This page was updated August 6, 2008
"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 doesn’t serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so
that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
You were born to make manifest the glory of God
that is within you.
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."
- Marianne Williamson (as quoted by Nelson Mandela)
"In short, the wizard's way is the way of the spirit.
But spirituality isn't opposed to rationality;
it is the larger framework that reason fits into,
one piece among many.
"
Deepak Chopra M.D. "The Way of the Wizard"
<
"We are of timeless essence.
We are born in the bottomless pool that sends up
bubbles of time and space.
One bubble is a moment, another is a millennium.
But the pool itself is pure spirit, and no matter
how many stars and galaxies rise from it and burst
on the surface like fragile foam, nothing has been
taken away or added.
Being is deep, clear, permanent, ever the same."
Deepak Chopra M.D. 365 Days of Wisdom & Healing
Learn how to create
the grandest version
of the greatest vision
of who you are.
- Neale Donald Walsch
"The reality you experience is a mirror
image of your expectations."
- Deepak Chopra M.D. 365 Days of Wisdom & Healing
"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability
to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and
still retain the ability to function."
- -F. Scott Fitzgerald
Sensitivity and Pain
To live requires energy and fearlessness, but we are brought up in a
pleasure-hunting human race, and pain is something to be afraid of,
to be driven away completely, to protect oneself from.
But it is the pain and pleasure
- the duality -
together that make the whole,
the wholeness of life.
The more sensitive you are and the more you live from the depth of your being,
the more vulnerable you are to life.
The more sensitive you are and the more capable of loving human beings,
the more you will be hurt; there is more sorrow, there is more pain.
Psychological hurts, pain and sorrow
accompany the sensitivity, intelligence and love.
Love and sorrow go together.
So, if there is physical or psychological pain, you live with it -
not out of despair, not out of self-pity, not out of any weakness.
You live with it because it is part of life, it is an expression of life.
- - - - Gems from Vimala Thakar
Kind hearts are the gardens,
Kind thoughts are the roots;
Kind words are the blossoms,
Kind deeds are the fruits.
--- Kirpal Singh
The universe is fundamentally a system
which creeps up on itself
...and then says...BOO!
and then it
laughs at itself for jumping
and you see every time it does it
it forgets it did it before
so that it never
becomes a bore!
-- Alan Watts
"We all sit around in a ring and suppose,
While the secret sits in the center and knows."
-- Robert Frost
"Each person's map of the world is
unique as their thumbprint.
There are no two people alike......
no two people who understand the same sentence the same way....
So in dealing with people
try not to fit them to your
concept of what they should be."
-- Milton Erickson
I am a thought of God total and
complete
lacking nothing
needing only to express my love to the world
shining the light on the path of
return to our Creator
my thoughts are of the totality of love
the recognition of which brings complete
and instant healing from all of the thoughts that were otherwise....
-- Bruce Russell
God is the Love that I am.
God is the Love that you are.
God is Love.
We are Love.
All of us, regardless of our religious persuasion are a part
of God,
who consists of pure Love.
Therefore, when we were born, we were all pure love.
In our training and 'domestication' we forgot that.
I am in the process of trying to remember.
-- Lillian Kalfas
"If I Laugh at every mortal thing,
tis so I shall not weep."
- - Lord Byron
"It is not a sign of good health
to be well adjusted to a sick society."
- - J. Krishnamurti
In the end of it all our greatest challenge to face
will be to forgive the Gods that we are.
- - Barbara Marciniak
The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings
but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints.
We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less.
We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences,
but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge,
but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems,
more medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much,
spend too recklessly,laugh too little,
drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late,
get up too tired, read too little,
watch TV too much,and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
We've learned how to make a living, but not a life.
We've added years to life not life to years.
We've been all the way to the moon and back, but
have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor.
We conquered outer space but not inner space.
We've done larger things, but not better things.
We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.
We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice.
We write more, but learn less.
We plan more, but accomplish less.
We've learned to rush, but not to wait.
We build more computers to hold more information,
to produce more copies than ever,
but we communicate less and less.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion,
big men and small character,
steep profits and shallow relationships.
These are the days of two incomes but more divorce,
fancier houses, but broken homes.
These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers,
throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies,
and pills that do everything from cheer,
to quiet, to kill.
It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and
nothing in the stockroom.
A time when technology can bring this letter to you,
and a time when you can choose either to share this insight,
or to just hit delete.
Remember, spend some time with your loved ones,
because they are not going to be around forever.
Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to
you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up
and leave your side. Remember, to give a warm hug to the
one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can
give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.
Remember, to say, "I love you" to your partner and your loved ones,
but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when
it comes from deep inside of you. Remember to hold hands and cherish
the moment for someday that person will not be there again.
Give time to love, give time to speak, and give time to share
the precious thoughts in your mind.
