Story tellers

That all of us now present, past and tomorrow were, and will be created out of the same One Source is as no-brainer a perspective I can generate. Yet, we yield to the training in comparisons and competition which leaves us bereft and adrift in a sea of loneliness. We all cooperate in absurd systems that reinforce individualism – the driving force behind all “isms” – that separate us from the awareness of our unity.

The thought manifests as the word;
The word manifests as the deed;
The deed develops into habit;
And habit hardens into character;
So watch the thought and its ways with care,
And let it spring from love
Born out of concern for all beings . . .
As the shadow follows the body,
As we think, so we become. – attributed to Buddha in the Dhammapada

We are already spiritual beings; we might not know it yet. Many traditions have tried to let us in on the secret, by revealing Creation in the ordinary. That’s why so much of their texts and practices seem so mundane, practical, specific, and even unspiritual. The seemingly different worlds of matter and spirit have never been separate. They are and always have been One. – after Fr. Richard Rohr.

Cultivate moment-to-moment awareness. Not resisting, not forcing. Just this, just this. Thoughts come and go. Feelings come and go. Allow yourself to experience the transient nature of thoughts and feelings, welcoming everything that arises as just this, not me, not mine.

Treat all things as if they were loaned to you without any ownership - whether body or soul, sense or strength, external goods or honors, house or hall . . . everything. – Meister Eckhart

In the end, we’ll all become stories. —Margaret Atwood

And, speaking of story tellers: Today is the 210th anniversary of the birthday of Charles Dickens in Portsmouth, England (1812).