Mind in the head is agitated
Mind in the dantian is still

How on Earth do we focus the mind on the task at hand, except fleetingly? This is the problem that plagues every student that has ventured a tap of work. And the answer is simple enough: through the heart. It is not the mind that focuses the mind but the heart. The key to staying undistracted is a loving heart.

The only way the work will get done is if you fall in love with it.

L I V E D A N G E R O U S L Y

Float with me in the world of ether.
—David Lynch

At primary school, in our maths class, we were introduced to the concept of Infinity. I remember the teacher explaining to us that Infinity is an abstract concept invented by mathematicians, and it doesn't exist in the real concrete world where everything is finite. Spiritual work reveals that the opposite is in fact the case. Every natural thing is infinite — there being no end to its unfolding detail — and the finite is very much a man-made condition of his fabricated, unnatural world.

Learn to keep secrets.

In the interests of spirit, make a point of breaking the law at least once a day.

Adulthood is the abdication of ecstasy.
—Simon Critchley

Make a list of habits in the day that cannot be avoided:

Arising
Toilet
Showering
Dressing
Practice
Breakfast (making & eating)
Washing-up
Driving to work
Etc etc

Then look at each one and try to find a way of doing it better: more relaxed, more aware/mindful, more in the legs.

This is bringing the practice (in)to life.

F U L L O F T H E J O Y S O F L I F E

Meditation: learning to bear the lightness of being

THE WAY IT IS

There's a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn't change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can't get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time's unfolding.
You don't ever let go of the thread.


—William Stafford

Beginner's luck is a consequence of beginner's mind.
No experience; no expectation.

Only natural fibres next to the skin.
Cotton, linen, hemp, preferably.

G E T O F F Y O U R H E A D

The root is simply the spine driving down through the leg and into the ground.

The price to pay for the safety of the herd is a mind-numbing conformity.

If you wish to feel energy then you need to pay attention. Listen to the world worlding rather than the self selfing.

Middle-aged spread smacks of complacency.

Spirit excited but internally gathered

The only way to become whole & complete is to push into those areas you dare not venture.

Artificial Intelligence is an oxymoron

A drug is something that helps in the short-term but works against you in the long-term. Most of the time we spend drug-addled in some way or another.

Bourgeois = shallow rationalism + selfish materialism

the alchemy of living

LOVE HAS TANGENTS


Fidelity to patience
is the theme
I have kindled
behind every effort

The apogee
The same thing
A different way
Day after day

My love has tangents
not resolutions

Times have changed
Time has changed

Passing into one another
The surface of gestures
An amalgam
of deepening touch

Abandon ideology
Abandon self-loss
The wager is visible

There is no difference
Between the damned and the saved

Pardon
An inseparable face
Inside you


—Pam Rehm

primacy of the spirit