Spiritwalk Quotations 98

Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries.

Without them, humanity cannot survive.

~ The Dalai Lama

If your compassion does not include yourself,

it is incomplete.

~ Jack Kornfield

Be patient with everyone,

but above all with yourself.

I mean do not be disheartened by your imperfections,

But always rise up with fresh courage.

How are we to be patient in dealing with our neighbors faults

if we are impatient in dealing with our own?

He who is fretted with his own failings will not correct them.

All profitable correction comes from a calm, peaceful mind.

~ St. Francis de Sales

Creativity

Inspiration follows aspiration.
~ Rabindranath Tagore

Dharma

The Four Reliances

First, rely on the spirit and meaning of the teachings,

not on the words;

Second, rely on the teachings,

not on the personality of the teacher;

Third, rely on real wisdom,

not superficial interpretation;

And fourth, rely on the essence of your pure Wisdom Mind,

not on judgemental perceptions.

~ Traditional Buddhist teaching

There is no enlightenment outside of daily life.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

God expects but one thing of you,

and that is that you should come out of yourself

in so far as you are a created being

and let God be God in you.

~ Meister Eckhart

Jesus said:

"What is hidden from you will be disclosed to you.

For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed."

"Split a piece of wood; I am there.

Lift up the stone, and you will find me there."

~ The Gospel of St. Thomas

In the Native way we are encouraged to recognize

that every moment is a sacred moment,

and every action, when imbued with dedication

and commitment to benefit all beings,

is a sacred act.

~ Dhyani Ywahoo

As human beings,

our greatness lies not so much

in being able to remake the world…

as in being able to remake ourselves.

~ Mahatma Gandhi

Be awake

Love yourself and be awake ~

today, tomorrow, always.

First establish yourself in the way,

then teach others,

and so defeat sorrow.

To straighten the crooked

you must first do a harder thing ~

straighten yourself

You are the only master.

who else?

Subdue yourself,

and discover your master.

~ the Dhammapada

Words of the Buddha

Energy is an eternal delight,

and he who desires, but acts not,

breeds pestilence.

~ William Blake

Everything in the Universe is within you.

Ask all from yourself.

~ Rumi

If there is righteousness in the heart,

   there will be beauty in the character.

If there is beauty in the character,

   there will be harmony in the home.

If there in harmony in the home,

   there will be order in the nation.

When there is order in the nation,

   there will be peace in the world.

~ Sathya Sai Baba

If you aim to dispense with method, learn method.

If you aim at facility, work hard.

If you aim for simplicity, master complexity.

~ author unknown

The Way of Chinese Painting

If you look for the truth outside yourself,

It gets farther and farther away.

Today walking alone, I meet it everywhere I step.

It is the same as me, yet I am not it.

Only if you understand it in this way

will you merge with the way things are.

~ Tung-Shan

In India when we meet and part we often say,

"Namaste," which means...

I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides,

I honor the place in you of love, of light, of truth, of peace.

I honor the place within you where if you are in that place in you

and I am in that place in me,

there is only one of us.

Namaste`

~ Ram Dass

Grist for the Mill

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant,

gorgeous, talented, and fabulous.

Actually who are you not to be.

You are a child of God.

~ Marrianne Williamson

As human beings we are made to surpass ourselves

and are truly ourselves only when transcending ourselves.

~ Huston Smith

We shall not cease from exploration,

and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started,

and to know the place for the first time.

~ T. S. Eliot

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle,

and the life of the candle will not be shortened.

Happiness never decreases by being shared.

~ Buddha (B.C. 568-488)

It is better to light a candle than to damn darkness.

~ Confucius

Integrity/Balance

To be nobody ~ but yourself~

in a world that is doing its best, night and day,

to make you everybody else ~

means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight.

~ e. e. cummings 1894-1962

Happiness is when what you think,

What you say, and what you are

In harmony.

~ Mahatma Gandhi

Become aware of what is in you.

Announce it, pronounce it,

produce it and give birth to it.

~ Meister Eckhart

I, the sage, am the holy one among men.

I am Milarepa.

I am he who goes his own way;

I am he who has counsel for every circumstance;

I am the sage who has no fixed abode.

I am he who is unaffected whatever befall;

I am the alms-seeker who has no food;

I am the naked man who has no clothes;

I am the beggar who has no possessions.

I am he who takes no thought for the morrow;

I am he who has no house here nor dwelling there;

I am the victor who has known consummation.

I am the madman who counts death happiness;

I am he who has naught and needs naught.

~ Milarepa (1040-1123)

The Message of Milarepa

The end of man is to let the spirit in him permeate his whole being,

his soul, flesh and affections.

