Brooks Center for Spirituality

Aim to live in this world without allowing the world to live inside you, because when a boat sits on water it sails perfectly, but when water enters inside the boat, it sinks.

Anything which is troubling you, anything which is irritating you, THAT is your teacher. If you let go a little you will have a little happiness. If you let go a lot you will have a lot of happiness. If you let go completely you will be free.

- Ajahn Chah

Invaluable emotional skills for the times we live in.

Each one of us is alone in the world. It takes great courage to meet the full force of your aloneness. Most of the activity in society is subconsciously designed to quell the voice crying in the wilderness within you. The mystic Thomas a Kempis said that when you go out into the world, you return having lost some of yourself. Until you learn to inhabit your aloneness, the lonely distraction and noise of society will seduce you into false belonging, with which you will only become empty and weary. When you face your aloneness, something begins to happen. Gradually, the sense of bleakness changes into a sense of true belonging. This is a slow and open-ended transition but it is utterly vital in order to come into rhythm with your own individuality. In a sense this is the endless task of finding your true home within your life. It is not narcissistic, for as soon as you rest in the house of your own heart, doors and windows begin to open outwards to the world. No longer on the run from your aloneness, your connections with others become real and creative. You no longer need to covertly scrape affirmation from others or from projects outside yourself. This is slow work; it takes years to bring your mind home.

JOHN O'DONOHUE

Excerpt from the book, Eternal Echoes
Ordering Info: https://johnodonohue.com/store

Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare - Ireland
Photo: © Ann Cahill

Jane Kopp, Brooks Director, presents HEALING AND THE MYSTIC "BREATH" OF CONSCIOUSNESS beginning a week from now (May 19): Via Zoom. 8 Tues afternoons at 2 p.m., May 19-July 7. See post for cost. post.

Healing & the Mystic “Breath‟ of Consciousness Pray more consciously and effectively for yourself or anyone― about anything― and learn how to adjust and respond within the healing process as it evolves.

Wisdom from Abraham Joshua Heschel...