Simply Spirituality

I have decided to put Carry Water Chop Wood on hold for a while. Please visit my active blog at:
 http://www.simplyspirituality.blogspot.com/

Desiderata

Go placidly 

amid the noise and the haste, 

and remember 

what peace there may be in silence.

- Max Ehrmann 

Life

How much of your life as you know it

exists within the mind's world?

The world of the remembered past

and the imagined future.

How much of your sense of identity

is based upon memory of past experience?

Who are you in the present,

without reference to the past?

What is life like in the present moment

without reference to the past or the future?

- Leonard Jacobson 

The Simple Truth

The Simple Truth is that there is no life

outside of this moment.

The life which you believe in 

is nothing but an illusion

which you have constructed

in your mind using the power

of thought, memory and imagination.

It is not real.

Nothing outside of this moment is real!

- Leonard Jacobson 

Make each moment 

an occasion to live

deeply,

happily,

in Peace.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

Quote

Simplify, simplify.

— Henry David Thoreau

A Little Behind....

Hi everyone! I've gotten a little behind on posting on this blog.... or maybe it is that I haven't been very present in the last month or two.... maybe a little of both.

The first task I put focus on was trying to be present when as the saying goes - while chopping and carrying, or doing the daily chores of life. I found myself challenged by this, especially while folding laundry.

I would like to share what I've recently come up with.

When one is folding laundry, it it's not about a pair of socks being "exciting." It is about being present with what is REAL rather than what is imagined or made up.

One can only be 1 of 2 places, present with what is real or in the mind.

In the mind is not real, is it imagined, it is either past or future. Where are we instead.... in a disagreement you had yesterday? What I am going to eat for dinner? Where we will go on vacation. It's fine to think about these things. A decision about dinner has to be made at some point. But one does not need to be so focused on these things to the exclusion of what is really happening here and now. (For additional reading on thoughts, please see the post on Simply Spirituality, How to Make a Watch Disappear.)

My experience has been that everything begins to feel more alive..... try it and let me know what you experience in the comments section below!