Sitting still is a way of falling in love with the world and everything in it.
Read moreRumi
Sit, be still, and listen, because you're drunk and we're at the edge of the roof.
Read moreIkkyu
Sick of what it is called,
sick of the names,
I dedicate every pore
to what is here.
Bill Watterson
Reality continues to ruin my life.
Read morePeter Senge
Real learning gets to the heart of what it means to be human. Through learning we recreate ourselves. Through learning we become able to do something we never were able to do. Through learning we re-perceive the world and our relationship to it. Through learning we extend our capacity to create, to be part of the generative process of life. There is within each of us a deep hunger for this type of learning.
Read moreAuguste Rodin
Patience is also a form of action.
Naomi Klein
Part of what fuels manic consumption is the desire to fill gaps in our lives that emerge because of severed connections of various kindswith community, with one another, and also with the natural world. We tend to think about connections to nature as something you have to get out of the city in order to build. . . . But I also think that we have to be able to engage with the fact that we are still profoundly dependent on nature even when we are in urban environments.
Read moreNan Huai-chin
One who is awakened to the Tao doesn’t need any encouragement to be compassionate. I sometimes hear people say that they believe everything about Buddhism, but they just can’t be so compassionate. They all have this idea that being compassionate means crying about every little thing that’s even remotely sad or touching. That is not compassion; that is some sort of imbalance of the nervous system or weak liver or kidney energy which causes one to easily feel moved or shed tears. One with real compassion and bodhicitta has hoary eyebrows and fiery eyes. Compassion and bodhicitta are the might and ire of a great king who brings peace to the land. In the language of those who worship the Immortals, it is called “inside saint, outside king.” Such a one has the heart and wisdom of a saint but functions in the world as a king or great leader. In Buddhism, the heart or substance is Tao, enlightenment, prajna, and so forth. Bodhicitta functions in the world as great compassion, loving all beings and helping to liberate all beings. It is not sitting all alone in a temple in the woods or being completely aloof from all others.
Read moreShinkei
One cannot be certain of living
even into the evening.
In the dim first light
I watch the waves
from a departing boat.
Katagiri Roshi
One can be lonely and not be tossed away by it.
Read moreAjahn Sumedo
Of course we can always imagine more perfect conditions, how it should be ideally, how everyone else should behave. But it’s not our task to create an ideal. It’s our task to see how it is, and to learn from the world as it is. For the awakening of the heart, conditions are always good enough.
Read moreSamuel Beckett
Nothing is more real than nothing.
Read moreAntoine Lavoisier
Nothing is lost,
nothing is created,
everything is transformed.
Alan Watts
No one's mouth is big enough to utter the whole thing.
Read moreSoen Nakagawa
Mustard blossoms!
there is nothing left
to hurl away.
Shantideva
May I be a guard for those who need protection
A guide for those on the path
A boat, a raft, a bridge for those who wish to cross the flood
May I be a lamp in the darkness
A resting place for the weary
A healing medicine for all who are sick
A vase of plenty, a tree of miracles
And for the boundless multitudes of living beings
May I bring sustenance and awakening
Enduring like the earth and sky
Until all beings are freed from sorrow
And all are awakened.
Mary Oliver
It is a serious thing
just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in the broken world.
Jakuso Kwong
It's always just beginning. Everything is always just beginning.
Read moreSheng Yen
Into enlightenment,
there is emptiness.
Out of enlightenment,
there is existence.
Chögyam Trungpa
In order to accomplish an experience, you have to have a chance to dance with it. You have to have a chance to play, to explore. Then each style of exploration that takes place is a a different manifestation, we could say. Nevertheless, it is all part of one big game."
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