Tag: wellbeing

Heartfulness

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File:The pure clean spring water of Lowthorpe Beck - geograph.org.uk - 222624.jpg
“How cruel the whites are: their lips are thin, their noses sharp, their faces furrowed and distorted by holes. Their eyes have a staring expression. They are always seeking something. What are they seeking? The whites always want something, they are always uneasy and restless. We do not know what they want, we do not understand them, we think that they are mad.”
I asked him why he thought the whites were all mad.
“They say they think with their heads,” he replied.
“Why, of course. What do you think with?” I asked him in surprise.
“We think here,” he said, indicating his heart”.
C. G. Jung,  Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Conversation with Ochwiay Biano, an elder of the Taos Pueblo Tribe, New Mexico, 1925

Becoming the observer

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Movie hobbies
The reason we often can’t see the true nature of things is thatwe’re involved with them too subjectively and are afraid of whatthey might reveal about our egos. But if we step back from these phenomena, they become not so much ‘my story’ as just ‘a story’. It’s similar to watching a movie that’s extremely enjoyable – when it ends you can say, ‘Well, that’s not my story. That’s not me.’ You may have been taken through all kinds of impassioned human emotions (if the film is really good), but then you can go peacefully back to your own ordinary life.
Ajahn Thiradhammo, Contemplations on the Seven Factors of Awakening

Beyond duality

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File:Downy Birch, Priory Park - geograph.org.uk - 1291964.jpg

In our actual experience of life, our life is not plural, not only plural, but also singular. Each one of us are independent and dependent. We…after some years we will die. That will be the end of our life but if we think that is our end of life, that is wrong understanding.  And if we think we do  not die, that is also wrong understanding: we die and we do not die and that is right understanding.

Suzuki Roshi, Lecture on posture

photo Ian Capper

…even with contradictions

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File:Opposite Agios Axillios.JPG

It is easy enough to see that all through our lives we are faced with the task of reconciling opposites

which, in logical thought, cannot be reconciled

E.F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful

photo: pjposullivan

Holding tension

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:GocheGanas - View on walking activity.jpg

We must cultivate the ability to hold tension in life-giving ways. Our lives are filled with contradictions — from the gap between our aspirations and our behavior to observations and insights we cannot abide because they run counter to our convictions. If we fail to hold them creatively, these contradictions will shut us down and take us out of the action. But when we allow their tensions to expand our hearts, they can open us to new understandings of ourselves and our world, enhancing our lives and allowing us to enhance the lives of others. We are imperfect and broken beings who inhabit an imperfect and broken world. The genius of the human heart lies in its capacity to use these tensions to generate insight, energy, and new life.

Parker Plamer, Healing the Heart of Democracy

photo gocheganas

Looking for solid ground

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Feet on the ground.JPG

It’s not impermanence per se…. that is the cause of our suffering. Rather, it’s our resistance to the fundamental uncertainty of our situation. Our discomfort arises from all of our effort to put ground under our feet, to realize our dream of constant okayness.

Pema Chodron, The Fundamental Ambiguity of Being Human