God grant you the light in Christmas, which is faith; the warmth of Christmas, which is love; the radiance of Christmas, which is purity; the righteousness of Christmas, which is justice; the belief in Christmas, which is truth; the all of Christmas, which is Christ.
-- Wilda English
One's destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things.
-- Henry Miller (1891 - 1980)
Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit.
-- e e cummings
The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill.
The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.
We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude.
I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it.
-- Charles Swindoll
The culture we live in will often sabotage us. That is because we are in the midst of a "global cooling." Human relations are becoming colder. Communications are becoming more hurried and impersonal. Values such as profit and efficiency are taking on greater importance at the expense of human warmth and genuine presence.
-- Piero Ferrucci, The Power of Kindness
For well you know that it's a fool
Who plays it cool
By making his world a little colder
-- The Beatles, Hey Jude
Try to realize it's all within yourself,
No one else can make you change,
And to see you're really only very small,
And life flows on within you and without you.
-- The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.
-- George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)
When I bring you coloured toys, my child, I understand why there is such a play of colours on clouds, on water, and why flowers are painted in tints--when I give coloured toys to you, my child.
When I sing to make you dance, I truly know why there is music in leaves, and why waves send their chorus of voices to the heart of the listening earth--when I sing to make you dance.
When I bring sweet things to your greedy hands, I know why there is honey in the cup of the flower, and why fruits are secretly filled with sweet juice--when I bring sweet things to your greedy hands.
When I kiss your face to make you smile, my darling, I surely understand what pleasure streams from the sky in morning light, and what delight the summer breeze brings to my body--when I kiss you to make you smile.
-- Rabindranath Tagore
I always wanted a happy ending... Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity.
-- Gilda Radner (1946 - 1989)
Originally posted to Flickr by Outdoorsie.
When all the word recognizes beauty as beauty, this in itself is ugliness.
When all the world recognizes good as good, this in itself is evil.
Indeed, the hidden and the manifest give birth to each other.
Difficult and easy complement each other.
Long and short exhibit each other.
High and low set measure to each other.
Voice and sound harmonize each other.
Back and front follow each other.
Therefore, the Sage manages his affairs without ado,
And spreads his teaching without talking.
He denies nothing to the teeming things.
He rears them, but lays no claim to them.
He does his work, but sets no store by it.
He accomplishes his task, but does not dwell upon it.
And yet it is just because he does not dwell on it
That nobody can ever take it away from him.
- Lao Tzu Tao Teh Ching
Children are the hands by which we take hold of heaven.
-- Henry Ward Beecher (1813 - 1887)
Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it.
-- David Starr Jordan (1851 - 1931), The Philosophy of Despair
Whatever I am offered in devotion with a pure heart -- a leaf, a flower, fruit, or water -- I partake of that love offering. Whatever you do, make it an offering to me -- the food you eat, the sacrifices you make, the help you give, even your suffering. In this way you will be freed from the bondage of karma, and from its results both pleasant and painful. Then, firm in renunciation and yoga, with your heart free, you will come to me.
-- Bhagavad Gita 9:26-28
One comes to be of just such stuff as that on which the mind is set.
-- Upanishads
Everything you see has its roots in the unseen world.
The forms may change, yet the essence remains the same...
The Source is full, its waters are ever-flowing;
Do not grieve, drink your fill!
Don't think it will ever run dry --
This is the endless Ocean!
Pass again from the heavenly realm and plunge into the ocean of Consciousness.
Let the drop of water that is you become a hundred mighty seas.
But do not think that the drop alone becomes the Ocean—
the Ocean, too, becomes the drop!
-- Jelaluddin Rumi, "A Garden Beyond Paradise"
"Where have I come from, where did you pick me up?" the baby asked its mother.
She answered half crying, half laughing, and clasping the baby to her breast: "You were hidden in my heart as its desire, my darling. You were in the dolls of my childhood's games; and when with clay I made the image of my god every morning, I made and unmade you then.
