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.

Jalāl al-Dīn 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 ruch 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

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