He attains his deepest self by losing his selfish ego.

~ Robert Musil

The Three Treasures

The Body is the temple of life.

Energy is the force of life.

Spirit is the governor of life.

If one of them goes off balance,

All three are damaged.

When the spirit takes command,

The body naturally follows it,

And this arrangement benefits all Three Treasures.

When the body leads the way,

The spirit goes along,

And this harms all Three Treasures.

~ Wen Tzu Classic

Joy

The aim of life is to live,

and to live means to be awake,

joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely awake."

~ Henry Miller

Joy, rather than happiness, is the goal of life,

for joy is the emotion which accompanies our fulfilling our natures as human beings.

It is based on the experience of one's identity as a being of worth and dignity.

~ Rollo May

Live in Joy

Live in joy

In love,

Even among those who hate.

Live in joy,

In health,

Even among the afflicted.

Live in joy,

In peace,

Even among the troubled.

Look within.

Be still.

Free from fear and attachment,

Know the sweet joy of living in the way.

There is no fire like greed

No crime like hatred,

No sorrow like separation,

No sickness like hunger of heart,

And no joy like the joy of freedom.

Health, contentment and trust

Are your greatest possessions,

And freedom your greatest joy.

Look within.

Be still.

Free from fear and attachment,

Know the sweet joy of living in the way.

~ the Dhammapada

Words of the Buddha

Always remember,

Joy is not incidental to spiritual quest.

It is vital.

~ Rebbe Nachman

The beating heart of the universe is holy joy.

~ Martin Buber

The value of a personal relationship to things is that it creates intimacy

and intimacy creates understanding

and understanding creates love.

~ Anais Nin

Our greatest happiness

does not depend on the condition of

life in which chance has placed us,

but is always the result of good conscience,

good health, occupation,

and freedom in all just pursuits.

~ Thomas Jefferson

Perfect happiness

is the absence of happiness

~ Chuang Tzu

Karma

I slept and dreamt that life was joy.

I awoke and saw that life was service.

I acted and behold, service was joy.

~ Rabindranath Tagore

Always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune.

But I say to you that when you work you fulfil a part of earth’s furthest dream,

assigned to you when that dream was born,

And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life,

And to love life through labor is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret.

* * *

You have been told that life is darkness,

And in your weariness you echo what was said by the weary.

And I say that life is indeed darkness save when there is urge,

And all urge is blind save when there is knowledge,

And all knowledge is vain save when there is work,

And all work is empty save when there is love;

And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself,

and to one another, and to God.

~ Kahlil Gibran

The Prophet

Brother Steindhl-Rast reminds us that the Chinese word for "busy" is composed of two characters: "heart" and "killing." When we make ourselves so busy that we are always rushing around trying to get this or that "done" or "over with," we kill something vital in ourselves, and we smother the quiet wisdom in our heart. When we invest our work with judgment and impatience, always striving for speed and efficiency, we lose the capacity to appreciate the six million quiet moments that may bring us peace, beauty, or joy. As we seek salvation through our frantic productivity and accomplishments, we squander the teachings that may be present in this very moment, in the richness of this particular breath.

In the Book of Ecclesiastes, there is a proverb: "Better one hand full of quiet than two hands striving after wind." Unpracticed in the art of quiet, we hope to find our safety, our belonging, and our healing by increasing levels of accomplishment. But our frantic busyness actual makes us deaf to what is healing and sacred, both in ourselves and one another.

~ Wayne Muller

Legacy of the Heart

Monday, July 27, 1998

There is a great need to bring spiritual values into the corporate setting.

Persuading your organization to shift from a paradigm of competition,

exploitation and self interest, to cooperation, empowerment

and the common good is one of the greatest gifts you can give to society.

Richard Barrett,

at the World Bank

Work is love made visible.

And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste,

It is better that you should leave your work and

Sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.

For if you bake bread with indifference,

You bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger.

And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes,

Your grudge distils a poison in the wine.

And if you sing though as angels and not love the singing,

You muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.

~ Kahlil Gibran

Better stop short than to fill to the brim.

Oversharpen the blade, and the edge will soon blunt.

Amass a tore of gold and jade, and no one can protect it.

Claim wealth and titles, and disaster will follow.,

Retire when the work is done.

This is the way of heaven.

~ Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Kindness (Metta)

A Rebbi’s Proverb

If you always assume the person sitting next to you

is the Messiah waiting for some human kindness~

You will soon come to weigh your words and watch your hands.

And if he/she so chooses not to reveal him/herself in your time~

It will not matter.

