A level playing field

"Ultimately, even where nature sucks all matter and energy into black holes and naked singularities, the actual horizon for science doesn't lie there, or with the big bang, by which matter and energy reappeared in manifest form. The real horizon is where the inconceivable source of mind meets the conceivable phenomena in nature. The problem of something coming out of nothing is exactly the same when the cosmos was born as when a thought is born. This is the level playing field where mind and matter can be investigated as two sides of the same process: consciousness interacting with itself." - ~ Deepak Chopra

Alan Watts

Spiritual Inquirer

"In this era, to become a spiritual inquirer without social consciousness is a luxury that we can ill afford, and to be a social activist without a scientific

understanding of the inner workings of the mind is the worst folly. Neither approach in isolation has had any significant success. There is no question

now that an inquirer will have to make an effort to be socially conscious or that an activist will have to be persuaded of the moral crisis in the human psyche, the significance of being attentive to the inner life. The challenge awaiting us is to

go much deeper as human beings, to abandon superficial prejudices and preferences, to expand understanding to a global scale, integrating the

totality of living, and to become aware of the wholeness of which we are a manifestation." -  Vimala Thakar

What Kabir saw

“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.”

Binary nature of life

"The binary nature of life gives us a multiplicity of yes/no choices from which we choose our path, constantly branching in the directio of our yes decisions. Each minute yes/no decision is a binary decision. Understanding this helps you understand anotther binary, coequal aspect of Life. When you want to enter a different aspect of Life, you wait for the point at which Particle becomes Wave. And just at that split second before the Paricle is gone and the Wave takes over, you enter between, and you become Energy. At thpint where the wave becomes Particle again, you enter between and you ree become who you were or you make a different choice. Which is also possible. I think it is that space which healing occurs." ~ Paula Underwood Spencer

Anaïs Nin

Anaïs Nin’s observation that “it is a sign of great inner insecurity to be hostile to the unfamiliar.” 

From Zen Master Dogen

"Coming, going, the waterbirds don't leave a trace, don't follow a path. Midnight. No waves, no wind, the empty boat is flooded with moonlight. Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. Although its light is wide and great, The moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon and the entire sky 

Are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.

John Lennon

Wisdom from John Lennon:

"We live in a world where we have to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad daylight.

      Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it....

       You're all geniuses, and you're all beautiful. You don't need anyone to tell you who you are. You are what you are. Get out there and get peace, think peace, and live peace and breathe peace, and you'll get it as soon as you like.

      That's what the great masters and mistresses have been saying ever since time began. They can point the way, leave signposts and little instructions in various books that are now called holy and worshipped for the cover of the book and not for what it says, but the instructions are all there for all to see, have always been and always will be.

    I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It's just that the translations have gone wrong.

        Peace is not something you wish for; it's something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away. Declare it. Just the same way we declare war. That is how we will have peace... we just need to declare it...

      My role in society, or any artist's or poet's role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.

         When you do something noble and beautiful and nobody noticed, do not be sad. For the sun every morning is a beautiful spectacle and yet most of the audience still sleeps.

     Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end."

~John Lennon

Collision

“This collision between one’s image of oneself and what one actually is is always very painful and there are two things you can do about it, you can meet the collision head-on and try and become what you really are or you can retreat and try to remain what you thought you were, which is a fantasy, in which you will certainly perish.”James Baldwin

Including

"We are all connected, through the air we breathe, the land we walk on, and the beauty of the earth that supports each one of us from the moment we are born until the moment we die. We are not separate from the earth, and we are not separate from each other. When we forget that, at our core, we all have the same primary yearning to be happy and live peacefully, conflict arises. When we forget that others share this yearning, we move further away from our essential nature and become out of balance with everything around us, including those we love." ~ Isa Gucciardi

Heartmind

"One's heartmind is like the sun: it has natural cognizance and the quality of brilliance. It reveals the tremendous open space that is the wisdom of one's own mind and is the clarity of this open view.  Inside of that is warmth, which is compassion.  Compassion is the essence through which all living beings are sustained.  It creates harmony and provides the energy that makes things alive and warm.  So the light present in one's own awareness is the heart of compassion.  Being open-minded requires no effort 

-just allow I to happen by being present." ~ Dza Kilung Rinpoche

Passage fro Psalms

"So teach us to number our days,
that we may grow wise in heart." 

From the "Joy of Living"

"Compassion is a spontaneous feeling of connection with all living beings. What you feel, I feel; what I feel; you feel. There's no difference between us/ When I began to practice meditation on compassion, however, I found that my sense of isolation began to diminish, while at the same time my personal sense of empowerment began to grow. Where once I saw only problems, I started to see solutions. Where once I viewed my own happiness as more important than the happiness of others, I began to see the well-being of others as the foundation of my own peace of mind."  Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

A Guest House

This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they're a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. --Rumi-

Fast or far

"If you want to go fast, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together."

- African Proverb

Headscarves and Hymens

To women, remember that “Anonymous” in history has often meant women, and that we can change that. And to young women in the Middle East, nothing will change unless we speak about it. Be immodest, rebel, disobey, and know you deserve to be free. – Mona El Tahawy

The “Pale Blue Dot” — the Voyager‘s VIEW

“Everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was… every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician” lived out their lives on this pale blue dot. And every political conflict, every war we’ve ever fought, we have waged over a fraction of this grainy pixel barely perceptible against the cosmic backdrop of endless lonesome space.

Tyson

Malidoma