The Truth Goes On

However much you deny the truth,
the truth goes on existing.

George Orwell

It's Both/And

My challenge to you as fellow pilgrims 
on the journey is to cultivate the stability
of living on two planes of consciousness -
as Christ said, "In the world but not of the world,"
to be fully passionately involved in life and
also be totally equanimous and centered.
This is not an either/or, it's both/and.

Ram Dass

Be the Buddha

Don't quote the Buddha,

be the Buddha.

Eckhart Tolle 

No Secret

The secret is that
there is nothing to get,
nowhere to arrive, and,
indeed, no secret!

Alan Watts

A Beautiful Instrument

You gotta remember that the ego is built on fear.
It's not built on love; it's built on fear.
It's built on the fear of non-survival,
and so you build a structure in order to
make you safe. And it's a beautiful instrument,
but if you're identified with it,
you're fearful all the time.

Ram Dass

The Four Laws of a Shaman

The person who comes into our life is the right person.
What happens is the only thing that could have happened.
Anytime it starts is the right time.
When something ends, it ends.

Only Interpretations

There are no facts,
only interpretations.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Good Enough

Why isn't this, as it is, good enough?
Because what if this is it and it's
never been good enough for a lifetime?

Judy Cohen

Own Best Friend

When a woman becomes
her own best friend,
life is easier.

Diane Von Furstenberg

My Best Friend

"He was my best friend; I have no one to talk to now"
  became
"I am my best friend; I have me to talk to now."

Byron Katie

Loving Myself

As I began to love myself,
my relationship with everyone else changed.

Charlie Chaplin

Only Love Them

You cannot save people,
you can only love them.

Anais Nin

You're the One

I can only show you the door.
You're the one that has to walk through it.

Morpheus, The Matrix

Now is Where

Now is where
love breathes.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Spell It Nature

I believe in God,
only I spell it Nature.

Frank Lloyd Wright

Only Your Mind

You've never met another person.
You've only met your mind.

Byron Katie

The Beginning

An open mind
is the beginning
of freedom.

Byron Katie

Do You Think That I Know?

Do you think that I know what I'm doing?
That for one breath or half-breath I belong to myself?
As much as a pen knows what it's writing,
or the ball can guess where it's going next.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

100 Percent

The world you live in is
100 percent your responsibility.

Byron Katie

Camera vs. Philosophy

I don't have a philosophy.
I have a camera.

Saul Leiter

Don't Pretend Yourself

Don't pretend yourself
beyond your evolution.

Byron Katie

Believe Nothing

Believe nothing you hear,
and only one half that you see.

Edgar Allan Poe (or maybe Ben Franklin)

Something Gets Provided

When you relax into what's here,
without telling what it should be,
something gets provided.

John Tarrant

Not Worth Living

An unexamined life
is not worth living.

Socrates (Plato)

Don't Stop Questioning

The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Curiosity has its own reason for existence.
One cannot help but be in awe when
he contemplates the mysteries of eternity,

of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.

It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend
a little of this mystery each day.

Albert Einstein

Not Necessarily So

Just because you put a name on it
doesn't make it so.

Byron Katie

Slow Down

If you're in a hurry,
slow down.

Byron Katie

Be With It All

The art of life is to stay wide open and be vulnerable,
yet at the same time to sit with the mystery and the awe
and with the unbearable pain - to just be with it all.

Ram Dass

The Body Mirrors

The body mirrors back to us
our unquestioned thinking.

Byron Katie

What Love Is

Love is the absence
of all expectation.

Byron Katie

You Have the Power

The misunderstanding is always
on your part, and that is good news.
You have the power to take care of it.

Byron Katie

This Too Was a Gift

Someone I loved once gave me
a box full of darkness.
It took me years to understand that
this, too, was a gift.

Mary Oliver

Also Mischief

I believe in kindness.
Also in mischief.

Mary Oliver

What We Notice

Life is a garden, not a road.
We enter and exit through the same gate.
Wandering, where we go matters less
than what we notice.

Kurt Vonnegut

This is It

Nothing happens next.
This is it.

Zen Saying

It Is

It is what it is
until it's not.

Byron Katie

Degree of Presence

Stop measuring days by degree of productivity and
start experiencing them by degree of presence.

Alan Watts

However

I love life
however

it shows up.

