Enjoy the Ride

What if we said, "This is the way it is;
this is what it means to be human," and
decided to sit down and enjoy the ride?

Pema Chodron

Letting Go of Wanting Things

What would it be like to let go of
wanting things to be other than they are?

Byron Katie

The Greatest Gift

You begin to hear the secret, that
being fully in the present moment
is the greatest gift you can give
to each situation.

Ram Dass

To Rise Above

Consciousness is key to getting the mind to rise
above the brain's vulnerabilities, which will kill us.

Dan Siegel

Keeping Pace with the Times

I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws
and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go
hand in hand with the progress of the human mind.
As that becomes more developed, more enlightened,
as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and
manners and opinions change, with the circumstances,
institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times.
We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which
fitted him he a boy as a civilized society to remain ever
under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.

Thomas Jefferson

Then It Happens

Photography is not documentary,
but intuition, a poetic experience.
First, you must lose yourself.
Then it happens.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Enter, Then Exit

Enter through form.
Exit from form.

Martial Arts Saying

Go in Ignorant

The best way to go into
an unknown territory
is to go in ignorant.

Dorothea Lange

Out There

It's out there, man,
don't you hear it?

Dizzy Gillespie

Just a Bonus

I am not looking for anything.
I'm just looking - trying to have
as full an experience as possible.
The point is to have a full experience -
to photograph is just a bonus.

Michael Smith

Make It Your Home

Leap into the boundless
and make it your home.

Chuang Tzu

Much Simpler

Wanting to reform the world without
discovering one's true self is like trying
to cover the world with leather to avoid
the pain of walking on stones and thorns.
It is much simpler to wear shoes.

Ramana Maharshi

Already That Which Is

You are already that which is. But
your mind is frightened to let go
and still has an idea that something
special should happen.

Tony Parsons

Compassion

If your compassion does
not include yourself,
it is incomplete.

Buddha

Just As They Are

If you understand,
things are just as they are.
If you do not understand,
things are just as they are.

Anonymous

Greet What Comes

Mysteriously, wonderfully, I bid farewell to what goes,
I greet what comes; for what comes cannot be denied,
and what goes cannot be detained.

Chuang Tzu

Living in the Everyday

Daily life is consciousness.
Daily life is awareness.
Enlightenment lives in the everyday.

Judy Cohen

Where the Stuff Is

Everything you've got on your plate is
where the stuff for your enlightenment is.

Ram Dass

The Most Important Thing

The most important thing is
remembering the most important thing.

Suzuki Roshi

No Other One

That one, You, the only one that truly is, is

already Conscious Presence. There is no other one.

Rupert Spira

You Remain As You Are

What is Self Realization? A mere phrase.
People expect some miracle to happen,
something to drop from Heaven in a flash.
It's nothing of the sort. Only the notion that
you're the body, that you're this or that,
will go, and you remain as you are.

Ramana Maharshi

Back on Stage

When it's all over, it's time to be
a human being in the world again,
and that means slipping back
into costume and getting back on stage.

Jed McKenna

Before They Will Listen

Humans need to be heard
before they will listen.

Amanda Ripley

Fear of the Call

The problem in most situations
is not a lack of calling, but
a fear of responding to the call.

Michael Meade

Why Rob a Bank?

Because that's where
the money is.

Willie Sutton

The Path Itself

You cannot travel the path until
you become the path itself.

Buddha

Come Back

Sometimes you hear a voice through the door calling,
as a fish out of water hears the waves.

Come back. Come back. This turning toward

what you deeply love saves you.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

A Mind That is Stretched

A mind that is stretched to a new idea
never returns to its original dimension.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Art is the Basis

Before a child speaks, it sings.
Before they write, they paint.
As soon as they stand, they dance.
Art is the basis of human expression.

Phylicia Rashad

I Just AM It

If I'm an example then that's great.
But I don't have to preach it.
I don't have to march it.
I don't have to carry signs.
I just AM it.

Dolly Parton

I Have Opinions

I have opinions on everything in this world.
You have your opinions, and I can also express
opinions and judgments on everything.
But my opinion and judgments are no more
important than the opinions and judgments
of your mother or that taxi driver there.

U.G. Krishnamurti

That Which is Not Illusion

Every day, go into the calm quiet where you really belong, face the other way, and turn your gaze back; if you do this over the long years, that which is not illusion will of itself reveal itself before you.

Master Daikaku

Silence Beyond Sound

All final spiritual reference is to the silence beyond sound.
It can be spoken of as the great silence, or as the void, or
as the transcendent absolute.

Joseph Campbell

Regular Visits

Do you make regular visits

to yourself?

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Truly Ready

When the student is truly ready,
the teacher will disappear.