~ Translated by Danny Siegel

Love is the light that dissolves all walls between souls, families and nations.

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

There is a saying in the Buddhist tradition:

"You can explore the universe looking for somebody

who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself,

and you will not find that person anywhere."

~ Sharon Salzberg

My religion is kindness.

~ Dalai Lama

Life

Beginning the day,

I see that life is a miracle.

Attentive to each moment,

I keep my mind clear like a calm river.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

It is through living

that we experience and communicate the spirit.

It is through life

that we learn to live in the spirit.

One in full quest of the spirit

knows the goal of life is death.

~ ~ ~ ~

As long as you move from a place of fear and desire,

you are self-excluded from immortality.

~ Joseph Campbell

Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn!

Look to this Day!

For it is Life, the very Life of Life.

In its brief course lie all the Verities and Realities of your Existence;

The Bliss of Growth,

The Glory of Action,

The Splendor of Beauty;

For Yesterday is but a Dream,

And Tomorrow is only a Vision:

But Today well lived makes Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,

And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.

Look well therefore to this Day!

Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!

Sanskrit poem, author unknown

Cosmic Journey

We are travelers on a cosmic journey ~

stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity.

Life is eternal.

But the expressions of life are ephemeral, momentary, transient.

Gautauma Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, once said,

this existence of ours is as transient as autumn clouds.

To watch the birth and death of beings

is like looking at the movements of a dance.

A lifetime is like a flash of lightning in the sky.

Rushing by like a torrent down a steep mountain.

We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other,

to meet, to love, to share.

This is a precious moment, but it is transient.

It is a little parenthesis in eternity.

If we share with caring, lightheartedness, and love,

we will create abundance and joy for each other.

And then this moment will have been worthwhile…

~ Deepak Chopra

To be surprised, to wonder,

Is to begin to understand.

~ Jose’ Ortega y Gasset

A human life is like a single letter in the alphabet.

It can be meaningless, or it can be part of a great meaning.

~ Quoted by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America

Without an integrated understanding of life,

our individual and collective problems

will only deepen and extend.

The purpose of education

is not to produce mere scholars, technicians and job hunters,

but integrated men and women who are free of fear;

for only between such human beings

can there be enduring peace.

~ J. Krishnamurti

We live our lives entirely inside an illusion—

a virtual reality far more convincing than any yet created by computer.

So mesmerized are we by it that we find the greatest difficulty

in imagining that the world could be any other way.
~ David Darling, Astronomer, Writer

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes,

But in having new eyes.

~ Marcel Proust

If I were to wish for anything,

I should not wish for wealth and power,

but for the passionate sense of the potential,

for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible…

what wine is so sparkling, so fragrant, so intoxicating, as possibility!

~ Soren Kierkegaard

Life is like a game of cards.

The hand that is dealt you represents determinism.

The way you play it is free will.

~ Jawaharlal Nehru

The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings,

by changing the inner attitudes of their minds,

can change the outer aspects of their lives.

~William James

The mind is its own place, and in itself,

can make heaven of Hell, and a hell of Heaven.

~John Milton

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious.

It is the fundamental emotion which stands

at the cradle of true art and true science.

Whosoever does not know it and can no longer wonder,

No longer marvel, is as good as dead,

And his eyes are dimmed.

~ Albert Einstein

If we were not so single-minded

about keeping our lives moving,

and for once could do nothing,

perhaps a huge silence

might interrupt this sadness of never

understanding ourselves

and of threatening ourselves with death.

~ Pablo Neruda

We give up what we want to give up

and keep what in some small way we want to keep.

There are payofffs for holding on to small, weak patterns.

We have an excuse not to shine.

We don't have to take responsibility for the world

when we're spending all our time in emotional pain.

We're too busy.

The truth that sets us free is an embrace of the divine within us.

~ Marrianne Williamson

The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.

~ Carl Jung

He who knows others is wise;

He who knows himself is enlightened.

~ Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching

A Man is the fa�ade of a temple wherein all wisdom and all good abide.

What we commonly call man, the eating, drinking, counting, planting man,

does not as we know him represent himself, but misrepresents himself.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I wanted only to live in accord

with the promptings which came from my true self.

Why was it so difficult?

~ Hermann Hesse

Wherever we are,

it is but a stage on the way to somewhere else,

and whatever we do,

however well we do it,

it is only a preparation to do something else that shall be different,

~ Robert Louis Stevenson

A life of reaction is a life of slavery,

Intellectually and spiritually.

One must fight for a life of action, not reaction.

~ Rita Mae Brown

or as Henry David Thoreau puts it:

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams,

and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined,

he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.

~hdt

What other dungeon is so dark as one's own heart!

What jailer is as inexorable as one's self!

~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

If a man carefully examine his thoughts

he will be surprised to find how much he lives in the future.

His well being is always ahead.

Such a creature is probably immortal.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get from it,

But what they become by it.

~ John Ruskin

Seek above all a game worth playing.

Play it as if your life and sanity depend on it,

Because they do!

~ Robert de Ropp

I do not think the measure of a civilization

is how tall its buildings of concrete are,

But rather how well its people have learned to relate

to their environment and fellow man.

~ Sun Bear of the Chippewa Tribe

I have no money, no resources, no hopes.

I am the happiest man alive.

~ Henry Miller

Love

The love of God, unutterable and perfect,

     flows into a pure soul the way that light

     rushes into a transparent object.

The more love that it finds, the more it gives itself;

     so that, as we grow clear and open,

     the more complete the joy of heaven is.

And the more souls who resonate together,

     the greater the intensity of their love,

     and, mirror-like, each soul reflects the other.

~ Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)

It is only through letting our heart break that we discover something unexpected:

the heart cannot actually break, it can only break open.

When we feel both our love for this world and the pain of this world -

together, at the same time - the heart breaks out of its shell.

To live with an open heart is to experience life full-strength.

~ John Welwood

There is a saying in the Buddhist tradition:

"You can explore the universe looking for somebody

who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself,

and you will not find that person anywhere."

~ Sharon Salzberg

The soul is made of love and must ever strive to return to love.

Therefore, it can never find rest nor happiness in other things.

It must lose itself in love.

By its very nature it must seek God, who is love.

~ Mechild of Magdeburg

Love is there—always.

It lives as we live.

This is the essence that gives breath to our bodies and to our souls.

This is the breath of God.

It infuses each of us with life and purpose.

It endows us with the grace to give and receive ~

the way our bodies breathe out and breathe in….

~ Benjamin Shield

[what love teaches]

It takes no effort to love.

The state of being has its own innate joy.

Questions answer themselves if you are aware enough.

Life is safe.

Flowing with the current of being is the simplest way to live.

Resistance never really succeeds.

Controlling the flow of life is impossible.

~ Deepak Chopra

The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances:

If there is any reaction, both are transformed.

~ C.G. Jung

The only abnormality is the incapacity to love.

~ Anais Nin

Peace

Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, let me be an instrument of thy Peace.

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may

not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood as to understand

to be loved, as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive;

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

~ St. Francis of Assisi

…As human beings we all want to be happy and free from misery…

we have learned that the key to happiness is inner peace.

The greatest obstacles to inner peace are disturbing emotions

such as anger and attachment, fear and suspicion, while love and compassion,

a sense of universal responsibility are the sources of peace and happiness.

~Dalai Lama

Peace I leave with you;

My peace I give you.

I do not give you as the world gives.

Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

~ Jesus of Nazareth

John 14:27

First keep the peace within yourself,

then you can also bring peace to others.

~ Thomas a` Kempis

                Psalm 1

Blessed are the man and the woman

   who have grown beyond their greed

   and who have put an end to their hatred

   and no longer nourish illusions.

But they delight in the way things are

   and keep their hearts open, day and night.

They are like trees planted near flowing rivers,

   which bear fruit when they are ready.

Their leaves will not fall or wither.

   Everything they do will succeed.

~ translated by Stephen Mitchell

Empty your mind of all thoughts.

Let your heart be at peace.

Watch the turmoil of beings,

But contemplate their return.

Each separate being in the universe

returns to the common source.

Returning to the source is serenity.

If you don’t realize the source,

you stumble in confusion and sorrow.

When you realize where you come from,

you naturally become tolerant, disinterested, amused,

kindhearted as a grandmother,

dignified as a king,

Immersed in the wonder of the Tao,

you can deal with whatever life brings you,

and when death comes, you are ready.

~ Lao Tzu

Serenity

The Great Way is not difficult

for those who have no preferences.

When love and hate are both absent

everything becomes clear and undisguised.

Make the smallest distinction however

and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.

~ Seng-t`san, The Third Zen Patriarch

Action & Non-Action

The non-action of the wise man is not inaction.

It is not studied. It is not shaken by anything.

The sage is quiet because he is not moved,

Not because he wills to be quiet.

Still water is like glass.

You can look in it and see the bristles on your chin.

It is a perfect level,

How much more the spirit of man?

The heart of the wise man is tranquil.

It is the mirror of heaven and earth ~

the glass of everything.

Emptiness, stillness, tranquillity, tastelessness,

Silence, non-action: this is the level of heaven and earth.

This is the perfect tao.

Wise men find here their resting place.

Resting, they are empty.

From emptiness comes the unconditioned.

From this, the conditioned, the individual things.

So from the sage's emptiness, stillness arises:

From stillness, action. From action, attainment.

From their stillness comes their non-action, which is also action

And is, therefore, their attainment.

For stillness is joy. Joy is free from care

Fruitful in long years.

Joy does all things without concern:

For emptiness, stillness, tranquillity, tastelessness,

Silence and non-action

Are the root of all things.

~ Chuang Tzu

Interpreted by Thomas Merton

There is a place in you where there is perfect peace.

There is a place in you where nothing is impossible.

There is a place in you where the strength of God abides.

~ A Course in Miracles

Enter into the stillness

inside your busy life.

Become familiar with her ways.

Grow to love her feel with all your heart

and you will come to hear her silent music

and become one with Love’s silent song,

the song of Songs.

~ Noel Davis

Fame or integrity: which is more important?

Money or happiness: which is more valuable?

Success or failure: which is more destructive?

If you look to others for fulfillment,

you will never truly be fulfilled.

If your happiness depends on money,

you will never be happy with yourself.

Be content with what you have;

rejoice in the way things are.

When you realize that nothing is lacking,

the whole world belongs to you!

~ Lao Tzu

As long as there is driveness,

then we cannot experience our true nature.

Our true nature is effortless.

It is the nature of nature itself ~ an effortless spontaneous flow.

Whether we realize it or not, all of us, from infancy on,

start to acquire driveness, compulsiveness, grabbiness,

and that covers over our true nature.

As long as that is covered over…life is going to be suffering.

On the other hand, we could just as well say that

Buddhism teaches that life is heaven on earth if we see what is really there.

~ Shinzen Young

When the human organism is discharging its negative experience efficiently,

the mind is empty of past or future concerns;

there is no worry, anticipation, or regret.

This means that the mind is left open to Being,

the simplest state of awareness.

~ Deepak Chopra

Silence is the language of God;

It is also the language of the heart.

~ Dag Hammerskjold

Empty your mind of all thoughts.

Let your heart be at peace.

~ Lao Tzu

Spirit

Psalm 19

The heavens declare God’s glory

    and the magnificence of what made them.

Each new dawn is a miracle;

    each new sky fills with beauty.

Their testimony speaks to the whole world

    and reaches to the ends of the earth.

In them is a path for the sun,

    who steps forth handsome as a bridegroom

    and rejoices like an athlete as he runs.

He starts at one end of the heavens

    and circles to the other end,

    and nothing can hide from his heat.

God’s universe is perfect,

    awing the mind.

God’s truth is subtle,

    baffling the intellect.

God’s law is complete,

    quickening the breath.

God’s compassion is fathomless,

    refreshing the soul.

God’s justice is absolute,

    lighting up the eyes.

God’s love is radiant,

    rejoicing the heart,

    more precious than the finest gold,

    sweeter than honey from the comb.

Help me to be aware of my selfishness,

    but without undue shame or self-judgement.

Let me always feel you present,

    in every atom of my life.

Let me keep surrendering my self

    until I am utterly transparent.

Let my words be rooted in honesty

    and my thoughts be lost in your light.

Unnamable God, my essence, my origin,

my life-blood, my home.

~ translated by Stephen Mitchell

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:

The Soul that rises with us, our life's star,

Hath had elsewhere its setting,

And cometh from afar:

Not in entire forgetfulness,

And not in utter nakedness,

But trailing clouds of glory do we come

From God, who is our home.

~ Henry Wordsworth,

Intimations of Immortality

Holy Spirit,

Giving life to all life,

Moving all creatures,

Root of all things,

Washing them clean,

Wiping out their mistakes,

Healing their wounds,

You are our true life,

Luminous, wonderful,

Awakening the heart from its ancient sleep.

~ Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)

God, whose love and joy are present everywhere,

Can’t come to visit you unless you aren’t there.

~ Angelus Silesius

He is one, the Lord and innermost Self of all;

Of one form, he makes of himself many forms.

To him who sees the Self revealed in his own heart

Belongs eternal bliss.

~ traditional, Katha Upanishad

A person is not a thing or a process,

But an opening through which the absolute manifests.

~ Martin Heidegger

Spirit…is the point of human transcendence;

It is the point where the human is open to the divine,

that is, to the infinite and the eternal.

It is also the point where human beings communicate.

At that point of the Spirit we are all open to one another.

~ Father Bede Griffiths

The Great Spirit is the life that is in all things ~

all creatures and plants and even rocks and the minerals.

All things ~ and I mean all things ~

have their own will and their own way and their own purpose.

~ Rolling Thunder

All beings are encompassed within one all-encompassing great energy:

So I understood from the coolness of this morning’s passing breeze.

~ Mumon

Spirituality

The Art of Peace

All life is a manifestation of the spirit,

the manifestation of love…

All things, material and spiritual, originate from one source

and are related as if they were one family.

The past, present and future are all contained in the life force.

The universe emerged and developed from one source,

and we evolved through the optimal process

of unification and harmonization…

All the principles of heaven and earth are living inside of you.

Life itself is the truth, and this will never change.

Everything in heaven and earth breathes.

Breath is the thread that ties creation together…

Now and again, it is necessary to seclude yourself

among deep mountain and hidden valleys

to restore your link to the source of life.

Breathe in and let yourself soar to the ends of the universe;

Breathe out and bring the cosmos back inside.

Next, breathe up all the fecundity and vibrancy of the earth.

Finally, blend the breath of heaven with that of your own

becoming the Breath of Life itself.

~ Morihei Ueshiba

If thy heart were right,

then every creature would be a mirror of life

and a book of holy doctrine.

There is no creature so small and abject,

but it reflects the goodness of God.

~ Thomas a’ Kempis

The only journey is the one within.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

The Way is long ~ let us go together.

The Way is difficult ~ let us help each other.

The way is joyful ~ let us share it.

The way is ours alone ~ let us go in love.

The way grows before us ~ let us begin.

~ Zen Invocation

Truth is within ourselves,

it takes no rise from outward things,

Whatever you may believe.

There is an innermost center within us all,

where truth abides in fullness,

And, to know, rather consists in opening out a way.

Whence the imprisoned splendor may escape,

than in affecting entry for a light

Supposed to be without."

~ Robert Browning

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters

Compared with what lies within us.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Strengthened by desire and hope,

Burdened by anxiety and fear,

Beset by temptations and guarded by spiritual powers,

[the seeker] pursues his way along the Path of Life,

seeking ever a "better country."

~ Samuel Clagget Chew

Despair is often the first step on the path of spiritual life

and many people do not awaken to the Reality of God

and the experience of transformation in their lives until

they go through the experience of emptiness, delusion and despair.

~ Father Bede Griffiths

Spiritual Work is not easy.

It means the willingness to surrender feelings that seem,

while we're in them,

like our defense against a greater pain.

It means that we surrender to God our perceptions of all things.

~ Marrianne Williamson

...each of us is here to discover our true Self...

that essentially we are spiritual beings that have taken manifestation in physical form.

We’re not human beings that have occasional spiritual experiences ~

it’s the other way around: we’re spiritual beings that have occasional human experiences.

~ Deepak Chopra

A person is not a thing or a process,

but an opening through which the absolute manifests."

~ Martin Heidegger

There is no room for God in him who is full of himself.

~ Hasidic Proverb

The soul is a breath of living spirit that

with excellent sensitivity

permeates the entire body to give it life.

Just so,

The breath of the air makes the earth fruitful.

Thus the air is the soul of the earth,

Moistening it; greening it.

~ Hildegard von Bingen

There is something in all of us that seeks the spiritual…The spiritual is inclusive. It is the deepest sense of belonging and participation. We all participate in the spiritual at all times, whether we know it or not. There’s no place to go to be separated from the spiritual, so perhaps one might say that the spiritual is that realm of human experience which religion attempts to connect is to through dogma and practice. Sometimes it succeeds and sometimes it fails. Religion is a bridge to the spiritual ~ but the spiritual lies beyond religion. Unfortunately. In seeking the spiritual we may become attached to the bridge rather than crossing over it.

~ Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D.

Prayer and love are learned in the hour

when prayer becomes impossible

and your heart has turned to stone.

~ Thomas Merton

Unity

The first peace, which is the most important,

is that which comes within the souls of people

when they realize their relationship,

their oneness with the universe and all its powers,

and when they realize that at the center

of the universe dwells the Great Spirit,

and that this center is really everywhere,

it is within each of us.

~ Black Elk

Native American spiritual leader

As is the inner, so is the outer;

As is the great, so is the small;

As it is above, so it is below;

There is but One Life and Law;

And he that worketh it is ONE.

Nothing is inner, nothing is outer;

Nothing is great, nothing is small;

Nothing is high, nothing is low, in the Divine Economy.

~ Hermetic Axiom (Proverb)

Separate yourself from all twoness.

Be one on one, one with one, one from one.

~ Meister Eckhart

In a real sense all life is inter-related.

All persons are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,

tied in a single garment of destiny:

Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.

I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be,

and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be.

This is the inter-related structure of reality.

~ Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

A human being is part of the whole called by us "universe,"

a part limited in time and space.

We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings

as something separate from the rest ~

a kind of optical delusion of consciousness.

This delusion is a kind of prison for us,

restricting us to our personal desires

and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.

Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison

by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures

and the whole of nature in its beauty.

~ Albert Einstein

Sunshine is delicious,

rain is refreshing,

wind braces us up,

snow is exihilerating;

there is really no such thing a bad weather,

only different kinds of good weather.

~ John Rushkin

Every part of the Earth is sacred to my people.

Every shining pine needle,

every sandy shore,

every mist in the dark woods,

every clear and humming insect is holy

in the memory and experience of my people.

The sap which courses through the trees

carries the memory and experience of my people….

… I am a red man and do not understand.

The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of the pond,

and the smell of the wind itself,

cleansed by a midday rain, or scented with the pinon pine…

…Teach your children what we have taught our children,

that the Earth is our mother.

Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth.

If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves.

This we know - the Earth does not belong to man - man belongs to the Earth.

This we know.

All things are connected like the blood which unites one family.

All things are connected.

Whatever befalls the Earth - befalls the sons of the Earth.

Man did not weave the web of life - he is merely a strand in it.

Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

~ Attributed to Chief Seattle

Written by Ted Perry for TV Movie "Home"

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s life may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

~ Wendell Berry

When I do not know who I am, I serve you.

When I know who I am, I am you.

~ Indian proverb

You can't be a solitary human being.

We're all linked ...

Because of this deep sense of community,

    the harmony of the group is a prime attribute.

And so you realize that anything that undermines the harmony

    is to be avoided as much as possible.

Anger and jealousy and revenge are particularly corrosive,

    so you try... to enhance the humanity of the other,

    because in that process, you enhance your own.

~ Desmond Tutu

As long as we operate within this old paradigm,

we are separated from our heart and values and feel powerless.

We cannot suspend our values during the workday

and think we will have them back when we get home.

We're all interconnected.

There is a spiritual dimension to business just as there as individuals.

~ Ben & Jerry, [Cohen & Greenfield, The Ice Cream Guys]


The only real hope of people today . . .
is a renewal of our certainty that we are rooted in Earth and, at the same time, in the cosmos.
This awareness endows us with the capacity for self-trans-cendence.
Transcendence as a hand reached out to those close to us,
to foreigners, to the human community, to all living creatures, to nature, to the universe;
transcendence as a deeply and joyously experienced need
to be in harmony even with what we ourselves are not,
what we do not understand,
what seems distant from us in time and space,
but with which we are nevertheless mysteriously linked because,
together with us, all this constitutes a single world. ~ Vaclav Havel

To seek freedom is the only driving force I know.

Freedom to fly off into that infinity out there.

Freedom to dissolve; to lift off; to be like the flame of a candle,

which, in spite of being up against the light of a billion stars, remains intact,

because it never pretended to be more than what it is: a mere candle."

~ Carlos Castaneda

Heaven is my father and earth my mother
and even such a small creature as I
finds an intimate place in its midst.
That which extends throughout the universe,
I regard as my body
and that which directs the universe,
I regard as my nature.
All people are my brothers and sisters,
and all things are my companion.

~ Chang-tsai (11^th century)

At the heart of each of us,

Whatever our imperfections,

There exists a silent pulse of perfect rhythm,

A complex of wave forms and resonances,

Which is absolutely individual and unique,

And yet which connects us to everything in the universe.

~ George Leonard

To see the world in a grain of sand

And heaven in a wild flower

To hold infinity in the palm of your hand

And eternity in an hour.

~ William Blake

You and I and everything in the universe

exist as a part of the endless flow of God's Love.

Realizing this, we recognize that all creation

is bound together with the same benevolence.

To harmonize with life is to come into accord

with that part of God which flows through all things.

To foster and protect all life

is both our mission and our prayer.

~ Morehei Ueshiba

All beings are encompassed within one all-encompassing great energy:
So I understood from the coolness of this morning’s passing breeze.

~ Mumon

Wisdom

Without going out my door

I can know all things on earth.

Without looking out of my window

I can know the ways of heaven.

For the further one travels

the less one knows.

The sage therefore arrives without travelling,

Sees all without looking,

Does all without doing.

~ Lao Tzu

The disciples were absorbed in a discussion of Lao-tzu’s dictum:

Those who know do not say;

Those who say do not know.

When the master entered,

They asked him what the words meant.

Said the master,

"Which of you knows the fragrance of a rose?"

All of them indicated that they knew.

Then he said, "put it into words."

All of them were silent.

~ from Anthony deMello, One Minute Wisdom

Why do you hasten to remove anything which hurts your eye,

while if something affects your soul you postpone the cure until next year.

~ Horace

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,

where moth and rust consume and

where thieves break in and steal,

but lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven,

where neither moth nor rust consumes and

where thieves do not break I and steal.

For where your treasure is,

there will be your heart also.

The eye is the lamp of the body.

So, if your eye is sound,

your whole body will be full of light;

But if your eye is not sound,

your whole body will be full of darkness.

If then the light in you is darkness,

how great is the darkness.

No one can serve two masters;

for either he will hate the one and love the other,

or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and mammon.*

Therefore I tell you,

do not be anxious about your life,

what you shall eat or what you shall drink,

nor about your body,

what you shall put on.

Is not life more than food,

and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air:

They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns,

And yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not of more value than they?

And which of you can by being anxious add one cubit to his span of life?

And why are you anxious about clothing?

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow;

they neither toil nor spin.

Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory

was not arrayed like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field.

which is today alive and tomorrow thrown into the oven,

will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith.

Therefore do not be anxious, sayng, "what shall we eat?" Or "What shall we drink?"

or "what shall we wear?"

For the Gentiles seek all these things;

and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness,

and all these things shall be yours as well.

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow,

For tomorrow will be anxious for itself.

Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.

~ Jesus

Matthew 6: 19-34

* mammon=money

Awakening begins when a man realizes that he is going nowhere

and does not know where to go.

~ Georges Gurdjieff

There is a principle which is the basis of all things,

which all speech aims to say,

and all action to evolve,

a simple, quiet, undescribed, undescribable presence,

dwelling peacefully in us,

our rightful lord:

we are not to do, but to let do;

not to work, but be worked upon;

and to this homage there is a consent of all thoughtful

and just men in all ages and conditions.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown

is the belief that one's work is terribly important.

~ Bertrand Russell

We do not receive wisdom,

we must discover it for ourselves,

after a journey through the wilderness

which no one else can make for us,

which no one can spare us,

for our wisdom is the point of view

from which we come at last to regard the world.

~ Marcel Proust

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly;

What is essential is invisible to the eye.

~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too:

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give away to hating

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream-and not make dreams your master;

If you can think-and not make thought your aim,

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same:

If you can hear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken

And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a work about your loss:

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kinds-nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much:

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the earth and everything that's in it,

And-which is more-you'll be a man, my son!

~ Rudyard Kipling

When you live in the shadow of insanity,

the appearance of another mind

that thinks and talks as yours does

is something close to a blessed event.

~ Robert Pirsig

Author Index

Dante Alighieri

Richard Alpert (see Ram Dass)

Richard Barret

William Blake

Martin Buber

Buddha

Joseph Campbell

Carlos Castaneda

Chang-tsai

Samuel Clagget Chew

Deepak Chopra

Chuang Tzu

Confucius

The Dalai Lama

Dante Alighieri

David Darling

Anthony deMello

Robert de Ropp

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Dhyani Ywahoo

Meister Eckhart

Ralph Waldo Emerson

St. Francis of Assisi

St. Francis de Sales

Mohandas K. Gandhi

Jose’ Ortega y Gasset

Kahlil Gibran

Father Bede Griffiths

Georges Gurdjieff

Dag Hammerskjold

Thich Nhat Hanh

Vaclav Havel

Martin Heidegger

Hildegard von Bingen

William James

Thomas Jefferson

Rebbe Nachman

Jesus of Nazareth

Carl Jung

Thomas a` Kempis

Soren Kierkegaard

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr

Rudyard Kipling

Jack Kornfield

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Lao Tzu

George Leonard

Mechild of Magdeburg

Rollo May

Thomas Merton

Milarepa

Henry Miller

John Milton

Stephen Mitchell

Wayne Muller

Mumon

Robert Musil

Rebbe Nachman

Jawaharlal Nehru

Pablo Neruda

Anais Nin

Robert Pirsig

Marcel Proust

Proverb

Ram Dass

Rachel Naomi Remen

Rumi

John Ruskin

Bertrand Russell

Sathya Sai Baba

Sharon Salzberg

Seng-tsan

Benjamin Shield

Daniel Siegel

Angelus Silesius

Huston Smith

Robert Louis Stevenson

Sun Bear

Rabindranath Tagore

Thich Nhat Hanh

Traditional

Tung-Shan

Morihei Ueshiba

Hildegard von Bingen

John Welwood

Wen Tzu

Marrianne Williamson

Paramahansa Yogananda

Shinzen Young

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