September 11, 2013
Today, I am grateful for the little things that bless my life each day. A smile on a stranger’s face, the birds that sing at the break of day and the sweet serenity of stillness in the evening. ~ Pamela J. Leavey
words and pictures....
September 11, 2013
Today, I am grateful for the little things that bless my life each day. A smile on a stranger’s face, the birds that sing at the break of day and the sweet serenity of stillness in the evening. ~ Pamela J. Leavey
October 2, 2012
“Today, I am grateful for the little things that bless my life each day. A smile on a strangers face, the birds that sing at the break of day and the sweet serenity of stillness.” ~ Pamela J. Leavey
(Photo: Great White Egret at Parker River National Wildlife Refuge ~ c. Pamela J. Leavey 2012)
February 11, 2012
In times of our own deepest reflection on life, we sometimes listen in the stillness for an answer… but it does not come. We mustn’t give up hope, we mustn’t lose faith. Some lessons are harder to learn than others. Some answers take longer to formulate than others. Give yourself to the deep reflection of your heart and soul… In the stillness, perhaps when you least expect it, you will understand the meaning of the trials you are suffering through.
(Photo: Cat Tails Sparkling in the Sun ~~ c. Pamela J. Leavey 2012)
January 25, 2012
Via J. Krishnamurti…
The Flash of Understanding
I do not know if you have noticed that there is understanding when the mind is very quiet, even for a second; there is the flash of understanding when the verbalization of thought is not. Just experiment with it and you will see for yourself that you have the flash of understanding, that extraordinary rapidity of insight, when the mind is very still, when thought is absent, when the mind is not burdened with its own noise. So, the understanding of anything -of a modern picture, of a child, of your wife, of your neighbor, or the understanding of truth, which is in all things- can only come when the mind is very still. But such stillness cannot be cultivated because if you cultivate a still mind, it is not a still mind, it is a dead mind. The more you are interested in something, the more your intention to understand, the more simple, clear, free the mind is. Then verbalization ceases.
After all, thought is word, and it is the word that interferes. It is the screen of words, which is memory, that intervenes between the challenge and the response. It is the word that is responding to the challenge, which we call intellection. So, the mind that is chattering, that is verbalizing, cannot understand truth -truth in relationship, not an abstract truth. There is no abstract truth. But truth is very subtle. Like a thief in the night, it comes darkly, not when you are prepared to receive it.
July 8, 2011
J. Krishnamurti… Energy without a center…
The complete stillness of the brain is an extraordinary thing; it is highly sensitive, vigorous, fully alive, aware of every outward movement but utterly still. It is still as it is completely open, without any hindrance, without any secret wants and pursuits; it is still as there is no conflict which is essentially a state of contradiction. It is utterly still in emptiness; this emptiness is not a state of vacuum, a blankness; it is energy without a centre, without a border. Walking down the crowded street, smelly and sordid, with the buses roaring by, the brain was aware of the things about it and the body was walking along, sensitive, alive to the smells, to the dirt, to the sweating labourers but there was no centre from which watching, directing, censoring took place. During the whole of that mile and back the brain was without a movement, as thought and feeling; the body was getting tired, unaccustomed to the frightful heat and humidity though the sun had set some time ago. It was a strange phenomenon though it had happened several times before. One can never get used to any of these things for it is not a thing of habit and desire. It is always surprising, after it is over. ~~ Krishnamurti’s Notebook Part 6
May 31, 2011
I was reminded yesterday of the great wisdom of J. Krishnamurti:
You have the flash of understanding, that extraordinary rapidity of insight, when the mind is very still, when thought is absent, when the mind is not burdened with its own noise. So, the understanding of anything -of a modern picture, of a child, of your wife, of your neighbor, or the understanding of truth, which is in all things- can only come when the mind is very still. But such stillness cannot be cultivated because if you cultivate a still mind, it is not a still mind, it is a dead mind.
The more you are interested in something, the more your intention to understand, the more simple, clear, free the mind is. Then verbalization ceases. After all, thought is word, and it is the word that interferes. It is the screen of words, which is memory, that intervenes between the challenge and the response. It is the word that is responding to the challenge, which we call intellection. So, the mind that is chattering, that is verbalizing, cannot understand truth -truth in relationship, not an abstract truth. There is no abstract truth. But truth is very subtle. It is the subtle that is difficult to follow. It is not abstract. It comes so swiftly, so darkly, it cannot be held by the mind. Like a thief in the night, it comes darkly, not when you are prepared to receive it. Your reception is merely an invitation of greed. So a mind that is caught in the net of words cannot understand truth. ~~ J. Krishnamurti, The Book of Life.