Time ongoing

"People of today relate to time in a way that is surely unique in our history. The technologies and economic forces unleashed by Industrial Growth Society radically alter our experience of time. It is like being trapped in an ever-shrinking box, in which we race on a treadmill. The economy and its technologies depend on decisions made at lighting speed for short-term goals, cutting us off from nature's rhythms and from the past and future, as well. Marooned in the present, we are progressively blinded to the sheer ongoingness of time. Both the company of our ancestors and the claims of our descendants become less and less real to us....To make the transition to a life-sustaining society ...we need to attune to longer, ecological rhythms and nourish a strong, felt connection with past and future generations..."
Joanna MAcy

There do in fact exist ...

There do in fact exist creators, seers, sages, saints, shakers, and movers ... even if they are uncommon and do not come by the dozen. And yet these very same people can be boring, irritating, petulant, selfish, angry, and/or depressed. To avoid disillusionment with human nature, we must first give up our illusions about it.
Abraham Maslow

Anger

Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die. (Malachy McCourt)

Anger is a tool for change when it challenges us to become more of an expert on the self and less of an expert on others.
(Harriet Lerner)

Mobius Twist

You can learn more about me by what I say about you than by what you say about me, unless, of course, what I say about you is what you say about me.

Natural Course

"No, sitting for hours on end is not necessary. Some people think that the longer you can sit, the wiser you must be. I have seen chickens sit on their nests for days on end! Wisdom comes from being mindful in all postures. Your practice should begin as you awaken in the morning. It should continue until you fail asleep. Don't be concerned about how long you can sit. What is important is only that you keep watchful whether you are working or sitting or. . . Each person has his own natural pace. Some of you will die at age fifty, some at age sixty-five, and some at age ninety. So, too, your practice will not be all identical. Don't think or worry about this. Try to be mindful and let things take their natural course. Then your mind will become quieter and quieter in any surroundings. It will become still like a clear forest pool. Then all kinds of wonderful and rare animals will come to drink at the pool. You will see clearly the nature of all things in the world. You will see many wonderful and strange things come and go. But you will be still. Problems will arise and you will see through them immediately."
Ven. Ajahn Chah

A Coeur d'Alene Legend

People had a fire. Wolf had no fire. Wolf and dog were friends. Wolf said to dog. "Go steal a spark from the People." Dog went to the People. They fed him and he forgot to steal the spark for wolf. That’s all.

Activism is like that

"For me to be active in the cause of the people and of the earth and just to be - is to be alive. There is no compartmentalization. It's all one thing. It's not like I just exist to go into a little room and write. People have that image of writers, that that's how we live, but it's not really accurate, not the kind of writing that I do. I know that what I write has a purpose, even if it's just for me, if I'm just trying to lead myself out of a kind of darkness. So it broadens everything, being active in the world. You see the world. It's like, you know, I'm learning to paint now, and what I realize, learning to paint, is that I'm learning to see. And activism is like that. When you are active, and you must know this so well, that the more you are active, the more you see, the more you go to see. You know, you are curious. One thing leads to another thing, and it gets deeper and deeper, too. And there's no end to it."
Alice Walker

It's impossible

"When the heart is completely liberated, it's impossible to deliberately harm another being. It's impossible to act acquisitively. It's impossible to take advantage of another being sexually or use your sense world indulgently. It is simply impossible. You can't lie or use speech in a harmful or deceitful way. It's as if the force of spiritual gravity won't allow it. There's nothing there that could cause you to bend the truth. . . Goodness feels good because the attitude resonates with reality. Lying and harming feel bad because they are dissonant with that reality of what we are. It's as simple as that."
Ajahn Amaro

higher goal

"The higher goal of spiritual living is not to amass a wealth of information, but to face sacred moments."
Abraham Joshua Heschel

The power to retell

"Those who do not have power over the story that dominates their lives, the power to retell it, rethink it, deconstruct it . . . and change it as times change, truly are powerless because they cannot think new
thoughts." - Salman Rushdie