Showing posts with label quotes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quotes. Show all posts
Oct 27, 2011
Oct 26, 2011
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure...
full quote: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
From A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles"
by Marianne Williamson
Oct 15, 2011
10 Inspiring Confucius Quotes
1. "Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself."
2. "Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance."
3. "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand."
4. "Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it."
5. "The Superior Man is aware of Righteousness, the inferior man is aware of advantage."
6. "Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart."
7. "Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do."
8. "He who learns but does not think, is lost. He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger."
9. "He that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools."
10. "If you look into your own heart, and you find nothing wrong there, what is there to worry about? What is there to fear?"
-Confucius, 551-479 BCE
2. "Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance."
3. "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand."
4. "Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it."
5. "The Superior Man is aware of Righteousness, the inferior man is aware of advantage."
6. "Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart."
7. "Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do."
8. "He who learns but does not think, is lost. He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger."
9. "He that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools."
10. "If you look into your own heart, and you find nothing wrong there, what is there to worry about? What is there to fear?"
-Confucius, 551-479 BCE
S.N. Goenka Speech to the United Nations
Give Peace a chance - Meditate - Experience Vipassana
Excerpt from 10-day Vipassana course. Goenka's discourse, day 4
Dec 29, 2010
Dec 4, 2010
Interbeing
From: The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra
by Thich Nhat Hanh
If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are. “Interbeing” is a word that is not in the dictionary yet, but if we combine the prefix “inter-” with the verb “to be,” we have a new verb, inter-be. The cloud and the sheet of paper inter-are.
If we look into this sheet of paper even more deeply, we can see the sunshine in it. If the sunshine is not there, the forest cannot grow. In fact, nothing can grow. Even we cannot grow without sunshine. And so, we know that the sunshine is also in this sheet of paper. The paper and the sunshine inter-are. And if we continue to look, we can see the logger who cut the tree and brought it to the mill to be transformed into paper. And we see the wheat. We know the logger cannot exist without his daily bread, and therefore the wheat that became his bread is also in this sheet of paper. And the logger’s father and mother are in it too. When we look in this way, we see that without all of these things, this sheet of paper cannot exist.
Looking even more deeply, we can see we are in it too. This is not difficult to see, because when we look at a sheet of paper, the sheet of paper is part of our perception. Your mind is in here and mine is also. So we can say that everything is in here with this sheet of paper. You cannot point out one thing that is not here-time, space, the earth, the rain, the minerals in the soil, the sunshine, the cloud, the river, the heat. Everything co-exists with this sheet of paper. That is why I think the word inter-be should be in the dictionary. “To be” is to inter-be. You cannot just be by yourself alone. You have to inter-be with every other thing. This sheet of paper is, because everything else is.
Suppose we try to return one of the elements to its source. Suppose we return the sunshine to the sun. Do you think that this sheet of paper will be possible? No, without sunshine nothing can be. And if we return the logger to his mother, then we have no sheet of paper either. The fact is that this sheet of paper is made up only of “non-paper elements.” And if we return these non-paper elements to their sources, then there can be no paper at all. Without “non-paper elements,” like mind, logger, sunshine and so on, there will be no paper. As thin as this sheet of paper is, it contains everything in the universe in it.
*This is a good link for more on the author. And here is the site for a description of 14 Mindfulness Trainings at the Order of Interbeing.
by Thich Nhat Hanh
If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are. “Interbeing” is a word that is not in the dictionary yet, but if we combine the prefix “inter-” with the verb “to be,” we have a new verb, inter-be. The cloud and the sheet of paper inter-are.
If we look into this sheet of paper even more deeply, we can see the sunshine in it. If the sunshine is not there, the forest cannot grow. In fact, nothing can grow. Even we cannot grow without sunshine. And so, we know that the sunshine is also in this sheet of paper. The paper and the sunshine inter-are. And if we continue to look, we can see the logger who cut the tree and brought it to the mill to be transformed into paper. And we see the wheat. We know the logger cannot exist without his daily bread, and therefore the wheat that became his bread is also in this sheet of paper. And the logger’s father and mother are in it too. When we look in this way, we see that without all of these things, this sheet of paper cannot exist.
Looking even more deeply, we can see we are in it too. This is not difficult to see, because when we look at a sheet of paper, the sheet of paper is part of our perception. Your mind is in here and mine is also. So we can say that everything is in here with this sheet of paper. You cannot point out one thing that is not here-time, space, the earth, the rain, the minerals in the soil, the sunshine, the cloud, the river, the heat. Everything co-exists with this sheet of paper. That is why I think the word inter-be should be in the dictionary. “To be” is to inter-be. You cannot just be by yourself alone. You have to inter-be with every other thing. This sheet of paper is, because everything else is.
Suppose we try to return one of the elements to its source. Suppose we return the sunshine to the sun. Do you think that this sheet of paper will be possible? No, without sunshine nothing can be. And if we return the logger to his mother, then we have no sheet of paper either. The fact is that this sheet of paper is made up only of “non-paper elements.” And if we return these non-paper elements to their sources, then there can be no paper at all. Without “non-paper elements,” like mind, logger, sunshine and so on, there will be no paper. As thin as this sheet of paper is, it contains everything in the universe in it.
*This is a good link for more on the author. And here is the site for a description of 14 Mindfulness Trainings at the Order of Interbeing.
Nov 9, 2009
Spiritual music
My Perfect Lover
by Mason Jennings
Where was I before you found me
Who was I and what had bound me
Where was love and understanding
Why was living so demanding
You were on the snow capped mountains
You were in the deep blue ocean
Down below the wind and thunder
In a perfect world of wonder
You were calling come back to me
How long has it been, my only
I was listening and I heard you
When I did I finally found you
Everything you touch is living
This whole universe is giving
What was once inside you dreaming
Is now the life that you are leading
I was with you baby crying
I was there when you were dying
Underneath the sound and silence
In the gospel and in science
Come to me my perfect lover
We are one, there is no other
In every face I see you clearly
Oh my friend I love you dearly
To listen to this song you can visit Mason's website and look for My Perfect Lover in the album titled In the Ever. Lonely Road (Blood of Man album) is another song with great lyrics.
by Mason Jennings
Where was I before you found me
Who was I and what had bound me
Where was love and understanding
Why was living so demanding
You were on the snow capped mountains
You were in the deep blue ocean
Down below the wind and thunder
In a perfect world of wonder
You were calling come back to me
How long has it been, my only
I was listening and I heard you
When I did I finally found you
Everything you touch is living
This whole universe is giving
What was once inside you dreaming
Is now the life that you are leading
I was with you baby crying
I was there when you were dying
Underneath the sound and silence
In the gospel and in science
Come to me my perfect lover
We are one, there is no other
In every face I see you clearly
Oh my friend I love you dearly
To listen to this song you can visit Mason's website and look for My Perfect Lover in the album titled In the Ever. Lonely Road (Blood of Man album) is another song with great lyrics.
Nov 7, 2009
on human creative expression
"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open."
--Martha Graham
--Martha Graham
be positive
"Keep my words positive:
Words become my behaviors.
Keep my behaviors positive:
Behaviors become my habits.
Keep my habits positive:
Habits become my values.
Keep my values positive:
Values become my destiny."
-- Mahatma Gandhi
quote submitted by Lars B.
Click here to discover other Gandhi stories.
Words become my behaviors.
Keep my behaviors positive:
Behaviors become my habits.
Keep my habits positive:
Habits become my values.
Keep my values positive:
Values become my destiny."
-- Mahatma Gandhi
quote submitted by Lars B.
Click here to discover other Gandhi stories.
Oct 25, 2009
Tree
photo by Julia Lehman
... A tree is always exactly as big as it can be, living its fullest potential in the environment it has found. It draws from a boundless, ubiquitous energy source and continuously gives of its shelter, its fruits, and its support to the animals who find it. Leaves are open to the light of the sun, but they see in all directions, not narrowing their view like a mammal's eyes.
The tree is therefore a paradigm for spiritual growth -
to be open to boundless energy, to be generous with one's being,
to be constantly unfolding into one's maximum potential, to be reaching upward with one's
own beauty in a gesture of gratitude and devotion to the Source.
When we sit beneath a tree wrestling with the difficult issues of existence, we can ask the tree for help. And in its solidity, with its roots in the earth and arms in heaven, it supports our contemplation and growth...
-by Jason Jay, 2003
Oct 23, 2009
The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination
Excerpt from J.K. Rowling's Commencement Speech at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association. June 2008:
...I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, you have never known hardship or heartbreak. Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates, and I do not for a moment suppose that everyone here has enjoyed an existence of unruffled privilege and contentment.
However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with failure. You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success. Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person’s idea of success, so high have you already flown.
Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it. So I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears that my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.
Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun. That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution. I had no idea then how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.
So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.
Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies.
The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more than any qualification I ever earned...
Copyright of JK Rowling, June 2008
Click here to watch or read the full speech.
...I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, you have never known hardship or heartbreak. Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates, and I do not for a moment suppose that everyone here has enjoyed an existence of unruffled privilege and contentment.
However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with failure. You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success. Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person’s idea of success, so high have you already flown.
Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it. So I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears that my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.
Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun. That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution. I had no idea then how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.
So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.
Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies.
The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more than any qualification I ever earned...
Copyright of JK Rowling, June 2008
Click here to watch or read the full speech.
Oct 21, 2009
A Wide, Round Curve
Changes in attitude never come easily.
The development of love and
compassion is a wide,
round curve that
can be negotiated
only slowly, not a sharp
corner that can be turned all at once.
It comes with daily practice.
-His Holiness, the Dalai Lama of Tibet
quoted in Deep and Simple, by Bo Lozzof
Oct 20, 2009
Message to Myself
i am going to be the
change i want to see
happen in the world
today and today
and all the todays
of my life
i promise myself and the world
that i will do only work
that i believe in
i will find and support
people who are making
a better world
and i will join with them
educating myself
to be knowledgeable
effective and powerful
i expect to have
a very wonderful
creative
and fun-filled life
in this way
-Sami Sunchild
change i want to see
happen in the world
today and today
and all the todays
of my life
i promise myself and the world
that i will do only work
that i believe in
i will find and support
people who are making
a better world
and i will join with them
educating myself
to be knowledgeable
effective and powerful
i expect to have
a very wonderful
creative
and fun-filled life
in this way
-Sami Sunchild
How to be an entrepreneur
invent a business that smiles on the world
discover what is needed
that you believe in
with all your heart
a service you are really good at
and love to do
let it be your classroom
try new ideas
play with everything
dive in
cherish good people
including yourself
get negative people out of your life
romp on the floor with your dog
make friends with the trees
listen to their stories
believe in butterflies
if they can fly a thousand miles
think of what you can do
earn enough for your need
but not for your greed
leaving a heritage so that
when you die, you will be missed
-Sami Sunchild
discover what is needed
that you believe in
with all your heart
a service you are really good at
and love to do
let it be your classroom
try new ideas
play with everything
dive in
cherish good people
including yourself
get negative people out of your life
romp on the floor with your dog
make friends with the trees
listen to their stories
believe in butterflies
if they can fly a thousand miles
think of what you can do
earn enough for your need
but not for your greed
leaving a heritage so that
when you die, you will be missed
-Sami Sunchild
Deep and Simple Faith
"Faith is the fullness to realize that each moment of our lives is a gift; that the whole of our lives is a spiritual journey, whether in our darkest hours or brightest joys"
-Bo Lozoff in Deep and Simple
-Bo Lozoff in Deep and Simple
Oct 16, 2009
Be Here Now
These are lyrics from my favorite Mason Jennings song. There's so much beauty in the present moment; we accept, embrace, and realize "this too shall pass". May we find contentment in each moment and let the rising sun bring beauty to our days.
Lyrics from Mason Jenning's "Be Here Now":
be here now
no other place to be
all the doubts that linger
just set them free
and let good things happen
let the future come
into each moment
like a rising sun
post by Mary M.
Lyrics from Mason Jenning's "Be Here Now":
be here now
no other place to be
all the doubts that linger
just set them free
and let good things happen
let the future come
into each moment
like a rising sun
post by Mary M.
Oct 14, 2009
American Indian Epitaph
Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there
I do not sleep
I am a thousand winds that blow
I am the diamond glints on snow
I am the sunlight on ripened grain
I am the gentle Autumn rain
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush of quiet birds
In circled flight
I am the soft stars that shine at night
Do not stand at my grave and cry
I am not there
I did not die
-Author Unknown
I am not there
I do not sleep
I am a thousand winds that blow
I am the diamond glints on snow
I am the sunlight on ripened grain
I am the gentle Autumn rain
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush of quiet birds
In circled flight
I am the soft stars that shine at night
Do not stand at my grave and cry
I am not there
I did not die
-Author Unknown
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