Mindfulness Moments

03/11/2020

Being with what's perfect
“Zen places Enlightenment first” says the Japanese Master Ummon, “get rid of your bad Karma afterwards.” He doesn’t let us off any of the work of facing and fully acknowledging our human hang-ups of every sort at every level. That long and costly discipline is unavoidable. Only let’s begin, he says in effect, with what’s freely and instantly available to us whatever our problems, with what’s already perfect — namely our Source and Centre. Then, consciously established at the Centre, we shall be in a position to handle all of the peripheral confusion.

from Religions of the World by Douglas Harding

27/10/2020

Go for the truth
If we go for the truth, what's so, then our feelings and thoughts (which are always changing) will be less of a problem and more of a help. Go for what's steady, unchanging, basic — in particular what is imperishable, unbounded, unmoving, empty and full Clarity, right here and now, and the rest will be added.

Douglas Harding

16/01/2019

“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.” —Henry Thoreau

14/01/2019

Although the first order of Buddhist Nuns still did not give the women quite equal rights, it's a terrific story about the Buddha's Aunt, who could be called 'the first feminist'.

On Jan. 19, women in the US will gather to protest inequality—a tradition that goes all the way back to a feminist march in ancient India.

30/12/2018

Wishing you all a happy New Year

14/12/2017

One of the world’s great spiritual teachers celebrated a birthday this month: Thich Nhat Hanh turned 91 on Oct. 11. Tapestry marks the occasion with a special episode: Coming Home to the Present: the Life and Work of Thich Nhat Hanh.

13/08/2017

"And this is perhaps the crux of the problem of the mindless application of Buddhist meditation practice: the marketing of mindfulness as a solution to work stress and life balance rather than the complex spiritual approach to living it is meant to be."

Corporate culture has stripped the ancient practice of mindfulness of its spirituality and re-branded it as a modern solution to over-work.

19/06/2017

The world is perfect as it is, including my desire to change it.
Ram Dass.

08/03/2017

Fear
We are afraid to approach the fathomless and bottomless groundlessness of everything. "There's nothing to be afraid of" - the ultimate reassurance and the ultimate terror. R.D. Laing

25/01/2017

The changeful keeps on changing, while the changeless is waiting. Do not expect the changeful to take you to the changeless - it can never happen. Nisargadatta Maharaj

29/11/2016

“While you'll feel compelled to charge forward it's often a gentle step back that will reveal to you where you and what you truly seek.” ~ Rasheed Ogunlaru

23/11/2016

Non-attachment is not the elimination of desire. It is the spaciousness to allow any quality of mind, any thought or feeling, to arise without closing around it, without eliminating the pure witness of being. It is an active receptivity to life. Stephen Levine