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.

Jalāl al-Dīn 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.

Jalāl al-Dīn 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.

Jalāl al-Dīn 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.

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 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