Kiss the earth

Walk and touch peace every moment.

Walk and touch happiness every moment.

Each step brings a fresh breeze.

Each step makes a flower bloom.

Kiss the Earth with your feet.

Bring the Earth your love and happiness.

The Earth will be safe

when we feel safe in ourselves.

By Thich Nhat Hanh
Gary Hall

Too lazy to be ambitious

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.

Ryokan

A dream within a dream

Take this kiss upon the brow! 
And, in parting from you now, 
Thus much let me avow– 
You are not wrong, who deem 
That my days have been a dream; 
Yet if hope has flown away 
In a night, or in a day, 
In a vision, or in none, 
Is it therefore the less gone? 
All that we see or seem 
Is but a dream within a dream. 

I stand amid the roar 
Of a surf-tormented shore, 
And I hold within my hand 
Grains of the golden sand– 
How few! yet how they creep 
Through my fingers to the deep, 
While I weep–while I weep! 
O God! can I not grasp 
Them with a tighter clasp? 
O God! can I not save 
One from the pitiless wave? 
Is all that we see or seem 
But a dream within a dream?

Edgar Allen Poe

This body is not me.

I am not limited by this body.

I am life without boundaries.

I have never been born,

and I have never died.

Look at the ocean and the sky filled with stars,

manifestations from my wondrous true mind.

Since before time, I have been free.

Birth and death are only doors through which we pass,

sacred thresholds on our journey.

Birth and death are a game of hide-and-seek.

So laugh with me,

hold my hand,

let us say good-bye,

say good-bye, to meet again soon.

We meet today.

We will meet again tomorrow.

We will meet at the source every moment.

We meet each other in all forms of life.

contemplation on no-coming and no-going - thich nhat hanh

The ocean of peace lies ahead of me.

Sail the boat, O pilot

You are my constant companion now.

Take me in your lap.

Along our journey to the infinite.

The pole star alone will shine.

Giver of Freedom

Set me free.

May your forgiveness and compassion

Be my eternal resources for the journey —

May the mortal ties fall away,

May the vast universe

Hold me in embrace,

And with an undaunted heart

May I come to know the Great Unknown.

last writings - rabindranath tagore - december 1939

The sun shines down,

and its image reflects a thousand

different pots filled with water.

The reflections are many,

but they are each reflecting the same sun.

Similarly, when we come to know who we truly are,

we will see ourselves in all people.

amma

Start the day with love

Start the Day with Love;
Spend the Day with Love;
Fill the Day with Love;
End the Day with Love;This is the way to God.

sri sathya sai baba

May the long time sun

May the long time sun
Shine upon you,
All love surround you,
And the pure light within you
Guide your way on.

You may not believe in magic, but don’t you think it strange
the amount of matter in our universe has never slightly changed?

That all which makes your body was once part of something more,
and every breath you ever breathe has seen it all before.

There are countless scores of beauty in all the things that you despise.
It could once have been a shooting star that now makes up your thighs!

And, atoms of forgotten life -who’ve long since ceased to roam-
may now have the great honor to call your crooked smile their home.

You may not believe in magic (but I thought that you should know)
the makings of your heart were born fourteen billion years ago!

So next time you feel lonely, when this world makes you feel small,
Just remember that it’s part of you – and you’re part of it all.

“We are travelers on a cosmic journey,stardust,swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share.This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity." P Coelho

Like the waters of a river

Like the waters of a river
That in the swift flow of the stream
A great rock divides,
Though our ways seem to have parted
I know thast in the end we shall meet.

(twelfth century Japanese verse)

Constantly regard the universe as one living being

Constantly regard the universe as one living being, having one substance and one soul; and observe how all things have reference to one perception, the perception of this one living being; and how all things act with one movement; and how all things are the co-operating causes of all things which exist; observe too the continuous spinning of the thread and the contexture of the web.. And inasmuch as I am in a manner intimately related to the parts which are of the same kind of myself, I shall do nothing unsocial, but I shall rather direct myself to the things which are the same kind with myself, and I shall turn all my efforts to the common interest, and divert them from the contrary.

from The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

The matrix of all matter

There is no matter as such! All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force. We must assume behind this force the existence of a concious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter.

The shape of the wind and moon

Trees show the shape of the wind;
waves blur the shape of the moon.

The wind longs to play with your hair

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair
- Kahlil Gibran

Entangled happenings

Empty handed I entered the world
Barefoot I leave it.
My coming, my going -
Two simple happenings
that got entangled
- Kozan

Being nothing you are everything

You live among illusions and in the world of apparitions. But there is a reality. You yourself are this reality, but you don't know this. If you awaken to this reality you will see that you are nothing and being nothing you are everything.
- Kalu Rinpoche

The refleection of the moon

The reflection of the moon fills the autumn river

Look

Don't think: Look!

