Thursday, June 20, 2024

Be the Buddha

Don't quote the Buddha,
be the Buddha.

Eckhart Tolle

Truth in Me

I have no desire
to fit in.
No plans
to walk with the crowd.
I have my own mind,
heart
and soul.
I am me
and it
has taken years
to realize
how important that is.

Robert M. Drake

What Is Is

What is is.
You don't get a vote.

Byron Katie

That's All

You are the effect of your story,
that's all.

Byron Katie

The Very Few

The only thing that could spoil a day was people.
People were always the limiters of happiness
except for the very few that were as good as spring itself.

Ernest Hemingway

Right Where You Are

The next message you need
is always right where you are.

Ram Dass

Be Good

And now that you don't have to be perfect,
you can be good.

John Steinbeck

Not the Truth

It was not the truth they wanted,
but an illusion they could bear to live with.

Anais Nin

From "Dogfish"

You don't want to hear the story
of my life, and anyway
I don't want to tell it, I want to listen
to the enormous waterfalls of the sun.
And anyway it's the same old story;
a few people just trying
one way or another,
to survive.
Mostly, I want to be kind.

Mary Oliver

I Am Something

I am something that
I remember or anticipate.

Byron Katie

Imagine What They Mean

We don't really hear what people say;
we imagine what they mean.

Byron Katie

Nearly Impossible

One of the most beneficial traits in love and in life:
Be nearly impossible to offend.

Mark Manson

A Unique Phenomenon

You enter the forest
at the darkest point,
where there is no path.
Where there's a way or path,
it is someone else's path;
each human being is
a unique phenomenon.

Joseph Campbell

The One in Front of Me

The teacher I need is always
the one in front of me.

Byron Katie

Teaching You

Anything you can't control
is teaching you how to let go.

Zen Saying

Self-aware in Humans

Consciousness sleeps in minerals,
dreams in plants, wakes up in animals,
and becomes self-aware in humans.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

The Religion of Solitude

The more powerful and original a mind,
the more it will incline towards
the religion of solitude.

Aldous Huxley

No Escape

Knowing how to be solitary
is central to the art of loving.
When we can be alone,
we can be with others without them
as a means of escape.

bell hooks

Only in the Taste

I am not at all interested in immortality,
only in the taste of my tea.

Lao Tzu

Joy Enough

Find ecstasy in life;
the mere sense of living
is joy enough.

Emily Dickinson

Dissolve into the Observing

The observer spends a lifetime
in conflict with the observed.
This is resolved when
the observer is also the observed and
the two dissolve into the observing.

wu'hsin

Make Me Everything

Make me nothing
and from nothing,
make me everything.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Wedding with Eternity

Our death is
our wedding
with eternity.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Three Things

Zen pretty much comes down
to three things:
everything changes,
everything is connected,
pay attention.

Jane Hirshfield

No Suffering Can Hold the Truth

If a person would experience their beliefs and say,
Is it true? Who would I be without the belief?
then we would surely see the end of suffering.
No suffering can hold the truth.

Byron Katie

You Don't Need It

The definition of insanity is thinking
that you need something you don't have.
The mere fact that you exist right now
without that which you think you need
is proof that you don't need it.

Byron Katie

Truth, in Yourself

Why do you run around looking for the truth?
Be still, and there it is - in the mountain, in the pine,
in yourself.

Lao Tzu

Deal with the Mind

You deal with the mind and
everything else falls into place.

Byron Katie

Everything is Interdependent

If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you come to understand that you're connected with everything. That every little insect who comes buzzing around you is a messenger. And that little insect is connected with human beings everywhere else. You can hear: you become incredibly sensitive in your ears and you hear far-off sounds. And just by the very nature of isolating yourself and getting quiet, you become intensely aware of your relatedness to everything else that's going on. So, if you really want to find out how related you are, try a little solitude off somewhere, and let it begin to tell you how everything is interdependent.

Alan Watts

You'll Lose

You can argue with the way things are.
You'll lose. But only 100% of the time.

Byron Katie

Hold on to Nothing

Peace is the absence of holding on to anything.
Peace holds on to nothing.

Jon Bernie

Thursday, June 13, 2024

By Oneself

By oneself, evil is done;
by oneself, one suffers;
by oneself, evil is undone;
no one can purify another.

The Buddha

Rumi's Tomb

Do not look for him here, but rather
in the hearts of those who loved him.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi's Tomb

Wednesday, June 12, 2024

Don't Know

Whatever you do not know is perfect.
Whatever you know is imperfect, fraudulent.

Zen Saying

Saturday, June 8, 2024

That's the Fun

Don't be afraid. You're going to make it,
but it's always going to feel as if you're not. 
That's the fun, you see.

Alan Watts

Then There Is

First there is a mountain,
then there is no mountain,
then there is.
The caterpillar sheds his skin
to find a butterfly within.

Donovan

Tuesday, June 4, 2024

Resistance to What Is

The separate self is "the resistance to what is."
This resistance takes two forms:
1) I want such-and-such to take place in order to be happy,
or
2) I don't want what is present and need it to disappear
in order to be happy.

Rupert Spira

Simple Directions

Follow the simple directions.

Byron Katie