You will be shown the way
when your wagon is overturned
Babylonian proverb
(with thanks to alive on all channels.com)
Tag: wellbeing
Let’s try quiet eyes today
The theologian Howard Thurman said, “Look at the world with quiet eyes.” Isn’t that lovely? Just look at the world with quiet eyes. Usually when we are in the midst of life’s circumstances — whatever they are — we can be very reactive and therefore miss the many gifts for which we can have gratitude and also miss opportunities to give, thus making our very presence a blessing. It reminds me of some cartoon characters with eyeballs on springs that pop out when they see something surprising. But looking upon the world with quiet eyes, we can feel a sense of simply coming back into ourselves and into receptive mode. Ready to give and to receive the blessings of our life.
Gina Sharpe
photo Yuya Sekiguchi
The wonder of this day
All that is eternal in me
Welcomes the wonder of this day,
The field of brightness it creates
Offering time for each thing
To arise and illuminate.
May my mind come alive today
To the invisible geography
That invites me to new frontiers,
To break the dead shells of yesterdays,
To risk being disturbed and changed.
May I have the courage today
To live the life I would love,
To postpone my dream no longer
But do at last what I came here for
And waste my heart on fear no more.
John O’Donohue, Morning Prayer
This is the way it is
Advice from two great teachers from the Thai tradition, where I find myself mainly at home.
Ajahn Sumedho has had a huge influence on the development of meditation practice in the West. Here he refers to an observation made by one of the great figures in Thai Theravada Buddhist practice, summarizing neatly the whole of mindfulness practice. Its an observation which is one of my favourites and points us towards the right attitude.
That being said, it’s not so easy to work with when circumstances are challenging, or, you know, those evenings when the heart just feels a bit lost.
Buddhadasa Bhikkhu said, “If there was to be a useful inscription to put on a medallion around your neck it would be ‘This is the way it is’.”
This reflection helps us to contemplate: wherever we happen to be, whatever time and place, good or bad, ‘This is the way it is.’
It is a way of bringing an acceptance into our minds,
a noting rather than a reaction.
Ajahn Sumedho, The Way it is
Not dependent on everything going right
Joy is that kind of happiness that does not depend on what happens.
David Steindal Rast, born 1926, Catholic monk, founder of A Network for Grateful Living
photo yumi kimura
The stories that keep us back
One of the most beautifully disturbing questions we can ask, is whether a given story we tell about our lives is actually true, and whether the opinions we go over every day have any foundation or are things we repeat to ourselves simply so that we will continue to play the game. It can be quite disorienting to find that a story we have relied on is not only not true – it actually never was true. Not now not ever. There is another form of obsolescence that can fray at the cocoon we have spun about ourselves, that is, the story was true at one time, and for an extended period; the story was even true and good to us, but now it is no longer true and no longer of any benefit, in fact our continued retelling of it simply imprisons us.
David Whyte
photo Uwe H. Friese
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