Quotes, Parables, Poems
“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.” …Meister Eckhart
“We are here to witness creation so that creation need not play to an empty house.” …Annie Dillard
“At the sound of the bell in the silent night I awake from this dream in the dream like world of ours gazing at the reflection of the clear pool I see beyond my form my real form.”
“Come behold this world and see how it resembles an ornamental chariot in which fools flounder but for the wise there is no attachment to it.” From the Dhamapada
“In the time of the Buddha there was a young mother named Kamala and her little baby boy died and she was very distraught. She had heard of the Buddha. She went to the Buddha and said “I will do anything to bring my little child back. Tell me what I need to do to bring my child back.” The Buddha said to her “Bring me back a mustard seed from the house where they have never lost a loved one.” So this young mother went from door to door, knocking one each door and trying to get a mustard seed. Finally of course she had the moment of enlightenment and realized what the Buddha was trying to communicate to her. We are all mortal and cannot escape suffering.”
“The breath is like the windshield wipers on a car during a rainy day.”
“Break your heart no longer. Each time you judge yourself, you break your own heart. You stop feeding on the love that is the well-spring of your vitality. But now the time has come, your time, to live and to celebrate and to see the goodness that you are. Let no one, no idea or ideal obscure this truth. If one comes even in the name of truth forgive it for it’s unknowing. Do not fight, just let go and breathe into the goodness that you are.” …Bapu-ji
“What screws us up most in life is the picture in our head of how it is supposed to be.”
“Everyone dies, but not everyone lives.”
“Life is not about finding yourself, life is about creating yourself.” George Bernard Shaw
“The way out is in.” Thich Nhat Hahn
“Do what you can in this plane to relieving suffering constantly working on yourself to be an instrument for the cessation of suffering. To me that is what the emerging game is all about.” Ram Dass
“We are all just walking each other home” Ram Dass
“Be Kind whenever possible and it is always possible.” The Dalai Lama
“Go and be kind. For time is aware of kindness and he will not take kindness away from the kind. Material things out list everyone in way out list you too, but better for you is that kindness will outlast you.” …Rumi
“To start with the end in mind. I think if you believe that your goals are possible they will become true course and will encourage others to go along with you in your goals.”
“There are two ways to go down a roller coaster. You can go kicking and screaming or you can enjoy ride.”
“You might be pushing my buttons but you did not install them.”
“Give up trying to run the universe.” Lao Tsu
“Just go with the flow”.
“Let us learn the revelation of all of nature and thought and that the highest dwells within us and that the sources of nature are in our own minds as there is no screen or ceiling between our heads and the infinite heavens and so no bar or wall in the soul where we the effect cease and G-d the cause begins. Within us is the soul of the whole the wise silence the universal beauty to which every part and particle is equally related. The eternal one. When it breaks through our intellect is genius. When it reads through our will it is virtue. When it flows through our affections it is love.”
“The further limits of our being plunge, it seems to me, into an altogether other dimension of existence from the sensible and merely understandable world. Name it the mystical region, or the supernatural region, whichever you choose. Okay thanks we belong to it in a more intimate sense than that in which we belong to the visible world … William James
So be it,” said the father… And he said, “Bring me a fruit of the nyagrodha tree.”
“Here it is, sir.”
“Break it.”
“It is broken, sir.”
“What do you see there?”
“Some seeds, sir, exceedingly small.”
“Break one of these.”
“It is broken, sir.”
“What do you see there?”
“Nothing at all.”
The father said, “My son, that subtle essence which you do not perceive there – in that very essence stands the being of the huge nyagrodha tree. In that which is the subtle essence of all that exists has its self. That is the True, that is the Self, and thou Svetaketu art That.”
“Here likewise in this body of yours, my son, you do not perceive the True; but there, in fact, it is. In that which is the subtle essence, all that exists has its self. That is the True, that is the Self, and thou, Svetaketu, art That.”
“All suffering is caused by the mistaken mind.” …Khetusn Sanghpo
“Suffering is wanting from life what it will never give you”. Adjah Brahm
“Be a lamp unto yourself” …The Buddha
“Who is wise, he learns from all men.
Who is mighty, he who can subdue his desires.
Who is rich, he who is content with his portion.
Who is to be honored, he who honors all men.”
No Attachment to Dust
Zengetsu, a Chinese master of the T’ang dynasty, wrote the following advice for his pupils:
Living in the world yet not forming attachments to the dust of the world is the way of a true Zen student.
- When witnessing the good action of another encourage yourself to follow his example. Hearing of the mistaken action of another, advise yourself not to emulate it.
- Even though alone in a dark room, be as if you were facing a noble guest. Express your feelings, but become no more expressive than your true nature.
- Poverty is your teasure. Never exchange it for an easy life.
- A person may appear a fool and yet not be one. He may only be guarding his wisdom carefully.
- Virtues are the fruit of self-discipline and do not drop from heaven of themselves as does rain or snow.
- Modesty is the foundation of all virtues. Let your neighbors discover you before you make yourself known to them.
- A noble heart never forces itself forward. Its words are as rare gems, seldom displayed and of great value.
- To a sincere student, every day is a fortunate day. Time passes but he never lags behind. Neither glory nor shame can move him.
- Censure yourself, never another. Do not discuss right and wrong.
- Some things, though right, were considered wrong for generations. Since the value of righteousness may be recognized after centuries, there is no need to crave an immediate appreciation.
- Live with cause and leave results to the great law of the universe. Pass each day in peaceful contemplation.