Tag: Present moment

we prefer to look outside

Karl Duffy1 Comment

One day God got tired of being pestered by people asking for this and for that, so God calls a meeting of the most trusted angels and asks for suggestions as to where one can hide from pestering people. One angel advises God to hide on the highest peak of the highest mountain because no one will search there. Another angel says, “No, hide in the depth of the deepest ocean in the world and no one will search for you there.” Finally, God turns to the most trusted angel and asks: “Where do you suggest I should hide?” And the angel responds: “Hide in the human heart! No one will search for you there.”

Anthony de mello, sj

I’m very busy

Karl Duffy1 Comment

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

Me and my shadow

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“All states of being are determined by mind. It is mind that leads the way.
As surely as our shadow never leaves us,
so well-being will follow when we speak or act with a pure state of mind”.

Have you ever tried to run away from your shadow? As hard as you might try it never leaves you. Any action by body, speech or mind that is done with pure motivation will indeed lead to increased well-being. However small and apparently insignificant the act might be, happiness will follow.

Ajahn Munindo, Dhammapada Reflections, v2

A cold wind

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I pause in my gardening to look at a bird overhead whose cry has broken the silence. A refreshing wind….dries the sweat on my brow. Joy in life, joy in work, wells up in me.

“The wind is cold today, isn’t it” comments an elderly woman passing by. Does one feel the breeze as refreshing or as a heartlessly cold wind? The difference lies not in the wind but in the person perceiving it

Centuries ago, when Chao-chou asked Zen Master Nan-chuan if he should seek the Way, Nan-chuan answered, “If you try for it, you will become separated from it”

That which we call paradise or happiness…cannot be sought outside us. It will be found only when we notice that we are inherently endowed with it.

Shundo Aoyama, Zen Seeds

Appreciate the moments

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You should be experiencing the life that happening to you,

Not the one you wish was happening.

Don’t waste a moment of life trying to make other things happen;

Appreciate the moments you are given

Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul

Sunday Quote: Our armour

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Adopting a defensive position towards life can often mean we do not notice the nice things offered each day.

Even the general

took off his armour

to gaze at our peonies

Kikaku, Japanese Haiku poet, 1661 – 1707