All wisdom traditions, religious and secular, speak of the ability to maintain a still place within, no matter how busy we are. The word mindfulness traces its origin to the pali word “to remember”
The true saint goes in and out amongst the people
and eats and sleeps with them
and buys and sells in the market
and marries and takes part in social intercourse,
and never forgets God for a single moment.
Abu Sa’id ibn Abi l-Tkayr, Sufi Poet, 967 – 1049
People were always getting ready for tomorrow.
I didn’t believe in that.
Tomorrow wasn’t getting ready for them. It didn’t even know they were there.
Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Feeling real is more than existing; it is finding a way to exist as oneself
… and to have a self into which to retreat for relaxation.
Donald Winnicott, English paediatrician and psychoanalyst
In the East the moon is a symbol of Enlightenment, in the West of the Unconscious. Times of difficulty can be times of growth
Although the wind
blows terribly here,
the moonlight also leaks
between the roof planks
of this ruined house.
Izumi Shikibu, Japanese poet, 974-1034, one of the thirty-six female immortals of poetry.
Looking East today, to mark the Chinese New Year, with a similar idea to yesterday’s post
Among the sixteen types of meditation, the baby’s practice is the best.
YuanWu Keqin, Chinese Chan monk, 1063–1135
We have a tendency to live out of the past and to limit different experiences and the people we encounter today to what we expect of them. In this way we lose any sense of wonder or newness
The day you teach the child the name of the bird,
the child will never see that bird again.
Krisnamurti
Abba Poemen said about Abba Pior that every single day he made a fresh beginning.
Sayings of the Desert Fathers
Mindfulbalance 