Tag: wellbeing

Deep silence

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

File:Cove-lake-fork-mountain-tn1.jpg

In different traditions and at different times there were many attempts to express the value of setting aside some time for silence or creating some space to listen and yet they all agree on its benefits. What was true in the 12th century is even more true today. When we get caught up in relentless activity we are in danger of not hearing what our deep needs are, or indeed what are those of others close to us. Finding some time for quiet in our lives is not a luxury but rather is essential for protecting our health.

Let all my world be silent in your presence so that I may hear what you may say in my heart. Your words are so softly spoken  that no one can hear them except in a deep silence. But to hear them lifts the person who sits alone and in silence completely above their natural powers, because those who humble themselves will be lifted up. Those who sit alone and listen will be raised above themselves.

Guigo II, Carthusian monk, died 1188, Ladder of Monks and Twelve Meditations

photo brian stansberry

A way of interacting today

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Bee flower - Flickr - Andrea Westmoreland.jpg

In meditation practice we are cultivating a mind that knows rather than judges. In other words, it has enough space to hold what is happening,  without it triggering reactions or negative stories about  how our lives are.  I find the image in this passage to be a help toward developing that:

As a bee gathering nectar

does not harm or disturb

the colour and fragrance of the flower;

so does a wise person move

through the world.

The Dhammapada, v 49

photo Andrea Westmoreland

Growth

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

 

File:Oeuf en train d'eclore.jpg

Life is a living of who we are, until that form of self can no longer hold us, and …we must break the forms that contain us in order to birth our way into the next self. This is how we shed our many ways of seeing the world, not that any are false, but that each serves its purpose for a time until we grow and they no longer serve us.

Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening

photo lionel allorge

The origin of suffering

Karl Duffy2 Comments

File:Blue Line Train Passing Through State Street Station.jpg

Be attentive and notice that whatever arises passes away; that whatever condition of your mind or body – whether it is a sensation of pleasure or pain, feeling or memory, sight, sound, smell, taste or touch, inside or outside – is just a condition. It’s important to reflect on what ‘ignorance’ really means when .. called … the origin of all suffering. ‘Being ignorant’ means that we identify with these conditions, by regarding them as ‘me’ or ‘mine’, or as something that we don’t want to be ‘me’ or ‘mine’. We’ve got the idea that we’ve got to find some permanent pleasant condition, we have to achieve something, get something we don’t have. But you can notice that desire in your mind is a moving thing, looking for something, so it’s a changing condition that arises and passes away – it’s not-self.

Ajahn Sumedho, Everything that arises passes away

photo sean p bender

 

Working with who we are

Karl Duffy1 Comment

feet_walking1

Too often, people think that solving the world’s problems is based on conquering the earth,

rather than touching the earth,

touching ground

Chogyam Trungpa

The way we look at others

Karl Duffy2 Comments

File:Andrew Choy - Moon (by).jpg

Admit something:
Everyone you see, you say to them, “Love me”
Of course, you do not do so out loud; otherwise
Someone would call the cops
Still, though, think about this, this great pull in us
To connect.
Why not become the one who lives with a full moon
In each eye that is always saying,
With that sweet moon language,
What every other eye in this world is dying to hear?

Hafiz

photo andrew choy