It Has a Song

A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer.
It sings because it has a song.

Maya Angelou

When Great Souls Die

And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.

Maya Angelou

Prayer and Presence

No prayer is complete

without presence.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Make Them Ninety-Nine!

You have a hundred cynical fantasies
about God. Make them ninety-nine!
If you can't pray a real prayer, pray
hypocritically, full of doubt
and dry-mouthed.
God accepts counterfeit money

as though it were real!

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Start Crawling

If all you can do is crawl,
start crawling.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

More Important

It is more important to know what sort of person
has a disease than to know what sort of disease
a person has.

Hippocrates

The Wrong Wall

There is perhaps nothing worse than
reaching the top of the ladder and
discovering that you're on the wrong wall.

Joseph Campbell

Every Religion is True

Every religion is true one way or another.
It is true when understood metaphorically.
But when it gets stuck in its own metaphors,
interpreting them as facts,
then you are in trouble.

Joseph Campbell

Sacred Space

Your sacred space is where
you can find yourself over and over again.

Joseph Campbell

Life is Like ...

Life is like arriving late for a movie,
having to figure out what was going on
without bothering everybody
with a lot of questions, and then
being unexpectedly called away
before you find out how it ends.

Joseph Campbell

Someone Else's Path

If the path before you is clear,
you're probably on someone else's.

Joseph Campbell

That's Why It's Your Path

If you can see your path laid out in front of you
step by step, you know it's not your path.
Your own path you make with every step you take.
That's why it's your path.

Joseph Campbell

Privilege of a Lifetime

The privilege of a lifetime
is being who you are.

Joseph Campbell

Listen to Your Own Truth

The spiritual journey is individual, highly personal.
It can't be organized or regulated.
It isn't true that everyone should follow one path.
Listen to your own truth.

Ram Dass

Identifying With the Soul

Spiritual practices help us move
from identifying with the ego
to identifying with the soul.
Old age does that for you too.
It spiritualizes people naturally.

Ram Dass

Just Another Moment

The ego is frightened by death,
because the ego is part of the incarnation
and ends with it.

That is why we learn to identify with our soul,
as the soul continues after death.
For the soul, death is just another moment.

Ram Dass

More Involved Less Attached

Our journey is about being more deeply involved in Life
and yet less attached to it.

Ram Dass

I Don't Believe Anything I Say

I don't really believe anything I say.
Because the nature of my work concerns
the spaces between the words,
rather than the words themselves.

Ram Dass

You Stop Asking

Early in the journey you wonder how long the journey
will take and whether you will make it in this lifetime.
Later you will see that where you are going is HERE
and you will arrive NOW...so you stop asking.

Ram Dass

What It's All About

Do what you can on this plane to relieve suffering
by constantly working on yourself to be an
instrument for the cessation of suffering.
To me, that's what the emerging game
is all about.

Ram Dass

I Can Do Nothing For You

I can do nothing for you but work on myself.
You can do nothing for me but work on yourself!

Ram Dass

Open Hearts

Our rational minds can never understand
what has happened, but our hearts,
if we can keep them open to God,
will find their own intuitive way.

Ram Dass

It Takes One to Know One

If you want to be surrounded by Souls,
become identified with your Soul.
It takes one to know one!

Ram Dass

Spiritual Practices

All spiritual practices are illusions
created by illusionists to escape illusion.

Ram Dass

Think You Are Enlightened?

If you think you are enlightened,
go spend a week with your parents.

Ram Dass

Becoming Nobody

The game is not about becoming somebody,
it's about becoming nobody.

Ram Dass

Hear What I'm Saying

Only that in you which is me
can hear what I'm saying.

Ram Dass

Steps on the Path

It is important to expect nothing,
to take every experience,
including the negative ones,
as merely steps on the path,
and to proceed.

Ram Dass

God in Drag

Treat everyone you meet
as if they are God in drag.

Ram Dass

The More You Can Hear

The quieter you become,
the more you can hear.

Ram Dass

Where My Work Lies

I would like my life to be a statement
of love and compassion - and where it
isn't, that's where my work lies.

Ram Dass

Walking Each Other Home

We're all just walking each other home.

Ram Dass

Welcome Us All Home

For the people who experience the most painful suffering,
Who feel trapped and hopeless,
Who feel life makes no sense and seems utterly cruel –
There is a place in the center of each moment,
Available right now,
Where freedom and compassionate truth wait
To welcome us all home.

Penney Pierce
Dedication for
“Frequency: The Power of Personal Vibration”

Shamanic Diagnostic Interview

In many shamanic societies, if you came to a shaman
or medicine person complaining of being disheartened,
dispirited, or depressed, they would ask one of four
questions:

When did you stop dancing?

When did you stop singing?

When did you stop laughing?

When did you stop being enchanted by stories?

When did you stop finding comfort in the sweet territory of silence?

Spending Time Doing No Harm

Considering the ways in which so many of us waste our
time, what would be wrong with a world in which every-
body were writing poems? After all, there's a significant
service to humanity in spending time doing no harm.
While you're writing your poem there's one less
scoundrel in the world. And I'd like a world, wouldn't
you, in which people actually took time to think about
what they were saying? It would be, I'm certain, a
more peaceful, more reasonable place. Idon't think
there could ever be too many poets. By writing poetry,
even those poems that fail and fail miserably, we honor
and affirm life. We say 'We loved the world but could
not stay.'

Ted Kooser
Poet Laureate from 2004 to 2006

I'll Meet You There

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is
too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase
"each other" doesn't make any sense.
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don't go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don't go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don't go back to sleep.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi