"In the presence of presence the accumulated suffering from the past begins to dissolve, and that's the true teaching. That's why presence is so beautiful and why people want to be close to a teacher. It's not the form of the teacher; the attraction is to be in the presence of the presence. It's a very powerful thing to sit with someone who looks like somebody but is not somebody. When there's somebody there who is transparent enough so that the stillness comes through unhindered, there's a reciprocal movement in you because the presence of stillness suddenly recognizes itself. There's an almost magnetic pull of being. It gets pulled out of you, forward, and it meets all of the other being's being. Words are not really necessary for that to happen. They can be floating on the surface. Being recognizes itself. People come together, being in response to being.
That's the beauty of it."
Ekhart Tolle in an interview "Stillness & Presence" in Inquiring Mind 18:1, Fall 2001 free subscriptions PO Box 9999 Berkeley, CA 94709)

Addiction

Adyashanti

"We can not see things in their true nature
until we stop seeing them in their untrue nature."
Adyashanti

More Rilke

"I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world. I may not ever complete the last one, But I give myself to it....I have been circling for thousands of years,And I still don't know: Am I a falcon, a storm, or a great song."
Rilke

Quantum mind

"The new physics presents prima facie evidence that our human thoughts are linked to nature by nonlocal connections: what a person chooses to do in one region seems immediately to effect what is true elsewhere in the universe. This nonlocal aspect can be understood by conceiving the universe to be not a collection of tiny bits of matter, but rather a growing compendium of 'bits of information. . . .' I believe that most quantum physicists will also agree that our conscious thoughts ought eventually to be understood within science and that when properly understood, our thoughts will be seen to DO something: they will be efficacious."
Henry P. Stapp, a leading theorist in quantum physics at University of California, Berkeley

Mother Theresa

"When I am hungry, give me someone that I can feed.
And when I am thirsty, give me someone who needs a drink.
When I'm cold, give me someone to keep warm.
And when I grieve, give me someone to console."

Can you remember..

Can you remember those precious moments in your life when you felt so ecstatically whole and in balance that it brought tears to your eyes? The great poet Kabir says, "Between the conscious and unconscious, the mind has put up a swing; all earth creatures, even supernovas, sway between these two trees, and it never winds down. Angels, animals, humans, insects by the million, also the wheeling sun and moon; ages go by, and it goes on. Everything is swinging: heaven, earth, water, fire, and the secret one is slowly growing a body.
Kabir saw this for fifteen seconds, and it made him a servant for life."

a person's needs...

"The first act of love is to see this person or this object, this reality as it truly is. And this involves the enormous discipline of dropping your desires, your prejudices, your memories, your projections, your selective way of looking ...a discipline so great that most people would rather plunge headlong into good actions and service than submit to the burning fire of this asceticism. When you set out to serve someone whom you have not taken the trouble to see, are you meeting that person's need or your own?"
Father Anthony de Mello

Evolutionary Activism

It is time to shift our attention, our activism, our philanthropy, our citizenship, and our transformational agentry from fixing up symptoms -- however painful and upsetting they may be -- to transforming the causes. That shift can bring about the world we all long for."
Tom Atlee -- his book -- Evolutionary Activism

Inner Chapters

"In earlier times, people lived simply and serenely. Sensitive to the fluctuations that constantly occur, they were able to adjust comfortably to the energy of the day. Today, people lead hysterical, impulsive lives. Ignoring the subtle alterations of yin and yang which influence all things, they become confused, exhausted, and frustrated. However, even today one can restore wholeness and clarity to one's mind. The way to do this is through study of the I Ching. Like the cycle of day and night, everything is a tai chi incorporating movements between yin and yang. If you do not see the patterns in these movements, you are lost. But if you consult the I Ching with an open mind, you will begin to see the patterns underlying all things. Knowing that daybreak will come, you can rest peacefully at night. When you accurately perceive the fluidity of things, you also begin to perceive the constancy behind them: the creative, transformative, boundless, immutable Tao. To see this is the ultimate education, and the ultimate solace.
Hua Hung Chang, Inner Chapters

...this suffering world

"What shall I do in this suffering world? Suffer. But is that enough to satisfy the big moral feeling that I have? Why should I have a moral feeling on that scale? I am not God. If I were offered the power of a miracle, could I yet alleviate the vast organic suffering, without disrupting some inner working of God's purpose in it all?
Jack Kerouac -- Journal, 1947

"Wisdom is a living stream, not an icon preserved in a museum. Only when we find the spring of wisdom in our own life can it flow to future generations."
-Thich Nhat Hanh