Byron Katie

Life is Internal

All life
is internal.

Byron Katie

Nothing So Simple

There is nothing so simple
as being the Self.
It requires no effort, no aid.
One has to leave off
wrong identity and be
in one's eternal, natural,
and inherent state.

Ramana Maharshi

The Whole Point of Zen

The whole point of Zen
is to suspend the rules
we have superimposed
on things and to
see the world as it is.

Alan Watts

We Don't Like It

What we have to discover is that there is no safety,
that seeking is painful, and that when we imagine
that we have found it, we don't like it.

Alan Watts

My Only Problem

I was the only problem
in my world.

Byron Katie

What I Want

When I'm perfectly clear
what is is what I want.

Byron Katie

It Is What It Is

Truth is not what you want it to be; it is what it is.
And you must bend to its power or live a lie.

Miyamoto Musashi

Just Keep Going

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Be Alive Now

Your entire education has deprived you
of the capacity for living in the moment
because it was preparing you for the future,
instead of showing you how to be alive now.

Alan Watts

Bullshit Does

The truth does not require
your participation to exist.
Bullshit does.

Terence McKenna

Quietly Like Earth

I am smiling at myself today.
There's no wish left in this heart.
Or perhaps there is no heart left.
Free from all desire,
I sit quietly like Earth.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Asked in the Wrong Way

Problems that remain persistently insoluble
should always be suspected as questions
asked in the wrong way.

Alan Watts

The Trust is Revealed

The truth is revealed by removing things
that stand in its light, an art not unlike sculpture,
in which the artist creates, not by building,
but by hacking away.

Alan Watts

Who Would I Be?

I love that you listen closely to your thoughts
anytime you are under stress and that you
mindfully become aware of this sweet question:
"Who would I be, just in this moment now,
without my story?"

Byron Katie

I Was New

I saw nothing
that day on my forest walk
I hadn't seen before
yet everything was new
And I was new
as I stepped forward
into presence.

Carol Dickey

Photography is Unique

Photography is unique in that it asks for both
an inward look and outward gaze simultaneously.

David Ulrich

Age Doesn't Matter

Age is an issue of mind over matter.
If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.

Mark Twain

Far Greater Power

Sometimes letting things go
is an act of far greater power
than hanging on.

Alan Watts

Let Go and Let God

Let go and let God
have his way in your life,
and he will bless you exceedingly,
abundantly, above all that

you can ask or think.

Jeremiah 29:11

Answers to the Emperor's Questions

No merit.
Vast emptiness.
Nothing holy.
I don't know.

Bodhidharma

What Do You Have to Do?

What does the orange tree
Have to do
To grow oranges?
What does the sky
Have to do
To be blue?
What do you
Have to do
To be?

Wu Hsin

Being Effortlessly Aware

The brain can only assume its proper behavior

when consciousness is doing what it is designed for:
not writhing and whirling to get out of present experience,
but being effortlessly aware of it.

Alan Watts

The Clearest, Simplest Advice

If you're looking for the clearest, simplest advice about
how to stay in peace, this sentence would do very well:
"Develop a mind that abides nowhere."

Byron Katie

What is Essential

Here is what is essential:
All bodhisattvas should
develop a pure, lucid mind
that doesn't depend upon
sight, sound, touch, taste, smell,
or any thought that arises in it.
A bodhisattva should develop
a mind that abides nowhere.

Diamond Sutra

It Doesn't Matter!

Fall in love with some activity, and do it!
Nobody every figures out what life is all about,
and it doesn't matter. Explore the world.
Nearly everything is really interesting
if you go into it deeply enough.
Work as hard and as much as you want to
on the things you like to do the best.
Don't think about what you want to be,
but what you want to do. Keep up some kind
of a minimum with other things so that
society doesn't stop you from doing
anything at all.

Richard Feynman

Creating Real Art

Solitude is the only way
to create real art.

Renuka Gavrani

Never Lonely

You cannot be lonely
if you like the person
you're alone with.

Renuka Gavrani

Be the Soul

Wherever you stand,
be the soul of that place.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Be Undefinable

If you want to know yourself,

you have to be interested in yourself

for the rest of your life. And

you must remember one thing, 

you are beyond a particular tag.
You cannot be labeled.

