We are always peace.
To get rid of the idea that we are not peace is all that is required.
– Ramana Maharshi
Much easier to carry
You’ve traveled up ten thousand steps in search of the truth.
So many days in the archives, copying, copying.
The gravity of the Tang and the profundity of the Sung make heavy baggage.
Here! I’ve picked you a bunch of wild flowers.
Their meaning is the same but they’re much easier to carry.
– Hsu Yun
Dandelions
A man who took great pride in his lawn found himself with a large crop of dandelions.
He tried every method he knew to get rid of them. Still they plagued him.
Finally he wrote the department of agriculture.
He enumerated all the things he had tried and closed his letter with the question:
“What shall I do now?”
In due course the reply came:
“We suggest you learn to love them.”
– Anthony de Mello
Her heart is full of joy with love
Her heart is full of joy with love, for in the Lord her mind is stilled.
She has renounced every selfish attachment and draws abiding joy and strength from the One within.
She lives not for herself, but lives to serve the Lord of Love in all, and swims across the sea of life breasting its rough waves joyfully.
– Saint Teresa of Avila
If You Want to Draw Near to God
If you want to draw near to God, seek him in the hearts of those around you.
Speak well of all, present or absent.
If you would be a light for others, be like the sun: show the same face to all.
To bring joy to a single heart is better than building countless shrines for worship;
to capture one heart through kindness is better than setting a thousand free.
This is the true lover of God, who lives with others, rises and eats and sleeps like others, gives and takes with others in the bazaar, yet never forgets God even for a moment.
– Abu Sai’d
It is neither this nor that
It does not appear or disappear.
It is not born and does not die.
It is neither constructed nor raised up,
Neither made nor produced.
It is neither sitting nor lying,
Neither walking nor standing still,
Neither moving nor turning over,
Neither at rest nor idle.
It does not advance or retreat,
Knows not safety or danger,
Neither right nor wrong.
It is neither virtuous nor improper.
It is neither this nor that,
Neither going nor coming.
– From the Lotus Sutra
Jewel in the crown
Neither this body am I, nor soul,
Nor these fleeting images passing by,
Nor concepts and thoughts, mental images,
Nor yet sentiments and the psyche’s labyrinth.
Who then am I?
A consciousness without origin,
Not born in time, nor begotten here below.
I am that which was, is and ever shall be,
A jewel in the crown of the Divine Self,
A star in the firmament of the luminous One.
– Rumi