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,
but by the moments that take our breath away.
-- Dr. Bob Moorehead, former Pastor of Seattle's Overlake Christian Church.
a Native North American told George Bernard Shaw
about inner struggles....
"Inside of me there are two dogs,
one of the
dogs is mean and evil,
the other is good...
the mean dog fights the good dog all the time"...
when asked which dog wins....
he
reflected for a moment and said
...."the one I feed the most."
An anthropologist asked a Hopi indian why so many of his native
songs seemed to be about the subject of rain...
he replied: "because rain is scarce in our land...
is that the reason so many of your songs are about love?"
The Eternal Thou is Within the Eternal Now
-- Gary Clark
"Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without
and know we cannot live within."
-- James Baldwin
The mediocre teacher tells.
The good teacher explains.
The superior teacher demonstrates.
The great teacher inspires.
-- William Arthur Ward
-- Carlos Castenada
"One's mind, once stretched by a new idea,
never regains its original dimensions."
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes
"You never can tell what your thoughts will do,
In bringing you hate or love,
For thoughts are things, and their airy wings,
Are swift as a carrier dove,
They follow the law of the Universe,
Each thing must create its kind,
And they speed o'er the track to bring you back,
Whatever went out of your mind."
-- from a book by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
The Invitation
- Oriah Mountain Dreamer
It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.
It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon...
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.
I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you
to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us to
be careful
be realistic
remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn’t interest me if the story
you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”
It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or
how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.
It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.
It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.
They're Playing Your Song
--By Alan Cohen
--author of "Living from the Heart."
When a woman in a certain African tribe knows she is pregnant,
she goes out into the wilderness with a few friends and together
they pray and meditate until they hear the song of the child.
They recognize that every soul has its own vibration that
expresses its unique flavor and purpose. When the women
attune to the song, they sing it out loud. Then they return
to the tribe and teach it to everyone else.
When the child is born, the community gathers and sings the
child's song to him or her. Later, when the child enters
education, the village gathers and chants the child's song.
When the child passes through the initiation to adulthood,
the people again come together and sing. At the time of
marriage, the person hears his or her song.
Finally, when the soul is about to pass from this world, the
family and friends gather at the person's bed, just as they
did at their birth, and they sing the person to the next life.
When I have shared this story in my lectures, a fair amount
of people in the audience come to tears. There is something
inside each of us that knows we have a song, and we wish
those we love would recognize it and support us to sing it.
In some of my seminars I ask people to verbalize to a partner
the one phrase they wish their parents had said to them as a
child. Then the partner lovingly whispers it in their ear. This
exercise goes very deep, and many significant insights start
to click. How we all long to be loved, acknowledged, and
accepted for who we are!
In the African tribe there is one other occasion upon which
the villagers sing to the child. If at any time during his or her
life, the person commits a crime or aberrant social act, the
individual is called to the center of the village and the people
in the community form a circle around them.
Then they sing their song to them.
The tribe recognizes that the correction for antisocial behavior
is not punishment; it is love and the remembrance of identity.
When you recognize your own song, you have no desire or need
to do anything that would hurt another.
A friend is someone who knows your song and sings it to you
when you have forgotten it. Those who love you are not fooled
by mistakes you have made or dark images you hold about
yourself. They remember your beauty when you feel ugly; your
wholeness when you are broken; your innocence when you feel
guilty; and your purpose when you are confused.
If you do not give your song a voice, you will feel lost, alone,
and confused. If you express it, you will come to life. We attract
people on a similar wavelength so we can support each other
to sing aloud. Sometimes we attract people who challenge us
by telling us that we cannot or should not sing our song in
public. Yet these people help us too, for they stimulate us
to find greater courage to sing it.
You may not have grown up in an African tribe that sings
your song to you at crucial life transitions, but life is always
reminding you when you are in tune with yourself and when
you are not. When you feel good, what you are doing matches
your song, and when you feel awful, it doesn't. In the end,
we shall all recognize our song and sing it well. You may feel
a little warbley at the moment, but so have all the great singers.
Just keep singing and you'll find your way home.
KIMO's RULES:
1. Never judge a day by the weather.
2. The best things in life aren't things.
3. Tell the truth, there's less to remember.
4. Speak softly and wear a loud shirt.
5. Goals are deceptive .. the unaimed arrow never misses.
6. He who dies with the most toys ... still dies.
7. Age is relative .. when you're over the hill, you pick up speed.
8. There are 2 ways to be rich .. make more .. or desire less.
9. Beauty is internal .. looks mean nothing.
10. No rain, no rainbows.
- - Life - -
People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;
forgive them, anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
be kind, anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
be honest and frank, anyway.
What you spend your years building, someone could destroy overnight;
build, anyway.
If you find serenity, and happiness, they may be jealous;
be happy, anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
do good, anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world your best, anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God,
it was never between you and them anyway
-- Mother Teresa
Nothing is so strong as gentleness,
and nothing is so gentle as true strength.
-- Ralph Sockman
Desiderata
Go placidly amid the noise and haste and
remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender be on
good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and
lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
But do not distress yourself with imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the Universe,
no less than the trees and stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labours and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams
it is still a beautiful world.
Be careful. Strive to be happy.
- Found in Old Saint Paul's Church,
Baltimore; Dated 1692
"Experience is a hard teacher because
she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards."
-- Author Unknown to Webmaster
"The difference between a smart person and a wise person is
that a smart person knows what to say and a wise person knows
whether or not to say it."
-- Quote found on the wall of a recreation
centre office in Berkeley, California.
"Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling
some five balls in the air.
You name them --work, family, health,
friends and spirit and you're keeping
all of these in the air.
You will soon understand that work
is a rubber ball.
If you drop it, it will bounce back.
But the other four balls---
family, health, friends and spirit -
are made of glass.
If you drop one of these,
they will be irrevocably scuffed,
marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered.
They will never be the same.
You must understand that and strive
for balance in your life.
How?
Don't undermine your worth by comparing
yourself with others.
It is because we are different that each
of us is special.
Don't set your goals by what other people deem important.
Only you know what is best for you.
Don't take for granted the things closest to your heart.
Cling to them as they were your life,
for without them, life is meaningless.
Don't let your life slip through your fingers by
living in the past or for the future.
By living your life one day at a time you live
ALL the days of your life.
Don't give up when you still have something to give.
Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.
Don't be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect.
It is this fragile thread that binds us to each other.
Don't be afraid to encounter risks.
It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.
Don't shut love out of your life by saying it's
impossible to find.
The quickest way to receive love is to give;
the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly,
and the best way to keep love is to give it wings.
Don't run through life so fast that you
forget not only where you've been,
but also where you are going.
Don't forget, a person's greatest emotional
need is to feel appreciated.
Don't be afraid to learn.
Knowledge is weightless,
a treasure you can always carry easily.
Don't use time or words carelessly.
Neither can be retrieved.
Life is not a race, but a journey to be
savored each step of the way.
Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is a Mystery
and Today is a gift....
that's why we call it The Present."
- Brian Dyson,
CEO of Coca Cola Enterprises
“The most beautiful emotion we
can experience is the mystical.
It is the origin of all true art and science.
He to whom this emotion is a
stranger, who can no longer wonder
and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead.
To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists,
manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty,
which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive form--
this knowledge, this feeling, is
at the center of true religiousness.
- Albert Einstein
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.
We have created a
society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”
-- Albert Einstein
"There is a light in the world;
a healing spirit more powerful than
any darkness we may encounter.
We sometimes lose sight of this force when
there is suffering and too much pain, and then,
suddenly, the spirit will emerge among the lives
of ordinary people who hear the call and answer in
extraordinary ways."
- Richard Attenborough
The answer, if it exists,
lives in a realm beyond words.
It must be realized.
A word is merely a symbol and not the thing itself.
There are no words to express what you seek.
Even if you should capture this knowledge, you will not bring
it back to the world of men.
Rather, you will hold the answer inside of you.
- © Eye of The Shaman, by Basil Riverdale
"The trouble I have with you is me."
- --Michael Huskey
You must teach your children that the ground beneath
their feet is the ashes of your grandfathers.
So that they will respect the land, tell your children
that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin.
Teach your children what we have taught our children,
that the earth is our mother.
Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth.
If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves.
This we know: The earth does not belong to man;
man belongs to the earth. This we know.
All things are connected like the blood which unites one family.
All things are connected.
Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth.
Man did not weave the web of life: he is merely a strand in it.
Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.
Even the white man, whose God walks and talks to him as friend to friend,
cannot be exempt from the common destiny.
We may be brothers after all. We shall see.
One thing we know, which the white man may one day discover
- our God is the same God.
You may think now that you own him as you wish to own our land;
but you cannot.
He is the God of man, and his compassion is equal for the red man and the white.
This earth is precious to him,
and to harm the earth is to heap comtempt on its Creator......
Where is the thicket? Gone.
Where is the eagle? Gone.
The end of living and the beginning of survival.
-- --Chief Seattle, 1854
Parable
Somewhere in the world stands a great mountain.At the bottom of this mountain sits a person facing
away from it so that the mountain appears not to exist--
This is an Atheist.
There is another standing beside the seated
person who sees the mountain,
but refuses to put forth the exertion
necessary to find out if it is real--
This is an Agnostic.
On the sloping side of the mountain are those
casually climbing, but always in competition
with the other climbers.
They always keep their eyes on the path below their
feet so they won't stumble and fall behind,
or allow any other to get higher than themselves
as they move with studied order toward a goal
they believe is already fully comprehended--
These are those of the "organized religions."