Be undefinable.
Let them wonder who you are while
you create a personality for yourself

that makes you fall in love

with yourself every day.

Renuka Gavrani

Who Are You?

If you cannot figure out who you are,
figure out who you are not and
who you don't want to be.

Renuka Gavrani

Never Lost

Having no destination,
I am never lost.

Ikkyu

Learn to Keep Quiet

It takes two years to learn to speak
and sixty to learn to keep quiet.

Ernest Hemingway

Never Without You

If you live to be a hundred,
I want to live to be a hundred
minus one day so I never
have to live without you.

A.A. Milne

Sufficient Unto Itself

The wisest among us are those who live
without answers to ultimate questions,
understanding that each moment is
sufficient unto itself.

Robert Saltzman

That's It

In each moment, you see what you see, and
you understand what you understand, and that's it.
Someone else's understanding, no matter how convincing,
cannot be substituted for that.

Robert Saltzman

Become the Ocean

If you don't become the ocean,

you'll be seasick every day.

Leonard Cohen

How Much Alive

It matters not where or how far you travel -
the farther commonly the worse -
but how much alive you are.

Henry David Thoreau

Self-hypnotized Believers

Often those in the role of teacher
are only self-hypnotized believers
themselves who were put into a trance
long ago by their teachers.

Robert Saltzman

Experience as Exploration

In wisdom gathered over time,
I have found that every experience
is a form of exploration.

Ansel Adams

Being Cut Free

There's a lot of freedom
in being cut free from
the need to like things.

Judy Cohen

Be Human

These spiritual people who are always saying,
"This isn't good enough. I want to go to the top
of the mountain," to me they're just so foolish.
They just haven't lived. They really haven't lived yet.
They have to get over the spirituality thing and
be human and then they'll get it.

Robert Saltzman

Open Mind Needed

If we truly don't want to hurt,
we need to do something different
and that requires an open mind.
Otherwise, we're locked into
what we've always been doing
and there's no option but pain.

Judy Cohen

Quite the Opposite

Following others will not lead

to seeing myself and the world

as the mystery they are.
Quite the opposite.

Awakening is when you don't follow.

Robert Saltzman

No Need to Know

Awakening means the end of "spirituality" in the face
of the undeniable understanding that all conjecture
on the subject of "myself" falls short - must fall short -
of actually explaining anything. In each moment,
I find myself here as an apparent focus of awareness
without ever having chosen to be here, without knowing
what I "really" am, and without needing to know.

Robert Saltzman

Whatever the Moment Brings

The adept gives himself up
to whatever the moment brings.
He knows that he is going to die,
and he has nothing left to hold on to:
no illusions in his mind,
no resistances in his body.
He doesn't think about his actions;
they flow from the core of his being.
He holds nothing back from life;
therefore he is ready for death,
as a man is ready for sleep
after a good day's work.

Lao-Tsu

Your Best Season

Spring comes with its flowers, autumn with the moon,

summer with breezes, winter with snow;

when useless things don't stick in the mind,

that is your best season.

Wu-men Huai-kai

Doorway In

I am of the school that suffering comes
from the reification of self, the making this 
sense of self solid, and so anything that
holds it in place hurts on one level or another
and that's essentially one of my doorways in.

Judy Cohen

Stubbornly Persistent Illusion

People like us who believe in physics know that
the distinction between past, present, and future,
is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

Albert Einstein

Much Too Soon

Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering
and it's all over much too soon.

Woody Allen

It's Kind

If there is no self, then what is there?
If I feel into that a little bit, it's kind.
That's my experience. That doesn't
mean that's your experience.

Judy Cohen

Life Doesn't Need Your Trust

Whether you trust it or not, 
is life happening?
It doesn't need your trust.

Judy Cohen

A Sense of Existence

The mind creates a sense of existence
with this "something is wrong" business.

Judy Cohen

The Ultimate Question?

Is it true?

Byron Katie

Just One of the Symptoms

What if you're a zombie

right now and
believing you're not is

just one of the symptoms?

Jed McKenna

No Other Species

The mind is crazy. Thought is nuts
and the idea that we are a self,
we start from a premise that
no other species is afflicted with.

Judy Cohen

It Stops Being Necessary

It is much more peaceful for me to see those times
when I really crave being acknowledged as a self,
when I put myself out there and once I see that that's
really a verification of this "Judy" thing, it really
generally stops being necessary to say anything.

