Inner Fire

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.

– Albert Schweitzer

To Live in this World

To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:

to love what is mortal;

to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;

and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.

– Mary Oliver

All that Anybody Should Need

The root of the matter is a very simple and old-fashioned thing, a thing so simple that I am almost ashamed to mention it for fear of the derisive smile with which cynics will greet my words. The thing I mean – please forgive me for mentioning it – is love, or compassion. If you feel this, you have a motive for existence, a reason for courage, a guide to action, an imperative necessary for intellectual honesty. If you feel this, you have all that anybody should need in the way of religion.

~ Bertrand Russell

Truth, Goodness, and Beauty

The ordinary objects of human endeavor – property, outward success, luxury have always seemed to me contemptible. I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves. Such an ethical basis I call more proper for a herd of swine. The ideals which have lighted me on my way and time after time given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.

~ Albert Einstein

Every Moment a Golden One

Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate, or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.

~ Henry Miller (1891 - 1980)

Find Eternity

Nothing can be postponed.
Find eternity in each moment.

- Henry David Thoreau

Happiest Days

As life wanes, and all the turbulent passions calm,
then for the teeming, quietest, happiest days of all!

- Walt Whitman

Freedom

A few years more or less matters little when set against the freedom and peace of mind one achieves the moment one stops running away from death.

- Simone de Beauvoir

Every Moment

Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such. Life is now, every moment, no mater if the world be full of death.

- Henry Miller

Not the Ending

I feel and know that death is not the ending, as we thought, but rather the real beginning - and that nothing ever is or can be lost, nor even die, nor soul, nor matter.

- Walt Whitman

From Eternity to Eternity

The thought of death leaves me in perfect peace, for I have a firm conviction that our spirit is a being of indestructible nature. It works from eternity to eternity.

- Goethe

Death is Natural

All that nature has prescribed must be good;
and as Death is natural to us, it is absurd
to fear it.

- Sir Richard Steele, 1709

Autumn Leaf

What a simple thing death is,

just as simple as the falling

of an autumn leaf.

- Vicent van Gogh

True and Best Friend

Death is the true and best friend of humanity...
the key which unlocks the door to our true
state of happiness.

- Mozart

By Thy Grace

By Thy Grace ~ Santan Kaur

It is by Thy Grace that I sing Your Holy Name.
It is by Thy Grace that I feel Your Holy Name.

One day the day shall come when all the glory shall be Thine.
People will say it is yours, and I shall deny, not mine.

Allah
Jehovah
Rama
Sa Ta Na Ma

Peace to all, Life to all, Love to all.

2 Questions

2 Questions:

Did you find joy?
Did you bring joy?

- Ancient Egyptians

To Be Understood

I know that I am august.

I do not trouble my spirit

to vindicate itself

or to be understood.

- Walt Whitman

Sometimes...

Sometimes I go about pitying myself

and all the while I am being carried

on great winds across the sky...

- Chippewa Indian

To Change Your Life

To change your life;

- Start Immediately
- Do it Flamboyantly
- No Exceptions

William James

All Your Heart

Carefully observe the way your heart
draws you and then choose that way with
all your heart.

- Old Hasidic Saying

Complete

We are complete now and all along the path.

- David Richo

Oh, Happy Blessed Day

Oh, Happy Blessed Day

Oh, Happy Blessed Place

Oh, Happy Blessed Time

Oh, Happy Blessed Path

Oh, Happy Blessed Opportunity...

Grace has been defined as the outward expression of the inward harmony of the soul.

- William Hazlitt

Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace (How sweet the sound)

That sav'd a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found,

Was blind, but now I see.

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,

And grace my fears reliev'd;

How precious did that grace appear,

The hour I first believ'd!

Thro' many dangers, toils and snare,

I have already come;

'Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,

And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me.

His word my hope secures;

He will my shield and portion be,

As long as life endures.

Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,

And mortal life shall cease;

I shall profess, within the vail,

A life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,

The sun forbear to shine;

But God, who call'd me here below,

Will be for ever mine.

Each moment...

Death is happening each moment in millions of ways around the world. Existence lives through death; existence renews itself through death. Death is the greatest mystery - more mysterious than life, because life is only a pilgrimage toward death. Death is the culmination of life, the ultimate blossoming of life. In death, the whole of life is summed up; in death you arrive.

- Bhagawan Rajneesh

Home

The instant that the self releases from the human body there is light, there is peace, there is freedom, there is home.

- Pat Rodegast & Judith Stanton

Death for a Philosopher

Death for a philosopher is the final fulfillment, much to be desired, because it opens the door to true knowledge. The soul, freed from its bonds to the body, at last achieves undimmed and celestial vision.

- Socrates, on his last day

Mistakes

There is no poetry where there are no mistakes.

– Joy Harjo

Supreme Experience

Dying must surely be placed high
among the two or three supreme
human experiences.

~ Thomas Bell

Sweet and Graceful

Death is as natural as life, and should
be sweet and graceful.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

End all seeking...

Completely end all seeking.

Have no beliefs whatsoever.

Be entirely free of any form of belief,

any form of fear...

Commit your whole being,

your whole energy, vitality, and

passion to the entirety of life.

~ Krishnamurti

Immense Affection

You have voluntarily to examine your life, not condemn it, not say this is right or this is wrong but look. When you do look in that way, you will find that you look with eyes that are full of affection - not with condemnation, not with judgment, but with care. You look at yourself with care and therefore with immense affection - and it is only when there is great affection and love that you see the total existence of life.

~ J. Krishnamurti

Quiet Joy

Today I live in the quiet, joyous

expectation of good.

~ Ernest Holmes

Do not become...

Give up clinging to love and hate, just rest with things as they are. Do not try to become anything. Do not make yourself into anything. Do not be a meditator. Do not become enlightened. When you sit, let it be. When you walk, let it be. Grasp at nothing. Resist nothing. Lay it all down, all your ideas, all opinions, then the truth is right in front of your eyes: the sky is blue, the tree is green, sugar is sweet, salt is salty.

Then, when you’re hungry, just eating, when you’re tired, just sleeping is possible. A hungry person comes, you can give him food. A thirsty person comes, you can give him something to drink. THAT’S ALL! THAT’S ENOUGH! That is Buddhism - nothing at all. If you are interested in DHARMA, just give up, just let go. Develop SAMADHI - calm and insight.

Do everything with a mind that lets go. Do not expect any praise or reward. If you let go a little, you will have a little peace. If you let go a lot, you will have a lot of peace. If you let go completely, you will know complete peace and freedom. Your struggles with the world will have come to an end. “You come to where you have no more questions, to that place of silence.” Do not bring ideals or expectations to your practice. Take your studies, your opinions, and store them away. Just give up, just let go.

~ ACHAAN CHAH

Be Lovely

Be lovely and do no harm.

~ Louise Erdich

Just see...

A buddha is simply a person who is awake

- nothing more or less.

Buddhism is about SEEING.

The point of Buddhism is to just see.

That's all.

First, you must truly realize that life is fleeting.

Next, you must understand that

you are already complete, worthy, whole.

Finally, you must see that you are your own

refuge, your own sanctuary,

your own salvation.

You are not lacking a thing.

You are already enlightened...

Buddhism Plain & Simple ~ Steve Hagen

Spiritual Practice

The spiritual practice that works is the one that works for you…

~ Ken Wilber