Changed But Not Reduced

I can be changed by
what happens to me,
but I refuse to be
reduced by it.

Maya Angelou

[maybe god]

maybe god

is a child
's hand)very carefully
bring
-ing
to you and to
me(and quite with
out crushing) the

papery weightless diminutive

world
with a hole in
it out
of which demons with wings would be streaming if
something had(maybe they couldn't
agree) not happened(and floating-
ly int

o

e.e. cummings

Moved by Everything

And when you think about it,
poets always want us to be moved
by something, until in the end,
you begin to suspect a poet is
someone who is moved by everything,
who just stands in front of the world
and weeps and laughs and weeps.

Mary Ruefle

No Place for Using Effort

There's no place in Buddhism for using effort.
Just be ordinary and nothing special.
Relieve your bowels, pass water,
put on your clothes, and eat your food.
When you're tired, go and lie down.
Ignorant people may laugh at me,
but the wise will understand.
As you go from place to place,
if you regard each one as your home,
they will all be genuine, for when
circumstances come you must not
try to change them.

Alan Watts

Your Path Will Appear

When life is spinning you around
and everything is in flux, knowing
the pattern of the hero's adventure
places you in the calm eye of the storm.
You know you must walk into the storm wall;
you must cross that threshold, but
you also know the path forward -
your path forward - will appear.

There is great comfort in this.

You are not alone. And while there is

never a guarantee of a desired outcome,

whatever the outcome is, if you walk

the path with integrity and courage,

you can embrace it as someone

who is now more than you were

before the journey began.

Michael Lambert

The Call Awakens the Hero

The call often comes at an important moment.
Old life values have often been outgrown
and a certain sterility has set in.
Parsifal's quest for the Holy Grail
was set in motion by the Fisher King's realm
having become a wasteland.
Whatever its form, the call awakens
the hero to his or her special destiny.

Joseph Campbell

Together We Can

Alone we can do so little;
together we can do so much.

Helen Keller

Prepared to Die

The fear of death follows
from the fear of life.
A man who lives fully is
prepared to die at any time.

Mark Twain

Gain Your Own Voice

To gain your own voice,
you have to forget about
having it heard.

Allen Ginsberg

Only Seen and Lived Within

Last night, alone with a wise elder, I said,
Please. Do not hold back from telling me
any secrets about this universe.
Leaning near, he spoke into my ear,
Some things cannot be told or understood,
only seen and lived within.

Rumi

Rose's Rarest Essence

A rose's rarest essence
lives in the thorn.

Rumi

Radical Empathy

Empathy is the most radical
of human emotions.

Gloria Steinem

You Wait Some More

You don't try. That's very important, not to try;
not for Cadillac, creation, or immortality.
You wait. And if nothing happens,
you wait some more.

Charles Bukowski

Hang On to Your Own Bliss

When the world seems to be falling apart,
the rule is to hang on to your own bliss.
It's that life that survives.

Joseph Campbell

No One Hears It

When a tree falls,
everyone hears the sound,
but when a tree grows,
no one hears it.

Persian Proverb

You Are the Mother

Love, what sort of thing are you?
You carry so much along.
You gather many together,
and then scatter them.
You love to stay home and
let everything else keep

watch at your door.
Love, you are the mother,
every human being is your child.

Rumi

A Great Community

Find your place and close your eyes,
so your heart can start to see.
When you give up being self-absorbed,
your being becomes a great community.

Rumi

I Will Not Do That!

To place you in my heart,
may turn you into thought.
I will not do that!
To hold you with my eyes,
may turn you in to a thorn.
I will not do that!
I will set you on my breath
so you will become my life.

Rumi

One Soul, You and I

Happy is the moment, when we sit together, 
with two forms, two faces, yet one soul,
you and I.

Rumi

Indeed in Heaven

Whenever we manage to love
without expectations, calculations,
negotiations, we are indeed in heaven.

Rumi

Lamp of Silence

I never saw any lamp
shining more brightly
than the lamp of silence.

Bayazid Bastami

What is the Way?

I stood with the pious and
didn't find any progress with them.
I stood with the warriors in the cause
and didn't find a single step of progress with them.
Then I said, "Oh, Allah, what is the way to you?"
and Allah said, "Leave yourself and come."

Bayazid Bastami

To Understand Better

Look deep into nature, and
then you will understand
everything better.

Albert Einstein

Open Hearts

To keep our hearts open is probably
the most urgent responsibility you have
as you get older.

Leonard Cohen

Only Individuals

Society exists only as a mental concept;
in the real world, there are only individuals.

Oscar Wilde

Truth is a Pathless Land

Truth is a pathless land, and
you cannot approach it
by any path whatsoever,
by any religion, by any sect.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Let Them Take You

Listen for presences inside poems.
Let them take you where they will.
Follow those private hint and
never leave the premises.

Rumi

All That I Know

If I said all that I know,
you would want to kill me.

Shams of Tabriz

A Thousand Times Deeper

There are love stories,
and there is obliteration into love.
You have been walking the ocean's edge,
holding up your robes to keep them dry.
You must dive deeper under,
a thousand times deeper.

Rumi

More and More Silent

I'm beginning to see
why Ramana grew
more and more silent
over the years.

Michael Markham

Cry Like Reed Instruments

There's hidden sweetness
in the stomach's emptiness.
We are lutes, no more, no less.
If the soundbox is stuffed full
of anything, no music.
If the brain and the belly
are burning clean with fasting,
every moment a new song
comes out of the fire.
Be emptier and cry
like reed instruments cry.

Rumi

Nothing But Itself

Consciousness transitions from 
"I am something" to "I am nothing,
and the from "I am nothing"
to "I am everything,"
without ever being becoming
anything but itself.

Rupert Spira

Talking About Nothing

I love talking about nothing.
It's the only thing I know anything about.

Oscar Wilde

Almost Everything

An intelligent man
finds almost everything
ridiculous.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Underface

Underneath my outside face
There's a face that none can see.
A little less smiley,
A little less sure,
But a whole lot more like me.

Shel Silverstein

Only This

I asked, "Why have I received only this?"
A voice replied, "'Only this' will lead you to that.

Rumi

A Shorter Letter

If I had more time, I would have
written a shorter letter.

Blaise Pascal

The Only Suffering

The only suffering is
the mind's addiction
to identity.

Byron Katie

It's Through Life

It's through life that one is
to experience the spirit and
communicate the spirit and
live in the spirit.

Joseph Campbell

At Least One Person

If you always to
what interests you,
At least one person
is pleased.

Katharine Hepburn

What We Have

Gratitude turns
what we have
into enough.

Melody Beattie

Close to Madness

Poetry is close
to madness.

Coleman Barks

The Impulse to Laugh

It may be that God

is the impulse to laugh,

and that we are all

the different kinds of laughter.

Rumi

We Can't Help Being Thirsty

We can't help being thirsty,
moving toward the voice of water.
Milk drinkers draw close to the mother.
Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Shamans,
everyone hears the intelligent sound
and moves, with thirst, to meet it.
Clean your ears. Don't listen
for something you've heard before.
Invisible camel bells,
slight footfalls in sand.
Almost in sight! The first word they call out
will be the last word of our last poem.

Rumi

Love Dogs

One night a man was crying,
"Allah, Allah!"
His lips grew sweet with the praising,
until a cynic said,
"So! I have heard you
calling out, but have you ever
gotten any response?"
The man had no answer for that.
He quite praying and fell into a confused sleep.
He dreamed he saw Khidr, the guide of souls,
in a thick, green foliage,
"Why did you stop praising?"
"Because I've never heard anything back."
"This longing you express
is the return message."
The grief you cry out from
draws you toward union.
Your pure sadness that wants help
is the secret cup.
Listen to the moan of a dog for its master.
That whining is the connection.
There are love dogs no one knows the names of.
Give your life to be one of them.

Rumi

Story of the Reed

Listen to the story of the reed
As it laments the pain of separation:
Since they have cut me from my reed bed
My wails bring tears to both woman and man
Those ripped away from their beloved know my song
Having been cut from the source, they long to return
In celebrations, I laugh with those laughing
And in sadness, I cry with those grieving
The divine secrets are not separate from my cries
But only those who are cooked in

the fire of love will hear them
These secrets are for the heart, not for the eyes or ears
It is fire, not wind that makes me sing!
If you don't have this fire, you might as well be dead
Oh, how can the uncooked know

the majesty of the fire of love?
If you meet the uncooked, don't sing, don't preach
Instead listen to my advice:
Say goodbye and leave.

Rumi

What Was Told, That

What was said to the rose that made it open
was said to me here in my chest.
What was told to cypress that make it strong and straight.
What was whispered the Jasmine, so it is what it is.
Whatever made sugar can sweet.
Whatever was said to the inhabitants
of the town of Chigil in Turkestan
that makes them so handsome.
Whatever lets the pomegranate flower blush
like a human face, that is being said to me now.
I blush. Whatever put eloquence in
language, that's happening here.
The great warehouse doors open; I fill with gratitude,
chewing a piece of sugar cane,
in love with the one to whom every that belongs! 
What was said to the rose that made it open
was said to me here in my chest.

Rumi

Sell My Tongue

I should sell my tongue 
and buy a thousand ears
when that One steps near
and begins to speak.

Rumi

Be That Empty

At any gathering I am there,
mingling in the laughing and grieving,
a friend to each, but few
will hear the secrets hidden
within the notes. No ears for that.
Body flowing out of spirit, spirit up

from body: no concealing that mixing.

But it's not given us to see the soul.

The reed flute is fire, not wind.

Be that empty.

Rumi

The Root of Creativity

The ability to look deeply
is the root of creativity.
To see past the ordinary
and mundane and get to what
might otherwise be invisible.

Rick Rubin

To Live as an Artist

To live as an artist is a
way of being in the world.
A way of perceiving.
A practice of paying attention.

