Once, after enduring my sharp analytical intellect, my teacher remarked: Clear head; confused heart. The point being, I now realise, that if the heart were clear then such an intelligence would not be on display. The basic shift we all need to make is from head to heart – a heart big enough and brave enough to open up, reach out and embrace not only the Other, but the whole situation, and ultimately the bigger picture.

You know when you're not sure if you've really felt something or just imagined it?  This is where we'd like to dwell – between feeling and imagination – closer to reality than factuality.

What makes us ache each day to practise? It's that we've been touched by Spirit. The teacher cannot do this. Their function is to remind us that we've been touched. Our job is then to work toward full awakening by recalling this touch with all our heart.

We all need a second chance yet the bird of freedom flies past only once. What to do?

If I believe in anything, it is in the dark night of the soul. Awe is my religion, and mystery is its church.

—Charles Simic

Tension is holding on. Relaxation is letting go. We hold on because we're afraid to let go, afraid that if we do we'll let go of life & die. (All holding on stems from fear, and all fear is fear of death.) But when we let go fully we don't let go of life but let go into life and thereby become awake & alive. When we hold on we're ever pulling back from life and thereby remain half asleep.

this inner drive toward self-transcendence

Artists intensely feel the delicate natural energies underlying the artificial reality society imposes. Become an artist.

Truth appears from rents in the fabric of reality

Generally people believe what they want to believe and then call that Truth.

The first time my teacher mentioned spirit my ears pricked up. Little did I know I'd spend the rest of my life devoted to it. There again I suspect part of me did.

cinnabar field  丹田  dantian

What we need is more people who specialize in the impossible.

—Theodore Roethke

There are two kinds of secrets: the ones you know and the ones you don't.

Never stuck in the middle
not even with you

Imagine the sacrum full of quicksilver – heavy yet lively – behaving as counterweight, raising the head and encouraging a vigilant attention.

Each minor tragedy a blessing in disguise

A never ending, ever changing process that words can neither define nor describe.

Poetry does not like noise.

—Jacques Maritain

As our days become ever more saturated with words & language it is vital we partition some quiet time to simply feel and be. Meditation is ideal, but so is walking, especially in nature (or with the dog). Just ensure you turn off the phone or better still leave it at home.

After a few years of practice we begin to realise we're going round in circles.  This is the way of it – each pass taking us a little deeper.

at the edge
where so much
is at stake

—Thomas A Clark

Meditation: learning to simply be without hankering after entertainment

quantity = force = hard

quality = energy = soft

You have no one to blame but yourself!

(How many times did I hear that as a kid...)

Love is in the air

(If you don't feel this then you're not quite human)

All our problems originate in an inability to achieve internal quiet.

(My take on Pascal)

Meditation: humbly presenting to the present moment