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#2050 - Saturday, February 5, 2004 - Editor: Gloria
Great
opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround
us every day.
- Sally Koch
posted to Morning Zen
Difficulty
Our difficulty with this
simple progression," he said, "is that
most of us are unwilling to accept that we need so little to get
on
with. We are geared to expect instruction, teaching, guides,
masters. And when we are told that we need no one, we don't
believe
it. We become nervous, then distrustful, and finally angry and
disappointed. If we need help, it is not in methods, but in
emphasis. If someone makes us aware that we need to curtail our
self-importance, that help is real."
The Requirements of Intent
THE POWER OF SILENCE
Carlos Castaneda
posted to
MillionPaths by Viorica Weissman
“I think that I am here, on this earth,
To present a report on it, but to whom I don't know.
As if I were sent so that whatever takes place
Has meaning because it changes into memory.”
- Czeslaw Milosz, "Consciousness"
posted to AlphaWorld
Friendship
From 'The Art of Being and
Becoming'
by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Those who say, "I was his friend and he was my friend,
but now we are not friends anymore," should realize that
they were never friends. It was a presumption on their part,
a false impression. Can friendship be such a false thing, can
gold be gold at one time and not at another? Gold is gold, it
never changes, it remains the same. Constancy in friendship
is the soul of friendship.
[ ... ]
When a person thinks, "I am too good or too kind to you; I
have been too devoted to you," that person forgets that
kindness,
goodness, and devotion are larger than the horizon. No one can
be too good, no one can be too kind, and no one can be too
devoted. When there is a discussion between friends, and one
says, "I have done so much for you, I have suffered so much
for
you, I have had so much pain on your account, I have had such
a difficult life for your sake," then he is entering into
business. He
wants to keep a diary of what he has given in the form of love
and kindness and goodness and sacrifice. A true friend makes
every sacrifice he can and never thinks about it; he does not
even
allow his mind to ponder upon the subject. Real friendship means
regard, a deep regard for the pleasure and displeasure of the
friend.
Is there anything in life that is more delicate than
friendship-taking
care that no words should hurt the friend, that no action should
harm him, that not the slightest shade of coldness may fall on
his
heart? It is most difficult. If a person has learnt the manner of
friendship he need not learn anything more; he knows everything.
He has learnt the greatest religion, for it is in this same way
that
one will make a way to God.
posted to Allspirit Inspiration by Gill Eardley
Allspirit Website: http://www.allspirit.co.uk
The Wisdom
of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
"Earnestness, not
perfection, is a precondition to self-realization.
Virtues and powers come with realization, not before."
"Nothing stands in
the way of your liberation and it can happen here
and now but for your being more interested in other things. And
you
cannot fight with your interests. You must go with them, see
through
them and watch them reveal themselves as mere errors of judgment
and
appreciation."
Today
I passed this Haiku
Ice on the pond.
Frozen Heron staring
into black hole.
poem and photo by Alan Larus http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/today_2.htm
The
Buddha's Last Instruction
"Make of yourself a light "
said the Buddha,
before he died.
I think of this every morning
as the east begins
to tear off its many clouds
of darkness, to send up the first
signal - a white fan
streaked with pink and violet,
even green.
An old man, he lay down
between two sala trees,
and he might have said anything,
knowing it was his final hour.
The light burns upward,
it thickens and settles over the fields.
Around him, the villagers gathered
and stretched forward to listen.
Even before the sun itself
hangs, disattached, in the blue air,
I am touched everywhere
by its ocean of yellow waves.
No doubt he thought of everything
that had happened in his difficult life.
And then I feel the sun itself
as it blazes over the hills,
like a million flowers on fire-
clearly I'm not needed
yet I feel myself turning
into something of inexplicable value.
Slowly, beneath the branches,
he raised his head.
He looked into the faces of that frightened crowd.
Mary Oliver
photo by Alan Larus http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/today_2.htm