Judy Cohen

I Don't Need to ...

I don't need to change their minds and
I don't need them to understand me either and
I also don't need them to know my point of view
or whether it's correct or not. If you find your fingers

start moving, type your answer as long as you know

you're not likely to change any minds.

You're not likely to be heard or even understood

because people are hearing and seeing the world

through their own filters. Anything that

doesn't fit is excluded.

Judy Cohen

Happiness as a Requirement

We have made a god of happiness as if it is a requirement
and as if we're doing something wrong if we don't get it
and as if what we have instead of happiness is not okay
or good enough. We've made happiness a requirement
and that has made us unhappy with what we've got.

Judy Cohen

As Simple As That

There's eight billion people on this planet right now
and what happens to Robert one way or another
doesn't really amount to much in the face of that.

If we could only see that. If I could only see that

for one moment, a lot of this striving would come

to an end immediately and we'd just be grateful

for what we have. I'm grateful for what I have.

It's as simple as that.

Robert Saltzman

This is It, Whatever I Think

I would never call myself enlightened
but I do call myself awake and
what I mean by awake is that
I realized this is it, whatever I think.
Whatever I think is part of this moment
but it can't replace this moment.

This moment is a lot more than

what I think about it, a lot more.

Robert Saltzman

Why Pray at All?

They pray to God
and finish with
"Thy Will be done!"
If His Will be done,
why do they pray at all?

Ramana Maharshi

What Are the Odds?

What are the odds that the mind
wants to be transcended?
Why would it want that?
Doesn't it like things
just the way they are?

Judy Cohen

What's Not Okay?

How do you know you have a problem 

and what's not okay with you as you are?

Judy Cohen

Pain and Perfection

The idea that pain is 

not part of perfection,
that makes life small.

Judy Cohen

Just An Is

It's just
an "is."

Kelly (Client's Friend)

Why They Want It

I think also with a lot of enlightenment seekers
or seekers of awakening, whatever that means to them,
they never really ask themselves why they want it
because most of the time it boils down to
one or two reasons. The main one is that they hurt
and they don't want to and they think that if they
are enlightened or they achieve this state or
they reach that level, whatever the word is,
whatever the wording is that works for them,
that then they will be blissful all the time,
they will be calm all the time. They won't mind
what happens. They will feel better in the end.

Judy Cohen

Where Would It Go?

If she is all of it. Again maybe she is, maybe she isn't.
We're not bothering with that right now. But if she is
everything, every feeling, every thought, every color
that lands on that eyeball, everything, every sound.
If she's all of it, first of all, what needs to go away
and second of all, where would it go?

Judy Cohen

If I'm Both

A case can be made in physics and science,
in all kinds of ways, a case can be made
that we are literally everything we experience.
This is literal. This isn't even just woo-woo.
This is science. Then, is a crappy feeling worse

than a good one, if I'm both?

Judy Cohen

If I Am Everything

If I am everything, that includes crappy feelings
and that includes lack of understanding 
and that includes the broken tire and
the practice that never yields the desired result
and that includes the practice that appears
to yield the desired result.

Judy Cohen

Boring!

Why would Existence

want everyone

to do anything?

Judy Cohen

Faulty Thinking

This idea that if we do things right,
we can set things up so that we experience
only enlightenment, bliss, contentment -
this is, in my opinion, faulty thinking.

Judy Cohen

Knock Yourself Out

In the end, if Existence doesn't want you to have
whatever it is, you ain't gettin' it no matter
how you hone, no matter how you practice,
no matter how many books you read.
You can do all that, knock yourself out.
It's a perfectly good way to live your life.

Judy Cohen

All You, Being That

Consciousness is not a watcher.
Consciousness is an experiencer.
Or, more accurately, experience.
Which means, so are you.
Because what is not consciousness?
So you are experience.
Every thought, every feeling, every sound,
every sight, every sensation. All you.
Shifting constantly, moving, in milliseconds,
to BE this sound and that color
and that thought. BEING that.

Judy Cohen

Actually Peaceful

It's odd that we also haven't noticed that acknowledging
the reality of helplessness, surrendering to the possibility
that there's nothing we can do and that relentless
good cheer is not going to save us ... actually is peaceful.

