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#2060 - Saturday, February 19, 2005 - Editor: Gloria
The longer I worked the
more certain I felt that as improbable as it might seem, there
were moments when an individual conscience was all that could
keep a world from falling.
-- Arthur Miller, while writing "The Crucible"
We first Americans
mingle with our pride an exceptional humility.
Spiritual arrogance is foreign to our nature and teaching. We
never
claimed that the power of articulate speech is proof of
superiority
over "dumb creation"; on the other hand, it is to us a
perilous gift.
We believe profoundly in silence - the sign of a perfect
equilibrium.
Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind and
spirit.
those who can preserve their selfhood ever calm and unshaken by
the
storms of existence - not a leaf, as it were, astir on the tree;
not
a ripple upon the shining pool - those, in the mind of the person
of
nature, possess the ideal attitude and conduct of life.
Ohiyesa
The Ways of the Spirit
The Wisdom of the Native Americans
posted to MillionPaths by Viorica Weissman
"Being charmed
by a cricket's song,
which is singing in the empty mountain,
I looked to the sky suddenly.
My changeable mind slips away in front of your bright smile,
that is predestined to be bound with me.
There is neither you nor I,
only a fascinated soul in the great light.
A meteor sends messages over the Milky Way sometimes.
I can feel an old gratitude, an old love in my bones,
in my thoughts, without remorse.
This night, so many stars gather the trifles of the world,
hold the great Dharma assembly of the Bodhisatva
of Compassionate Action.
Listening to the Bodhisatva's subtle Dharma talk,
I was fascinated all night long.
I almost became awakened.
Because sentient beings are countless,
the abundant light of the empty Void exists as the Absolute,
who sings of the night.
Only a few speak for it.
Now I can understand."
~~Kyunghoon
Sunim
From the book, "Living Peace," published by Iris
International
posted to Daily Dharma by W. Kelly
SAM'S
"VERMEER" photo
I made a deal with Rebecca
that I would wait for her in the coffee shop downstairs at the
National Gallery when I got too tired to soak up any more art..
A sudden flash of
sunlight created this one ... I like it..
It is not touched up... the sun did it all by itself... Love from Sam (Pasciencier)
From 'Living Presence - A Sufi
Way to
Mindfulness & the Essential Self'
by Kabir Edmund Helminski
Grace
Simone Weil said: "We must not wish for the disappearance
of our troubles but the grace to transform them." Often when
we wish our troubles would disappear, we are ignoring what
could change in ourselves. We are confused between changing
the outer circumstances, which may not be to our liking, and the
way that we relate to them. Identified with circumstances and
conditions, we may fall into resentment and think we must change
the facts, when what we need to change is ourselves.
If we could see the arising of all events as opportunities to
know
and develop the qualities in ourselves, would we live in
resentment
toward what arises in each moment? With a center of gravity in
Essence, a "yes" arises-the yes of recognition, rather
than the no
of resentment. Difficulty is first recognized, even before it is
trans-
formed. Trouble becomes a reminder that we can tap the infinite
qualities of the Creative Power.
Through learning to participate in a certain dialog with this
Power-
an inner conversation that is both specific and spontaneous-we
call
upon the qualities we need to live fully, and we activate these
qualities
in ourselves: solidarity, courage, forgiveness, patience, or
whatever is
required. Every problem calls forth qualities from the treasury
within
us. Accepting more responsibility and challenges brings a greater
activation.
How often we think that if only we didn't have these problems we
would be free to relax and enjoy life! Meanwhile we are filled
with
the ordinary psychological toxins: self-pity, resentment, anger,
fear,
guilt, envy, and jealousy. We must convince the intellectual Mind
of the stupidity and futility of these things and put in their
place the
positive attributes of humbleness, gratitude, love, courage,
emancipation, generosity, trust, and faith. We must do this in
the
workshop of the intellectual mind until it is quite clearly
convinced,
when the work will be shifted to the subconscious, superconscious
mind. This is transformation.
posted to
Allspirit Inspiration by Gill Eardley
Allspirit Website: http://www.allspirit.co.uk
"And what is it to
work with love?
It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from our heart,
even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.
It is to build a house with affection,
even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.
It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest
with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit.
It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath
of your own spirit, and to know that all the blessed dead
are standing about you and watching."
~ Kahlil Gibran
~
~ ~ "Work is love made visible.
And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste,
it is better that you should leave your work and sit
at the gate of the temple and take alms
of those who work with joy.
For if you bake bread with indifference,
you bake a bitter bread that feeds
but half man's hunger.
And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes,
your grudge distils a poison in the wine.
And if you sing though as angels,
and love not the singing, you muffle man's ears
to the voices of the day
and the voices of the night"
~ Kahlil Gibran
posted
to nondualnow by Mazie Lane