Hurtling over the edge of the cliff on the other side
of the mountain's summit is another person.
This person ran all the way to the summit with both eyes shut;
so that the existence of others on the mountain could be denied.
A book is clutched tightly in both hands by this person,
so that no other may ever be touched or guided by them.
From the mouth of this person comes constant quotations
of human teachers; so that should even their concept of
The Creator speak, the words would not be heard--
This is the fundamentalist.
Near the summit of the mountain is a ragged person,
who hurries upward, but is constantly stumbling,
stubbing a toe or bouncing a nose off a solid stone wall.
This person seemingly ignores the offered guidance of
those behind in the large groups, because both eyes
and ears are searching upward for some guidance from the
whatever has created the abilities of thought and reason--
This searcher is one of Seekers.
The Mountain is always there. Each must choose?
The Lore
©-- Terry Barhorst
quoted with permission of author
Silence is the language of the spirit.
Music is the language of the heart.
Words are the language of the mind.
In which language shall we converse today?
-Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Remember to be yourself ... everyone else is taken.
- Heartbeam
"Somewhere out beyond right and wrong there is a field,
I'll meet you there."
- -Rumi
"The religion of love is apart from all religions.
The lovers of God have no religion but God alone."
- -Rumi
"When love first tasted the lips of being human it started singing."
- -Rumi
"You cannot teach by disagreement"
- -Rumi
"I have lived on the lip of insanity
Wanting to know reasons,
Knocking on a door
It Opens
I've been knocking from the inside."
- -Rumi
"The lover of the Ocean who is afraid of losing himself
in the Ocean is not a true Lover."
--Rumi
"Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach
it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect.
Truth, being limitless, unconditional, unapproachable,
cannot be organized; nor should any organization be
formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path."
- -J. Krishnamurti
"Be thankful for you are made of stardust;
and humble for you are made of earth."
- -Serbian Proverb
"Mankind often stumbles upon the truth....
but usually picks itself up & goes along."
- - Winston Churchill
"If I am OK with me, I have no need to make you
wrong."
- 'harmony23'
We come as individual aspects to join in the one quest
to know that though there are many paths,
as we are many aspects, all leading to the one source.
We continue to flow like many rivers pouring into the
same body of water. this being the holy grail,
the mother of all in representation with the spirit of feminine,
bringing the nurturing that is needed at this time.
We all are like rivers flowing with boulders that we encounter
in our lives some we smooth over and some cause alot of frothing
but then there is the calm...as we flow along we nuture
the banks that connect to us and carry the smaller pebbles
along...then we all end into the body of water as a
whole...becoming one...
the time has come that we are to nurture all around
us with love
and that love is to be unconditional...
it will trickle to those that are connected to us and
the "ripple" effect will continue out with concentric
circles ever joining to become the whole of love...
this is our time to become unity
...unified with love...
- -^alex^
Prayer of the Bodhisttva
Alone in the presence of others,
I walk through the waking dream of life.
Others see me.
At the first sight of recognition, they turn away,
for they have forgotten.
Together, through the waking dream of Life, we journey.
May the clarity of my vision guide your life in grace,
for I am part of you.
May my action remind you of your God within,
my action is your action.
May my breath become the breath that fills
your body of life.
May my soul become the food with which to nourish
and quicken you.
May the words from my mouth find a place of
truth within your heart.
Let my tears become water to your lips.
Allow my love to heal your body of the pain of life.
In your most healed state,
may you remember your most precious gift:
your divine nature.
Through our time together, may you know yourself.
In that knowing, may you find your true home,
your God within.
Tao is the road up your spine.
Tao is the road of your life.
Tao is the road of the cosmos.
People are often confused about Tao
because there are references to it on
so many levels.
After all, it permeates all existence.
Indeed it might be said that Tao is existence itself.
It might seem odd that we can talk about Tao on a level so
mundane as physical excercise
and on a level as exalted as holiness itself.
Those who follow Tao do not think of divinity as
something "up there".
They think of it as everywhere.
Tao can be tangible when it wants and intangible
when it wants too.
One tangible aspect of Tao is the road in the
very center of our spines.
That is the path of Tao in us.
It is the spirit road connecting the various power
centers of our bodies.
On a philosophical level, Tao is the road through life.
It is the change from one stage to another,
the dealing with circumstances,
the expression of your inner character against
the background of nature and society.
On a metaphysical level, it is the evolution
and movement of the cosmos itself.
Now take these three levels --
the movement of energy up the spine,
the philosophical understanding of one's
own path in life, and the very progression
of the universe -- and meld them all into one
combined concept.
Then you will have a glimpse of the genius of Tao.
(c) 1992 by Deng-Ming Dao (365 Tao: Daily Meditations)