Lao Tzu

Decency

Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?
Have you left no sense of decency?

Joseph Nye Welsh (to Joe McCarthy)

Clinging

You only lose
what you cling to.

Buddha

Your Own Salvation

Work out your own salvation.
Do not depend on others.

Buddha

Always Flowers

There are always flowers for
those who want to see them.

Henri Matisse

Less More

Still, when asked, I'm willing and happy to keep offering ...

less. Less pretending, less superiority, less words,

less answers, less stringing-along, less ... more.

Oh, yes, there's plenty more where that less came from.
Everyone is welcome to ask for more of that. Anytime.
And I also wish for all askers to enjoy living without
getting it. Which is as rich and enlightening as anyone
could ever get. And who knows, might even
answer every question.

Judy Cohen

Then We Return Home

We are all visitors to this time, this place.
We are just passing through. Our purpose
here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love ...
and then we return home.

Australian Aboriginal Proverb

Your Own Light

Doubt everything.
Find your own light.

Buddha

Only Two Mistakes

There are only two mistakes one
can make along the road to truth:
not going all the way, and not starting.

Buddha

Make Sure You're Not Asleep

Is there anything I can do

to make myself enlightened?
As little as you can do

to make the sun rise in the morning.
Then of what use are

the spiritual exercises you prescribe?
To make sure you're not asleep

when the sun begins to rise.

Anthony de Mello

You May Be the Light

If everything around you seems dark,
look again. You may be the light.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Only I Can Do That

You cannot hurt me.
Only I can do that.

Byron Katie

The Pause

The pause is
as important
as the note.

Truman Fisher

Before and After

Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.
After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.

Buddha

Emptiness

The usefulness of the cup
is its emptiness.

Bruce Lee

You're All That

What you are basically, deep deep down, is simply
the fabric and structure of existence itself. And
you're ALL that, only you're pretending you're not.

Alan Watts

Experiencing Truth

To accept some idea of truth

without experiencing it

is like a painting of a cake

on paper which you cannot eat.

Suzuki Roshi

Nothing

Relax, nothing
is under control.

Buddha

Still, Alert Presence

When you wash your hands, 
when you make a cup of coffee,
when you're waiting for the elevator,
instead of indulging in thinking,
these are all opportunities for being there
as a still, alert presence.

Eckhart Tolle

We Are the Experience

We ARE the experience itself - 
as opposed to the one who
experiences it, or the one who
notices the experience.

Judy Cohen

Ecstasy at Your Feet

You need not do anything. Remain sitting at your table
and listen. You need not even listen, just wait. You need
not even wait, just learn to be quiet, still, and solitary
and the world will freely offer itself to you, unmasked.
It has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

Franz Kafka

What Can You Do?

When you can do nothing,

what can you do?

Zen Proverb

Now Here's the Weather

Today a young man on acid realized that all matter
is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration,
that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself
subjectively, there is no such thing as death,
life is only a dream, and we are the imagination
of ourselves. Now here's Tom with the weather.

Bill Hicks

Every Experience an Awakening

What if every experience was an awakening?
What if she could give up seeking because ...
This. Is. It. And if that was so, then ... 
what could any teacher or technique give her
that wasn't already here, that she didn't already have?

Judy Cohen (about herself)

Exactly the Point

We don't want to let suffering go. We think we do.
But we don't. Because we don't know who we are
without it. And we're afraid to find out.
Which is exactly the point.

Judy Cohen

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethoughts
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind starts
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Wendell Berry

Part of the Problem

If you're not part of the solution,
you're part of the problem.

Attributed to Eldridge Cleaver
(Coined by ad agency owner Charles Rosner)

Everything in Relation

Nothing ever exists alone.
Everything is in relation
to everything else.

Buddha

Something to Clean Up

Guilt is not a terrible thing.
It's just like this alarm clock
that says there's something
for you to clean up.

Byron Katie

Second Opinion

I think therapy is like getting
a really good second opinion
on your life from someone
who's not in your life.

Lori Gottlieb

Acting

However many holy words you read, 
however many you speak,
what good will they do you
if you do not act upon them?

Buddha

Even Though

A flower falls, even though we love it;
and a weed grows, even though we do not love it.

Dogen Zenji

The Truth is Already in Us

When we discover that the truth is already in us,
we are all at once our original selves.

Dogen Zenji

Be Awake

It is important that awake people be awake,
for the darkness around us is deep.

William Stafford

Right Where You Are

If you're unable to find the truth right where you are,
where else do you expect to find it?

Dogen Zenji

Becoming Free

When you want to become free, then

your righteousness and your anger are

much less interesting than they used to be.

