YBites

'Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue to exist, a wonderful living side by side can grow up, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole against the sky.'

Rainer Maria Rilke, letters.

You do not have to be sitting to meditate. Mindfulness can be practised any time, anywhere: the point is to be totally present as you go about everyday living.

'The ancients spoke of the sky that is beyond the clouds. The productions of the mind are like clouds, some beautiful, some dark and threatening, but they are all cloulds in the sky of the mind.

The sky is vast, glorious, unchanging, was never born and never dies.

Most of us could do with improving our listening skills - especially in an age when our concentration is so tested (think emails, texts, TV, children...).

There are many different ways to meditate. One simple, timeless, but still challenging, method is to count the breath.