O’Shea, 1931 – 2007, Irish children’s fiction writer, The Hounds of the Mórrígan
Mindfulbalance 