Tag: Present moment

trust in the present moment

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When you let go of all the noise and busyness in the mind, you discover a profound stillness. And in that stillness, there is bliss – not the worldly happiness that depends on conditions, but an unconditioned joy that arises from simply being at peace.

This bliss isn’t something you create; it’s always been here, hidden beneath the clutter of thinking. Like the sun behind the clouds, it’s revealed when the obstructions fade. You don’t need to chase it. You only need to soften, to release, and to trust in the present moment.

As the mind grows quieter, you’ll feel it: a radiant warmth, a lightness, as if the body is smiling from within. This is piti (rapture), the first flavor of bliss. If you don’t grasp at it, it deepens into sukha – a serene, unshakable contentment that needs no reason to exist.

Ajahn Brahn, Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond

Let things take their course

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The second in three posts from the Thai Forest Tradition, this one from their most influential teacher who has had a significant impact on Western mindfulness practice, through the many Western monks who trained under him.

Try to be mindful, and let things take their course.
Then your mind will become quieter and quieter in any surroundings

It will become still like a clear forest pool.
All kinds of wonderful and rare animals will come to drink at the pool,
and you will clearly see the nature of all things. You will see many strange and wonderful things come and go,

But you will be still. Problems will arise and you will see through them immediately. This is the happiness of the Awakened One.

Ajahn Chah  A Still Forest Pool

Food for the heart

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..Something seeks stimulation – there’s a desire to get something that’s more stimulating or activating than the water.

Maybe this outward seeking occurs because we don’t fully recognize and acknowledge the water – the qualities of the heart-mind [citta]. Maybe we haven’t fully appreciated the citta – enjoyed it, sensed it, experienced it as it actually is. If we could be open to enjoying that, feeling happy and satisfied with that, there wouldn’t be this need to throw stuff into it – to want more of this, or less of that, or change it...

The practice of Right Effort is to savour skilful states and linger in them because they are food for the heart and if the heart feeds on those skilful states, it won’t get restless and hungry, murky and agitated, fearful and depressed because it is getting good food.

Ajahn Sucitto

To be there

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Maybe that’s it, the meaning of life, or one of them, the best of them: to find the moments that are not the things that happen, but the things that finally are. To be there. To be in them. To feel the world hold its breath, and you holding yours with it, and know that in the stillness, in the quiet, in the waiting, there is everything

Niall Williams, This is Happiness

in difficult times

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Self-compassion involves acting the same way towards yourself when you are having a difficult time, fail, or notice something you don’t like about yourself.

Instead of just ignoring your pain with a ‘stiff upper lip’ mentality,

you stop to tell yourself, ‘This is really difficult right now,’

how can I comfort and care for myself in this moment?”

Kristen Neff, Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself

Train today for happiness

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Little by Little you must train yourself for life, for happiness.

You probably received a college degree that you spent years working for,
and you thought that happiness would be possible after you got it.
But that was not true, because after getting the degree and finding a job,
you continued to suffer.

You have to realize that happiness is not something you find at the end of the road. You have to understand that it is here, now.

Thich Nhat Hanh, Your True Home: The Everyday Wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh