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

WOPILA

For the Lakota people, giving thanks is translated into "Wopila." Wopila means giving thanks to Creator and all aspects of life. The Lakota people have Wopila ceremony every new moon. At this time they pray and thank Creator for all their life. The families or an individual can feed people in the ceremony and offer spirit food to the ancestors. Sometimes people have a "give away" after the ceremony. They say that Wopila makes a person truly a human being and it brings you closer to Wakan Tanka. When you are pure in your heart, it is possible to pray on the new moon time and give thanks, no matter where you are. Thank you, Richard Moves Camp

Jung x10

Reverence for life

"The ethics of reverence for life makes no distinction between high and low, more precious and less precious lives.  It has good reason for this omission... How can we know what importance other living organisms have in themselves and in terms of the universe?... To the truly ethical man, all life is sacred."

--Albert Schweitzer

Man's Capacity

"Man has the capacity to love, not just his own species, but life in all its shapes and forms.  This empathy with the interknit web 

 of life is the highest spiritual expression I know of."

-- Loren Eiseley

Talk to the animals

"One thing to remember is to talk to the animals.  If you do, they will talk back to you.  But if you don't talk to the animals, 

 they won't talk back to you, then you won't understand, and when you don't understand you will fear and when you fear and you will destroy the animals and if you destroy the animals, you will destroy yourself."

-- Chief Dan George

Talmud

"From the man comes the white sperm... bones, tendons, whites of eyes...  From the woman comes the red sperm... blood, flesh, iris of the eye...  And from God comes the shine of the face, the under-standing, insight, the seeing of the eyes, the going of the feet...."
~ Talmud

Age

"If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren't pessimistic, you don't understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore the this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren't optimistic, you haven't got a pulse." - Paul Hawken in his book "You are Brilliant and the Earth is Hiring."  

The Great Blending

For intervals, then, throughout our lives we savor a concurrence, the great blending of our chance selves with what sustains all chance. We ride the wave and are the wave. And with renewed belief inner and outer we find our talk turned to prayer, our prayer into truth: for an interval, early, we become at home in the world. - William Stafford

Who Am I?

"I am not I. 

I am this one 

walking beside me whom I do not see, 

whom at times I manage to visit, 

and whom at other times I forget; 

who remains calm and silent while I talk, 

and forgives, gently, when I hate, 

who walks where I am not, 

and who will remain standing when I die."

- Juan Ramon Jimenez 

translated by Robert Bly

A Real Hero

"The Bodhisattva is like the mightiest of warriors; but her enemies are not common foes of flesh and bone, but is with the inner delusions, the afflictions of self-cherishing and ego grasping, those most terrible of demons that catch living beings in the snares of confusion and cause them forever to wander in pain, frustration and sorrow. Her mission is to harm ignorance and delusion, never living beings. These he looks upon with kindness, patience, and empathy, cherishing them like a mother cherishes her only child. She is the real hero, calmly facing any hardship in order 

to bring peace, happiness and liberation to the world."

"The sober men of science are saying the universe sprang from nothing for no reason. This is the limit test for credulity! Science is saying 'give us one free miracle and we'll explain the rest'. I'll take mine at the end, thank you. They have the big bang, I have the big surprise."

- Terrance McKenna