Wednesday life form blogging

Photo by our own Cynthia Burgess!

Point well taken

I've always liked this:

If it is peace you want, seek to change yourself, not other people. It is easier to protect your feet with slippers than to carpet the whole of the earth.

-- Anthony de Mello

Memorial Day, 2009

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.

-- Arthur Ashe

Connection problems

Dear readers,

I've lost internet connection at home so posting will be sporadic until that is up and running again.

Thanks for your understanding!

Peace,
Ellie
~~~

Perfectionism kills

Okay, folks. I've been tellin' ya and tellin' ya! The article is entitled "Do Perfectionists Face Early Deaths? New Study Suggests Yes". Here's how it gets started:

Perfectionism, as a way of life, tends to be self-defeating. New research suggests it may also be deadly.

That's the conclusion of a Canadian study of senior citizens just published in the journal of Health Psychology. Researchers conducted psychological tests on 450 elderly residents of southern Alberta, and then kept tabs on them for 6½ years. During that period, just over 30 percent of the subjects, who ranged in age from 65 to 87, died.

Perfectionists — that is, those who expressed "a strong motivation to be perfect" and revealed a tendency toward "all or nothing thinking" — were approximately 51 percent more likely to have died during the life of the study than those with more reasonable self-expectations. Those who were rated high on neuroticism — for instance, those who reported often feeling tense — did even worse: Their risk of death nearly doubled compared with those with a more relaxed disposition.

You know I'm going to say it: meditation will help.

There.

Starting the day

I came across this a long time ago and then just found it again:

First thing in the morning, before you meet or greet anyone, remember to greet all of nature, all visible and invisible creatures. Say to them: "I am grateful for your work, I love you and want to be in harmony with you!" At this very moment, in response to your greeting, all of nature will open to you and send you energy for the entire day.

- Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Reality

Just be with this for a while:

The sun and its light,

the ocean and the wave,

the singer and his song—

not one.

Not two.

-- Anthony de Mello

Ha! Just think about it.

Monday meditative picture blogging

Pennsylvania Dutch Hex Sign

Letting go of the contest mentality

It troubles me so much when romantic partners or friends get in a contest with each other and make their relationship a zero sum game. Here's another alternative:

Compassionate action starts with seeing yourself when you start to make yourself right and when you start to make yourself wrong. At that point you could just contemplate the fact that there is a larger alternative to either of those, a more tender, shaky kind of place where you could live.

--Pema Chödrön

Inner stillness

We've all known this for a long time. It's just easy for people to forget:

Within you there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at anytime and be yourself.

— Herman Hesse

Simplification

The advice to "simplify your life" has become a classic, hasn't it? But it's rare to find a source to explain how to do it a very non-judmental, step-by-step, systematic way. I've just discovered a great blog that will do just that.

The blog is Zen Habits, and I want to quote from a page called "Simple Living Simplified: 10 Things You Can Do Today to Simplify Your Life". I like this example:

Purge a drawer. Or a shelf, or a countertop, or a corner of a room. Not an entire room or even an entire closet. Just one small area. You can use that small area as your base of simplicity, and then expand from there. Here’s how to purge: 1) empty everything from the drawer or shelf or corner into a pile. 2) From this pile, pick out only the most important things, the stuff you use and love. 3) Get rid of the rest. Right now. Trash it, or put it in your car to give away or donate. 4) Put the stuff you love and use back, in a neat and orderly manner.

As it happens, I did this yesterday - two drawers, in fact. What a great feeling. (And now I can find socks that match!)

Time Magazine called Zen Habits one of the 25 best blogs of the year.

Oh, this is great!

Just look:

Stress reduction courses in the office are not the answer. Ego reduction courses would be a lot more productive.

— Christopher Titmuss in An Awakened Life

That would really revolutionize work life, wouldn't it?
~~~

Wednesday life form blogging

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Ideals vs. idealism

Ann Callaway posted the following quotation in a comment over on "Does Not Wisdom Call?" - one of my other blogs:

There is a difference between knowing the ideal and being attached to idealism...ideals are great as descriptions of how we want things to be; when they are used as descriptions of how things 'ought to be', they become idealism, a form of delusion.

-- Jiyu-Kennett

Annie went on to say:

I found this disctinction to be very clarifying for those times when I "expect" others to behave in certain ways and am disappointed when they do not.

