Category: Spirituality

The birds have vanished into the sky,
and now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together, the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains.

Li Po

“They say that once you are contented with what you are, you will have no growth, no progress. This is I think a superficial understanding. Real growth, true progress, begins when you get at the truth of what you are; when you can say “it is absolutely alright”, even though it may be very poor and miserable. So please observe your unsatisfactory situation more and more, and take better care of it as it is. Then you may see the door open to the next world. ”

Hogen-San, The Other Shore

I want to make my life a ceremony around slowness.
Time and space.
Open space.
In the desert there is space.
Space is the twin sister of time.
If we have open space, then we have open time to breathe, to dream, to dare, to play, to move freely, so freely, in a world our minds have forgotten but our bodies remember.
Time and space.
This partnership is holy.
In these redrock canyons, time creates space;
An arch, an eye, this blue eye of sky.
We remember why we love the desrt;
It is our tactile response to light, silence, and stillness.
Hand on stone patience.
Hand on water music.
Hand raised to the wind is this the birthplace of inspiration?

Terry Tempest Williams

“In my life, I’ve never wished that everything goes smoothly or satisfactorily, or that I may be free of any adversity. When encountering an adverse situation, I cope with it in this way: First I will tell myself, “If there’s a mountain in my way that can’t be removed, I will make a detour. If no detour can lead to my destination, I will change my way of thinking.” Once you change your thinking, the difficult situation you’re facing will no longer exist, which will naturally lead you to a new way out. Another way is to “face it, accept it, deal with it, and let it go.” There are problems that simply cannot be solved no matter how hard we try. In that case, we should accept the reality. In a way, accepting the reality amounts to dealing with it. And then you should let it go. Having let it go, you shouldn’t allow it to prey on your mind any longer and keep regretting and resenting. If you’re still caught up in regret and resentment, you’ll have twice as much bad luck because your confidence and courage have disappeared. During my most difficult time, it is as if I have been tied up all over with ropes, but my mind can still be doing taijiquan with freedom. As long as I don’t think I’m having bad luck, nothing can really annoy me.”

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