February 2012
23 posts
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“The word mindfulness, for instance: anyone who’s naive to hearing it is going to...”
– Jon Kabat-Zinn, as interviewed in “Opening to Our Lives” by Krista Tippett On Being (via sharanam)
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“As I silence myself I become more sensitive to the sounds around me, and I do...”
– Tayeko Yamanouchi, 1979; “Quaker Faith & Practice” 2.54
More here
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Something to think about from Ajahn Amaro
sharanam:
Yesterday I sat a day-long retreat with Ajahn Amaro. I am very grateful for the opportunity as his teachings really resonate with my own experience and practice. Here are two little things he said yesterday that I thought were particularly worthy of sharing.
In Thai, the same word is used for both “heart” and “mind”. I’ve heard that if you ask a Thai person to point to their mind,...
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"Heartfulness" ~ a round-up of references
Thanks to bahaistudies.net
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Leonard Cohen on Meditation
crashinglybeautiful:
“You run through your top ten erotic fantasies, ambition fantasies, revenge fantasies, global ratification fantasies. You run through them all until you bore yourself to death, basically, and the faculty that produces opinions and snap judgments and unrealistic scenarios for your own prominence, after you run through them for a number of years, they cease to have charge....
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On mindfulness and heartfulness ~ Thomas Keating
TGI: What is the relationship between mindfulness and heartfulness?
TK: You might say they are not exclusive of each other. According to my understanding of
Hebrew religion and mindfulness, they are meant to include both mind and heart in the
deeper seat of human consciousness. The Hebrew Bible in certain passages clearly deals
with higher consciousness and contemplative states. ...
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Buddhist and Christian formal practices compared
A paper by Robert Aitken.Fom the thezensite with gratitude.
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“Dwell not on the faults
and shortcomings of others;
instead, seek clarity...”
– Dhammapada 50, Ajahn Munindo rendition (download/read or listen)
This month, I am contemplating the sixth grave precept in Zen Buddhism as part of my training at NYZCCC. I am finding it to be the most painful to look at in just how habitual the mind’s judgments still are, and how externally-focused...
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a silky attention brought to bear
crashinglybeautiful:
“Violinists practicing scales and dancers repeating the same movements over decades are not simply warming up or mechanically training their muscles. they are learning how to attend unswervingly, moment by moment, to themselves and their art; learning to come into steady presence…Yet however it is brought into being, true concentration appears—paradoxically—at the moment...
“I think it would have been an excellent idea”
– Gandhi, when asked on his arrival in Europe, what he thought of Western civilisation. (via terreverte)
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“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings...”
– Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
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"The Tree of Life" ~ Eknath Easwaren
terreverte:
“Sages speak of the immutable Tree, with its root above and its branches below… . The limbs of this tree spread above and below. Sense objects grow on the limbs as buds; the roots hanging down bind us to action in this world. The true form of this tree – its essence, beginning, and end – is not perceived on this earth.”
– Bhagavad Gita
“We are all familiar with the unflattering...
“As we practice Buddhism, let’s take care. Let’s not put ourselves on a...”
– From “The sky above, the mud below” the latest posting by Seth Segall on his blog, “The Existential Buddhist”. With gratitude.
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“God has no religion”
– Gandhi
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“I did not come to the study and practice of Buddhism to become a Buddhist. In...”
– Alice Walker, in Dharma, Color, and Culture: New Voices in Western Buddhism (Parallax Press, 2004), adapted from a talk given at the African American Dharma Retreat and Conference, Spirit Rock Meditation Center, August 2002.
If it’s not outrageous for me to do so, I would modify “enlightened being”...
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“Even elements of the environmental movement approach the earth as an object to...”
– Joseph Epes Brown, “Teaching Spirits: Understanding Native American Religious Traditions”
(thanks to the latest Parabola Magazine Newsletter for this quote)
“The Earth is a tiny and fragile world. It needs to be cherished”
– Carl Sagan, 1980 (via terreverte)
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“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity”
– Simone Weil
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“Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.”
– Simone Weil
On this quote, Stephen Mitchell made this comment:
“I love that. I think that could be as close as someone can get to a wonderful definition of prayer. In that sense, prayer has nothing spiritual or religious about it. A mathematician working at a problem or a little kid trying...
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Meditating on an inspirational text ~ Eknath...
“We are formed and molded by our thoughts. Those whose minds are shaped by selfless thoughts give joy when they speak or act. Joy follows them like a shadow that never leaves them.