Rick Rubin

To Create

To create is to bring something
into existence that wasn't there before.

Rick Rubin

Before the World Told You

Can you remember who you were, before
the world told you who you should be?

Charles Bukowski

I Became One

I found the world
to be woefully lacking
in safe places.
So, I became one.

J. Warren Welch

True of All Things

Through detached noticing, awareness allows
an observed flower to reveal more of itself
without our intervention. This is true of all things.

Rick Rubin

You Are Half Water

Water does not resist. Water flows.
When you plunge your hand into it, 
all you feel is a caress. Water is not
a solid wall, it will not stop you.
But water always goes where it wants to go,
and nothing in the end can stand against it.
Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone.
Remember that, my child.
Remember you are half water.
If you can't you through an obstacle,
go around it. Water does.

Margaret Atwood

Gratitude Changes the Present

No amount of regret changes the past.
No amount of anxiety changes the future.
ANY amount of gratitude changes the present.

Ann Voskamp

The Ultimate Goal

Life humbles you. As you grow old,
you stop chasing the big things 
and start valuing the little things.
Alone time, enough sleep, a good diet,
long walks, and quality time with loved ones.
Simplicity becomes the ultimate goal.

Anthony Hopkins

Making a Photograph

You don't take a photograph,
you make it.

Ansel Adams

The Influence of a Vital Person

We're not on our journey to
save the world but to save ourselves.
But in doing that you save the world.
The influence of a vital person vitalizes.

Joseph Campbell

Few See the Flowers

Many eyes go through the meadow,
but few see the flowers in it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

It Just Blooms

A flower does not use words to
announce its arrival to the world;
it just blooms.

Matshona Dhliwayo

Decorate Your Own Soul

Don't wait for someone to bring you flowers.
Plant your own garden and decorate your own soul.

Luther Burbank

In Its Own Time

Every flower blooms
in its own time.

Ken Petti

The Toughest Roots

Even the tiniest of flowers
can have the toughest roots.

Shannon Mullen

Growing Through Dirt

Every flower must
grow through dirt.

Laurie Jean Sennott

What Have You Accomplished?

What does it mean to be insulted?
Stand by a rock and insult it, and
what have you accomplished?

Epictetus

Even on Cloudy Days

The flower that follows the sun
does so even on cloudy days.

Robert Leighton

The Teacher You Need

The teacher you need is
the person you're living with.

Byron Katie

I Have Others

Those are my principles,
and if you don't like them ...
well, I have others.

Groucho Marx

Minds Are Like Flowers

Minds are like flowers;
they open only when
the time is right.

Stephen Richards

It Just Blooms

A flower does not think of competing
with the flower next to it.
It just blooms.

Zen Shin

Flowers Don't Worry

Flowers don't worry about
how they're going to bloom.
They just open up and
turn toward the light and
that makes them beautiful.

Jim Carrey

Flowers Are Like Friends

Flowers are like friends;
they bring color to your world.

Unknown

The Flower of Humanity

Politeness is
the flower
of humanity.

Joseph Joubert

The Seeds of Today

All the flowers of the tomorrows
are in the seeds of today.

Indian Proverb

Don't Hurry, Don't Worry

You're only here for a short visit.
Don't hurry, don't worry.
And be sure to smell the flowers
along the way.

Walter Hagen

They Show

Flowers don't tell,
they show.

Stephanie Skeem

No Matter How Many Weeds

If you tend to a flower,
it will bloom,
no matter how many weeds
surround it.

Matshona Dhliwayo

A Gardener and a Flower

The very best relationship
has a gardener and a flower.
The gardener nurtures
and the flower blooms.

Carole Radziwill

What a Lonely Place

What a lonely place it would be
to have a world without a wildflower.

Roland Kemler

Smell the Roses

Take time

to smell the roses.

Proverb

Love is the Flower

Love is the flower
you've got to let grow.

John Lennon

Happiness Shared

Happiness held is the seed;
Happiness shared is the flower.

John Harrigan

Neither Emotions Nor Conflicts

Flowers are restful to look at.
They have neither emotions
nor conflicts.

Sigmund Freud

The Earth Laughs

The earth laughs
in flowers.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Wholeness is Achieved

Wholeness is not achieved by
cutting off a portion of one's being,
but by integration of the contraries.

Carl Jung

An Extraordinary Process

Aging is an extraordinary process
whereby you become the person
you always should have been.

David Bowie

Always Their Prisoner

Care about what other people think
and you will always be their prisoner.

Lao Tzu

Catching Up

It's not unusual for science
to catch up to art, eventually.
Nor is it unusual for art
to catch up to the spiritual.

Rick Rubin

An Architect of Your Experience

The fact that emotions don't happen to you -

that your brain is making them - and that your brain

is using your past experience as fodder for predicting

what's going to happen, has really big implications.

The first really big implication is that

you are an architect of your experience,

and that doesn't involve breaking predictions.
It involves seeding your brain to predict differently.