You were enshrined with our household deity, in his worship I worshipped you. In all my hopes and my loves, in my life, in the life of my mother you have lived. In the lap of the deathless Spirit who rules our home you have been nursed for ages.
When in girlhood my heart was opening its petals, you hovered as a fragrance about it. Your tender softness bloomed in my youthful limbs, like a glow in the sky before the sunrise.
Heaven's first darling, twin-born with the morning light, you have floated down the stream of the world's life, and at last you have stranded on my heart. As I gaze on your face, mystery overwhelms me; you who belong to all have become mine.
For fear of losing you I hold you tight to my breast. What magic has snared the world's treasure in these slender arms of mine?"
-- Rabidranath Tagore, The Beginning
The mind is in a constant state of agitation, and tranquility is only possible through the cultivation of contentment. But contentment should not lead to slackening of effort. Rather effort should stem from a sense of duty and service instead of from discontent.
-- Swami Rama Bharati
What we truly and earnestly aspire to be, that in some sense, we are. The mere aspiration, by changing the frame of the mind, for the moment realizes itself.
-- Anna Jameson
Give me the splendid silent sun with all his beams full-dazzling.
-- Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)
Surya-namaskar:
The Sanskrit word surya means sun. Namaskar is the Hindi word for Namaste, from the root nam, to bow. Namaskar means salutation, salute, greeting or praise.
It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.
-- Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948)
Ganesh Chaturthi or Ganesh Utsav or the birthday of Ganesha (the elephant-headed God of Wisdom and Prosperity) falls on the fourth day of the Hindu month of Bhadrapada (around August-September). It is celebrated all across India and is the biggest festival in Maharashtra. So if you are anywhere close to Mumbai, don’t think twice about moving heaven and earth to be there for Ganesha’s day. It’ll be a day you shall look back upon with some wonder.
Ganesha is the foremost god of the Hindu pantheon. This brave guardian of the door to Parvati’s bath is beheld today as the most auspicious God of new beginnings. He is worshipped during every festival and before people undertake a journey or embark upon a new venture. You will also see him carefully guarding entrances to temples and homes, peeping out of calendars and happily gracing marriages and other such occasions.
More info on Ganesh Chaturthi
There's a dark side to each and every human soul. We wish we were Obi-Wan Kenobi, and for the most part we are, but there's a little Darth Vadar in all of us. Thing is, this ain't no either or proposition. We're talking about dialectics, the good and the bad merging into us. You can run but you can't hide. My experience? Face the darkness, stare it down. Own it. As brother Nietzsche said, being human is a complicated gig. Give that old dark night of the soul a hug! Howl the eternal yes!
-- Stuart Stevens, Northern Exposure, Jules et Joel, 1991
Life itself is always a trial. In training, you must test and polish yourself in order to face the great challenges of life. Transcend the realm of life and death, and then you will be able to make your way calmly and safely through any crisis that confronts you.
-- Morihei Ueshiba
Keeping your body healthy is an expression of gratitude to the whole cosmos - the trees, the clouds, everything.
-- Thich Nhat Hanh
Love is just a part of life and the love written about today talks about love between the sexes only. But do young men and women have a monopoly where love is concerned? Aren't there different kinds of love that between a mother and her children, between a father and his children, between a bhakt (devotee) and his deity, between a man and his motherland? I chose to write about all these different kinds of love.
-- Pradeep
Thoughts are the sensations of the mind, just as sensations are the thoughts of the body.
-- Judith Lasater
Conscience...lies at the heart of the paradox of what it means to be a spiritual being, living in a physical body, in a material world. Conscience tells us to do the harder thing, because it is always pulling us toward Unity, toward Wholeness. Our desires, our selfishness, our intellectual flaws always tug us toward the world of diversity, where we judge issues, muddle through, and try to choose the lesser evil. Conscience, when it is flawless, is the voice of our soul, whispering in our ear. In that sense, even a painful conscience is a privilege as it is proof that God is still talking to us.
-- B.K.S. Iyengar
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you; Don't go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want; Don't go back to sleep. People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don't go back to sleep.