– THE BUDDHA”
The method of meditation I teach involves sitting quietly with eyes closed and going slowly, in the mind, through the words of an inspirational passage that appeals to you deeply. It may...
January 2012
31 posts
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“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are...”
– Marianne Williamson
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“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found...”
– G. K. Chesterton (Critic, Essayist, Novelist and Poet, 1874-1936)
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“You must descend from
your head into your heart.
At present your thoughts of...”
– Saint Theophan the Recluse (an orthodox monk from 19th century Russia). With many thanks to The Beauty We Love. (via crashinglybeautiful)
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Dropping the Head & Settling in the Heart →
crashinglybeautiful:
Inspired by this post from earlier today, I wrote an inquiry into this practice over at Intense City:
Usually my center of gravity is in my head, and often I am not even aware that I have a body below it. How does one move from a fragmented and self-centered point of view to a more encompassing and organic intelligence that is responsive to the subtle movements of...
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Discover yourself as you really are
“They live in wisdom who see themselves in all and all in them, who have renounced every selfish desire and sense craving tormenting the heart.”
– Bhagavad Gita
The Gita’s hypothesis is that it is possible, by mastering the thinking process, to leave behind unwanted habits and negative thoughts. To accomplish this, the Gita outlines a daily course of training in which we acquire...
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Learning to love by loving
“You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; in just the same way, you learn to love by loving.”
– SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES
“In learning to love, we start where we are – somewhat selfish, somewhat self-centered, but with a deep desire to relate lovingly to each other, to move closer and closer together. Love grows by practice;...
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Attend to what love requires of you
“Every stage of our lives offers fresh opportunities. Responding to divine guidance, try to discern the right time to undertake or relinquish responsibilities without undue pride or guilt. Attend to what love requires of you, which may not be great busyness.”
Quaker Advices & Queries - 28
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“I enjoy the blossoming flowers
And the cold of the falling snow
How deep is...”
– Tairyu Furukawa
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"The Buddha" →
This links to the full PBS film by David Grubin (113 minutes). With gratitude.
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“I don’t know Who — or what — put the question, I don’t know when it...”
– Dag Hammarskjold
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“For all that has been — Thanks. For all that shall be — Yes.”
– Dag Hammarskjold
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“In the point of rest at the center of our being, we encounter a world where all...”
– Dag Hammarskjöld, Markings
Thanks to whiskey river … see also (via sharanam)
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“The sum total of all that lives is God. We may not be God but we are of God even...”
– Gandhi
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“All men to me are god-like Gods!
My eyes no longer see
vice or fault. Life on...”
– Sant Tukaram (1608-1649)
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“In Zen, there are only three things. First, cleaning. Second, chanting. And...”
– Even Dewdrops Fall an interview with Taitetsu Unno, a Pure Land priest and the father of one of my teachers, by Tracy Cochran (via sharanam)
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“SURRENDER TO THE LOVE IN YOUR HEART
With every action you take
Even the...”
– Thanks to Mu
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"Faith" ~ a poem by David Whyte
“I want to write about faith,
about the way the moon rises
over cold snow, night after night,
faithful even as it fades from fullness,
slowly becoming that last curving and impossible
sliver of light before the final darkness.
But I have no faith myself
I refuse it even the smallest entry.
Let this then, my small poem,
like a new moon, slender and barely open,
be the first...
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“Some people do not know the difference between ‘mindfulness’ and...”
– Ajahn Sumedho, Teachings of a Buddhist Monk (via ambiguouslysavvy)
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Dr. Thynn Thynn on khanika samadhi
sharanam:
In daily-life meditation, is the mind actively watching itself through a state of no thought?
Yes. When your mindfulness is at its peak, you can experience states where thoughts fall away. But the no-thought state lasts for only a split second. You experience a heightened awareness that is one-pointed as well as absolutely quiet. This momentary one-pointedness of the mind is...
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“The produce of the earth is a gift from our gracious creator to the inhabitants,...”
– John Woolman, 1772; Quaker faith & practice 25.01.
How prescient! How true!
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“Faith is not something to grasp, it is a state to grow into.”
– Gandhi
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“Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of...”
– Gandhi
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Some Buddhist prayers →
Contemporary session prayers including taking refuge, bodhicitta, dedication and setting intention, for opening and closing daily meditation sessions.Translated and composed by Ken McLeod.