Lisa Feldman Barrett

Better to Have Loved

'Tis better to have loved and lost
than never to have loved at all.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Your Brain Constructs Your Experience

Your brain does not react to the world.
Using past experience, your brain predicts
and constructs your experience of the world.

Lisa Feldman Barrett

Look at It Again

Giraffes are giraffing, trees are treeing,
stars are starring, clouds are clouding,
rain is raining. And people are peopling.
And if you don't understand, look at it again.

Alan Watts

Not Who We Think

Who we think we are dies,
but we are not who
we think we are.

Anonymous

End Your Problems

Stop thinking, and
end your problems.

Lao Tzu

No Problem

No thought,
no problem.

Zen Saying

The Gift

Be still, my soul, and steadfast.
Earth and heaven both are still watching
though time is draining from the clock
and your walk, that was confident and quick,
has become slow.

So, be slow if you must, but let
the heart still play its true part.
Love still as once you loved, deeply
and without patience, Let God and the world
know you are grateful.
That the gift has been given.

Mary Oliver

I Think It Is Enough

What if I embrace my limitations
and stop railing against them.
Make peace with who I am and
what I need and honor your right
to do the same. Accept that all
I really want is a small, slow, simple life.
A mediocre life. A beautiful, quiet, gentle life.
I think it is enough.

Krista (last name unknown)

Become Alive Yourself

People have the notion of saving the world
by shifting things around, changing the rules,
and who's on top, and so forth. No, no!
Any world is a valid world if it's alive.
The thing to do is to bring life to it,
and the only way to do that is to find
in your own case the where the life is
and become alive yourself.

Joseph Campbell

Unspeakably Perfect Miracle

Every hour of every day is an
unspeakably perfect miracle.

Walt Whitman

Do With What There Is

Now is no time to think of what you do not have.
Think of what you can do with what there is.

Ernest Hemingway ("Old Man and the Sea")

Eternity is Right Now

When you realize that eternity is right now,
that it is within you possibility to experience
the eternity of your own truth and being,
then you grasp the following: That which
you are was never born and will never die.

Joseph Campbell

You Have a Life

Look and look again.
The world is not just a little thrill for the eyes.
It's more than bones.
It's more than the delicate wrist with its personal pulse.
It's more than the beating of the single heart.
It's praising.
It's giving until the giving feels like receiving.
You have a life - just imagine that!
You have this day, and maybe another, and maybe
still another.

Mary Oliver

Serene Encounter with Reality

In mindfulness one is not only restful
and happy, but alert and awake.
Meditation is not evasion;
it is serene encounter with reality.

Thich Nhat Hanh

The Moving Power of Your Life

As an adult, you must rediscover
the moving power of your life.
Tension, a lack of honesty, and
a sense of unreality come from
following the wrong force
in your life.

Joseph Campbell

This Moment As It Is

Whenever you deeply accept
this moment as it is -
no matter what form it takes -
you are still, you are at peace.

Eckhart Tolle

Fear of Becoming Old

The fear of becoming old
is born of the definition
that one is not living now
the life that one wishes.

Susan Sontag

What We Don't Know

What we know is a drop.
What we don't know
is an ocean.

Isaac Newton

Not Lonely

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

Wayne Dyer

Find Yourself First

Go find yourself first
so you can also find me.

Rumi

I Will Never Be Gone

To the living, I am gone,
To the sorrowful, I will never return,
To the angry, I was cheated,
But to the happy, I am at peace,
And to the faithful, I have never left.
I cannot speak, but I can listen.
I cannot be seen, but I can be heard.
So as you stand upon a shore gazing at a beautiful sea,
As you look upon a flower and admire its simplicity,
Remember me.
Remember me in your heart:
Your thoughts, and you memories,
Of the times we loved,
The times we cried,
The times we fought,
The times we laughed.
For if you always think of me,
I will never be gone.

Margaret Mead

Also a Way Out

If there is a way into the wood
there is also a way out.

Irish Proverb

Put Up With the Rain

The way I see it,
if you want the rainbow,
you gotta put up
with the rain.

Dolly Parton

Speak Only If

Speak only if it
improves the silence.

Mahatma Gandhi

At the Deepest Level

You find peace not by rearranging
the circumstances of your life,
but by realizing who you are
at the deepest level.

Eckhart Tolle

You Cannot Help But ...

You cannot help
but be who you are
and where.

Ikkyu

They Are Given Wings

Look at birds, they make
great sky circles of their freedom.
And how do they learn to do that?
They fall, and in falling,
they are given wings.

Rumi

Easier to Fool People

It's easier to fool people
than it is to convince them
they've been fooled.

Mark Twain

The Rule of Life

When the world seems to
be falling apart, stick
to your own trajectory;
hang onto your own ideals
and find kindred spirits.
That's the rule of life.

Joseph Campbell

Interest is Constant

I think the desire for happiness is quite foolish.
Happiness is momentary - you're happy for
an instant and then you begin thinking again.
What matters most is interest in life;
happiness is transcient, but interest is constant.