I agree. Yes, indeed.

Autonomy and acceptance

Artist: Mary Cassett

Image from Wikimedia Commons

The other day I had occasion to talk with someone about autonomy. You know, from a meditative point of view, trying to be someone else is a form of unskillful attachment that creates suffering:

Today you are You,
that is truer than true.
There is no one alive
who is Youer than You.

-- Dr. Seuss

Now, here's what I want you to do: Go find a mirror and just gaze into it for a while - longer than feels comfortable - without judgment. And then ponder the little Seuss verse. See where you get with that!

Happy Mother's Day

I want to share two of my very favorite mother quotes with you today. The first one demonstrates the power and benefit of affirmation:

When I was a child, my mother said to me, 'If you become a soldier, you'll be a general. If you become a monk you'll end up as the pope.' Instead I became a painter and wound up as Picasso.

-- Picasso

And the second one is about tolerance and humor:

My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.

-- Mark Twain

Making life workable

Well, I've found a new - new to me, that is - website called The Meditation Spot. As I browsed around I came across a page entitled Meditations for Reducing Stress. Here's the first paragraph:

Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn teaches meditation to his medical patients. He writes: "The stress in our lives has become so great and insidious that more and more people are making the deliberate decision to understand it better and to bring stress under personal control." His two books teach a selection of meditation techniques, including body scans, sitting or walking meditation, yoga, chants, and visualizations. He writes: "When you are grounded in calmness and moment-to-moment awareness, you are more creative and you see new options. Life is more workable."

It's a pity our world brings so much stress our way. That can't be changed, really. But how we react to stress can, indeed, be changed. Personally, I find that realization both consoling and encouraging.
~~~

Saturday cat blogging!

His name is Bugs.

Photo by Paul Rogers

Purpose

When you know who you are;
when your mission is clear and you
burn with the inner fire of unbreakable will;
no cold can touch your heart;
no deluge can dampen your purpose.
You know that you are alive.

~Chief Seattle

Have I shown you this one before?

I just love it! I really do!

How simple

I think I'm going to print this one out and tack it up somewhere in my house - on my bathroom mirror or on my way out the door or something. This is so good, so true, so helpful:

How simple it is to see
that all the worry in the world
cannot control the future.
How simple it is to see
that we can only be happy now.
And that there will never be a time
when it is not now.

-- Gerald Jampolsky, MD

Henry Finlay (May 1, '95 - May 5, '09)

Henry Finlay

My wonderful, wonderful cat, Henry, died "the good death" peacefully in my arms around 12:30 PM today.

His kidneys had failed and he had stopped eating and drinking. It was time.

Henry was magnificent in every way - beautiful, possessed of great dignity, and more affectionate than any other cat who has ever shared my life. He specialized in both nose kisses and ear nuzzles! He was the "old man" of the family and never lost his "top kitty" status --- even after he got sick.

I am, of course, grief stricken - especially losing him so soon after my beloved Izzy.

But I am grateful and always will be. Grateful to have had the opportunity to give him a forever home when he needed one and even more grateful for all the emotional and spiritual support he has given me for thirteen years now.

Rest in peace my sweet boy. You are purring for the angels now.

~~~

Monday meditative picture blogging

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Words, words, words

This is very true, I think:

The words 'I am...' are potent words; be careful what you hitch them to. The thing you're claiming has a way of reaching back and claiming you.

-- A. L. Kitselman

Years ago, my very cynical (at the time) mother sent me this equally cynical little verse (I'm quoting from memory so this may not be perfectly accurate):

When the universe began
God, they say, created Man.
Later (dancing round the sod),
Man, they say, created God.
Watch your words or they will do
Something of the same to you.

Oh, oh, oh. Really ponder those last two lines, would you?

I just read that today is the first World Labyrinth Day. Take a look at this:

The Labyrinth Society has declared the first Saturday in May as World Labyrinth Day a global day of celebration of the labyrinth with an invitation to walk a labyrinth at 1PM around the world, in your local time zone. The first annual World Labyrinth Day will be celebrated on May 2nd, 2009.

Sorry I didn't bring this to you in time for the 1:00 PM walk. Next year!

I found the information here.

I don't know; could be!

