Rest

In the rhythm of the Christian Tradition, Holy Saturday was a day of waiting, of bare church decoration, of things pared down and distractions minimized.

Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought. T. S. Eliot

Wise intention and skillful service need to be nourished by periods of quiet and prayer. Every great tradition includes some from of the Sabbath. In the West we inherited the blessing of the Christian and Jewish Sabbath. Muslims have Friday as their holy day, and likewise Hindus and Buddhists renew their vows of simplicity on full moon, new moon, and quarter moon days. When I was young, Massachusetts had Sabbath “Blue Laws” requiring all forms of business to stop on Sundays. But now, one generation later, we have twenty-four-hour supermarkets and twenty-four-hour banking, seven days a week; our consumer society has claimed the right to operate without constraint. This is a recipe for burnout.

Jack Kornfield, After the Ecstasy, the Laundry: How the heart grows wise on the Spiritual Path

Sunday Quote: Roots

A reflective life means hitting the pause button from time to time. Today marks the start of Holy Week in the Western tradition, the most important week in terms of giving meaning to life.

Go into yourself and test the deeps in which your life takes rise

Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

 

By three methods we may learn wisdom:

First, by reflection, which is noblest;

Second, by imitation, which is easiest;

and third by experience, which is the bitterest.

Confucius, born 551 B.C.

Stop fighting with your life

To listen to the soul is to stop fighting with life – to stop fighting when things fall apart, when they don’t go our way, when we get sick, when we are betrayed or mistreated or misunderstood. To listen to the soul is to slow down, to feel deeply, to see ourselves clearly, to surrender to discomfort and uncertainty, and to wait.

Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open

Sunday Quote: Even in times of difficulty, keep planting

Faith is hope in the unseen. Often we cannot see the results of the efforts we are putting in …

Even if the Hour of Resurrection comes up,

and one of you is holding a sapling in your hand….

 finish planting it.

The Prophet Mohammed

Mindful of just one cup of tea

Just look around you and you will see that the world never ceases to churn out more and more of the same thing, and that the result is unremitting pain and unbearable suffering. It’s no surprise, then, that the masters have pointed out, that to maintain mindfulness for as long as it takes to drink a cup of tea accumulates more merit than years of practicing generosity, discipline, and asceticism.

         Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse

Put all your cares into one

The person who makes all cares into one care

– the care for simply staying present

will be cared for by that presence which is creative love

Kabir Helminski