-- Rumi
You've done it before and you can do it now. See the positive possibilities. Redirect the substantial energy of your frustration and turn it into positive, effective, unstoppable determination.
-- Ralph Marston
A friend told me that each morning when we get up we have to decide whether we are going to save or savor the world. I don't think that is the decision. It's not an either-or, save or savor. We have to do both, save and savor the world.
-- Kate Clinton
We lift ourselves by our thought, we climb upon our vision of ourselves. If you want to enlarge your life, you must first enlarge your thought of it and of yourself. Hold the ideal of yourself as you long to be, always, everywhere - your ideal of what you long to attain - the ideal of health, efficiency, success.
-- Orison Swett Marden (1850 - 1924)
Brother stand the pain; Escape the poison of your impulses. The sky will bow to your beauty, if you do. Learn to light the candle. Rise with the sun. Turn away from the cave of your sleeping. That way a thorn expands to a rose. A particular glows with the universal.
-- Mevlana Rumi, 13th century sufi poet and mystic
Dance is the only creative act in which there is perfect oneness of the creator and his creation. Unlike a painting, a poem, an invention or any other artistic impulse, when the dance is over there is no product, no thing to save and enjoy. As with life, we may perceive the dance, never possess it. One cannot separate the dancer from dancing, just as one cannot separate God from the world or from ourselves.
-- Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
For the Great Spirit is everywhere; He hears whatever is in our minds and hearts, and it is not necessary to speak to Him in a loud voice.
-- Black Elk
The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.' One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger - but recognize the opportunity.
-- John F. Kennedy (1917 - 1963), Speech in Indianapolis, April 12, 1959
Whatever I am offered in devotion with a pure heart -- a leaf, a flower, fruit, or water -- I partake of that love offering. Whatever you do, make it an offering to me -- the food you eat, the sacrifices you make, the help you give, even your suffering. In this way you will be freed from the bondage of karma, and from its results both pleasant and painful. Then, firm in renunciation and yoga, with your heart free, you will come to me.
-- Bhagavad Gita 9:26-28
If we concentrate more on the quality of our steps along the way than on the goal itself, then we also avoid being disappointed if we perhaps cannot attain the exact goal that we had set for ourselves. Paying more attention to the sprit in which we act and looking less to the results our actions may bring us -- this is the meaning of isvarapranidhana.
-- TKV Desikachar, Heart of Yoga
A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.
-- Holy Bible, Proverbs 16:9
Only by releasing our fears and hopes for the future can we really be in union with the present moment. To surrender the fruits of our actions to God requires that we give up our egotistical illusion that we know best, and instead accept that the way life unfolds may be part of a pattern too complex for us to understand.
-- Judith Hanson Lasater
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.
-- Holy Bible, Proverbs 3:5
God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.
-- Reinhold Niebuhr
We inherit from our ancestors gifts so often taken for granted... Each of us contains within... this inheritance of soul. We are links between the ages, containing past and present expectations, sacred memories and future promise.
-- Edward Sellner
He who cannot obey himself will be commanded. This is the nature of living creatures.
-- Friedrich Nietzche
When a man disciplines his diet
and diversions, his physical actions,
his sleeping and waking,
discipline destroys his sorrow.
-- The Bhagavad Gita
Perhaps one of the most clear examples of the practice of tapas is marriage. Marriage requires commitment, consistency and love. Without any of these three things, marriage does not work. When these qualities are present however, we can celebrate the good days and hang on through the bad ones.
Tapas requires the same things. When we bring a commitment born of love to our consistent practice of yoga, we are practicing the niyama of tapas. It is with this spirit of abiding in the midst of difficulty which is at the heart of tapas.
-- Judith Hanson Lasater
Realize that true happiness lies within you. Waste no time and effort searching for peace and contentment and joy in the world outside. Remember that there is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving. Reach out. Share. Smile. Hug. Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.
-- Og Mandino
To feel that one has a place in life solves half the problems of contentment.
