Sacred Sanctuary
DESIDERATA
Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater
and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble,
it's a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself.
Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit
to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
whatever you conceive him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.
The core of every core, the kernal of every kernal,
What have you to do with Being, friend,
No, what my heart will be is a tower,
There is no greater mistake ***************************************
an almond! held high in itself, deepening in sweetness:
all of this, everything, right up to the stars,
is the meat around your stone. Accept my bow.
Oh, yes, you feel it, how the weights on you are gone!
Your husk has reached into what has no end,
and that is where the great saps are brewing now.
On the outside a warmth is helping,
for high, high above, your own suns are growing
immense and they glow as they wheel around.
Yet something has already started to live
in you that will live longer than the suns.
-- Rainer Maria Rilke
And empty opinions about the notion of mind and spirit?
Joyfully live and let the world pass happily,
The beginning of the matter was not arranged with you in mind.
Oh heart, do not grieve over this worn-out world,
You are not aimless, do not indulge in aimless sorrows;
Since it is not clear what has gone and what has not,
Be happy, don't grieve over what was and what was not.
Take it, heart, that all the world's trappings are won,
That your pleasure-garden is decked out in green;
Then, seated one night like the dew on that greenness,
Take it that the dawn has already risen.
-- Omar Khayyam
and I will be right out on its rim:
nothing else will be there, only pain
and what can't be said, only the world.
Only one thing left in the enormous space
that will go dark and then light again,
only one final face full of longing,
exiled into what is always full of thirst,
only one farthest-out face made of stone,
at peace with its own inner weight,
which the distances, who go on ruining it,
force on to deeper holiness.
-- Rainer Maria Rilke
then to have the power to know the Divine
and not to use it.
Simply wishing and hoping to know the Divine,
is a road that leads straight to Goodness.
It is an easy road to travel.
Everywhere the Divine will come to meet you.
Look and it appears --
at times and places when you least expect.
While you are awake or asleep.
When you travel by water or by land.
By night or by day.
Whilst you are speaking or silent.
This is because
The Divine is All.
-- The Hermetica of Thoth
Over to:
Home