Little things may seem nothing, but they give peace, like those meadow flowers which individually seem odourless but all together perfume the air.
George Bernanos
The little things
Tag: Present moment
Be serene
Be serene in the oneness of things
and erroneous views
will disappear by themselves.
Seng T’san, died 606 AD. Third Zen Patriarch, Hsin Hsin Ming
The journey itself
We humans have a tendency to lean into the future or to seek something “more exciting” than what is in front of us. The challenge is to be fully awake and fully invested in the completeness of the present moment.
The moon and the sun are eternal travellers.
Even the years wander on.
A lifetime adrift in a boat or old age leading a tired horse into the years,
every day is a journey and the journey itself is home
Matsuo Basho, 17th century Japanese poet, Narrow Road to the Interior.
Already quietly here
Only our searching for happiness
prevents us from seeing it.
It’s like a vivid rainbow which you pursue
without ever catching,
or a dog chasing its own tail.
Although peace and happiness
do not exist as an actual thing or place,
it is always available and accompanies you every instant.
Don’t believe in the reality of good and bad experiences;
they are like today’s ephemeral weather,
like rainbows in the sky.
Wanting to grasp the ungraspable,
you exhaust yourself in vain.
As soon as you open and relax
this tight fist of grasping,
infinite space is there –
open, inviting and comfortable.
Make use of this spaciousness,
this freedom and natural ease.
Don’t search any further
looking for the great awakened elephant,
who is already resting quietly at home
in front of your own hearth.
from a ‘vajra poem’ by Lama Gendun Rinpoche, 1918-1997, Tibetan Buddhist teacher
Unanswered Questions
Life is so full of mystery, answers are so few, I do not trust them. I prefer unanswered questions. At the end of the answers there is usually a person who enjoys the power of appearing to know.
I have come to like things that are left unfinished. Its the question that shines the light, that seeks. The answer’s often just a dim reflection of the vastness of the question. There are no answers that satisfy. This is a small life and everything comes to nothing at the end. I like that. I like the idea of smallness and the wonder of basic human things.
from the lovely little book, Marc Hamer, A Life in Nature, or how to catch a mole
Wherever we are
Fundamentally, the practice of love begins with acceptance – the recognition that wherever we are is the appropriate place to practice, that the present moment is the appropriate time.
But for so many of us, our longing to love and be loved has always been about a time to come, a space in the future when it will just happen, when our hungry hearts will finally be fed, when we will find love.
Bell Hooks, Toward a Revolution of Love
Mindfulbalance 