Well, sometimes it's like this! :-)

Wednesday life form blogging

Photo by Walter Calahan (with permission)

Inner work

Here it is - expressed with the utmost eloquence and simplicity:

I would like my life to be a statement of love and compassion - and where it isn't, that's where my work lies.

-- Ram Dass

Monday meditative picture blogging

Photo fromWikimedia Commons

Somthing about standards and values

This articulates so beautifully one of the reasons I recommend that people let go of making "shoulds" and "oughts" the basis of their lives:

Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am. I must listen for the truths and values at the heart of my own identity, not the standards by which I must live - but the standards by which I cannot help but live if I am living my own life.

-- Herbert Alphonso, SJ

What are you waiting for?

How many of us have said over the years, "I'll meditate when I have time," or "I'll start going to class again when I get more organized," or something like that?

I like this:

Do not wait! The time will never be 'just right'. Start where you stand and work with whatever tools you may have at your command and better tools will be found as you go along.

~ Napoleon Hill

The writer may not have been talking about meditation as such but what he says in this instance certainly applies.

Wisdom

It's a well known story that I've read many times before but I'm not sure I've posted here. So, in case you haven't seen this, take a look:

A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation. The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But a few days later he came back to return the
stone to the wise woman.

"I've been thinking," he said, "I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone."

-- Author unknown

This says it all, really!

We can reflect on this one for a long, long time to our great benefit:

Non-attachment brings deep truth,
And a truthful nature brings immortality.
Empty your heart.
Sit quietly on a mat.
In meditation we become one with All.

-- Loy Ching-yuen

Meditation and The Bard

It's Shakespeare's birthday today, folks, and so I thought I'd share a few things he wrote that speak to the meditative process:

*Go to your bosom: Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know.

*There is nothing either good nor bad, but thinking makes it so.

*And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.

*Expectation is the root of all heartache.

*I shall the effect of this good lesson keeps as watchman to my heart.

*What is past is prologue.

*We are such stuff As dreams are made on; and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.

*But no perfection is so absolute, That some impurity doth not pollute.

*And many strokes, though with a little axe, Hew down and fell the hardest-timbered oak.

Have fun with these. And it can be illuminating to look for others that are consistent with meditative principles.

Happy Earth Day!

Image: Sacramento Earth Day 2009 Poster

Please, please, please, let's not forget this:

"The earth we abuse and the living things we kill will, in the end, take their revenge; for in exploiting their presence we are diminishing our future."

-- Marya Mannes

Kissing the earth

Well, I've read a lot of Thich Nhat Hanh over the years but he is very prolific and so I'm sure I've not nearly read everything he has written. Here is a wonderful approach to walking meditation that is new to me:

When we walk like (we are running), we print anxiety and sorrow on the earth. We have to walk in a way that we only print peace and serenity on the earth... Be aware of the contact between your feet and the earth. Walk as if you are kissing the earth with your feet.

-- Thich Nhat Hanh

I do so love the idea of kissing the earth with our feet.

Monday meditative picture blogging

"Contemplation"

Artist: Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant

Image from Wikimedia Commons

How do we treat the vulnerable?

Remember "Dear Abby"? Here's something I just found that we would all do well to remember:

The best index to a person's character is how he treats people who can't do him any good, and how he treats people who can't fight back.

-- Abigail Van Buren

Saturday cat blogging!

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Staying in the moment

Here's another approach to being utterly in the now:

I will greet this day with love in my heart. And how will I do this? Henceforth will I look on all things with love and be born again. I will love the sun for it warms my bones; yet I will love the rain for it cleanses my spirit. I will love the light for it shows me the way; yet I will love the darkness for it shows me the stars. I will welcome happiness as it enlarges my heart; yet I will endure sadness for it opens my soul. I will acknowledge rewards for they are my due; yet I will welcome obstacles for they are my challenge.

-- Og Mandino

Wednesday life form blogging

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Impermanence

This can be experienced as distressing or consoling. Your choice:

What is life? It is a flash of a firefly in the night. It is a breath of a buffalo in the winter time. It is as the little shadow that runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.

~ Crowfoot, Blackfoot Tribal Chief

X marks the spot

Here's a lovely articulation of what it means to be in the present moment:

No one longs for what he or she already has, and yet the accumulated insight of those wise about the spiritual life suggest that the reason so many of us cannot see the red X that marks the spot is because we are standing on it. The treasure we seek requires no lengthy expedition, no expensive equipment, no superior aptitude or special company. All we lack is the willingness to imagine that we already have everything we need. The only thing missing is our consent to be where we are.
...
My life depends on engaging the most ordinary physical activities with the most exquisite attention I can give them.