Georgia O'Keeffe

Decisions and Experience

Good decisions come from experience.
Experience comes from bad decisions.

Mark Twain

Only Clear Being

I honor those who try to
rid themselves of any lying,
who empty the self and
have only clear being there.

Rumi

It Will Roll in Ecstasy

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

Attention is the Beginning

When I walk out into the world,
I take no thoughts with me. That's
not easy but you can learn to do it.
An empty mind is hungry, so you
look at everything longer, and closer.
Don't hum! When you listen
with empty ears, you hear more.
And this is the core of the secret:
Attention is the beginning of
devotion.

Mary Oliver

Pathless Woods

There is pleasure
in the pathless woods.

Lord Byron

Wanting to "Know"

I'm astounded by people who want to "know" the universe
when it's hard enough to find your way around Chinatown.

Woody Allen

The Harder It Is to Find

At the root of enlightenment cultures
is the idea that you can pursue happiness.
Nothing is further from the truth.
The more you pursue it, the harder it is to find.

Iain McGilchrist

Allow Everything to Be

Happiness is simply to allow everything to be
exactly as it is from moment to moment.

Rupert Spira

Let Her Breathe

And she stopped ... and she
heard what the trees said to her,
and she sat there for hours
not wanting to leave,
for the forest said nothing,
it just let her breathe.

Becky Hemsley

True to Whatever Is

I have sought to be true
to whatever is.

Iain McGilchrist

What You See

The question is not
what you look at,
but what you see.

Henry David Thoreau

Admit That You Know Nothing

You are not satisfied
with the answers
given by others.
So you come to Wu Hsin.
But what you really seek
are not answers
but confirmation
of what you think
you already know.
If you were to admit
that you know nothing,
then I will most gladly answer.

Wu Hsin

What They Have Come Into the World to Give

The way the world gets healed not is not by
getting a good idea that everybody agrees with,
but by more people awakening to who they are
and learning how to give what they have come
into the world to give.

Michael Meade

Love Many Things

The best way to know life
is to love many things.

Vincent van Gogh

Nothing More Artistic

The more I think about it,

the more I realize there is nothing

more artistic that to love others.

Vincent van Gogh

No Flowers Grow There

Normality is a paved road:
it's comfortable to walk,
but no flowers grow there.

Vincent van Gogh

Grow Silently

A seed grows with no sound
but a tree falls with huge noise.
Destruction has noise,
but creation is quiet.
This is the power of silence ...
grow silently.

Confucius

A Creative Force

As my sufferings mounted I soon realized
that there were two ways in which I could
respond to my situation - either to react
with bitterness or seek to transform
the suffering into a creative force.
I decided to follow the latter course.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Enjoy the Silence

Silence is something that comes
from your heart, not from outside. 
Silence doesn't mean not talking
and not doing things; it means
that you are not disturbed inside.
It you're truly silent, then no matter
what situation you find yourself in
you can enjoy the silence.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Who We Were Intended to Be

The point in this life is not

simply to "become somebody,"

but to become who we were each

intended to be when we first

entered the world.

Michael Meade

A Place That Simply Allows

You must have a place to which you can go,
in your heart, your mind, or your house,
where you do not owe anyone, and where
no one owes you - a place that simply allows
for the blossoming of something new and promising.

Joseph Campbell

Hear Myself Living

I would like to spend the rest of my days
in a place so silent, and working at a pace so slow,
that I would be able to hear myself living.

Elizabeth Gilbert

You Have to be Quiet

The world is full of poems,
but you have to be quiet
to hear them.

Mary Oliver

Respect the Thorn

He who wants a rose
must respect the thorn.

Persian Proverb

Empty Page

Be an empty page,
untouched by words.

Rumi

The Story We Carry

Aging is not for the weak. One day you wake up
and realize that your youth is gone, but along with it,
so go insecurity, haste, and the need to please.
You learn to walk more slowly, but with greater certainty.
You say goodbye without fear, and you cherish those
who stay. Aging means letting go, it means accepting,
it means discovering that beauty was never in our skin,
but in the story we carry inside us.

Meryl Streep

Those Who See Us With Their Heart

And in the end, I think we don't
need to do anything to be loved.
We spend out lives trying to look
prettier, smarter. But I realized two things.
Those who love us see us with their heart
and attribute to us qualities beyond
what we actually have. And those who
do not want to love us will never be satisfied
with all our efforts. Yes, I really think
it's important to leave imperfections alone.
They are precious to understand
those who see us with their heart.

Frida Kahlo

It Was Enough

If even one person
on the boat
remained calm,
it was enough.

Jack Kornfield

Receive the World

Paradoxical as it may seem, the purposeful life 
has no content, no point. It hurries on and on,
and misses everything. Not hurrying, the purposeless life
misses nothing, for it is only when there is no goal
and no rush that the human senses are fully open
to receive the world.

Alan Watts

Out of Rain

Every storm
runs out of rain.

