Spiritual Wisdom for Personal Application

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While it may be simple to practice mindfulness, it is not necessarily easy. Mindfulness requires effort and discipline for the simple reason that the forces that work against our being mindful, namely our habitual unawareness and automaticity, are exceedingly tenacious. They are so strong and so much out of our consciousness that an inner commitment and certain kind of work are necessary just to keep up our attempts to capture our moments in awareness and sustain mindfulness. But it is an intrinsically satisfying work because it puts us in touch with many aspects of our lives that are habitually overlooked and lost.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

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Spiritual Wisdom for Personal Reflection

Image via Wikipedia

The first encounter with the mystery of being momentarily shatters the structures of ordinary life. When everything falls away, a moment of opening takes place. In that moment, we are free – free from the fetters of beliefs and ideas about who and what we should be. In other words, in the midst of the destruction of our illusions about life, we experience being what we actually are – free, open awareness. Most of the time, we don’t notice that free, open awareness. We’re too busy putting our view of life back together. Even if we do notice it, we don’t stay there for long. But, like Siddhartha, we have encountered the religious mendicant and the possibility of presence.

Ken McLeod
(from Wake Up To Your Life)

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