Inside out

"And in all of my experience, I've never seen lasting solutions to problems, lasting happiness and success, that came from the outside in." Stephen Covey

First believed ...

"I first believed without any hesitation in the existence of the soul, and then I wondered about the secret of its nature. I persevered and strove in search of the soul, and found at last that I myself was the cover of my soul. I realized that in me which believed and that in me which wondered, that which persevered in me, and that which found, and that which was found at last, was no other than my soul. Since then I have seen all souls as my soul, and realized my soul as the soul of all; and what bewilderment it was when I realized that I alone was, if there were anyone; that I am whatever and whoever exists; and that I shall be whoever there will be in the future. And there was no end to my happiness and joy."
-Hazrat Inyat Khan (Sufi Teacher)

Uncovered, discovered

"I uncovered my Soul when my Soul discovered itself. My ego 'knows' my Soul in so far my ego is cast by my Soul, in the same way my body casts a shadow. My contemplation of my Soul is a participation of my Soul's contemplation of itself. I became contemplative when I uncovered my Soul. At each moment of 'uncovering.' I pass through the center of my Soul and experience the long enduring mind."
-- Roots and Wings

Closing out the year

"God is at home... It is we who have gone out for a walk."
-- Meister Eckhart

Least of these

"For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. Truly, I say to you, as you do to even one of the least of my brothers and sisters, you do it to me."
Jesus in Mathew verse 25

Happiness

"Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared."
--The Buddha

Otherwise

"Things are not as they appear, nor are they otherwise."
Diamond Sutra

I thought it was

"When you eventually see through the veils to how things really are, you will keep saying again and again, 'This is certainly not like I thought it was!'"
Rumi

Each tiime ...

"Each time a man (or a woman) stands up for an ideal, acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he (or she) sends forth a tiny ripple of hope. And crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples can create a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."
Robert Kennedy

.... yet doesn't hold on

The great Tao flows everywhere. All things are born from it, yet it doesn't create them. It pours itself into its work, yet it makes no claim. It nourishes infinite worlds, yet it doesn't hold on to them. Since it is merged with all things and hidden in their hearts, it can be called humble. Since all things vanish into it and it alone endures, it can be called great. It isn't aware of its greatness; thus it is truly great.

THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS

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 lives 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

The true disease ...

The true disease of our age is the rise of literalism and the corresponding loss of genuine imagination, for literalism reduces the world to fixed ideas and rigid dogmas while isolating people at the extremes of thought and belief.
Michael Mad.

Wisdom Sits in Places

Wisdom can mean many things; however, it is most often applied to social situations and is marked by judgment, reflection, and compassion.
Vivian Clayton

The trick is ...

“The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.”
~ Carlos Castaneda

The Answer

"The answer is never the answer. What's really interesting is the Mystery. If you seek the Mystery instead of the answer,
you'll always be seeking..."
-- Ken Kesey,

Just ain't so.

It’s not what people don’t know that’s the problem, but what they think they know that — —just ain’t so.
Will Rogers

Rapture of Life

“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life… I think that what we’re really seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonance within our innermost being and reality, so that we can actually feel the rapture of being alive."
Joseph Campbell

But men aren't ...

"If all men were angels we would have no need of laws, much less of government."
James Madison

Broken Places

“The world breaks everyone ... but some people get strong in the broken places.”
-Ernest Hemingway

Itself

Gratitude is Heaven itself.
William Blake

Canvas

The world is but a canvas for the imagination.
Henry David Thoreau

In between ...

"Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. And between the two my life flows."
Nisargadatta Maharaj

Awesome journey

"Our evolution has been an awesome journey of fifteen billion years. Every entity that ever moved or swam or crawled or flew, every being that lived to reproduce itself, all the vast numbers of species now extinct and presently living who have invented the amazing capability which we have inherited as our eyes, our ears, our organs, our very atoms, molecules and cells - all of those preceding us are represented in our emergence now. We bow down in awe and gratitude for the past. Without all that came before us, none of us would be awakening now!"
- Barbara Marx Hubbard

Deliberate Positioning

"It is a commonly held view that meditation is a way to shut off the pressures of the world or of your own mind, but this is not an accurate impression. Meditation is neither shutting things out nor off. It is seeing clearly, and deliberately positioning yourself differently in relationship to them."
Jon Kabat-Zinn

Self-preservation

Self-preservation is only the second law of life. The first law is that you and the other are one.
- Joseph Campbell

Good Government

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government. 
- Thomas Jefferson

Together

The awareness that we are all human beings together has become lost in war and through politics.
- Albert Schweitzer



There lies before us ...