Judy Cohen

The Possibility of Being

So just for fun, we might try on the possibility of

BEING every sensation, being every sound,

being every thought, and laughter, and fear.

Being experience itself, rather than the one

with all the preferences for nice feelings.
Rather than the one all this happens to,

or even the one who notices.
We might begin to notice our usual sense of self,

our everyday, I'm-right-here sense, disappear.

We might begin to notice the typical demands

of the mind go quieter. Since we are those too.

As the sense of ME dissolves into everything.

Judy Cohen

Is It Possible?

Is it possible that this, as it is, is good enough?
Is it possible that I, as I am, am good enough?
This isn't asking if you like it, or if you're where
you want to be, or if you're good, or if you've "got it."
This is asking, is it good enough?
Can you make do with less-than-perfect?
If not, why not? Is yourself too special
to be imperfect like everything else?

Judy Cohen

Someone Else's

If answers are not found by you,
they can never be yours.
They're someone else's.
All you can do is borrow them

Judy Cohen

Because, Isn't There

Focus on any lack, and you're focusing on what isn't there.
As opposed to focusing on what is.
So, of course, you don't find. Because, isn't there.

Judy Cohen

Show Me

Show me where you end and awareness begins.
Show me where sounds ends and hearing begins.
Show me where the great wisdom stops,

holding itself away, from wherever it is

that lacking-you starts.

Judy Cohen

Not Possible Without You

Wouldn't it be something
if we could get truly personal
and notice that without us,
without our sensing apparatuses
such as our eyes, our ears,
noticing and being aware of awareness
and consciousness is not possible.
It is not possible without us.
Without these persons. Without you.
Without you, there is no one to be aware,
no one to be conscious, no one to be enlightened.
Awareness depends on you to be known.

Judy Cohen

Quiet Mind

Only a quiet mind
hears it all.

Ram Dass

Just Being Everything

We don't have to know anything;
that's what's so funny about it.
We get so simple. We're empty.
We know nothing. We simply are wisdom.
Not becoming anything,
just being everything.

Ram Dass

Hey, Where'd You Go?

Forget that "strong sense" of being you for just a minute.
It may be there, but it simply doesn't matter.
Instead, try on BEING the things that are happening,
as opposed to The One Who feels them or
The One Who is aware of them.
You don't have to believe this to try it on.
Try on being, as in literally it's what you are - 
every word, every thought, every feeling, every memory,
every story, every color, every sound. Being all that.

Non-stop fluid, changeable, infinitely varied.
Unable to be held and kept. Being the happenings.
Not the happening-to. No the watching or watchER, either.
What then? What would that be...
Hey, where'd you go?

Judy Cohen

One Touch

One touch of nature
makes the whole world kin.

William Shakespeare

All There Is

I am all
there is.

Richard Grant

This is the Fun

This is the fun for Existence, Consciousness.
We are the fun. How interesting would this life be
if everything was all one color or all one feeling
or all one thought. I mean, talk about boredom.

Judy Cohen

It Wouldn't Be Here

If Existence didn't want all of it,
it wouldn't be here. If God
didn't want anger and bad feelings,
they wouldn't be here. Otherwise,
it ain't much of a God.

Judy Cohen

Crazy Humans

Humans
are crazy.

Judy Cohen

The Basic Message

Come back to square one,

just the minimum bare bones.
Relaxing with the present moment,

relaxing with hopelessness,
relaxing with death,

not resisting the fact that things end,
that things pass,

that things have no lasting substance,
that everything is changing all the time.

That is the basic message.

Pema Chodron

I Am a Soul

I don't have a soul.
I am a soul.
I have a body.

C.S. Lewis

What Percentage of Your Day?

Including sleep and setting aside whether

you like or don't like what's happening,

what percentage of your day are you okay?

Judy Cohen

Notice What I've Got

If I'm seeking okayness,
doesn't it make sense
to notice what I've got?

Judy Cohen

It Doesn't Matter

There's such liberation in realizing
it doesn't matter whether you
like a feeling or not.

Judy Cohen

Pretty Fierce

Beyond even conceiving of a place
Beyond which you can go beyond
Who's adventurous enough to want to go on that journey?
Do you realize when you go on that journey

in order to get to the destination YOU can never get to the destination?
In the process YOU (the ego, who you think you are) must die MUST die.
Pretty fierce journey. Pretty fierce requirement.
We want volunteers.

