Awakening
There is only one time when it is essential to awaken.
That time is now.
Buddha
Your vision will become clear
only when you look into your heart...
Who looks outside, dreams.
Who looks inside, awakens.
Carl Jung
light keeps on breaking
i keep knowing
the language of other nations
i keep hearing
tree talk
water words
and i keep knowing what they mean
and light just keeps on breaking.
last night
the fears of my mother came
knocking and when i
opened the door
they tried to explain themselves
and i understood
everything they said.
Lucille Clifton, "Breaklight"
The Buddha spoke gently, "Once a
person is caught by
belief in a doctrine, one loses all one's freedom. When
one becomes dogmatic, that person believes his or her doctrine is the only truth
and that all other doctrines are heresy. Disputes and conflicts all arise from
narrow views. They can extend endlessly, wasting precious time and sometimes
even leading to war. Attachment to views is
the greatest impediment to the spiritual path. Bound to
narrow views, one becomes so entangled that it is no
longer possible to let the door of truth open."
Thich Nhat
Hanh
Your attitude is your choice. It
always is. We live in an age that has developed the art of shifting blame to
very high levels, and sometimes we get caught up in that same tendency. "Well,
if you had my job you wouldn't be so positive." "If you had my kids, you
wouldn't feel so good." "If only my boss were different, I could be a positive
person." In other words, "My bad attitude is not my fault!"
The truth is, however, your attitude and mine are always our choice. No
matter how bad things are, no one can force you to have a bad attitude if you
don't want to. Now that should come as really good news because it says our
attitudes don't have to be victims of our circumstances or of other people. We
choose our responses.
Mary Whelchel
Look to this day!
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course
Lie all the truths and realities of your existence:
The bliss of growth
The glory of action
The splendor of achievement,
For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision,
But today well lived makes every yesterday
a dream of happiness
And tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day!
Such is the salutation of the dawn.
from the Sanskrit
It's not the length but the
quality of life that matters to me.
It has always been important to me to write one sentence at a time,
to live every day as if it were my last and judge it in those terms,
often badly, not because it lacked grand gesture or grand passion
but because it failed in the daily virtues of self-discipline,
kindness, and laughter. It is love, very ordinary, human love,
and not fear, which is the good teacher and the wisest judge.
Jane Rule
To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.
~Lewis B. Smedes