Ram Dass

Peace is Every Step

Peace is every step.
The shining red sun is my heart.
Each flower smiles with me.
How green, how fresh all that grows.

How cool the wind blows.

Peace is every step.

It turns the endless path to joy.

Thich Nhat Hanh

That's the Message

When another person makes you suffer,
it is because he suffers deeply within himself, 
and his suffering is spilling over. 
He does not need punishment; he needs help. 
That's the message he is sending.

Thich Nhat Hanh

The Time to Heal

To those who voted for President Trump,

I understand your disappointment tonight.
I've lost a couple of elections myself.
But now, let's give each other a chance.
It's time to put away the harsh rhetoric.
To lower the temperature.
To see each other again.
To listen to each other again.
To make progress, we must stop
treating our opponents as our enemy.
We are not enemies. We are Americans.
The Bible tells us that to everything there is a season - 
a time to build, a time to reap, a time to sow.
And a time to heal.
This is the time to heal in America.

Joseph Biden

Hugs

When someone hugs you,
let them be the first to let go.

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Where You Are Right Now

This place where you are right now,
God circled on a map for you.

Hafez

Do Your Job

If you want to accord with the Tao,
just do your job, then let go.

Lao Tzu

Freedom

Freedom is a sense of
complete denial of control.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

I Am Buddha

Even though I am in bed,
I am Buddha.

Shunryu Suzuki

Get Out of Bed

The world can't revolve around me

unless I get out of bed.

Anonymous Meme

Calling It a Life

Are you breathing just a little,
and calling it a life?

Mary Oliver 

Mind Becomes Quiet

The mind starts to become quiet when
it really sees how untrue its narrative is.

Adyashanti

We Are the Witnesses

Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.

Alan Watts

This We Have Now

This we have now
is not imagination.
This is not grief or joy.
not a judging state,
or an elation or sadness.
Those come and go.
This is the presence
that doesn't.
And ... This we have now.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

The Ultimate Point

This, the immediate, everyday, and

present experience, is it, the entire

and ultimate point for the existence

of a universe.

Alan Watts

Unopened Bottle

Why would you want to keep the heart captive,
like an unopened bottle of wine?

Hafiz

How Do You Know

Try not to resist the changes that are coming your way.
Instead, let life live through you. And do not worry that
your life is turning upside down. How do you know that
the side you are used to is better than the one to come?

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Surrounded by Assholes

Before you diagnose yourself with depression

or low self-esteem, first make sure you are not,

in fact, just surrounded by assholes.

William Gibson

We Can Be Anybody

We are in training to be nobody special.
And it is in that nobody specialness
that we can be anybody.

Ram Dass

Happy Continuation Day

If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people. To be born means that something which did not exist comes into existence. But the day we are born is not our beginning. It is a day of continuation.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Insanity

Doing the same thing over and over again
and expecting different results.

Unknown

— Unknown

Very Much Reality

Humankind cannot bear
very much reality.

T.S. Eliot

Dancing Nevertheless

We rarely hear the inward music but
we're all dancing to it nevertheless.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

All the Time They Weren't

What an absurd amount of energy
I have been wasting all my life trying
to find out how things "really are,"
when all the time they weren't.

Hugh Prather

Believe It

If something is true, you don't have to believe it.
You only have to believe things that are not true.

Tom Thompson

Sweet Home

You've mentally been living in other people's business
all your life. Just to notice that you're in someone else's
business can bring you back to your wonderful self.
What a sweet place to be. Home.

Byron Katie

How to Deal

Deal with the difficult
by working on the easy.
Deal with the big
by working on the small.

Lao Tzu

At Least One Enemy

If everybody loves you,
something is wrong.
Find at least one enemy
to keep you alert.

Paulo Coelho

See What Happens

Stop making use of your mind
and see what happens.

Nisargadatta Maharaj

What We Believe

Life just happens. It's what we believe 
about life that makes us suffer.

Byron Katie

Real Change

Generally, change in our society is incremental, I think.
Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Your Next Act

Think of the poorest person you know and
see if your next act will be of any use to him.

Mahatma Gandhi

Not Your Path

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

Carl Jung

No Doubts

He who knows himself has no doubts about it.
Nor does he care whether others recognize his state or not.

Nisargadatta Maharaj

What the Hell

It comes as a shattering blow. It hits you
like a thunderbolt. You have invested in
self-realization, and, in the end, suddenly
you discover that there is no self to discover,
no self to realize - and you say to yourself,
"What the hell have I been doing all my life?"

UG Krishnamurti

Sorrow Prepares You

Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow. Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart, far better things will take their place.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

What Our Soul Intends

The notion that we can be anything we

want to be is unwise as well as untrue.

In this world, we are fortunate if we turn 

out to be something close to what our

soul intends us to be.

Michael Meade

Happiness

Happiness is a butterfly, which, when pursued,
is always just beyond your grasp, but which,
if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Hell

Hell, in my opinion, is never finding your true self
and never living your own life or knowing who you are.

John Bradshaw

Last Words

Is everybody OK?

Robert F. Kennedy (after being shot)

Just Part of It All

I was no longer needing to be special because
I was no longer caught up in my puny separateness
that had to keep proving I was something. I was
part of the universe, like a tree is, or like grass is,
or like water is. Like storms, like roses.
I was just part of it all.

Ram Dass

Remember Us

Remember us, if at all, not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men,
The stuffed men.

T. S. Eliot

She Creates a Genius

When nature has work to be done,
she creates a genius to do it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Loving Maleness

To create loving men, we must love males.
Loving maleness is different from praising
and rewarding males for living up to
sexist-defined notions of male identity.
Caring about men because of what they do
for us is not the same as loving males
for simply being. When we love maleness,
we extend our love whether males are

performing or not.

bell hooks

Hundreds of Ways

Today, like every other day,

we wake up empty and frightened.

Don't open the door to the study and

begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.

There are hundreds of ways

to kneel and kiss the ground.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

The Common Ground of Life

We each stand on the common ground of life
with our own way of being present and our own
once-in-a-lifetime chance at becoming the person
we are intended to be.

Michael Meade

Like All Times

This time, like all times,
is a very good one, if we
but know what to do with it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Be Yourself

Be yourself, because
everyone else is taken.

Oscar Wilde

Can You Imagine?

Imagine looking at us from the outside.
Can you imagine a planet that believes
in what does not exist, only in images
in their mind?

Byron Katie

The Process of Growth

The process of growth is, it seems, the art of falling down. Growth is measured by the gentleness and awareness with which we once again pick ourselves up, the lightness with which we dust ourselves off, the openness with which we continue and take the next unknown step, beyond our edge, beyond our holding, into the remarkable mystery of being.

Stephen Levine

A Victory

To be alive
to hear this song
is a victory.

West African Song

Vulnerability

Vulnerability is our most accurate
measurement of courage.

Brene Brown

Look for God

You always look for God
in high places.
Guess again.

Ram Tzu

Reflection

The reflection in the mirror
is only made of mirror.

Darryl Bailey

It Does Not Know You

But if a mirror ever makes you sad, you
should know that it does not know you.

Kabir

Travel the Road Yourself

Buddha left a road map.
Jesus left a road map.
Krishna left a road map.
Rand McNally left a road map.
But you still have to travel the road yourself.

Stephen Levine

Healing

To heal is to touch with love that
which was previously touched by fear.

Stephen Levine 

Close to the Ground

In dwelling, live close to the ground.

In thinking, keep to the simple.

In conflict, be fair and generous.

In governing, don't try to control.

In work, do what you enjoy.

In family life, be completely present.

Lao Tzu

See Peace

I could see peace
instead of this.

A Course in Miracles, Lesson 34

Stupid and Destructive

Trying to establish your masculinity,
your manhood, as our culture defines it,
will tend to make you stupid and destructive.

John Biewen

Never Upset

I am never upset
for the reason I think.

A Course in Miracles, Lesson 5

The Language of God

Silence is the language of god,
all else is poor translation.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Learning About Fear

It is not that you must be free from fear. The moment you try to free yourself from fear, you create a resistance against fear. Resistance, in any form, does not end fear. What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it, not how to resist it through courage and so on.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Genius

Genius does what it must.
Talent does what it can.

Fortune Cookie

Most Responsive

It is not the strongest of the species

that survive, nor the most intelligent, 

but the most responsive to change.

Charles Darwin

For the First Time

We shall not cease from exploration.
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

T.S. Eliot

One Does Not Know

To be free is to know
that one does not know.

Wu Hsin

What Stands in the Way

The impediment to action advances the action.
What stands in the way becomes the way.

Marcus Aurelius

Returning the Favor

God created man in His own image, and man,
being a gentleman, returned the favor.

Mark Twain

To Understand It, Be It

To understand it, you
must not face it

but be it.

Alan Watts

Fear of Responding

The problem in most situations
is not a lack of calling, but a fear
of responding to the call.

Michael Meade

Re-examine All

Re-examine all that you have been told.
Dismiss that which insults your soul.

Walt Whitman

That Which is Sought

Explanations do not provide
that which is sought.

Wu Hsin

Whatever You Do

Whatever you do to be free from the self
also is a self-centered activity.

