Peace

I just had a lovely moment.

I was walking back to my house after visiting Fante’s in the Italian Market. A fabulous cooking/baking supply store, it also has a small coffee bar with one of those iced drink machines that is filled with the most amazing cappuccino granita!!!! It is so amazing that one (a.k.a. me) must be careful not to stop by everyday just to make sure the recipe has not changed… ha!

As I was strolling home, sipping my afternoon treat I was gazing up at the super blue sky and all of the fluffy, glowing white clouds and I realized… it’s so QUIET! For a minute, maybe two, no cars passed by, no compressor noise from the new houses being built across the street, no forklifts hauling wares back and forth. Just the sky and a mild breeze and a pigeon floating down from it’s perch on a near by rooftop. Now it wasn’t silent… the compressors from the giant butcher shop were running and I could hear the hustle and bustle from the market half a block down. But there was a quiet stillness, just for those few moments. I stood and watched the clouds morph and glide into a new configuration and smiled deeply. Then a car pulled out of a parking lot and some folks walked by and the moment had passed. But I was so glad I caught it!

I have this quote from Zen teacher Katagiri Roshi that I keep on my shelf of special things, “Every moment is enormous and it is all we have”. Just moments, lots and lots of them, but really just moments. Remembering to be aware and open to them, paying attention even when they aren’t as sweet as the one above, that’s the key!

P.S. Add this little moment to your musical playlist: Evan Lurie “Selling Water By the Side of the River”. Lovely album! And there is a song called “Moment”. It’s 51 seconds long and it’s gorgeous.

Posted by Debi Phillpotts

We all have busy lives on many levels. When you think of it we are like tiny components of one big mechanism churning our activities to the rhythm of the days flowing into the revolving change of seasons then rolling into the constant planetary shifts in our galaxy of infinite galaxies… Like one big wheel! Sometimes it feels as though we are spinning on the wheel hanging on for dear life, wanting the ride to stop even for just a minute. How do we find stillness? Stillness is a rarity for most of us. Often I use the wheel metaphor with clients overwhelmed with stress suggesting they sit in the middle of the wheel for clarity and stillness. In Buddhism, the wheel is used as a metaphor as rapid spiritual change with each spoke representing the Noble Eightfold Path of Buddha’s teachings:

Right beliefs
Right aspirations
Right speech
Right conduct
Right livelihood
Right effort
Right mindfulness
Right meditational attainment

The shape, a circle, represents the perfection of the teaching with the wheel being called the Dharmachakra or “wheel of law” Dharma = law chakra = wheel. The spokes represent the paths mentioned above and the rim holds the spokes, which refer to mindfulness, holding everything together. The hub stands for discipline or meditation where we find stillness. So maybe the next time you are feeling the need to get on the right path or even feeling out of your mind, think of the wheel and find your way to the hub in the middle where there is stillness, then you just might know the “right path” to take.

References: Dharmachakra from Wikipedia

Photo Credits // 1 Pxleyes // 2 Jing Reed // 3 Pinterest // 4 Pinterest

Moments

Practicing Stillness & Finding the Right Path