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