Solemnity flows out of men naturally; but laughter is a leap.
It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light.
Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly.
GK Chesterton
Tag: Present moment
Let it be
One of the most satisfying feelings I know – and also one of the most growth-promoting experiences for the other person – comes from my appreciating this individual in the same way that I appreciate a sunset. People are just wonderful as sunsets if I can let them be. In fact, perhaps the reason we can truly appreciate a sunset is that we cannot control it. When I look at a sunset as I did the other evening, I don’t find myself saying, “Soften the orange a little on the right hand corner, and put a bit more purple along the base, and use a little more pink in the cloud color.” I don’t do that. I don’t try to control a sunset. I watch with awe as it unfolds.
Carl Rogers
When we get caught up in the drama
Mindfulness helps us get better at seeing the difference between what’s happening and the stories we tell ourselves about what’s happening, stories that get in the way of direct experience. Often such stories treat a fleeting state of mind as if it were our entire and permanent self.
Sharon Salzberg
photo experience kissimmee
Serenity
A long weekend here in Ireland, so a chance to refresh and nourish ourselves, taking a step back to notice compulsive running, outside and inside our minds. Meditation practice is more about settling back into something that is already present, rather than a need to “achieve” a goal, even a “good” or “calm” goal. Often this desire to achieve is based on a perfect image of ourselves and just fuels an underlying feeling that we are lacking in a fundamental way, needing to be supported and held up.
Empty your mind of all thoughts. Let your heart be at peace.
Watch the turmoil of beings, but contemplate their return.
Each separate being in the universe returns to the common source.
Returning to the source is serenity.
Lao Tzu
with thanks to dear friend Patrick for the picture from his mountain walks in France
The beginning of happiness
What do Sad people have in
Common?
It seems
They have all built a shrine
To the past
And often go there
And do a strange wail and
Worship.
What is the beginning of
Happiness?
It is to stop being
so religious
Like that.
Hafiz
Photo: Fahan, Co Donegal, Ireland by Andreas Borchert
The origin of suffering
Be attentive and notice that whatever arises passes away; that whatever condition of your mind or body – whether it is a sensation of pleasure or pain, feeling or memory, sight, sound, smell, taste or touch, inside or outside – is just a condition. It’s important to reflect on what ‘ignorance’ really means when .. called … the origin of all suffering. ‘Being ignorant’ means that we identify with these conditions, by regarding them as ‘me’ or ‘mine’, or as something that we don’t want to be ‘me’ or ‘mine’. We’ve got the idea that we’ve got to find some permanent pleasant condition, we have to achieve something, get something we don’t have. But you can notice that desire in your mind is a moving thing, looking for something, so it’s a changing condition that arises and passes away – it’s not-self.
Ajahn Sumedho, Everything that arises passes away
photo sean p bender
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