Maya Angelou

No Preferences

The infinite has no preferences.
It kisses both the darkness and
the light equally.

Wu Hsin

To Be Genuinely Alive

While we may prefer to never have pain,
it can nevertheless push us in ways
we would not otherwise push ourselves -
into deeper and ultimately more appreciative
experience of what it is to be genuinely alive.

Ezra Bayda

The Illusion of Separation

The greatest tragedy
of human existence
is the illusion
of separation.

Albert Einstein

The Great Magic Trick

Snatching the eternal
out of the desperately fleeting
is the great magic trick
of human existence.

Tennessee Williams

Seeing is Believing

I'll believe it
when I see it.

"Doubting" Thomas

Don't Have to Aim for Perfect

There's a lot of liberation in seeing that
I don't have to aim for perfect
because it's just not possible.
There's a lot of relief in letting that goal go.

Judy Cohen

Humans Are Nuts

One reason humans are nuts in a way
that most other species are not is because
we have words and the words instantly
remove us from the actual experience ...
We don't experience life. We experience
a description of life for the most part
and it hurts because it's batshit crazy.

Judy Cohen

When Death Comes

When death comes, I want to step through the door
full of curiosity, wondering: what it's going to be like,
that cottage of darkness? And therefore I look upon
everything as a brotherhood and sisterhood, and
I look upon time as no more than an idea, and
I consider eternity as another possibility, and
I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular, and each name
a comfortable music in the mouth, tending,
as all music does, toward silence, and each body
as a lion of courage, and something precious to the earth.

Mary Oliver

Desires vs. Patience

Desires make slaves out of kings,
and patience makes kings out of slaves.

Al Ghazali

One Way to Happiness

There is only one way to happiness
and that is to cease worrying about things
which are beyond the power of our will.

Epictetus

Dreamhouse

Impossible to believe we need so much
as the world wants us to buy.
I have more clothes, lamps, dishes, paperclips,
than I could possibly use before I die.
Oh, I would like to live in an empty grass.
No planks, no plastic, no fiberglass.
And I suppose sometime I will.
Old and cold I will lie apart from all this buying
and selling, with only the beautiful earth in my heart.

Mary Oliver

Choose to Live in Joy

Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world.
We cannot cure the world of sorrows,
but we can choose to live in joy.

Joseph Campbell

Detached from My Own Being

While taking pictures, my mind is
essentially free from other thoughts.
In my experience, the best photos emerge
when my mind is empty of thoughts,
and I am completely focused and attentive.
I feel entirely absorbed, detached from
my own being during these moments.

Rinko Kawauchi

Intimate Process

I have two passions in life:
my profession as a psychologist
and photography, which is understood
as the intimate process of constructing an image.

Amparo Munoz Morella

Our Attention

What catches our attention reflects
how the world speaks to each of us personally.

Joel Meyerowitz

Human Affliction

Only the human species is afflicted with the idea 
that just being alive is not enough, and that
enlightenment is required, in addition.

Judy Cohen

What's the Difference?

Run a business,
comb a dog's hair,
seek enlightenment.
What's the difference?
It's as good a thing to do
with a life as any.

Judy Cohen

Artist at Living

I am an artist at living.
My work of art is my life.

D.T. Suzuki

Just Vibes

No goals,
just vibes.

Amil Niazi

Not How It Works

We are really owned, we are possessed, we are
compulsive in our desire to only feel what we like.
It ruins lives. Really it ruins the joy of it because
it takes away some of that bliss that people are chasing, 
because no life is ever going to supply anybody
with only liked feelings. It's just not how it works
on this planet.

Judy Cohen

The Priority of Beautiful

Artists in general, when they paint,
they want to create something beautiful
as if, if they make something ugly it's not art.
Nobody wants to make an ugly painting,
and the priority of beautiful, it's limiting, isn't it?

Judy Cohen

How Fun is That!

This is where we live, in this story of
who we are and what happened.
This is how we do it here, and how
cool is it that we live in a fairy story.
I mean, how fun is that!

Judy Cohen

No One Was Ever You

No one in the world was ever you before,
with your particular gifts and abilities and
possibilities. It's a shame to waste those by
doing what someone else has done.

Joseph Campbell

Learn Something

The dream of my life
Is to lie down by a slow river
And stare at the light in the trees - 
To learn something by being nothing
A little while but the rich
Lens of attention.

Mary Oliver

Freedom of the Spirit

There is as much freedom of the spirit in
watching sparrows on a city street as in
meditating in some mountain solitude
under the stars.

Alan Watts

Still Worth Living

Yet, even amidst the hatred and carnage,
life is still worth living. It is possible
for wonderful encounters and
beautiful things to exist.

Hayao Miyazaki

Fix Yourself

Do not try to fix whatever comes in your life.
Fix yourself in such a way that whatever comes,
you will be fine.

Sadhguru

At the Time

It seemed like
a good idea
at the time.

Peter David

Since the Beginning of Time

Everything that happens to you
has been waiting to happen to you
since the beginning of time.

