How naïve.

A wooden spoon for stirring jam,
Dripping sweet tar, while in the pan
Plum magma’s bubbles blather.
For someone who can’t grasp the whole
There’s salvation in the remembered detail.
What, back then, did I know about that?
The real, hard as a diamond,
Was to happen in the indefinable
Future, and everything seemed
Only a sign of what was to come. How naïve.
Now I know inattention is an unforgivable sin
And each particle of time has an ultimate dimension.

Janisz Szuber, 1947 – 2020, Polish Poet, About a Boy Stirring Jam

When your mind is raging

Enemies tried to kill the Buddha by releasing an intoxicated bull elephant named Nalagiri into the narrow street where the Buddha was walking. Those who saw the mad elephant charging shouted warnings to the Buddha and his monks to get out of the way. All the monks fled except for the Buddha and his faithful attendant Ananda [who] bravely moved in front of his master. Gently, the Buddha pushed Ananda to one side and faced the immensely powerful charging elephant alone.

Perhaps the Buddha thought something like this “Dear Nalagiri, the door of my heart is open to you, no matter what you ever do to me. You may swat me with your trunk or crush me under your feet, But I will give you no ill will”

The Buddha gently placed peace in the space between him and the dangerous elephant.in a few seconds the elephant’s rage had subsided, and he was meekly bowing before the Compassionate One…

When your mind is raging, use kindfulness and letting go. Make peace with your crazy mind instead of fighting it. Don’t use force to subdue your raging bull elephant of a mind.

Ajahn Brahm, Kindfulness

Sunday Quote: Not seeing clearly

In its deepest sense, suffering is intimately linked to a misapprehension of the nature of reality.

Matthieu Ricard, Happiness

Meaning

When a person cannot find a deep sense of meaning

they distract themselves with pleasure

Viktor Frankl

A broken gong

If you can keep yourself calm and quiet like a broken gong which does not resonate, you have realized Nibbana. There is no quarrelling in you.

Dhammapada Verse 134

The Buddha says, ideally, you want to make your mind like a broken gong. People can hit it but there is no reverberation

Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Never satisfied

According to Buddhism, the root of suffering is neither the feeling of pain nor of sadness nor even of meaninglessness. Rather, the real root of suffering is this never-ending and pointless pursuit of ephemeral feelings, which causes us to be in a constant state of tension, restlessness and dissatisfaction. Due to this pursuit, the mind is never satisfied. Even when experiencing pleasure, it is not content, because it fears this feeling might soon disappear, and craves that this feeling should stay and intensify. People are liberated from suffering not when they experience this or that fleeting pleasure, but rather when they understand the impermanent nature of all their feelings, and stop craving them.

Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind