Weekly Inspiration

truth

truth

If you want to know the truth, cease cherishing opinions. - Seng-t'san

Spanish Proverb

Spanish Proverb

How beautiful it is to do nothing and then rest afterward. - Spanish proverb

Robun

Robun

A waterbird, asleep, floats on the river between life and death. - Robun

Peace is everywhere.

Peace is everywhere.

Peace is everywhere. You are swimming in an ocean of peace… When you are conscious of this divine, cohesive power by which the universe is maintained, you see beauty everywhere. Paramahamsa Yogananda

Moon

Moon

The moon does not fight. It attacks no one. It does not try to crush others. It keeps to its course, but by its very nature, it gently influences. - Deng Ming-dao

Han Shan

Han Shan

My mind’s the winter moon, shining in the dark forest, reflecting pure and clear… There’s nothing to compare it to, what else can I say? - Han Shan

Follow Life

Follow Life

I follow my life as it moves, with perfect contentment. - Ryokan

Relax!

Relax!

Relax! Nothing is under control. -  a timeless message

Broken Vow

Broken Vow

It doesn’t matter that you’ve broken your vow a thousand times. Still come, and yet, come again. - Rumi

Always

Always

When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it – always. - Ghandi

Reflections

Reflections

We can make our minds so like still water that beings gather about us that they may see, it may be, their own images, and so live for a moment with a clearer, perhaps even a fiercer life because of our quiet. - W.B Yeats

Silence

Silence

Silence is printed in the center of your being.  It will not fail you. - Thomas Merton

Questions

Questions

To be in the question, without an answer, opens us up to infinite possibility. - anon

circle of time

circle of time

Come out of the circle of time and into the circle of Love. - Rumi

Tu Fu

Tu Fu

I explored the grounds with the monks this evening, and now the night has passed. Heavy silence rises all around us while late moonlight spills through the forest. The mountain rises almost to heaven. Sleeping in the clouds is cold. A single stroke of the early prayer bell wakes me. Does it also awaken my soul? - Tu Fu

Navaho prayer

Navaho prayer

I ask all blessings, I ask them with reverence, of my mother the earth, of the sky, moon, and sun my father. I am old age: the essence of life, I am the source of all happiness. All is peaceful, all in beauty, All in harmony, all in joy. - Navaho prayer

when to stop

when to stop

To know when to stop, To know when you can go no farther By your own action, That is the right beginning. - Chuang-tzu

floating world

floating world

Amid the din of the floating world, The full moon sets in the western sky, Its light shining through the branches. Grey robe on the Zafu, Bathed in Eternal Glow. - David Quinn

universe opens

universe opens

The natural universe opens like a flower from the earth’s center: in which is eternity. - William blake

Infinity

Infinity

You stand inside me, naked infinite Love. We’re lost where the mind can’t find us, utterly lost. - Ikkyu

Silent

Silent

Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you truly love. - Rumi

meditate

meditate

I have so much to accomplish today that I must meditate for two hours instead of one. – Ghandi

Exploration

Exploration

We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. … a condition of complete simplicity, costing not less than everything. - T.S. Elliot Little Gidding

Quiet Mind

Quiet Mind

To the quiet mind all things are possible. - Meister Eckhart

Summer Moon

Summer Moon

Summer Moon The cool shadow Of the bright moon In an open field Makes me forget All daytime worries. - Rengetsu

A man will live in stillness

A man will live in stillness

A man will live in stillness, not to the extent that he is a man,  but to the extent that a divine principle dwells within him. - Aristotle

Beauty of Art

Beauty of Art

Anyone who is moved by the beauty of art is in reality being moved by the invisible power the lies beneath the surface. - Soetsu Yanagi

not to be cut off

not to be cut off

 Ah, not to be cut off, not through the slightest partition shut out from the law of the stars. The inner - what is it? if not intensified sky, hurled through with birds and deep with the winds of homecoming. - Ranier Maria Rilke

be sure of the road

be sure of the road

If a man wishes to be sure of the road he treads on, he must close his eyes and walk in the dark. - St. John of the Cross

The fundamental delusion

The fundamental delusion

The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose I am here and you are out there. - Yatsutani Roshi

is nirvana

is nirvana

To get rid of your passions is not nirvana; to look upon them as no matter of yours, that is nirvana. - Shen Hui

Why must the gate be narrow?

Why must the gate be narrow?

Why must the gate be narrow? Because you cannot pass beyond it unburdened. To come in among these trees you must leave behind the world, all of its plans and hopes. You must come without weapon or tool, alone, expecting nothing, remembering nothing, into the ease of stillness. - Wendell Berry

night advances

night advances

As the night advances, The fragrance of the blossoms Perfumes both the Sleeves of my black robe And the recesses of my heart. - Rengetsu

Outposts

Outposts

When we have reached the outposts of the mind, we are ready for the journey to the heart. - Francis Lucille

Real Nature

Real Nature

When your real, effortless, joyous nature is realized,  it will not be inconsistent with the ordinary activities of life. - Ramana Maharshi

Han San

Han San

Here where I’ve come to perch, are many deep and mysterious places men seldom speak of. No wind, and yet the vines sway; no mist, but the bamboo groves seem somehow always dusky. Who is it that the stream sobs for, or for whom do the mountain’s clouds stand suddenly like pennants at attention? At noon, when I meditate inside my tent, I find the...

Keep Quiet

Keep Quiet

Keep quiet, undisturbed, and wisdom will come on its own. Wait in silence of heart and mind, without the least desire, completely open to, and welcoming of, life as it happens. - Nisargadatta

Spiritual Talk

Spiritual Talk

We should make all spiritual talk simple today. God is trying to sell you something, but you don’t want to buy. That is what your suffering is: your fantastic haggling,  your manic screaming over the price! - Hafiz

Grace is always present.

Grace is always present.

 Grace is always present. You imagine it is something somewhere high in the sky,  far away, and has to descend. It is really inside you, in your Heart, and the moment you effect subsidence  or merger of the mind into its Source, grace rushes forth, sprouting as a spring from within you. — Ramana Maharshi

Dostoevsky

Dostoevsky

Love all creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of light. Love the animals, love the plants, love each other. If you love everything you will perceive the divine mystery in things. — Dostoevsky

Peace

Peace

Peace is inherent in everyone and is not due to external causes. — Ramana Maharshi

The deepest thing

The deepest thing

The deepest thing in a human heart is silence, the silence of intimacy where no word is needed. - anon

The Test

The Test

The test that one holds fast to the Beginning is the fact that one is not afraid. – Chuang-tzu

Objibwe prayer

Objibwe prayer

Sometimes I go about in pity for myself, and all the while a great wind is bearing me across the sky. - Objibwe prayer

What we see

What we see

What we see depends mainly on what we look for. - Lubbock

The Gorge

The Gorge

The gorge is long and rocks jut up, the torrents wide, reeds almost hide the other side. The moss is slippery even without rain. The pines sing, the wind is real enough. Who’s ready to leap free of the world’s traces: come sit with me among white clouds? - Han Shan

Seek Nothing

Seek Nothing

You are creative when you seek nothing, when your ego does nothing. Be knowingly silent as often as you can. - Jean Klein