Spiritwalk

Meditations

      Archive/January 1999

January 3, 1999

Twenty-two

Yield and overcome;
Bend and be straight;
Empty and be full;
Wear out and be new;
Have little and gain;
Have much and be confused.

Therefore wise men embrace the one
And set an example to all.
Not putting on a display,
They shine forth.
Not justifying themselves,
They are distinguished.
Not boasting,
They receive recognition.
Not bragging,
They never falter.
They do not quarrel,
So no one quarrels with them.
Therefore the ancients say, “Yield and overcome.”
Is that an empty saying?

Be really whole,
And all things will come to you.

~ Lao Tzu

   Tao Te Ching

January 4, 1999

One day this light will explode,
and you will see it everywhere.
You will see the entire universe existing within it.
The divine light of Consciousness will begin to fill your eyes,
and wherever you look you will see it.
You will see its radiance in people, in trees, in rocks, and in buildings.
You will see the same consciousness rising and falling in every wave
of thought and feeling that passes through your mind; wherever your mind goes
you will find your own inner Consciousness, the creator of the world.
You will see that the entire universe is contained within your own Self.
You will know that everything ~ all the infinite modifications of the world ~
is nothing but your own play.
You will realize that it is you who are being reflected everywhere
And that it is your own reflection that passes before you all the time.

~ Swami Muktananda

January 6, 1999

My religion consists of a humble admiration
of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself
in the slight details we are able to perceive
with our frail and feeble minds.

- Albert Einstein

 

January 7, 1999

Men do not know themselves,
and therefore they do not understand things of their inner world.
Each man has the essence of God
and all the wisdom and power of the world in himself…

~ Paracelsus

 

January 8, 1999

There is only one time

when it is essential to awaken.
That time is now.

~ Buddha

January 9, 1999

The Big Question is
whether you are going to be able
to say a hearty yes to your adventure.

~ Joseph Campbell

 

January 10, 1999

That inner Self, as the primeval Spirit,
Eternal, ever effulgent, full and infinite Bliss,
Single, indivisible, whole and living,
Shines in everyone as the witnessing awareness.
That self in its splendour, shining in the cavity of the heart…
This self is neither born nor dies,
Neither grows nor decays,
Nor does it suffer any change.
When a pot is broken, the space within it is not,
And similarly, when the body dies the Self in it remains eternal…

~ Ramana Marharshi (1879-1950)

January 11, 1999

Unless our minds are stable and calm,
no matter how comfortable our physical condition may be,
they will give us no pleasure. Therefore,
the key to a happy life, now and in the future,
is to develop a happy mind.

~ Dalai Lama



January 12, 1999

January 13, 1999

 

And when you have reached the mountain top,

then you shall begin to climb.

 

~ Khalil Gibran

January 14, 1999

If you keep your heart immersed always in the ocean of divine love,
Your heart is sure to remain ever full to the overflowing
with the waters of the divine love.

~ Ramakrishna

January 15, 1999

Those who are awake live in a state of constant amazement.

~ Buddha

 

January 16, 1999

The boddhisattva never seeks a trance state, bliss, or absorption.
He is simply awake to life situations as they are.
He is particularly aware of the continuity of meditation
with generosity, morality, patience, and energy.
There is a continual feeling of “awake.”

~ Chogyam Trungpa

Sunday, January 17, 1999

In the modern world, there are few examples of human beings

who embody the qualities that come from realizing the nature of mind.

So it is hard for us even to imagine enlightenment

or the perception of an enlightened being,

and even harder to begin to think

that we ourselves could become enlightened.

 

….Even if we were to think of the possibility of enlightenment,

one look at what composes our ordinary mind ~

anger, greed, jealousy, spite, cruelty, lust, fear, anxiety, and turmoil ~

would undermine forever any hope of achieving it.

 

…Enlightenment…is real; and each of us, whoever we are,

can in the right circumstances and with the right training

realize the nature of mind and so know in us

what is deathless and eternally pure.

This is the promise of all the mystical traditions of the world,

and it has been fulfilled and is being fulfilled

in countless thousands of human lives.

 

~ Sogyal Rinpoche

 

January 18, 1999

People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life.
I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking.
I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive,
so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane
will have resonances within our own innermost being and reality,
so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.

~ Joseph Campbell

January 19, 1999

Strange is our situation here upon earth.
Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why,
yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose…

From the standpoint of daily life, however,
There is one thing we do know:
that man is here for the sake of other men ~
above all for those upon whose smile
and well-being our own happiness depends,
and also for the countless unknown souls
whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy.

~ Albert Einstein

January 20, 1999

Re-examine all you have been told . . .
Dismiss what insults your Soul.

~ Walt Whitman

January 21, 1999

Maybe you have a still soul
that goes murmurless
like water in the deep of rivers;

And perchance you wander silent
amid the din of the world’s grinding barter
like one journeying in strange lands;

You, too, with the still soul, have your mission,
for beneath the dashing, noisy waves
must ever run the silent waters

that give the tide the course.

~ Max Ehrmann

January 22, 1999

Peace in the physical world can only be built
on the cornerstone of peace in each of our hearts,
and as we heal our sense of personal separation ,
peace on Earth is sure to follow…

The most significant contribution you and I can make
toward world peace is to be peaceful ourselves,
to give peacefulness to those whose lives we touch daily,
and to forgive ourselves for our errors,
to the point at which we love ourselves
no matter what we have ever done.

~ Alan Cohen



January 23, 1999

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake,

not by mechanical aids,

but by an infinite expectation of the dawn,

which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep.

I know of no more encouraging fact

than the unquestionable ability of man

to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor.

~ Henry David Thoreau

January 24, 1999

I truly believe

that individuals can make a difference in society.

Since periods of great change such as the present

come so rarely in human history,

it is up to us to make the best use of our time

to help create a happier world.

~ Dalai Lama

 

Monday, January 25, 1999

Love life
everything ~
pale lights
markets medley
of green lettuce,
red cherries,
golden grapes, and
purple eggplants ~
all so extraordinary!
Incredible!
You get excited,
you talk to people
and people talk
to you,
you touch
and they touch you.
All this is magical,
like some
endless
celebration.

~ Eugene Ionesco

January 26, 1999

For what has been ~

    thanks

 

For what shall be ~

    yes

~ Dag Hammerskjold

January 27, 1999

I think the most wonderful things in life are beyond reason,
that is why I think “why” is often such an irrelevant question,
it is very limited.
The real things in life have nothing to do with “why.”
They are just “so,”
They are just “thus.”
Life is a “thus,”
and until you realize this “thusness” of life,

you are stuck.

~ Laurens van der Post

 

 

 

January 28, 1999

Gandhi was asked to describe in twenty-five words or less
what his life mission was...

He said, “I could do it in three: Renounce and enjoy.”
You renounce all worldly attachment to everything and enjoy what God gives you.
You give away what you have inside yourself, your love.
You’re not concerned with whether it worked or didn’t work,
Whether it was right or wrong, whether you won or lost.
You just constantly flow through your life without getting attached to the results.
The irony is that the less attached you are, the more you get.
The more you keep circulating, the more keeps coming back to you.
It’s a flowing system.

~ Wayne Dyer

 

Friday, January 29, 1999

 

In our souls everything

moves guided by a mysterious hand.

We know nothing of our own souls

that are ununderstandable and say nothing.

The deepest words

of the wise man teach us

the same as the whistle of the wind when it blows

or the sound of the water when it is flowing.

 

~ Antonio Machado

     Translated by Robert Bly

 

January 30, 1999

God to me is inner peace.
When the mind is freed
from the outer turmoils of the world,
it becomes peaceful.
In that peaceful state of mind,
God’s love can be experienced.
Ultimately, this love has no explanation,
but rather is a pure state of mind.

~ Baba Hari Dass

 

January 31, 1999

Our discovery of God is, in a way, God’s discovery of us.
We know Him in so far as we are known by Him,
And our contemplation of Him is a participation of his contemplation of Himself.
We become contemplatives when God discovers Himself in us.
At that moment, the point of our contact with Him opens out
and we pass through the center of our souls and enter eternity.

~ Thomas Merton

[Next Meditations, February 1999 or return to Meditations Archive]     [Search Spiritwalk]

Home   Contents   Newsletter   Library    Archive   Bookstore    Brochure  E-mail  Mailing List