U.G. Krishnamurti

No Other One

It is not necessary to identify oneself as
Conscious Presence. Who is the one that
would do that? That one, You, the only one
that truly is, is already Conscious Presence.
There is no other one.

Rupert Spira

Feast on Your Life

Peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

Derek Walcott

Your Power

No one is you and
that is your power.

Gabriel Keczan

The Best Way

Slowing down is sometimes
the best way to speed up.

Mike Vance

The House We Live In

The words we speak
become the house we live in.

Hafiz

No Other Way

Nature loves courage, and it shows you that it loves courage because it will remove obstacles. You make the commitment, and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream, and the world will not grind you under, it will lift you up. This is the trick! This is what all these teachers and philosophers who really counted, who really touched the alchemical gold, this is what they understood, this is the shamanic dance in the waterfall, this is how magic is done: it’s done by hurling yourself into the abyss, and discovering that it’s a feather bed. There’s no other way to do it.

Terence McKenna

Your Personal Drama

This preoccupation with
Your personal drama is
The cloud that masks
The sun

Wu Hsin

Unlearning

Unlearning is how
the vastness reveals itself.

Byron Katie

Wholehearted Living

Wholehearted living is about engaging in our lives from a place of worthiness. It means cultivating the courage, compassion, and connection to wake up in the morning and think, no matter what gets done and how much is left undone, I am enough.

Brené Brown

The Core of Your Life

If you don’t know your purpose, discover it, now. The core of your life is your purpose. Everything in your life, from your diet to your career, must be aligned with your purpose if you are to act with coherence and integrity in the world. If you know your purpose, your deepest desire, then the secret of success is to discipline your life so that you support your deepest purpose and minimize distractions and detours.

David Deida

A Good Day

Today is a good day
to die.

Attributed as a Native American Saying

Who Hesitates

He who hesitates
is lost.

Cato

Live Each Day

Live each day like it's your last,
'cause one day you gonna be right.

Ray Charles

Holy Ground

Where there is sorrow,
there is holy ground.

Oscar Wilde

Whole Over Good

I'd rather be whole
than good.

Carl Jung

On the Other Side

We want to sit with doubt.
We want to savor it.
We want to follow it where it leads.
Because on the other side is truth.

Ryan Holiday

All the Difference

Just think. Just be quiet and think.
It'll make all the difference in the world.

Fred Rogers

Conquering the Mind

For one who has conquered the mind,
the mind is the best of friends;
but for one who has failed to do so,
his mind will remain the greatest enemy.

Bhagavad Gita

Poverty of Attention

A wealth of information
creates a poverty of attention.

Herbert Simon

Iron Sharpens Iron

As iron sharpens iron, so
one person sharpens another.

Proverbs 27:17

Be Graceful

When times are good, be grateful.
In times like these, be graceful.

Dustin Poirier

Doomed to Repeat

Those who cannot learn from history
are doomed to repeat it

George Santayana

Justice, Truth, Self-Control, Courage

If at some point in your life you should come across
anything better than justice, truth, self-control, courage -
it must be an extraordinary thing indeed.

Marcus Aurelius

Another Matter

I am prepared to meet my Maker.
Whether my Maker is prepared for
the great ordeal of meeting me
is another matter.

Winston Churchill

Except in Silence

Thought will not work
except in silence.

Thomas Carlyle

Listen More and Talk Less

The reason why we have two ears and only one mouth
is that we may listen the more and talk the less.

Zeno of Citium

A Little While Alone

Which is worth more, a crowd of thousands,
or your own genuine solitude?
Freedom, or power over an entire nation?
A little while alone in your room
will prove more valuable than anything else
that could ever be given you.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Humanity's Problems

All of humanity's problems

stem from man's inability
to sit quietly in a room alone.

Blaise Pascal

To See a World

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
and Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

William Blake

The Proposition

The proposition here is just to empty the self.
To be able to be present.

Marina Abramovic

Unlimited Patience

Keep strong, if possible. In any case, keep cool. Have
unlimited patience. Never corner an opponent, and
always assist him to save face. Put yourself in his shoes
so as to see things through his eyes. Avoid self-
righteousness like the devil - nothing so self-binding.

B.H. Liddell Hart

The Living Present

Trust no future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, -- act in the living present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Child is Father of the Man

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So it is now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

William Wordsworth

What Other Creature

What other creature, large or small,
feels that it's not enough just to be alive?

Judy Cohen

Dramatic

Only the ego makes
its own demise
seem dramatic.

Adyashanti

We Don't Like It

When we imagine that
we have found it,
we don't like it.

Alan Watts

Short Bursts of Truth

In the future, no one will be heard who
doesn't speak in short bursts of truth.

