Tag: wellbeing

Early Saturday morning thoughts

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skyA rare bright and sunny morning here in Ireland. This poem gets close to the spacious feeling which the early sun stirs up inside:

Got up on a cool morning. Leaned out a window.
No cloud, no wind. Air that flowers held
for awhile. Some dove somewhere.

Been on probation most of my life. And
the rest of my life been condemned. So these moments
count for a lot — peace, you know.

Let the bucket of memory down into the well,
bring it up. Cool, cool minutes. No one
stirring, no plans. Just being there.

This is what the whole thing is about.

William Stafford, 1914 – 1993 Just Thinking

Content

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File:Domestic Cat Enjoys Her Rest.jpg

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not

Epicurus

Do one thing

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desk

“When you are walking, walk. When you are sitting, sit,” is ancient wisdom. Hopping rapidly from one thing to the next, answering the phone while we’re shuffling papers while we’re sipping a latte, we fritter away our attention and forget more easily. ….. That is why learning to be a unitasker in a multitasking world is so vital. Rather than divide our attention, it is far more effective to take frequent breaks between intervals of sustained, one-pointed attention. Debunking the myth of multitasking, we become much better at what we do and increase the chance of being able to remember the details of work we have done in the past.

Sharon Salzberg, Real Happiness at Work

No longer trying to become

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zen tea

My thought is almost never directed on knowing myself as I am in this moment…and again in this moment. It is difficult for the thought to remain on what is, because it is based on memory and is constantly visualizing the possibility of becoming. How to …resist the desire to become,  in favor of simply what is? It is difficult for my thought to stay in front of the unknown. This means abandoning belief in everything it knows, even the trace of the preceding moment. To stay in front of the unknown my mind must be profoundly silent. This is a silence that is not obtained by suppressing or by sacrifice. I do not make the silence. It appears, when the mind sees that by itself alone, it cannot be in contact with something it cannot measure, something higher. Then the mind no longer seeks, it does not try to become.

Gurdjieff’s pupil,  Jeanne De Salzmann,  (1889 –  1990)  Reality of Being

With our flaws

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File:Twisted tree - geograph.org.uk - 1167885.jpg
We don’t have to hate ourselves for our own vulnerability. We don’t have to hate ourselves for what life has done to us.
We don’t have to hate ourselves because hurt or loss or longing has gotten to us. Our desires will always be with us in some form, keeping us firmly attached to a world that will hurt us.

We must come to love ourselves, love our life in its vulnerability, in its impermanence, not in spite of all its flaws, but because of them

Because the vulnerability, the changes, the flaws,  make us who we are.

 
Barry Magid, Ending the Pursuit of Happiness
photo: alan Murray-Rust

What is actually happening

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attention 8
When we put down ideas of what life should be like,
we are free to wholeheartedly say yes to our life as it is.
Tara Brach