Tag: Spirituality

Missing something?

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In meditation we are not trying to fix anything about ourselves. It is not about producing change, although change can occur. In a fundamental sense,  it is about being with ourselves and our life as it is. It is not about looking out there, but at ourselves, now, in this moment. It is complete as it is, if we could just see it.

When we start on this path, no doubt we are going for something…. Eventually we realize that we’re actually operating with a very dissatisfied mind, a greedy mind, a hungry mind, that it’s reaching for something.

What is it reaching for? Well, something imagined. Something projected out there. It’s feeling an inadequacy, that somehow we’re missing something. But were we to just settle into what’s actually occurring now in this very moment, there isn’t any straining, or striving, or struggle that’s taking place. It is simply a slowly opening up, awakening to just what is occurring here.

Steve Hagen

Stories 2: How the past defines us

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More on story and myth, this time from an excellent recently-published Buddhist perspective:

The Buddha taught that,  over time, the unobserved thought settles into character. Character is more than our temperament and personality; it is the fundamental way we see life, including our suppositions, ideas and views of who we are and what life is. When we look out of our eyes we see what we have been conditioned to see, and part of that conditioning is the assumed reality of the person who is having the experience.

Character is reinforced through our narrative, the ongoing story of “me”. We confirm our current reality through the recollection of how we have always been. For instance, if we have assumed a victim mentality from our past, we may have a predisposition to overcompensate and react strongly when we are imposed upon. Our personal narrative reveals our strengths and limitations, and engenders a self-attitude. As our story moves on, each chapter predisposes “me” to behave in a certain way, and though this proliferating tendency was never specified in our early history, the ongoing story gets captured within its momentum.

Rodney Smith, Stepping out of Self-Deception

Happiness is found within

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All experience is preceded by mind
led by mind, made by mind.

Speak or act with a troubled mind, and suffering will follow, Like the cart-wheel follows the hoof of the ox

Speak or act with a peaceful mind,
and happiness will follow,  Like a never departing shadow.

Dhammapada, The Way of Truth, I, 1 – 6

A Morning Prayer: Gratitude

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I join my hands in thanks
for the many wonders of life;
for having twenty-four brand-new hours before me.

Thich Nhat Hanh, Call Me by My True Names

An evening prayer

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May you be present in what you do.
May you never become lost in the bland absences.
May the day never burden you.
May dawn find you awake and alert, approaching your new day with dreams,
Possibilities and promises.
May evening find you gracious and fulfilled.
May you go into the night blessed, sheltered and protected.
May your soul calm, console and renew you.

John O’Donoghue, May the light of your soul gude you

How to lift your spirits

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In every walk with nature, one receives far more than one seeks.

John Muir

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.

Lao Tzu