Marcus Aurelius

No Concern for the Soul

I have some to think that
care of the soul requires
a high degree of resistance
to the culture around us,
simply because that culture
is dedicated to values that
have no concern for the soul.

Thomas Merton

So What

If what we are
is everything,
all of that becomes
a great big so what.

Judy Cohen

Truth is Lived Not Taught

The doctrine you desire, absolute, perfect dogma
that alone provides wisdom, does not exist.
Nor should you long for a perfect doctrine, my friend.
Rather, you should long for the perfection of yourself.
The deity is within you, not in ideas and books.
Truth is lived, not taught.

Herman Hesse

What For?

If what they want is to discuss enlightenment and how
to get there and they want to try one more thing, my first
question is always, "What for? Like what are you after?"
Because without knowing, without being clear
on motivation, you're just endlessly, aimlessly seeking.

Judy Cohen

How You Carry It

It's not the weight you carry
but how you carry it -
books, brick, grief -
it's all in the way
you embrace it, balance 
it, carry it
when you cannot, and
would not,
put it down.

Mary Oliver

The Real You

The day you become
OK with not being liked,
is the moment you become
the real you.

Mel Robbins

No One is Coming

No one
is coming
to save you.

Mel Robbins

No Need to Define

Nothing real
has any need
to define itself.

Judy Cohen

Not a Race

What if life
were not a race,
but a cup of tea
poured by a loving grandmother,
to be sipped slowly,
savoring its taste?

Tahlia Hunter

Abandon Hope

Abandon hope all ye
who enter here.

Dante Alighieri's Inferno

The Pace of Nature

Adopt the pace of nature:
her secret is patience.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Leaf is Singing Still

What can I say that I
have not said before?
So I'll say it again.
The leaf has a song in it.
Stone is the face of patience.
Inside the river there is
an unfinishable story
and you are somewhere in it
and it will never end until all ends.
Take you busy heart to the art
museum and the chamber of commerce
but take it also to the forest.
The song you heard singing in the leaf
when you were a child
is singing still.
I am of years lived, so far, seventy-four,
and the leaf is singing still.

Mary Oliver

The Whole Universe

To the mind that is still,
the whole universe surrenders.

Lao Tzu

Already Perfect

There is nothing to achieve, there is nowhere to go,
there is nothing to be done. We are already divine
and we are already perfect - as we are.
No improvement is needed, no improvement at all.
God never creates anybody imperfect.

Osho

What Use?

Of what use is the universe?
What is the practical application
of a million galaxies?

Alan Watts

Because of Their Striving

Everyone is in pain because of their striving
to achieve something, but no on realizes it.
By no more than this instruction,
the fortunate one attains tranquility.

Ashtavakra Gita

The Most Difficult Thing

You don't want to be an ordinary person.
That is really the problem. It is the most
difficult thing to be an ordinary person.
Culture demands you must be something
other than what you are. That has created
a certain momentum - a tremendous,
powerful movement of thought.
That's all that it is. Otherwise it has no use.

U.G. Krishnamurti

Including Moderation

Everything in moderation,
including moderation.

Oscar Wilde

To Know Itself

The cosmos is within us.
We are made of star-stuff.
We are a way for the universe
to know itself.

Carl Sagan

There is Nothing Lacking

Be content with what you have;
rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize there is nothing lacking,
the whole world belongs to you.

Lao Tzu

Don't Miss the Flower Show

It's OK to be a late bloomer,
as long as you don't miss
the flower show!

Jane Fonda

Be It

I've been searching for years for the ideal place.
And I've come to the realization that the only way
to find it is to be it.

Alan Watts

Take the "er" Out

Take the "er" out of feel-er, think-er, own-er of bodies.
Take the "er" out of know-er, and connect-er to awareness.
The "er" assumes a do-er, a self-er, and receiver.
Take the "er" out, de-centers.
Try on the possibility that there is no-thing doing the 
feeling and thinking and witnessing and connecting.
Why would this matter?
Well, if there's no "er," then how can experience happen?
What's left, without self-ers?
Happenings. Lots and lots and lots of happening.
Not knowers of happenings.
Not awarenesses of happenings.
Just happenings.
Instead of experience-er of things,
it's simply all actual experience.

Judy Cohen

But That's Okay

When you sit alone quietly,
it's something beautiful,
even if nobody sees it.
When a little flower appears
in a crack between two rocks,
it's a beautiful sight.
People may never see it,
but that's okay.

Thich Nhat Hanh

The Problem Isn't You

If you're struggling to change your life,
achieve your goals, or feel happier,
I want you to hear this: The problem isn't you.
The problem is the power you unknowingly
give to other people.

Mel Robbins

No Control

The reality is, no matter how
hard you try or what you do,
you cannot control other people.
And yet, you live your life
as if you can.

Mel Robbins

Create Something

In a time of destruction,
CREATE something.

Maxine Hong Kingston

Doing My Job

If I'm not deleting myself,
I'm not doing my job.