Saul Bellow

Which One

Pressure does two things - bursts pipes
and creates diamonds. Which one are you?

Brian Cook

I Am Quite Free

I have already settled it for myself
so flattery and criticism go down
the same drain and I am quite free.

Georgia O'Keeffe

That Is Enough

I exist as I am, that is enough.
If no other in the world be aware
I sit content, and if each and all
be aware I sit content. One world
is aware, and by far the largest
to me, and that is myself.

Walt Whitman

Mistakes of Others

No one has ever learned
from the mistakes of others.

Ram Tzu

We Are Not Born Men

We are not born men. We are born boys. Although
we may take the shape of a man on the exterior,
the transition into manhood is an internal process.

John Kim

A Walk Around the Lake

Sometimes the truth depends
on a walk around the lake.

Wallace Stevens

Abiding Nowhere

Develop a mind
that abides nowhere.

Diamond Sutra

The Better Angels of Our Nature

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion.

Abraham Lincoln

A Different Order

Patience is the calm acceptance that
things can happen in a different order
than the one you have in mind.

David G. Allen

This Place is a Dream

This place is a dream. Only a sleeper considers it real.
Then death comes like dawn, and you wake up laughing
at what you thought was your grief.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

You Are

You are the Buddha.

Adyashanti

Life Circumstances

Life circumstances have a way
of generously helping us forget
everything we know.

Judy Cohen

For Reals

Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.

A Course in Miracles

No Hope for It

If at first the idea is not absurd,
then there is no hope for it.

Albert Einstein

You Won't Have To

Neo: "What are you trying to tell me? That I can
dodge bullets?
Morpheus: "No, Neo. I'm trying to tell you that
when you're ready, you won't have to."

The Matrix

What You Believe

You will always experience what you believe and
nothing else. And this invalidates your experience.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Until I Realized

I used to think the brain was the most important organ
in the body, until I realized what was telling me that.

Emo Phillips

How Your Mind Uses You

I'm not pointing out how you use your mind.
I'm pointing out how your mind uses you.

Adyashanti

Limitations

You can't discuss the ocean with a well frog -
he's limited by the space he lives in.
You can't discuss ice with a summer insect -
he's bound to a single season.

Chuang Tzu

Belief Required

"Reality" requires belief.
Which is why it's not possible
to not believe something.

Judy Cohen

Where You Want to Be

I think basically it's honest to strive for perfection.
The only thing is, you're already perfect. So it's striving
just to notice that you are where you want to be.

Byron Katie

Flying

Birds born in a cage think
flying is an illness.

Alejandro Jodorowski

Old Age

Old age transfigures
or fossilizes.

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

Faith

Faith is not a belief.
Faith is what is left
when your beliefs have
all been blown to hell.

Ram Dass

No Longer Accepting

I'm no longer accepting
the things I cannot change ...
I'm changing the things
I cannot accept.

Angela Davis

God Alone

The lovers of God
have no religion
but God alone.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Suffering Over the Suffering

There will always be suffering. But
we must not suffer over the suffering.

Alan Watts

For a Lifetime

Love at first sight is easy to understand; it's when
two people have been looking at each other
for a lifetime that it becomes a miracle.

Amy Bloom

Believe Them As They See It

In order to empathize with someone's experience,
you must be willing to believe them as they see it
and not how you imagine their experience to be.

Brene Brown

Thunder Inside

When I am silent, I have
thunder hidden inside.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

The Thorns Too

For the benefit of the roses,
we water the thorns too.

Kari Hohne

Trauma Decontextualized

Trauma decontextualized in a person
looks like personality.
Trauma decontextualized in a family
looks like family traits.
Trauma decontextualized in a people
looks like culture.

Resmaa Menakem

A Very Intelligent Idiot

There is so much to read.
There are so many concepts.
There are so many teachings.
You will become a
very intelligent idiot.

Robert Adams

Nothing More Powerful

Nothing is more powerful than
an idea whose time has come.

Victor Hugo

Until It Is Faced

Not everything that is faced can be changed,
but nothing can be changed until it is faced.

James Baldwin

Yes I Am

Am I good enough?
Yes, I am.

Michelle Obama

Clarke's Three Laws

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that
something is possible, he is almost certainly right.
When he states that something is impossible, he is
very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible
is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is
indistinguishable from magic.

Arthur C. Clarke

Also There are Buddhas

Where there are people
there are flies, and also
there are Buddhas.

Issa

So Do the Wise

As a bee gathering nectar does not harm or
disturb the color and fragrance of the flower,
so do the wise move through the world.

Buddha

Go Slowly

Smile, breathe, and go slowly.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Hit It!

There's 106 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas,
half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark out, and we're wearing
sunglasses. HIT IT!

Jake Blues

Your Naturalness

Your naturalness is something you don't have to know.
You just have to let that function in its own way.

U.G. Krishnamurti

The Quiet Observer

Sometimes it is
the quiet observer
who sees the most

Kathryn Nelson

Start with Not Knowing

Any form of conclusion, opinion, prevents
the free flow of energy. So you start with
not knowing. Then you are able to learn.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Be the Fool You Are

It will do you no harm to find yourself ridiculous.
Resign yourself to be the fool you are.

T.S. Eliot

Whatever You're Given

Whatever you're given
can wake you up or
put you to sleep.

Pema Chodron

Just as They Are

Things are always
just as they are.

Charlotte Joko Beck

Just to Live

Zen is not some fancy, special art of living.
Our teaching is just to live, always in reality,
in its exact sense.

Shunryu Suzuki

Everything is Music

When I am silent, I fall
into that place where
everything is music.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they are a crown of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out

for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

meet them at the door laughing,

and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,

because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

One Cannot Make Mistakes

The newborn fish does not
learn to swim. It swims.
The swimming arises from
the natural state of things.
Abiding in what is natural,
one cannot make mistakes.

Wu Hsin

The One True Practice

All practices require doing something.
As such, they reinforce the cage that
holds you, the notion of a doer.
Any method, no matter how promising,
fortifies the structure of the ego,
further increasing the chaos.
It is like tasking a cat to guard a bowl of milk.
Only being requires no doing.
This is the one true practice.

Wu Hsin

Bring the Treat

Maybe this time,
my pushing the lever
will bring the treat.

Pavlov's Dog (Allegedly)

As You Perceive It

The world exists as you perceive it.
It is not what you see but how you see it.
It is not what you hear but how you hear it.
It is not what you feel but how you feel it.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Ordinary Details

The key is to be here, fully connected
with the moment, paying attention
to the ordinary details of life.

Pema Chodron

The Secret Knows

We dance around a ring and suppose, but
the Secret lies in the middle and knows.

Robert Frost

They Think It's Hell

I don't give them hell.
I just tell the truth and
they think it's hell.

Harry S Truman

Doing Your Best

Is it possible that every human being is doing
the best that they can do at any moment, just like you?

Byron Katie

What We Believe

We are only as limited as
what we believe in the moment.

Byron Katie

The Body is Affected

Vitiant artus aegrae contagia mentis.
(When the mind is ill at ease,
the body is affected.)

Ovid

Off Your Pedestal

Let life kick you off your pedestal time and time again,
until you lose all interest in being on pedestals.

Jeff Foster

The Body Will Rebel

Ultimately the body will rebel. Even if it can be temporarily pacified with the help of drugs, cigarettes, or medicine, it usually has the last word because it is quicker to see through self-deception than the mind. We may ignore or deride the messages of the body, but its rebellion demands to be heeded because its language is the authentic expression of our true selves and of the strength of our vitality.

Alice Miller

Without Condition

The paper itself is not affected
by the story that is being told -
it is only there to hold the words,
without condition.

Jeff Foster

What Sort of Person

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

Hippocrates

Rituals for Healing

Our culture has its peculiar set of rituals for healing.
Anything from outside that ritual system will be
rejected as heresy.

Charles Eisenstein

Great Healing is Possible

When we break the mold, interrupt the outdated pattern,
and make the unexpected commitment to dignify our
present experience by radically connecting with what's
really here, without judging it or pushing it away,
perhaps great healing is possible.

Jeff Foster

The Road is the Goal

Once you realize that the road is the goal,
and that you are always on the road,
not to reach a goal, but to enjoy its beauty
and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task,
and becomes natural and simple,
in itself an ecstasy.

Nisargadatta Maharaj

Exactly As It Is

It is so precious, just to be able to sit in this open space together, where nothing needs to be resolved or solved; where we don't need to fix ourselves or be fixed; where our burning questions don't need to be answered; where, finally, our questions are allowed to just be questions; where our uncertainty doesn't need to be transformed into certainty; where our doubts are finally given permission to just be doubts. Here, in this warm embrace that we are, in this place of true meditation without a meditator, without a destination, without a controller, we don't need to find the answers, we don't need to come to any mental conclusions about life, we don't need to work everything out, we don't need to "know," because finally, all our wondering and our wandering, our trying-to-work-it-all-out and our trying-to-make-it-all-work, our exhausting seeking and searching and our desperation to find answers, is all just allowed to be here, exactly as it is.

Jeff Foster

Spread Love

Spread love,
not germs.

Patty Oneal

Trying to Find You

Ever since happiness heard your name,
it has been running through the streets
trying to find you.