Red wheel barrow

So much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens
- William Carlos Williams

Pity

“At times I go about pitying myself, when all the while I am being carried by great winds across the sky.”

Who am I?

The voyage of self discovery starts within. It starts by looking at ourselves objectively and understanding who we are. When we understand this, our mind is opened to many possibilities and answers will fall into our laps.

Lets start with the basics, We all have a name. Our name has been with us since we were born but it was only really given to us as a label by our parents. Our name is not who we really are.

We all have friends and family who we love. Even though the people closest to us do help to partially define us, they do not define is wholly. If they were all taken away from us, we would still continue to exist, admittedly in a different frame of mind to which we exist at the moment.

A lot of us spend a third of our lives at work. Some try to make the world a better place through their work whilst for some it is just a means to an end - a way to pay the bills. Some people die when they retire as they don’t have anything to keep them going, for them their work is their life but its not really who we are.

Some say that our possessions define us. The fact that we’re wearing the latest fashion, living in a nice house or driving the latest model of car is important to some but it is not our true essence - far from it.

I hope you’re with me so far. I’m saying that things that are external to us do not define who we are. Now lets look at ourselves.

Are we our bodies? Its an interesting question, many people when asked to point to themself would point to either their hearts or their brains. The truth is that every single part of our bodies can be replaced due to the wonders of modern science. Artificial limbs can replace our arms and legs and we can even have an artificial heart.

So then, are we our minds? Are we our brains? Again another interesting thought. Most people would say ‘Yes’ to this but lets think about this a little more. We know that people can be brain dead, their bodies can still be functioning but their brains have died. Therefore, surely we can’t be our brains can we?

So whats left? What are we? Who are we? What is at our core? What is the changeless reality amongst the changing nature of our world? Do we know? Is the answer even important? Only you can decide….

The gap between stimulus and response

Stephen Covey writes in The 8th Habit that "Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In those choices lie our growth and our happiness."

Personal spiritual statement

I believe that I have a soul and that the universe has a soul and that my goal in this life is for my soul to become one with the soul of the universe.

To do this I need to:

- Keep this ultimate destination in mind at all times
- immerse myself in the present moment
- remain detached from outside events
- live a simple life
- cultivate love for everyone and everything
- take some quiet time for meditation practice every day
- experience piece of mind and body as often as possible
- experience life in its fullness
- remember that I am love
- being here now
- checking each thought that comes into my mind to make sure it is inline with these principles
- be free
- experience the eternity of time and the infinity of space in every moment
- understand that allo is one and that everything I perceive is part of myself
- move beyond mistaken comcepts and see clearly
- see that life is in a continual, constant transformation and flux
- remove all barriers in my personality
- have a naturally settled mind
- understand my true nature
- have a clear mind and a clean heart
be free from desire and fear

what is enlightenment?

What is enlightenment? What is that state of Cosmic Consciousness, the ultimate awareness called variously - enlightenment, nirvana, satori, samadhi, self-realization, rapture, salvation, ascension, unity consciousness, voidness, and many other terms by many various religions? It is the goal of life, the ultimate destination of every individualized being. It is brought about when the individual personality ascends beyond the illusionary perception of self separateness to merge in the Universal Self from which it originated so very long ago. Spiritual evolution towards this goal takes place over ages but the final ascent of Spirit can happen in an instant of time.

each soul is potentially divine

"Each soul is potentially Divine. The Goal is to manifest this Divinity within, by controlling nature external and internal. Do this either by work or worship or psychic control or philosophy - by one or more or all of these - and be free. This is the whole of Religion. Doctrines or dogmas or rituals or books or temples or forms are but secondary details." [SwamiVivekananda]

we need to stand back

"We need to stand back from all that is going on in
the world, enter that timeless part of ourselves and
learn to feel what it is to be alive. Then we can live
in the world if we wish, but not be a product of it.
Whatever society is today, it will change. All
cultures and civilizations have a limited life span
and what is fashionable at one time is unfashionable
at another. But underlying all that goes on in the
world, our true nature is always there, underlying our
sense of who we are.

We are never apart from our true nature, except
psychologically, whilst we believe in the play that is
being enacted in the world, whilst we identify with it
and immerse ourselves in it. But we always have, if we
are aware of it, the option of standing back and going
into the silent emptiness of our true nature. If we
don’t take this option, then we get swallowed up by
the world and all the meaningless activity, and thus
miss the plot entirely."

--Roy Whenary