There lies before us, if we choose, continual progress in happiness, knowledge, and wisdom. Shall we, instead, choose death, because we cannot forget our quarrels? We appeal as human beings, to human beings: remember your humanity and forget the rest. 
- Bertrand Russell



Ram Dass

"I would like my life to be a statement of love and compassion --and where it isn't that's where my work lies."
Ram Dass (aka Richard Alpert)

Mental act

"The mental act of focusing attention stabilizes the associated brain circuits...Over time, paying enough attention to any specific brain connection keeps the relevant circuitry open and dynamically alive...The power is in the focus."
- Daniel Siegel, UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center

Self-reliant

"The world is moving very rapidly into the changing that many of us have seen in our visions, and we see that many prophecies have come to fulfillment. Dear friends, we strongly urge you to be as self-reliant as possible... Our vision is of people coming together to learn to share and work with each other and from these permanent alliances people can come together with like hearts and minds."
Vincent LaDuke

Reflexive

"The deliberate use of reflective thought or inquiry can reveal a set of unconscious assumptions, habits, and compulsions that we have set in motion. This can be very helpful and can yield great insight. We establish a steady, open mindfulness and then ask: 'What is it that knows this? What is aware of this moment? Who is it that feels pain? Who is it that is having this fantasy? Who is it that is wondering about supper?' At that moment a gap opens up. Milarepa once said something along the lines of, 'When the flow of discursive thinking is broken, the doorway to liberation opens.' In exactly the same way, when we pose that kind of question, it is like an awl being worked into a knotted tangle of identification and loosening its strands. It breaks the habit, the pattern of discursive thinking. When we ask "who" or "what," for a moment the thinking mind trips over its own feet. It fumbles. In that space, before it can piece together an answer or an identity, there is timeless peace and freedom. Through that peaceful space the innate quality of mind, mind-essence, appears. It's only by frustrating our habitual judgments, the partial realities that we have unconsciously determined into existence, that we are forced to loosen our grip and to let go of our misguided way of thinking."
- Achan Amaro Bhikku

Even the Neanderthals

Even the Neanderthals with such careful burials understood the visible material world was not the only reality. From the very beginning we invented stories that enabled us to place our lives in a larger setting that revealed an underlying pattern, and gave us a sense that against all the depressing and chaotic evidence to the contrary, life had meaning and value. -Karen Armstrong-

True Essence

The true essence of humankind is kindness. There are other qualities, which come from education or knowledge, but if one wishes to be a genuine human being and impart satisfying meaning to one’s existence, it is essential to have a good heart. -The 14th Dalai Lama-

The Center of the Universe

The Tao is the center of the universe, the good man's treasure, the bad man's refuge. Honors can be bought with fine words, respect can be won with good deeds; but the Tao is beyond all value, and no one can achieve it. Thus, when a new leader is chosen, don't offer to help him with your wealth or your expertise. Offer instead to teach him about the Tao.

The Ultimate

We cling to our own point of view, as though everything depended on it. Yet our opinions have no permanence; like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away. Men honor what lies within the sphere of their knowledge, but do not realize how dependent they are on what lies beyond it. Flow with whatever may happen and let our minds be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever we are doing. This is the ultimate.
Zuangzhi We

Temporary Madness

Love is a temporary madness; it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of eternal passion. That is just being in love, which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Love is the roots that grow towards each other underground, slowly and determined. And when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches, you find you are no longer two, but one.
One root, One tree, One Love."- By Louis de Bernieres, from Captain Corelli's Mandolin

The Price

"The price of anything is the amount of life we pay for it."

Henry David Thoreau

Let it come and let it go ...

As Suzuki Roshi, a great contemporary Zen master,
wrote in his classic book, Zen Mind Beginners Mind:

“When you are practicing Zazen meditation, do not try to stop your thinking. Let it stop by itself. If something comes into your mind, let it come in and let it go out. It will not stay long. When you try to stop your thinking, it means you are bothered by it. Do not be bothered by anything. It appears that the something comes from outside your mind, but actually it is only the waves of your mind and if you are not bothered by the waves, gradually they will become calmer and calmer . . . Many sensations come, many thoughts and images arise but they are just waves from your own mind. Nothing comes from outside your mind . . . If you leave your mind as it is, it will become calm. This mind is called Big Mind.”

When he makes a mistake

A great nation is like a great man. When he makes a mistake, he realizes it. Having realized it, he admits it. Having admitted it, he corrects it. He considers those who point out his faults as his most benevolent teachers. He thinks of his enemy as the shadow that he himself casts." (Lao Tse)