Byron Katie

Mystical Fool

There is a mystical fool in me
that proved to be stronger
than all my science.

Carl Jung

More Myself

I never change.
I simply become
more myself.

Joyce Carol Oates

We Are Experience Itself

If we ARE this experience -
this feeling, then that one,
and then that one - it is also us.
This is it. If we are experience itself,
then who is there to change it,
and what would need anything
to be different?

Judy Cohen

Experience is What We Are

What if THIS IS IT,
and there's nothing we can do
to control the universe?
A feeling, a thought ...
What else is there but this?
That is existence itself.
The experience is what we ARE.
Everything else is thought.

Judy Cohen

Too Old

I'm too old to
pussyfoot around.

Judy Cohen

So What?

So feelings come. You like them. You don't like them. 
So what. Maybe it doesn't matter what you feel.
This is it, liked or not. And wouldn't it be something,
or even no-thing, if it turned out that you like that.

Judy Cohen

A Single Flower

If we could see the miracle
of a single flower clearly,
our whole life would change.

The Buddha

Bumper Wisdom

Don't believe
everything
you think.

Bumper Sticker

Where Jazz Comes From

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

Dizzy Gillespie

Not-Minding That We Do Mind

If we really want to not-mind something,
we could play with not-minding
that we do mind what happens.

Judy Cohen

No Wiser

Now that I know that I am no wiser than anyone else,
does this wisdom make me wiser?

Hugh Prather

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

That's All We Have

It's not possible to know what's true. About anything.
It's only possible to believe rather than know.
It's always just beliefs. That's all we have.

Judy Cohen

The Life That is Waiting

We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned,
so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

Joseph Campbell

What Am I?

Am I the bulb that carries the light?
Or am I the light of which the bulb is a vehicle?
This body is a vehicle of consciousness
and if you can identify with the consciousness
you can watch this thing go like an old car.

There goes the fender. There goes this.

But it's expectable. You know? And then

gradually the whole thing drops off and

consciousness rejoins consciousness.

It's no longer in this particular environment.

Joseph Campbell

No Maintenance

Entropy requires
no maintenance.

Robert Anton Wilson

No Such Thing

If everything were consciousness, there
could be no such thing as consciousness.

Michael Markham

You're Every Experience

When you're every experience, what
could you become that you aren't already?

Goodbye stillness, lessons, and the path or journey.

When you're experience itself, where are you

going to go where you aren't already?

Judy Cohen

Pause and Reflect

Whenever you find yourself
on the side of the majority,
it's time to pause and reflect.

Mark Twain

Clear and Transparent

When all thoughts
Are exhausted
I slip into the woods
And gather
A pile of shepherd's purse.
Like the little stream
Making its way
Through the mossy crevices
I, too, quitely
Turn clear and transparent.

Taigu Ryokan

Let the World Take Care of Itself

Too lazy to be ambitious,
I let the world take care of itself.
Ten days' worth of rice in my bag;
a bundle of twigs by the fireplace.
Why chatter about delusion and enlightenment?
Listening to the night rain on my roof,
I sit comfortably, with both legs stretched out.

Taigu Ryoken

All Home Together

Aging is what life does and

whatever happens tomorrow,
next month, or next year,

today we are all home together.

Lewis Richmond

It's Today

"What day is it?" asked Pooh.
"It's today," squeaked Piglet.
"My favorite day," said Pooh.

A.A. Milne

Every Moment an Opportunity

Every moment is also an opportunity
for something new.

Lewis Richmond

The Ultimate Fact

That you are here right now
is the ultimate fact.

Shunryu Suzuki

This Moment

Gratitude
IS this moment.

Shunryu Suzuki

Why Do We Meditate?

So we can enjoy
our old age.

Shunryu Suzuki

Dying Young

I always planned

to die young,
just later on.

Dick Van Dyke (paraphrased)

New Chances

Every breath,
new chances.

Lewis Richmond

The Way

This is
the way.

The Mandalorian

I Love You

I love you not only for what you are,
but for what I am when I am with you.
I love you not only for what you
have made of yourself,
but for what you are making of me.
I love you for the part of me
that you bring out.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The Way We Learn

To know that we don't know,
yet to keep practicing, is the way
we learn to go deeper.

Ezra Bayda

Our Core Beliefs

Our core beliefs need to be seen for what they are:
deeply held assumptions about reality 
that our particular life circumstances have
conditioned us to accept as absolute truth.

Ezra Bayda

Essential Roots of Happiness

Having gratitude for being alive, being able
to experience an inner delight in the moment,
is one of the essential roots of happiness.

Ezra Bayda

Those People Are Us

We wonder how people can't see
the most obvious things about themselves,
yet we forget those people are us.

Ezra Bayda

Where Real Freedom Lies

Experiencing, rather than trying
to have special experiences,
is where real freedom lies.

Ezra Bayda

Ordinary, Everyday Mantra

Being here now,
doing this.

Dan Metevier