~ Barbara Brown Taylor

Sounds like what she's saying is, "Be here now."

Monday meditative picture blogging

Artist: Lesser Ury
Image from Wikimedia Commons

Empathy

Very powerful, folks. Especially given the age of the writer:

EMPATHY

He prayed — it wasn't my religion.
He ate — it wasn't what I ate.
He spoke — it wasn't my language.
He dressed — it wasn't what I wore.
He took my hand — it wasn't the color of mine.
But when he laughed — it was how I laughed,
and when he cried — it was how I cried.

by 16-year-old Amy Maddox of Bargersville, Indiana

"The darkness shall be the light"

I said to my soul, be still,

and wait without hope.
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing;

and wait without love,
for love would be love of the wrong thing;

there is yet faith.
But the faith, and the hope, and the love

are all in the waiting.
And so the darkness shall be the light,

and the stillness, the dancing.

— T. S. Eliot

Something we'd all do well to remember

Read more about it right here.

Play with this one

It's a bumper sticker. And it really tickled my funny bone!

"Circular Definition: see Definition, Circular."

Valuing sacrifice

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

The quotation below may surprise you for a meditation blog but I'll tell you why I chose it. Today, of course, is Good Friday - a day of somber holiness for Christians. So it seemed an appropriate day to look at the function and value of sacrifice - for that is a universal value and concept to people of all faiths as well as to those who claim no particular religion. And, as we observe over and over again, sacrifice (especially for one's young) is also a part of the life of many animals - sometimes truly astonishingly so.

To me, the statement below makes it luminously clear why valuing sacrifice in others and being willing to make sacrifices ourselves need to be not only cultivated but treasured in our interior work:

There are plenty of teams in every sport that have great players and never win titles. Most of the time, those players aren't willing to sacrifice for the greater good of the team. The funny thing is, in the end, their unwillingness to sacrifice only makes individual goals more difficult to achieve. One thing I believe to the fullest is that if you think and achieve as a team, the individual accolades will take care of themselves. Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.

-- Michael Jordan

Expectations

Now I admit that this is very hard to put into practice:

It is important to expect nothing,
To take every experience,
Including the negative ones,
As merely steps on the path,
And to proceed.

-- Ram Dass

It was in 1990 and I was preparing to make a trip to the city that had been my home for many years (having only moved away the previous year). I was very, very excited about the upcoming vacation and found myself fantasizing about how wonderful it would be. I visualized visits with all the people I cared about and just what those occasions would be like. Suddenly it hit me how I was idealizing my expectations and truly setting myself up for disappointment. And so I decided to make my only objective that of getting there and getting back. That, I told myself, would make it a successful trip and anything else would be icing on the cake.

As it happened, I had a truly wonderful time. But that wonderful time was different from my earlier fantasy. If I had not let go of the expectations I had been cultivating I don't think I would have experienced my visit "home" as wonderful at all.

Letting go of black and white thinking

Two of my favorite Zen slogans are these:

Not this; not that.

Not one; not two.

And then today I find the following:

Neurosis is the inability to tolerate ambiguity.

-- Sigmund Freud

The intrinsic goodness of difference

"Comparisons are odious" goes the old saying.

So many people who come to talk to me suffer because they don't have someone else's gifts or are not able to live up to someone else's expectations. He's something very encouraging that speaks to this:

If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first place. He put in your heart certain wishes and plans, and in my heart he put other different desires. Each man is good in his sight. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows.

-- Chief Sitting Bull

I truly believe that if you're doing what you are called to do that your heart will dance. I don't mean that there will never be difficulties but that fundamentally, at the very core of your being, there is a deep delight.

Wherever you go, there you are

I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea, and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the Stern Fact, the Sad Self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Where are you right now, anyway?

A couple of years ago, I got a Christmas present for myself -- a book by Kent Nerburn called Simple Truths. I truly think he is very wise and he writes just beautifully. Today I found the quotation below:

When you are here, you are here. When you are gone, you are gone. It isn't a problem to be gone, so long as you are really here when you're here.

