Calling
The texture of the world,
its filigree and scrollwork,
means that there is
the possibility for beauty here.
Which answers in me a call
I do not remember calling,
and which trains me
to the wild and extravagant nature
of the spirit I seek.
~Annie Dillard
(1945 to pres., American Author)
Transformation
Transformed people
transform people.
~Richard Rohr
(1943 to pres., Franciscan priest,
spiritual writer)
See What Is
As people who want to live
a good, full, unrestricted,
adventurous, real kind of life,
there is concrete instruction we can follow:
see what is.
When you catch yourself grasping
at beliefs or thoughts,
just see what is.
Without calling your belief
right or wrong,
acknowledge it.
See it clearly without judgment
and let it go.
Come back to the present moment.
From now until the moment
of your death,
you could do this.
~Pema Chodron
(1936 to pres., Buddhist Teacher)
Many Wines
God has given us a dark wine so potent that
drinking it, we leave the two worlds.
God has made sleep so
that it erases every thought.
God made Majnun love Layla so much that
just her dog would cause confusion in him.
There are thousands of wines
that can take over our minds.
Don’t think all ecstasies
are the same!
Jesus was lost in his love for God.
His donkey was drunk with barley.
Drink from the presence of saints,
not from those other jars.
Every object, every being,
is a jar full of delight.
Be a connoisseur,
and taste with caution.
Any wine will get you high.
Judge like a king, and choose the purest,
the ones unadulterated with fear,
or some urgency about “what’s needed.”
Drink the wine that moves you
as a camel moves when it’s been untied,
and is just ambling about.
~Mavlana Jalaladin Rumi
(1207-1273 Persian Poet and Mystic)
Nonviolence
Nonviolence
is a powerful and just weapon.
Indeed, it is a weapon
unique in history,
which cuts without wounding
and ennobles the man
who wields it.
~Martin Luther King Jr.
(1929-1968, Minister and Activist)
Fully Alive
Our spiritual practice exposes us
to the underlying reality of the universe.
And that underlying reality
is not just dead matter interacting at random.
There is order and beauty and truth.
And our universe is fully alive.
We ourselves are expressions of that life,
order, beauty, and truth.
~Brad Warner
(1964 to pres., bass guitarist,
writer, Soto Zen monk)
Compassion
The force needed to empower wisdom
is compassion.
Both wisdom and compassion
shift our sense of identity
away from ourselves
toward the wider human, biotic,
and cosmic community
to which we belong.
~Bhikkhu Bodhi
(1944 to pres., American Theravada Buddhist Monk)