Ram Dass

It's All Inside You

Once a student asked: 
"If it's all inside you,
what do you need a guru for?"

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche answered:
"You need a guru to show you
that it's all inside you."

Second Choice

Death was
Patrick Henry's
second choice.

Wavy Gravy

Why Silence at Mealtime

You cannot eat and
talk at the same time.

Shunryu Suzuki

Even the Bugs

If you're not a Buddhist, you think
there are Buddhists and non-Buddhists,
but if you're a Buddhist, you realize
everyone's a Buddhist, even the bugs.

Shunryu Suzuki

The Way the Mind Goes

Things go the way the mind goes.
If you think you're a monk, you're a monk.
If you don't think you're a monk, you're not a monk.

Shunryu Suzuki

Not True

If it's not paradoxical,
it's not true.

Shunryu Suzuki

One Power of the Buddha

To see what someone needs
and give it to them.

Shunryu Suzuki

Buddhism in One Phrase

Everything changes.

Shunryu Suzuki

Never Lost

You can never
get lost.

Shunryu Suzuki

Until You Open Your Mouth

I think you're all enlightened
until you open your mouth.

Shunryu Suzuki

It's Training

Hell is not punishment,
it's training.

Shunryu Suzuki

No Mistake

Things as it is.

Shunryu Suzuki

The Meaning of Life and Death

There is no end
to that kind of search.

Shunryu Suzuki

No Reason

Question:
Why is there so much suffering?

"No reason."

Shunryu Suzuki

No Place to Go

You may leave, of course,
but there's no place to go.

Shunryu Suzuki

Seeing Virtue

If you want to see virtue,
you have to have a calm mind.

Shunryu Suzuki

It Doesn't Matter

Question:

If a tree falls in the forest
and no one hears it,
does it make a sound?

"It doesn't matter."

Shunryu Suzuki

How You Made Them Feel

They may forget what you said, but they
will never forget how you made them feel.

Carl W. Buechner

Be Yourself

Be yourself.
No one can say
you're doing it wrong.

Charles Schulz

Respect That Tuning In

We have to start out from somewhere, we can't start out being nobody. The force of "somebody-ness" that develops the survival mechanisms is our starting point. It is the freedom of non-clinging to models about self and other that you begin to tune to and hear the way of thing, called the Tao or the Divine Law. When you respect that tuning in yourself, actions that flow from you start to become dharmic. They are acts that release beings from suffering and do not perpetuate the illusion of separate self.

Ram Dass

All Just Thoughts

Only this moment is real,
this moment of loving awareness.
The past and future are all just thoughts.

Ram Dass

The Best Way to Prepare

If I'm going to die, the best way to prepare
is to quiet my mind and open my heart.
If I'm going to live, the best way to prepare
is to quiet my mind and open my heart.

Ram Dass

This Path of Love

Welcome to the path of the heart! Believe it or not,
this can be your reality, to be loved unconditionally,
and to begin to become that love. This path of love
doesn't go anywhere. It just brings you more here, into
the present moment, into the reality of who you really are.

Ram Dass

Dare to Wear

Dare to wear
the foolish clown face.

Frank Sinatra

Forgive Yourself

Forgive yourself
for not knowing
what you didn't know
before you learned it.

Maya Angelou

No External Refuge

Be a lamp unto yourself,
be a refuge to yourself.
Take yourself to
no external refuge.

The Buddha

Too Old for This

I'm too old
for this shit.

Detective Roger Murtaugh
("Lethal Weapon")

How to Remain an Artist

Every child is an artist.
The problem is how to
remain an artist
once we grow up.

Pablo Picasso

You May Contribute a Verse

O me, O life of the questions of these recurring.
Of the endless trains of the faithless.
Of cities fille with the foolish.
What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer: that you are here.
That life exists and identity.
That the powerful play goes on,
and you may contribute a verse.

Walt Whitman

Live Quite Freely

Once your reputation is ruined,
you can live quite freely.

Anthony Bourdain

Becoming Wise

The fool who persists
in his folly will
become wise.

William Blake

Change vs. Same

The more things change,
the more the stay the same.

French Proverb