Words of Wisdom

[SYates]

Reading something completely non-Camino related I came across this:

"Remember the past, live in the present and do not fear the future."

We always take our past with us on the Camino.
We can only can live in the present.
We can only can change the future.

Buen Camino, SY

 

[mspath]

"There is nothing else than now. There is neither yesterday, certainly, nor is there any tomorrow. How old must you be before you know that? There is only now, and if now is only two days, then two days is your life and everything in it will be in proportion. This is how you live a life in two days. And if you stop complaining and asking for what you never will get, you will have a good life. A good life is not measured by any biblical span."

Ernest Hemingway,
For Whom the Bell Tolls, 1940

 

[SYates]

Beautiful @mspath - even if I like to look/ consider the eternal/biblical span ...
Buen Camino, SY

 

[SYates]

Forgot to add For whom the bell tolls is one of my favorite novels/movies (rare case that those tow are combined!) ever. Buen Camino, SY

 

[Jas Asyiken]

Be here and Now - Erkhart Tolle

 

[Kanga]

"What day is it?"
"It's today," squeaked Piglet.
"My favourite day," said Pooh.
AA Milne.

 

[VNwalking]

Oh, boy, @Kanga, that's a keeper. Oh to have Piglet's attitude each moment, no matter what!

As for your find, @SYates...and our happiness depends completely on how we relate to everything-- the present, memories of the past, and ideas of the future.

Here are some words along those lines that resonate a lot particularly when I'm having a rough day and start complaining to myself about the weather, the food, my feet, myself and fellow pilgrims:
"Alert to the needs of the journey,
those on the path of awareness
glide on like swans
leaving behind their former resting places."
The Buddha, Dhammapada 91

Can I move on from habits of judgement and complaint that have all too long been uncomfortable resting places?
Sometimes. Morning rustlers and torch torturers can pretty easily push me over the edge back into this stuff.
Oh, well...Surrender time

 

[Jas Asyiken]

Being present is indeed the most profound place to be as it is the only real realm of existence. Mastering being present requires a lot of trust, faith and surender, where in it lies all that is "known and unknown (combination)". Everything we know is retrospective (of a past) and everything we don't know (future) is imagination.

The easiest way to relate (I found) is to look at the clock. It is the silent space in BETWEEN that 1 second click. In that tini whini space, lies the infinite conscious and unconscious space where all things are "happenings" which is - the present.

As I experience writing this, that very reality you experience at your end - is the very present space we commonly share. Now you see it, now you don't...like a piece of yummy dark chocolate on the table. Hahaha...

 

[movinmaggie]

Be here and Now - Erkhart Tolle

And Alan Watts.....

Be here and Now - Erkhart Tolle

As in the Buddhist teachings...

 

[GRR]

 

[VNwalking]

Hahaha, @GRR, thanks for the giggle. And I can think of a few other possible toxic thought bubbles...we're definitely a complicated lot.

And Alan Watts.....

As in the Buddhist teachings...

As @movinmaggie says, "Be here now" is one of the oldest prescriptions for happiness around.
It's one of the reasons the Camino is such good medicine.

 

[movinmaggie]

View attachment 27781

Love, love, love the image……Thank you GRR.

 

[pilgrim b]

Just this !! Suchness.