Tag: Stress Reduction

Happiness and not judging anything

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

File:St Macarius the Great with Cherub.jpg

Some of the early Christian Desert Fathers saying are almost  Zen-like in their simplicity. In this example we find echoes of yesterdays post. It contains an instruction on what leads to us being content –  finding rest from our inner agitations: Turn the mind away from judgments, either about ourselves or others, keep the self fluid and in this way stop sticking labels on what is happening. Good advice for today.

Abba Poeman said to Abba Joseph, “Tell me how to become a monk”

He said, “If you want to find rest here below…in all circumstances say ‘who am I’ and do not judge anyone”

How to look at things today

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Walking through fields in Arang Kel Azad Kashmir 2.JPG

Keep your eyes fresh and open and joyful.

And move with sure steps, yet flexibly

through the fields of world so richly endowed

Goethe

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Sunday Quote: Joy

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

File:People of Bamyan-3.jpg

Joy is the simplest form of gratitude.

Karl Barth

Always here…

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File:Reflections on Lake Tal-y-llyn - geograph.org.uk - 582628.jpg

It takes three things to create a sense of significant being:
God,
a soul,
and a moment.

And the three are always present.

Rabbi Abbrahm Joshus Heschel

photo jack lea

The reacting mind

Karl Duffy2 Comments

File:Toronto Picnic.jpg

Let’s suppose that rain washes out a picnic. Who is feeling negative? The rain? Or YOU? What’s causing the negative feeling? The rain or your reaction? When you bump your knee against a table, the table’s fine. It’s busy being what it was made to be – a table. The pain is in your knee, not in the table. The mystics tell us that reality is all right. Reality is not problematic. Problems exist only in the human mind. Reality is not problematic. Take away human beings from this planet and life would go on, nature would go on in all its loveliness and violence. Where would the problem be? No problem. You created the problem. You are the problem. You identified with “me” and that is the problem. The feeling is in you, not in reality. 

Anthony de Mello, sj.

photo andreas duess

…and not recognizing

Karl Duffy2 Comments

File:Hanging at the Shop (5971682238).jpg

An ancient tale tells how Karamita met the Buddha but did not recognize him. He asked the “stranger” to explain the Buddha’s teachings to him, but did not like them. He then asked him if he had actually ever heard these ideas directly from the Buddha’s lips himself, to which the Buddha with a smile, answered no. Ajahn Amaro comments on this episode:

Ajahn Chah often said that this is a position we often find ourselves in – face to face with the Buddha, sharing a room together, spending hours and hours in deep conversation and not realizing who this is. The truth of life is staring us in the face, but because we have already got programmed with something else that we want and expect, we are missing out on the lessons that life is actually able to teach us.

Ajahn Amaro, Silent Rain

photo alex proimos