-- George Woodberry
We begin from the recognition that all beings cherish happiness and do not want suffering. It then becomes both morally wrong and pragmatically unwise to pursue only one's own happiness oblivious to the feelings and aspirations of all others who surround us as members of the same human family. The wiser course is to think of others when pursuing our own happiness.
-- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dali Lama
The only cure for materialism is the cleansing of the six senses (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind). If the senses are clogged, one's perception is stifled. The more it is stifled, the more contaminated the senses become. This creates disorder in the world, and that is the greatest evil of all. Polish the heart, free the six senses and let them function without obstruction, and your entire body and soul will glow.
-- Morihei Ueshiba, founder of Aikido
One who is not greedy is secure. He has time to think deeply.
His understanding of himself is complete.
-- Yoga Sutra II.39
"The more we have, the more we need to take care of it. The time and energy spent on acquiring more things, protecting them and worrying about them cannot be spent on the most basic questions of life. What is the limit to what we should possess? For what purpose, for whom and for how long? Death comes before we have had time to even begin considering these questions."
-- Translation and commentary by TKV Desikachar
The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?
Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.
And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
-- Matthew 19: 20-24 (King James Version)
Seek freedom and become captive of your desires, seek discipline and find your liberty.
-- Frank Herbert, Dune
The covetous man is ever in want.
-- Horace (65 BC - 8 BC), Epistles
Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.Satya is the second of the five Yamas, or abstentions, taught in the Yoga Sutras as part of the Eight Limbs of Yoga. The teaching is truthfulness, honesty and integrity, but has meaning on many levels.
-- Bible, John 8:32
Being impeccable with your word is the correct use of your energy; it means to use your energy in the direction of truth and love for yourself. If you make an agreement with yourself to be impeccable with your word, just with that intention, the truth will manifest through you and clean all the emotional poison that exists within you.The second tenet of Karmacology is, "Do everything that you do with honesty and integrity." If you guide your actions with honesty and integrity, then you are following the path of Satya. If you are speaking words that must be whispered -- such as gossip -- or doing something that must be hidden, then reflect to make sure that your actions and words are honest and not hurtful.
-- Don Miguel Ruiz, "The Four Agreements"
Think nothing profitable to you which compels you to break a promise, to lose your self-respect, to hate any person, to suspect, to curse, to act the hypocrite, to desire anything that needs walls and curtains about it.This is the essence of Satya, the way of truthfulness.
-- Marcus Aurelius
Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.
-- Mahatma Gandhi
Aikido is nonviolence. Every human being has been entrusted with a mandate from heaven, and the victory we seek is to overcome all challenges and fight to the finish, accomplishing our goals. In Aikido we never attack. If you want to strike first, to gain advantage over someone, that is proof your training is insufficient, and it is really you yourself who has been defeated. Let your partner attack, and use his aggression against him. Do not cower from an attack; control it before it begins. Nonviolence is the true practice of Aikido.
-- Morihei Ueshiba
A pacifist is not really a pacifist if he is unable to make a choice between violence and non-violence. A true pacifist is able to kill or maim in the blink of an eye, but at the moment of impending destruction of the enemy he chooses non-violence. He chooses peace. He must be able to make a choice. He must have the genuine ability to destroy his enemy and then choose not to. I have heard this excuse made. “I choose to be a pacifist before learning techniques so I do not need to learn the power of destruction.” This shows no comprehension of the mind of the true warrior. This is just a rationalization to cover the fear of injury or hard training.
The true warrior who chooses to be a pacifist is willing to stand and die for his principles. Only a warrior who has tempered his spirit in conflict and who has confronted himself and his greatest fears can, in my opinion, make the choice to be a true pacifist.
Our first line of defense against unhappiness is refusing to believe that we are the victims of the bad intentions of others. The formula is: Do not blame the trigger. The world is full of triggers; in fact, life is designed like that, so that we will truly practice. We can be grateful for all these triggers, as without them we might never recognize our own unfortunate reactions.
-- Ayya Khema in "Visible Here and Now"