I worried by Mary Oliver

 

I Worried
Mary Oliver

I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers
flow in the right direction, will the earth turn
as it was taught, and if not how shall
I correct it?
Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven,
can I do better?
Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows
can do it and I am, well,
hopeless.
Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it,
am I going to get rheumatism,
lockjaw, dementia?
Finally, I saw that worrying had come to nothing.
And gave it up. And took my old body
and went out into the morning,
and sang.

The power of sangha - commitment, insight and Dharma Rain

This is a message from Sangha leaders. Look how connection to a Sangha is part of the Dharma Rain. Reminders of insight and love and caring. 

Dear Friends,

Tuesday Feb 8, we suggest looking into emotions - as they arise during sitting meditation and daily life. 

We’ll use the following insights from Thich Nhat Hanh as the basis for our discussion:

“Feelings  come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

"There’s a river of feeling in every one of us—pleasant feelings, unpleasant feelings, neutral feelings.  They come one after another like drops of water in the river.  As we sit, the river of feelings runs through us and it’s tempting to let a strong feeling pull us downstream.   Instead, we sit on the riverbank and observe the feelings as they run through us.  We can name them.  “This is a pleasant feeling.”  “This is a painful feeling.”  We can do the same with our mental formations, such as anger and fear.  Naming can be a first step in giving us some distance from our feelings, so we can see that a feeling is just a feeling and that it is impermanent.  A feeling comes and eventually it goes.”

from “How to Sit” - Thich Nhat Hanh

With gratitude,

M and W

Anger, malfeasance, resentment and retrieving equanimity

Regarde la nature même du mal qu'on t'inflige. Elle est aussi insaisissable qu'un dessin tracé sur l'eau. Laisse le ressentiment s'effacer de lui-même. Lorsque les vagues tempétueuses des pensées se sont évanouies, l'esprit redevient comme le ciel sans nuage qui n'a rien à perdre ni à gagner.

SHECHEN GYALTSAP (1871-1926)
Shechen Guialtsap, theg pa chen po'i blo sbyong gi man ngag zab don sbrang rtsi'i bum bzang, p. 441-444.

Frank Herbert on Right Speech

“Whether a thought is spoken or not, it is a real thing and has powers of reality.” - Frank Herbert

Rumi on 'thinking'

Look past your thoughts, so you may drink the pure nectar of this moment. ~ Rumi

Thinking

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. ~ Aristotle

An Investigation of the Mind

We really must verify for ourselves that whatever thought comes into our mind has never acquired any true existence: thoughts are never born, they never dwell as something truly existing, and they have nowhere to go when they disappear from our mind.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, "An Investigation of the Mind"

Finding Our False Assumptions

Finding Our False Assumptions

It’s only when we examine the mind correctly that we discover how many false assumptions we have—false assumptions that, for the moment, are completely unnoticed. We cling to things as though they were permanent and will last forever. This is the measure of our delusion, tightly fettered as we are by this so-called “I” of ours—this “I,” in the interests of which, our mind enslaves our body and our speech, and creates all sorts of difficulties and hardships.

When we arrive at a correct understanding of the mind, we can see that our present thoughts are just like waves on the water. At one moment they arise; at another they dissolve. And that’s all there is to it: the mind is nothing but thoughts.

–Dudjom Rinpoche, from Counsels from My Heart (Shambhala)