Tag: wellbeing

Whole even if not perfect

Karl Duffy4 Comments

File:Contemporary wabi-sabi tea bowl.jpg

[Thomas] Merton taught me the importance of looking at life not merely in terms of either-or,  but also in terms of both-and. Paradoxical thinking is key to creativity, which comes from the capacity to entertain apparently contradictory ideas in a way that stretches the mind and opens the heart to something new. Paradox is also a way of being that’s key to wholeness, which does not mean perfection: it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life…..To be whole I have to be able to say I am both shadow and light.

Parker Palmer, A Friendship, A Love, A Rescue

photo wabi-sabi tea bowl by ottmarliebert

Not always running

Karl Duffy2 Comments

File:People Shadow.JPG

There was a man who was so disturbed by the sight of his own shadow and so displeased with his own footsteps that he determined to get rid of both. The method he hit upon was to run away from them. So he got up and ran. But every time he put his foot down there was another step, which his shadow kept up with him without the slightest difficulty.

He attributed his failure to the fact that he was not running fast enough. So he ran faster and faster, without stopping, until he finally dropped dead.

He failed to realize that if he merely stepped into the shade, his shadow would vanish, and if he sat down and stayed still, there would be no more footsteps.

Thomas Merton, The Way of Chuang Tzu

 

Trying to simply observe

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Mirror.jpg

The mind is like a mirror that reflects everything. Like a mirror, the mind is not damaged by anything it is reflecting. A mirror can reflect the ugliest, nastiest thing in the whole world and still remains untarnished, even though the reflection is terrible. The mind is like that mirror: the reflections can be very impure or ugly or vicious, or they can be very beautiful. If we try to punish the mirror, if we destroy or crack the mirror, we go crazy – then we are really stuck. But, if we are willing to, we can recognize that the reflection in the mirror simply is as it is. This recognition is a skilful way of dealing with thoughts and feelings that may be very unpleasant for us.

Ajahn Sumedho

Looking directly

Karl Duffy1 Comment
File:Stars 02 (MK).jpg
When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
Walt Whitman,  Leaves of Grass
photo mathias krumbholz

Never happy with ourselves

Karl Duffy3 Comments

File:Brahms Vierte Finale.jpg

No one imagines that a symphony is supposed to improve in quality as it goes along, or that the whole object of it is to reach the finale. The point of music is discovered in every moment of playing and listening to it. It is the same, I feel, with the greater part of our lives, and if we are unduly absorbed in improving them, we may forget altogether to live them

Alan Watts, This is it

Little pieces of heaven

Karl Duffy3 Comments

File:Finnish rocking chair.JPG

A beautiful description of what meditation time is: an act of kindness towards ourselves, a time when we do not have to be anything or get anywhere. We can allow trouble and judgment to be busy somewhere else, while we allow ourselves be supported and held in a kinder space.

Just lying on the couch and being happy.
Only humming a little, the quiet sound in the head.
Trouble is busy elsewhere at the moment, it has
so much to do in the world.

People who might judge are mostly asleep; they can’t
monitor you all the time, and sometimes they forget.
When dawn flows over the hedge you can
get up and act busy.

Little corners like this, pieces of Heaven
left lying around, can be picked up and saved.
People wont even see that you have them,
they are so light and easy to hide.

Later in the day you can act like the others.
You can shake your head. You can frown.

William Stafford, Any Morning