Hafiz

I Have Held You

I will not forget you.
I have held you
in the palm of my hand.

Isaiah 49:15-16

My Philosophy

My philosophy?
No pain,
no pain.

George Carlin

Only Life

There is no authority on life, only Life,
exploding as all there is and is not.

Jeff Foster

Unpleasant Results

People don't like to have their version of reality
f*cked with. Try it if you need to get it out of
your system, but prepare for unpleasant results.

Jed McKenna

Polishing Your Mirror

If you are irritated by every rub,
how will your mirror be polished?

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Seeing the Moon

My barn having burned to the ground,
I can now see the moon.

Misuta Masahide

Life is the Authority

Life is the Authority, and
all belief systems crumble
before life in the end.

Jeff Foster

A Touch of Rascality

You have to have
a touch of rascality
to be human.

Alan Watts

Life As It Is

Life as it is, is totally beyond comprehension
in the same way that the wave will never understand
the ocean because it already IS the ocean.

Jeff Foster

Why I Can Love Them

Govinda said: "what you call a thing, is it something real and intrinsic? Is it not simply an illusion of Maya, merely image and appearance? Your stone, your tree, are they real?

"This does not trouble me much," said Siddhartha. "If they are illusion, then I too am illusion, and so they are of the same nature as myself. That is why I can love them.

Herman Hesse ("Siddhartha")

We Forgot

Human beings are amazing creatures.
We think we have found objective truth,
when in fact we have just come to rest
on a subjective belief, and forgotten this.

Jeff Foster

More Trapped Than Ever

Often when you think you are free
you are more trapped than ever.

Jeff Foster

Move, But ...

Move, but don't move the way
fear makes you move.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

This Is It

Nothing happens next.
This is it.

Zen Saying

Beating the Game

If you don't see change as horrible
but as an opportunity for awakening,
you've got the game beat.

Ram Dass

The Risk to Blossom

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud
was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

Anais Nin

Welcome

The mind says, "I wish I could change the past."
The heart says, "I'm open to the future."
Life says, "Welcome to the present."

Jeff Foster

Unnecessary Questions

You don't need all the answers.
They will come, in time, or not,
or perhaps the unnecessary questions
will fall away.

Jeff Foster

Radical Self-love

Give yourself permission
to rest, and be silent,
and do nothing.
Love this aloneness, friend.
Fall into it.
(Don't worry. You don't disappear. I am here to catch you.)
Invite warm, curious attention
deep inside your weary bones.
Until there is no loneliness,
only radical self-love.

Jeff Foster

Stop Trying to Heal Yourself

Stop trying to heal yourself, fix yourself,
even awaken yourself.
Stop trying to fast-forward the movie of your life.

Let go of "letting go."
Healing is not a destination.
Be here.

Your pain, your sorrow, your doubts, your longings,
your fearful thoughts: they are not mistakes,
and they aren't asking to be "healed."

They are asking to be held. Here, now, lightly,
in the loving, healing arms of present awareness.

Jeff Foster

Repairing Nets

When fishermen
cannot go to sea,
they repair nets.

Nabil Sabio Azadi

Asking to be Held

Perhaps your pain is not asking to be healed today.
Perhaps it's asking to be held.

Jeff Foster?

Future

The most extraordinary future
is no future at all.

Byron Katie

Fully Embodied

Who would have ever thought spirituality was about continuously knowing and accepting oneself as a simple human being. We may be looking to have "extraordinary spiritual experiences" and that is okay, but as anyone who's had an out of body experience knows, all experiences on this earth require that we inhabit an actual body! Like, duh! I have realized that the challenge is to live a life that is fully embodied, leaving nothing out and constantly being reminded that many experiences are the unconscious energies at work. One does not get to know that one is "love and light" by merely saying it to oneself. The path requires a daily take-up of one's cross.

Marisol Torres

Spice of Life

Delusion is the spice of life. Without that,
there are no love stories or shoot-em-ups
or sitcoms, just twenty-four-hour nature programming.

Jed McKenna

All I Can Think About

I'm nothing, and yet
I'm all I can think about.

William Hamilton

They Are Not Gone

Death has nothing to do
with going away.
The sun sets.
The moon sets.
But they are not gone.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Realization

Realization consists of getting rid of
the false idea that one is not realized.

Ramana Maharshi

Surrender to the Truth

What you really
surrender to
is the truth.

Ram Dass

Never Wrestle with a Pig

I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig.
You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.

George Bernard Shaw

One Mind

The total number of minds in the universe is one.
In fact, consciousness is a singularity phasing
within all beings.

Erwin Schrödinger

Never Too Late

It's never too late to be
what you might have been.

George Eliot (attributed)