-- Kent Nerburn

Remember that famous slogan, "Be Here Now"? That's what Nerburn is on about.

An encouraging saying

This is both strengthening and consoling. And also very, very true:

Be humble for you are made of earth.
Be noble for you are made of stars.

- Serbian Proverb

An inspiring, empowering principle

Sojourners sent this quotation out today. What Chávez is saying here is so, so focused, so radiant with clarity, that it inspires me greatly. I think I will post it on all three blogs because it speaks to the theme and purpose of each one:

The first principle of nonviolent action is that of noncooperation with everything humiliating.

- César Chávez

Tuesday meditative picture blogging

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Home free

Oh my. Take a look at this:

Everything matters: how we vote, how we tie our shoelaces, how we respond to the faintest whisper of a thought. And nothing matters, because (look!) it's already gone. When we understand this, we're home free.

It's from Stephen Mitchell's new translation of the works of Lao-tzu's disciple Chuang-tzu and Confucius's grandson Tzu-Ssu. It's called The Second Book of the Tao.

Harmony and resonance

A lifetime may not be long enough to attune ourselves fully to the harmony of the universe. But just to become aware that we can resonate with it -- that alone can be like waking up from a dream.

~~David Steindl-Rast

Wednesday life form blogging

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Something about dreams and choice

It's hard to put into words how the passage I'm sharing with you today affected me when I read it. I have viewed reality this way for a very long time - decades, really. But I have never before seen it expressed so well:

All men and women are born, live, suffer and die; what distinguishes us one from another is our dreams, whether they be dreams about worldly or unworldly things, and what we do to make them come about... We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time and conditions of our death. But within this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we live.

-- Joseph Epstein

Consoling advice

Available here

Monday meditative picture blogging

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

"Leisure is a form of silence, not noiselessness. It is the silence of contemplation such as occurs when we let our minds rest on a rosebud, a child at play, a Divine mystery, or a waterfall."

-- Fulton J. Sheen

I remember loving Bishop Sheen's television programs when I was a kid. He was really a lovely person.

Letting go of delusion

We often talk about "peeling off the layers" as part of the process of doing inner work. Here's something Meister Eckhart said about just that:

A human being has so many skins inside, covering the depths of the heart. We know so many things, but we don’t know ourselves! Why, thirty or forty skins or hides, as thick and hard as an ox’s or a bear’s, cover the soul. Go into your own ground and learn to know yourself there.

Remember that "Oh human being, know yourself!" has long been consdered the most significant utterance of the ancient Oracle of Delphi.

This is the work, dear people. This is the work.

Life's hazards

The following insight is hard to take on board, I know. But notice that Charlotte Beck is careful to state that it takes years of meditative practice to see life this way:

Life itself is hazardous. . . . There are sharp rocks everywhere. What changes from years of practice is coming to know something you didn't know before: that there are no sharp rocks — the road is covered with diamonds.

— Charlotte Joko Beck in Nothing Special

Friday cat blogging!

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Blogging delay

Dear Readers,

My computer is in the shop at the moment and so there will be a slight delay in posting. (Not sure how long that will be but I just didn't want anyone to worry.)

Wednesday life form blogging

This is Smokey, the wonderful pit bull whose human is my dear friend, Bill Miller.

I've posted a number of Bill's photos year over the past couple of years. You might like to visit Bill's blog: Tulsa Gentleman

My kind of dog

Did I ever share this with you? Most of you know that I have a new dog, Bernice. She was spayed yesterday and is recovering well.

Choosing A Dog

"It's love," they say. You touch
the right one and a whole half of the universe
wakes up, a new half.

Some people never find
that half, or they neglect it or trade it
for money or success and it dies.

The faces of big dogs tell, over the years,
that size is a burden: you enjoy it for awhile
but then maintenance gets to you.

When I get old I think I'll keep, not a little
dog, but a serious dog,
for the casual, drop-in criminal —

My kind of dog, unimpressed by
dress or manner, just knowing
what's really there by the smell.

Your good dogs, some things that they hear
they don't really want you to know —
it's too grim or ethereal.

And sometimes when they look in the fire
they see time going on and someone alone,
but they don't say anything.

~ William Stafford

Well, Bernice is neither small nor serious. Maybe I'm just not quite old enough yet! :-)

All I know is that having a dog greatly supports my mental health. I also can take pleasure in knowing that, by adopting a rescue, I have given happiness and security to another sentient being on this wonderful earth that is full of both beauty and cruelty.

Erin Go Bragh!

Here are some wonderful Irish toasts that I wish for all of you!

May you get all your wishes but one.
So you always have something to strive for.
...
May your blessings outnumber
The shamrocks that grow,
And may trouble avoid you
Wherever you go.
...
May your neighbors respect you,
Troubles neglect you,
The angels protect you,
And Heaven accept you.
...
May the best day of your past
be the worst day of your future.
...
May you have warm words on a cold evening,
A full moon on a dark night,
And the road downhill all the way to your door.

Here's a wonderful brief bio of St. Patrick. Enjoy!

Monday meditative picture blogging

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

The edge of mystery

I've told you before, I think, about the marquee outside the Nazarene Church down on the corner from my house. Seems to me that they've outdone themselves with this message:

We all live on the edge of mystery --
But most choose to ignore it.

Awareness

The only thing that can save the world is the reclaiming of the awareness of the world. That's what poetry does.

-- Allen Ginsberg

And so does meditation. For my money, I'll take both! :-)

Happy Pi Day!!!

Just for those who may have forgotten over the years: Pi is what you get when you divide the circumference of a circle by its diameter. When you try to represent it in decimal form, it goes on forever --- that is, it never ends or repeats. (It starts off with 3.14 --- March 14. Get it?)

How is this pertinent to meditation? Well, it gives us an appreciation for the complexity of reality and that helps us take a more spacious approach to how we view the world. And, heck. It's just fun! (And fascinating.)

Okay. For those of you whose eyes glaze over at anything mathematical but who like words, I give you a poem in honor of the day:

Pi

The admirable number pi:

three point one four one.

All the following digits are also initial,

five nine two because it never ends.

It can't be comprehended six five three five at a glance,

eight nine by calculation,

seven nine or imagination,

not even three two three eight by wit, that is, by comparison

four six to anything else

two six four three in the world.

The longest snake on earth calls it quits at about forty feet.

Likewise, snakes of myth and legend, though they may hold out a bit longer.

The pageant of digits comprising the number pi

doesn't stop at the page's edge.

It goes on across the table, through the air,

over a wall, a leaf, a bird's nest, clouds, straight into the sky,

through all the bottomless, bloated heavens.

Oh how brief - a mouse tail, a pigtail - is the tail of a comet!

How feeble the star's ray, bent by bumping up against space!

While here we have two three fifteen three hundred nineteen

my phone number your shirt size the year

nineteen hundred and seventy-three the sixth floor

the number of inhabitants sixty-five cents

hip measurement two fingers a charade, a code,

in which we find hail to thee, blithe spirit, bird thou never wert

alongside ladies and gentlemen, no cause for alarm,

as well as heaven and earth shall pass away,

but not the number pi, oh no, nothing doing,

it keeps right on with its rather remarkable five,

its uncommonly fine eight,

its far from final seven,

nudging, always nudging a sluggish eternity

to continue.

-- Wislawa Szymborska (Polish Nobel Laureate: 1996)

Love it! Just love it!

Friday cat blogging!

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Seeing

This is really worth pondering, I think:

People only see what they are prepared to see.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Attachment, perspective, impermanence

I'm not sure where I found this but I really like it. It's an intriguing exercise:

Just think how happy you would be if you lost everything you have right now, and then got it back again.

-- Frances Rodman

Wednesday life form blogging

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Some good advice on happiness

This makes so much sense. And yet people do wait:

So stop waiting until you finish school,
until you go back to school,
until you lose ten pounds,
until you gain ten pounds,
until you have kids,
until your kids leave the house,
until you start work,
until you retire,
until you get married,
until you get divorced,
until Friday night,
until Sunday morning,
until you get a new car or home,
until your car or home is paid off,
until spring, until summer, until fall, until winter,
until you are off welfare,
until the first or fifteenth,
until your song comes on,
until you've had a drink,
until you've sobered up,
until you die,
until you are born again
to decide that there is no better time than right now to be happy...

~ Author Unknown

Radical reframing

Hopi pottery wedding vase

Here's a lovely little story about letting go of attachments:

On the day of their marriage, Yvonne and her husband were given a rare and gorgeous antique Hopi vase. After the ceremony someone carried the vase on a tray with too many other things, and dropped it. The bowl broke into many pieces.

