Remain in Vastness
One must remain in the vastness,
alert and lucid,
letting one’s gaze encompass
the infinity of the sky,
as though seated on the summit
of a mountain
open to all the horizons.
~Shabkar Tsogdruk Rangdrol
(1781-1851, Tibetan Poet)
True Home
You should go home to your hermitage;
it is inside you.
Close the doors, light the fire,
and make it cozy again.
That is what I call
“taking refuge in the island of self.”
If you don’t go home to yourself,
you continue to lose yourself.
You destroy yourself
and destroy people around you,
even if you have goodwill
and want to do something to help.
That is why practice of going home
to the island of self
is so important.
No one can take your true home away.
~Thich Nhat Hanh
(1926 to pres., Vietnamese Zen Buddhist Monk)
Happiness
Happiness cannot be found
through great effort and will power,
but is already there,
in relaxation and letting-go.
Don’t strain yourself,
there is nothing to do.
Only our search for happiness
prevents us from seeing it.
Don’t believe in the reality
of good and bad experiences,
they are like rainbows.
Wanting to grasp the ungraspable,
you exhaust yourself in vain.
As soon as you relax this grasping,
space is there – open, inviting, and comfortable.
So make use of it.
All is yours already.
Don’t search any further.
Nothing to do.
Nothing to force.
Nothing to want.
Everything happens by itself.
~Lama Gendun Rinpoche
(1918-1997 French-Tibetan monk)
Experience
What our mind recognizes
as empty awareness,
our heart experiences
as love.
~Tara Brach
(1953 to pres., Psychologist and Buddhist Teacher)
Insane Species
Man is the most insane species.
He worships an invisible God
and destroys a visible nature.
Unaware that this Nature he’s destroying
is this God he’s worshiping.
~Hubert Reeves
(1932 to pres., French-Canadian astrophysicist)
Transform and Create
It is a sobering thought
that the finest act of love you can perform
is not an act of service
but an act of contemplation, of seeing.
When you serve people,
you help, support, comfort, alleviate pain.
When you see them
in their inner beauty and goodness,
you transform and create.
~Anthony De Mello
(1931-1987, Psychotherapist and Jesuit Priest)
Beautiful
There must be always remaining
in every life,
some place for the singing of angels,
some place for that which in itself
is breathlessly beautiful.
~Howard Thurman
(1899 to 1981, author, philosopher,
theologian, educator, civil rights leader)
