When quiet and still,
we rediscover that regardless of where we search,
life is never someplace else.
Mark Nepo, The One Life We’re Given
Tag: Present moment
In the midst of life, just wash the bowl
Once a monk made a request of Joshu.
“I have just entered the monastery,” he said. “Please give me instructions, Master.”
Joshu said, “Have you had your breakfast?”
“Yes, I have,” replied the monk.
“Then,” said Joshu, “wash your bowls.”
The monk had an insight.
I love this koan. I am the student in the midst of my life, waiting for life to happen. How do we enter our life fully? It is right here. How do we want to live? Can we allow all the joys and sorrows to enliven us? Or do we just go along with all our patterns and habits? People who are dying always remind me: ‘I can’t believe I wasn’t here for most of my life.’ That’s one of the most common things I hear, and the biggest regrets. Many people have not inhabited their life because they’re just waiting for other moments. Are we waiting for life to happen in the midst of life? How can we give ourselves fully to our lives, moment to moment? Don’t wait. Life is always right here.
Koshin Paley Ellison, Huffington Post
Unique experiences
To the attentive eye,
each moment of the year
has its own beauty,
and in the same field,
it beholds,
every hour,
a picture which was never seen before,
and which shall never be seen again.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
A Spacious mind
When there’s space in the mind, the mind relaxes, and we feel a simple sense of delight. We experience the possibility of living a life in which we are not continuously aggravated by emotions, discursiveness, and concepts about the nature of things…. Despite all the ups and downs of our life, we are fundamentally awake individuals who have a natural ability to become compassionate and wise. Our nature is to be cheerful. This cheerfulness is deeper than temporary conditions. The day does not have to be sunny for us to be cheerful.
Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche
Notice the space
When your eyes are closed, you can listen to the inner voices that “speak” in the mind. They say “I am this…”I should not be like that”. You can use those voices for bringing you to the space between thoughts. Rather than making a big problem about the obsession and fears that go on in your mind, you can open your attention and see those obsessions and fears as mental conditions that come and go in space.
Ajahn Sumedho, The Mind and the Way
Sunday Quote: Goal and Technique
The basic practice is to be present, right here.
The goal is also the technique: precisely being in this moment, neither suppressing nor wildly letting go,
but being precisely aware of what you are.
Chögyam Trungpa Rimpoche
