Tag: Present moment

A mind that pushes and pulls

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Most of our dissatisfaction in life comes from a mind that acts in one of two ways. Either it pulls – wants some things that are going on in our lives (or in others’ lives) or it pushes away – it does not want elements of what is happening to us at the moment. This pushing or pulling –  which is frequently linked to us comparing ourselves with real or imagined others –  makes  it very difficult for us to enjoy the present moment. As I once heard meditation teacher Larry Rosenberg say, we live in “what actually is” but we insist on thinking ourselves into “what is not”:

You [have] a hidden demand that life be other than it is, and then you suffer and cause others to suffer. The present moment isn’t acceptable because you aren’t getting what you want, or you are not who you want to be, or there is something you want to get rid of.  Even if it is a pleasant moment, you worry about the future and wanting to have still more pleasant moments, so you are still being defined by attachment. You are not willing to accept what the future may be, so you suffer in this moment over what is really only a concept. But the future is not here now. It may turn out the way you want it to, or you may change your mind about what you want. What you believe may be awful if it happens may turn out to not be so bad or to lead to some unanticipated good alternative.

Phillip Moffitt, Dancing with Life

Something more important

Karl Duffy2 Comments

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Speed gives life a frantic quality. It is an anxious state of mind that keeps us from settling into whatever we are doing. There is always something more important than what we’re doing now. We’re double-parked outside a store, trying to find what we need, while talking to our mother on the cell-phone. Rather than accomplishing our activity well, we are nullifying it, because we aren’t really there for it. That self-generated speed creates its own power and momentum, which begin to rule us. It’s a form of small-mindedness that blinds us to what life really offers — the opportunity to develop wisdom and compassion.

Wisdom tells us that we are meant to enjoy our life and use it in a meaningful way. A successful life is not determined by the speed with which we live. If we’re always flapping our wings, endlessly trying to get what we need with aggression, we will always be exhausted. We’ll never find what we’re really looking for, which is our own contentment. 

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche

photo Katy Warner

Sunday Quote: Being distracted

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Normally we do not so much look at things

as overlook them

Alan Watts

photo remi carreiro

Thoughts arise and pass away

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A field of ocean waves force their way into shore at Cannon Beach against the strong winds along the Oregon Coast, USA.

During meditation we treat all thoughts as if they are of equal value. We try to be aware of them when they come up and then we intentionally return to the breath as the major focus of observation, regardless of the content of the thought!  In other words we intentionally practice letting go of each thought that attracts our attention,  whether it seems important or insightful or unimportant and trivial. We just observe them as thoughts, as discrete events which appear in the field of our awareness.

Jon Kabat Zinn, Full Catastrophe Living

Everything else is uncertain.

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grass11

Another quote from Irish poet W.B. Yeats today. I was just watching the news reports from the Philippines and seeing the scale of the destruction and death caused by Typhoon Haiyan. This along with some other events recently make me more aware of the fundamental fact which comes into focus when we do our meditation practices, namely that things change, moment by moment, day by day, in ways that we are not able to predict.  We try to keep our sense of balance on the present moment. Everything else is uncertain.

All things hang like a drop of dew

Upon a blade of grass

W.B. Yeats,  Gratitude to the Unknown Instructors

The enlightened mind is a mind that is always contemplating impermanence.

Suzuki Shõsan Rõshi

Our silent war

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At almost any point in my day if I stop and check down inside, I will find some version of my silent mantra – this moment should be different! – going on. I dislike how it is right now. It is not so pleasant. I want it to be like it was the other day, last week, last year. Or, I love how it is right now. It’s very pleasant. I want it to stay. How can I make this pleasant feeling stay? How can I keep the flow of experience from snatching it away? Oh don’t let it go. Each of us has our own silent War With Reality. And whatever our particular War With Reality is, the result is always a pervasive sense of the unsatisfactoriness of the moment.

Stephen Cope, The Wisdom of Yoga