the sensation of life
See part 1 and part 2. Experience is nothing other than what we decide to attend to, so the quality of experience depends on the quality of attention. … We all yearn for renewal but imagine that it may be found only in novelty – a new place, a new lover, a new job. More … Continue reading The feeling of being yourself, part 3
See part 1. What is so disturbing about being fully present? To be present is to accept yourself fully: your own way of being; your own way of doing: this very particularity and peculiarity in a profound and all-embracing way: this life, this self, this body, this moment: to be God having this experience as … Continue reading The feeling of being yourself, part 2
Sartre defined not potential but finitude as the essence of freedom: ‘To be finite … is to choose oneself . . . to make known to oneself what one is by projecting oneself toward one possible to the exclusion of others. The very act of freedom is therefore the assumption and creation of finitude.’ Jean-Paul … Continue reading The feeling of being yourself, part 1
… for the most commonplace event to become an adventure, you must – and this is all that is necessary – start recounting it… But you have to choose: to live or recount… When you are living, nothing happens. Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea, p61, quoted in menticulture.com We live in a strange era, watching other people … Continue reading Vicarious
[09:47, Wednesday 15th October 2014: sitting at the open window overlooking a Stockwell street] Late to bed again last night. I just want to sit here and do nothing. There is quite a bit I should be getting on with, but I don't want to do any of it. I am unhappy. I hear the … Continue reading Presencing
'So what is significant?' 'That today might be the last day of your life.' George Ivanovich laughed mockingly. 'But doesn't everyone know that?! Everyone knows that today could be the end of it all!' The man in the turban paused. 'Everyone knows it my friend. But not everyone feels it. Everyone knows it as a … Continue reading The last day of your life
God reveals himself to the humble in the humblest of things, while the great who never penetrate beneath the surface do not discover him even in great events. de Caussade, p.5 6.51am Why am I sitting at this screen rather than walking out into the morning? I often do this. I am casting about for … Continue reading How to find God in the humblest of things (I)
Not exactly waiting for someone else, he is, as it were, waiting for himself. Adam Phillips, On Kissing, Tickling and Being Bored, p.72 If you are bored, your mind is wandering—away from you—its rightful purpose. Gail Sher, One Continuous Mistake p.30 You long for yourself. Distractions are substitutes, looking for something to fill a hole, … Continue reading Boredom: guardian of the Temple (part 3)
Relaxation is often presented as the beginning of prayer – what to do to get started. Then you are cajoled into the attempt to get elsewhere. This is to miss the point. Relaxation is not the antechamber of the temple. To relax is to pray. It is the temple. It is the return to this … Continue reading Relax!
… when we take up occupation of the site of our bodies in stillness before God. We are granted a place to be, simply in virtue of being there as material beings made by God: the physical act of drawing breath becomes an affirmation of my receiving of the gift of my place, an acknowledgement … Continue reading Occupation