"A perfect moment," she smiled. "The bowl was only whole for the ceremony."

— Sue Bender in Everyday Sacred

Monday meditative picture blogging

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Life

This is very thought provoking, really:

When I hear somebody sigh, "Life is hard," I am always tempted to ask, "Compared to what?"

~Sydney Harris

It's today

You know, I think there's a mindfulness lesson in here someplace. Also, there's a real connection to the classic meditation teachings on the mind poisons:

Men who treat women as helpless and charming playthings deserve women who treat men as delightful and generous bank accounts.

-- anonymous

Unwanted guests

I've come across several versions of this story over the years. It's one I particularly like!

A young man named Nasreddin planted a flower garden, but when the flowers came up so did a great crop of dandelions among them. Wishing to eliminate the unwanted guests, Nasreddin consulted with gardeners near and far, but none of their solutions worked.

Finally, Nasreddin traveled to the palace of the sheik to seek the wisdom of the royal gardener himself. But alas, Nasreddin had already tried all the methods the kind old man recommended to him for eradicating such troublesome weeds.

Silently they sat together for a good long time. At last, the royal gardener looked at Nasreddin and said, "Well, then, the only thing I can suggest is that you learn to love them."

Saturday cat blogging!

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

War, misery, beauty, goodness

I first read Anne Frank's diary when I was fourteen years old and it had an enormous impact on me. I'm offering these quotations today because they seem to go with the Karen Armstrong video I've posted below - especially the very last one:

I don't believe that the big men, the politicians and the capitalists alone are guilty of the war. Oh, no, the little man is just as keen, otherwise the people of the world would have risen in revolt long ago! There is an urge and rage in people to destroy, to kill, to murder, and until all mankind, without exception, undergoes a great change, wars will be waged, everything that has been built up, cultivated and grown, will be destroyed and disfigured, after which mankind will have to begin all over again.
~~~
I don't think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains.
~~~
It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.

- Anne Frank

Amazing words on compassion

Dear Readers,

My friend David in Montreal sent me the video posted below. As most of you know, I keep three blogs. One is on meditation (the one you're currently reading) and I strive to keep this one deliberately non-sectarian. Another is political and I maintain it as a private citizen. The third was initially intended for the spouses of Episcopal clergy in the Diocese of Oklahoma; it is about spiritual growth and reflection and draws mainly from the mystical and contemplative teachings of Christianity. I have had a hard time deciding where to post the Armstrong speech and so I'm using it on all three blogs.

It's a little over twenty minutes long but I'm sure you'll agree that it is well worth your time. And I think you will also see why it is appropriate for all three blogs:

Something about risk

For your edification:

And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

- Anaïs Nin

Wednesday life form blogging

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

The Patience of Ordinary Things

The ordinary can bring us to amazing awareness if we will let it:

It is a kind of love, is it not?
How the cup holds the tea,
How the chair stands sturdy and foursquare,
How the floor receives the bottoms of shoes
Or toes. How soles of feet know
Where they’re supposed to be.
I’ve been thinking about the patience
Of ordinary things, how clothes
Wait respectfully in closets
And soap dries quietly in the dish,
And towels drink the wet
From the skin of the back.
And the lovely repetition of stairs.
And what is more generous than a window?

-- Pat Schneider

The real milestones

Needless to say, I love the central metaphor used here. And, of course, I agree:

Sooner or later we all discover that the important moments in life are not the advertised ones, not the birthdays, the graduations, the weddings, not the great goals achieved. The real milestones are less prepossessing. They come to the door of memory unannounced, stray dogs that amble in, sniff around a bit and simply never leave. Our lives are measured by these.

-- Susan B. Anthony

Monday meditative picture blogging

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Blog recommendation

I became really interested in skulls and in art depicting skulls many years ago when I first learned that it was traditional for medieval monks and nuns to keep skulls in their cells as a focus for meditating on impermance and mortality. Well, I just found a marvelous blog called Skull-A-Day. Some of the skulls pictures are wonderfully creative. Here's a sample:

The person who created the blog made a skull a day for whole year and then started posting submissions from readers.

Go on over there and enjoy. The work is really quite fascinating.