“Do everything with a mind that lets go. If you let go a little, you will have a little peace. If you let go a lot, you will have a lot of peace. If you let go completely, you will know complete peace and freedom. Your struggles with the world will have come to an end…” ~Ajahn Chah
Posted by Tao & Zen
Posted by Yvonne Mancilla—Raindrops on pine
So Beautiful
Posted by Simon Bartholomé
“When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”~Wendell Berry
Posted by Ravenous Butterflies
*****
On days like this my friend asks, what’s it all about? What is this life? Why is it such a struggle? She struggles with the decision she has to make. Wrestles with it, like the angel and Jacob, it’s that serious and that life-altering. I’m not much help. I tell her to just make a choice and move on. I try to gently urge her into the giving up of attachment without those words. She has no patience for Buddhism or Buddist beliefs. Still, the truth of it is that it’s the attachment to what could be lost or what the outcome of her choice and actions will be that is making her crazed.
But I’ve been there. I’ve wanted everything to be perfect. I’ve wanted us all to be happy. I’ve searched and struggled for the perfect answer to those things which cannot be without some sacrifice, by someone. And once done, no way to be undone.
Gunggex Durga Laksmi· Golden Evening
And it suddenly occurs to me that that is what I’m doing. I’m trying to give her peace. I’m trying to make it OK for her. That is my attachment—the attachment to the right outcome for her. The one I cannot give her.
It doesn’t take much for me anymore—to find the sweetness in a day. Today was simply splendid as I was able to get back to the pool for swimming. As it turns out, when the pool reopened they did not reinstitute the restrictions for age and compromised people (such as I with chronic asthma & bronchitis to boot)! So, luckily I called and found out, along with reservations made for lap lanes. Along with today I’m now scheduled through August, every Monday, Wednesday & Friday, at 1 o’clock. Splendid, I say!
Posted by Psyche’s Call by Donna May
I saw this and thought about Joseph Campbell and his “Follow Your Bliss.” Because, as we know, when you do this the Universe opens doors for you. We also know there are always those for whom this does not occur. I think of van Gogh dying in poverty. And writers of course. More than one writer gave all only to fail. *Sigh* Still, driven by passion there is no choice.
As I posted “A Mouthful of Forevers” twice, I thought I’d do some checking into Clementine von Radics and see what else she had to say. Quite a bit it turns out. So here we have dear Clementine, as splendid as poetry herself.
“My battered heart will always be
where the ocean meets the sand, I
will break over and over
Every day. That is the best and
worst part of me.”
―
“I mean you ask me
not to fall in love with you
and then you go write poems
with your tongue
and draw constellations
in my freckles.”
― As Often As Miracles
“But my heart is an old house
(the kind my mother
grew up in)
hell to heat and cool
and faulty in the wiring
and though it’s nice to look at
I have no business
inviting lovers in.”
―
Writers Ink—Writing and Stuff 