Spacious Sky Holds Passing Clouds Lightly

     "Security is mostly a superstition, it does not exist in nature,
nor do the children of men (and women) as a whole experience it.
Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all!" Helen Keller

     "Something very beautiful happens to people when their world has fallen apart: a humility, a nobility, a higher intelligence emerges at just the point when our knees hit the floor." Marianne Williamson

      “Compulsive concern with ‘I, me, and mine’ isn’t the same as loving ourselves … Loving ourselves points us to capacities of resilience, compassion, and understanding within that are simply part of being human.” Sharon Salzberg

     "Sometimes you have to let go of the picture of what you thought it would be like and learn to find joy in the story you are actually living." Rachel Marie Martin

     "You need nothing more than the experience you are having right now. It is enough. It is plenty. It is perfect just as it is. It was designed for you, given to you for your experience. All you have to do, and all you have ever had to do is accept this gift. Take it and let it in. Let yourself experience the present moment just as it is. It doesn't get any better than this. This is the simple truth the ego refuses to accept, and it will suffer as long as that is the case." Gina Lake  

     "Mindfulness does not reject experience. It lets experience be the teacher. With mindfulness, we can enter the difficulties in our life and find healing and freedom."
                                                                                                                                            Jack Kornfield  

     "You are the sky. Everything else — it’s just the weather." Pema Chödrön 

AwakeningArtsAcademy.com

Keeping Quiet

“Original nature has no opposites. 

Speech and words are not necessary. 

Without thinking, all things are exactly as they are. 

The truth is just like this.”  

Zen Master Seung Sahn

"Keeping Quiet"
by

Pablo Neruda

Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still.
For once on the face of the earth,
let's not speak in any language;
let's stop for a second,
and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.

Fishermen in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would not look at his hurt hands.

Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.

What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about; . . .

If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death.

Perhaps the earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead in winter
and later proves to be alive.

Now I'll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.

Christi Belcourt "Honouring My Spirit Helpers" christibelcourt.com

Meditation Practice

     Peacefully "gathering data", observing & learning to understand nature: the lawful unfolding of causes & conditions?  
     What IS this, right here, right now?

THEN

     Fearfully re-playing the endless "story of me" in the quicksand of obsessing about "I, me & mine"?

THEN

     Gratefully mindful that attention is noticed being off course, attention effortlessly, gently, patiently, seamlessly shifts back to reality: 
     "Just this" right here, right now.

THEN  ...

by Georgia Peschel     www.georgiatoons.com

What If?

     "The truly undisturbed mind is not a private experience; it is more 'public.' That clear mind is of a single nature, so it is really everyone's mind nature. . . . The pure state of the unborn nature of primordial presence is the same for everyone."
       Kilung Rinpoche


     “How would you live today if you really knew intuitively that the inner dimension of your own deepest knowing / presence / awareness / mindfulness is actually a shared commons with all beings - just as the ocean is a shared commons for all the tossed and turbulent waves?”
       Joel & Michelle Levey


     What if just this - what we perceive, right now is - it? 
     But to actually experience just this requires that we first release all our ideas about, and other boundaries hiding it.
     How do I live now?


       See also: http://www.johnlovas.com/2012/01/healing-growth.html

North End Halifax, NS, Canada

 

Feeling, Leaning Into with Curiosity the Physical Reality of Just This

     “Both heart and mind have to be involved in this journey toward liberation from the ‘self.’ The mind understands and concludes, connects and discerns, whereas the heart feels. 
     When our feelings become free of emotional reactions and dwell in love and compassion as their natural abode, our mind will be open to the great truths of universal significance. And the more we refer to these truths, the closer we will get to spiritual emancipation.”

       Ayya Khema. “Being Nobody, Going Nowhere. Meditations on the Buddhist Path.” Wisdom Publications, 2016. 

Perfectly Human

"Just as a jewel that has been buried in the earth
for a million years is not discolored or harmed,
in the same way your noble heart can be brought out
into the light at any time, and it will glow
as brilliantly as if nothing had ever happened."

Pema Chodron

WisdomAtWork.com

Keep Walking - Persevere!

"The distance you can lead other people
is the distance you have traveled yourself.
The distance you place between you and others,
is the distance waiting to be traveled
between your head
and your own heart."

Laroques des Alberes

WisdomAtWork.com

Just This Moment - as it Actually Is - OR - Perseverative Cognition

     “… it takes a bit of meditative presence to be with what is – just as it is – without being distracted by all the evaluations and comments that habitually arise about our situation. We suffer more from our stories than from the actual situation as it is.”         Toni Packer 

     “My life has been filled with terrible misfortunes – most of which have never happened.”        Mark Twain


Perseverative Cognition: Brosschot JF, Verkuil B, Thayer JF. Conscious and unconscious perseverative cognition: is a large part of prolonged physiological activity due to unconscious stress? J Psychosom Res. 2010; 69(4): 407-16.
Psychology of Stress: http://www.guidetopsychology.com/stress.htm

Montreal, Canada