Tag: Present moment

“If only” this would change …

Karl Duffy2 Comments

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People [have always] faced the same kinds of  issues we face now, but with different window dressing. In the time of the Buddha,  men and women were arguing, gossiping, judging others, losing their perspective, overreacting, sexualizing their experiences, chasing after greener pastures, obsessing about non-essentials, feeling lonely and creating too many pipe dreams….. Nothing has fundamentally altered.

How many of us  are still convinced, mature as we may be, that if our partner would only change, or if we could meet the perfect person, everything would be fine?  These are the dysfunctional myths and illusions that drive our lives in very dissatisfying directions.  How many people remember the song from the musical Fiddler on the Roof – “If I were a Rich Man…” 

What is your “big if”?  The big “if” that leads you away from wisdom and reality?

Lama Surya Das,  Awakening the Buddha within

This is the way it is

Karl Duffy1 Comment

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Advice from two great teachers from the Thai tradition, where I find myself mainly at home.

Ajahn Sumedho has had a huge influence on the development of meditation practice in the West. Here he refers to an observation made by one of the great figures in Thai Theravada Buddhist practice, summarizing neatly the whole of mindfulness practice. Its an observation which is one of my favourites and points us towards the right attitude.

That being said, it’s not so easy to work with when circumstances are challenging, or, you know, those evenings when the heart just feels a bit lost.

Buddhadasa Bhikkhu said, “If there was to be a useful inscription to put on a medallion around your neck it would be ‘This is the way it is’.”

This reflection helps us to contemplate: wherever we happen to be, whatever time and place, good or bad, ‘This is the way it is.’

It is a way of bringing an acceptance into our minds,

a noting rather than a reaction.

Ajahn Sumedho, The Way it is

Fresh starts

Karl Duffy7 Comments

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A friend reminded me yesterday that it is all about starting each day anew, with fresh eyes –  like lighting a candle in the darkness and seeing things in the glow of a kind light:

I’m heading into 2017 aspiring to look at life through the eyes of a child. Buddhists call it “beginner’s mind” — a corrective to the cynicism that comes when we let hard realities darken our vision and diminish our imagination. It’s a way of looking at the world that doesn’t deny the darkness, but makes fresh starts possible in everything – from our personal to our political lives.

What’s “the growing edge” in your life?

Whatever it is, may 2017 be a year in which our adult powers dance with our child-like imaginations to help make all things new.

Parker Palmer

With thanks to makebelieveboutique.com

Setting out in trust

Karl Duffy1 Comment

path

We sometimes think we know the way we are going….

A person often meets his destiny on the road which he takes to avoid it

L‘homme rencontre souvent son destin sur la route qu’il emprunte pour l’éviter

Jean de la Fontaine, 1621 – 1695, French poet and writer of Fables

Where to focus

Karl Duffy11 Comments

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If you get the inside right

the outside will fall into place

Eckhart Tolle

photo FotoDawg

Like holding a baby

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:US Navy 100202-N-4971L-162 Sailor helps Haitian woman by holding baby.jpg

Thich Nhat Hahn from the Zen Tradition using the Christmas story as a way of teaching how to meditate:

I am going to remind you of the way to practice. First, “in” and “out.” It means that when I breathe in, I know I am breathing in. It’s easy. And when I breathe out, I know I am breathing out. I don’t mix the two things up. Breathing in, I know it is my in-breath. Breathing out, I know this is my out-breath. By that time, you stop all the thinking, you just pay attention to your in-breath and your out-breath. You are 100 percent with your in-breath and your out-breath.

It is like holding a baby in such a way that you hold it with 100 percent of yourself. Suppose this is a baby and I hold the baby like this. I hold the baby with 100 percent of myself. Remember, there are times when your mother holds you like this. Have you seen the image of the Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus? She holds him like that: 100 percent. So here, our in-breath is our baby, and we hold our in-breath 100 percent. “Breathing in, I know that I am breathing in.” You just embrace your in-breath, nothing else. Don’t think of anything else. That is the secret of success.

Thich Nhat Hahn