The opposite of a correct statement is…
· 31 October 2006
The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.
Quotes for October 2006
Two paradoxes are better than one…
· 30 October 2006
Two paradoxes are better than one; they may even suggest a solution.
He who wonders…
· 29 October 2006
He who wonders discovers that this in itself is wonder.
The best way to find things out is…
· 28 October 2006
The best way to find things out is not to ask questions at all. If you fire off a question, it is like firing off a gun—bang, it goes, and everything takes flight and runs for shelter. But if you sit quite still and pretend not to be looking, all the little facts will come and peck around your feet, situations will venture forth from thickets, and intentions will creep out and sun themselves on a stone; and if you are very patient, you will see and understand a great deal more than a man with a gun does.
Nothing special…
· 27 October 2006
Zen has an expression, “nothing special.” When you understand “nothing special,” you realize that everything is special. Everything’s special and nothing’s special. Everything’s spiritual and nothing’s spiritual. It’s how you see, it’s what eyes you’re looking through, that matters.
« πλ | Paradox, Spirituality »
We have no present because…
· 26 October 2006
We have no present, because life looks like an hourglass: It has a big future and a big past, but only a tiny little neck of a present that everything is squeezed through.
But this is an illusion!
Like an electron microscope…
· 25 October 2006
Mindfulness works like an electron microscope. That is, it operates on so fine a level that one can actually see directly those realities which are at best theoretical constructs to the conscious thought process. Mindfulness actually sees the impermanent character of every perception. It sees the transitory and passing nature of everything that is perceived. It also sees the inherently unsatisfactory nature of all conditioned things. It sees that there is no sense grabbing onto any of these passing shows. Peace and happiness just cannot be found that way. And finally, Mindfulness sees the inherent selflessness of all phenomena. It sees the way we have arbitrarily selected a certain bundle of perceptions, chopped them off from the rest of the surging flow of experience and then conceptualized them as separate, enduring, entities. Mindfulness actually sees these things. It does not think about them, it sees them directly.
What the Buddhist calls mindfulness, a Christian might call the practice of the presence of the Divine in all things.
The Who that does the What is…
· 24 October 2006
The Who that does the What is more important than the What the Who does!
« πλ | Relationship »
Misery and joy have the same shape…
· 23 October 2006
Misery and joy have the same shape in this world: you may call the rose an open heart or a broken heart.
To recognize our nothingness…
· 22 October 2006
It is to recognize our nothingness, to expect everything from God as a little child expects everything from its father; it is to be disquieted about nothing, having no other occupation but to gather the flowers of love and sacrifice, and of offering them to God in order to please Him. To be little is not attributing to oneself the virtues that one practices, believing oneself capable of anything, but to recognize that God places his treasure in the hands of His little child to be used when necessary; but it remains always God’s treasure. Finally, it is not to become discouraged over one’s faults, for children fall often, but they are too little to hurt themselves very much.
The bond of all in the Universe…
· 21 October 2006
Meditate often upon the bond of all in the Universe and their mutual relationship. For all things are in a way woven together.
« πλ | Community, Relationship »
Every age has its own outlook…
· 20 October 2006
Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books.
« πλ | Community, Observation »
This grand show is eternal…
· 19 October 2006
This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on seas and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.
What could I be missing…
· 18 October 2006
Seize the day, they say. Live each moment as if it’s your last. It’s such a daunting task, when I think about it. Like, sitting here right now, typing these words, what could I be missing?
Feel too much than…
· 17 October 2006
I would rather feel too much than nothing at all.
« πλ | Compassion »
I cried not because…
· 16 October 2006
I cried, not because I was hurt but because he was. You *feel* like that when you love someone.
« πλ | Compassion, Love »
It’s okay…
· 15 October 2006
It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me. I know. I know the pain, the aching, the deep, dark desire. The apprehension and fear. The doubt and wondering. I know. I see it in you, like I’ve seen it in me. You feel alone, but you’re not. You don’t think you’ll ever survive, but you will. I know. You don’t have to tell me. It’s okay.
« πλ | Compassion, Suffering »
I thought I knew…
· 14 October 2006
Remember those letters we used to write, about the meaning of life and shit? I thought I knew the meaning of life. It turned out I knew shit.
The people who say…
· 13 October 2006
The people who say “it never works” just mean “it never worked for me.”
« πλ | Motivation, Observation »
Very much like icebergs…
· 12 October 2006
Human beings are very much like icebergs—we only see a small portion of them, and nothing of the hidden currents which drag them this way and that. I fancy that we would not sit and judge our neighbor so frequently as we do, did we but ponder well over the small amount of data we possess. We perceive only the external act, but nothing of the motive activating it.
A man who is seeking for realization is…
· 11 October 2006
A man who is seeking for realization is not only going around searching for his spectacles without realizing that they are on his nose all the time, but also were he not actually looking through them he would not be able to see what he is looking for!
The line dividing good and evil cuts…
· 10 October 2006
If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.
The bread of life…
· 9 October 2006
In each of our lives, Jesus comes as the bread of life—to be eaten, to be consumed by us. This is how he loves us. Then Jesus comes in our life as the hungry one, the other, hoping to be fed with the bread of our life, our hearts by loving, and our hands by serving. In loving and serving, we prove that we have been created in the likeness of God, for God is love and when we love we are like God. This is what Jesus meant when he said, “Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
God creates out of nothing…
· 8 October 2006
God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: he makes saints out of sinners.
The foolish reject…
· 7 October 2006
The foolish reject what they see, not what they think; the wise reject what they think, not what they see.
The moment you place your happiness in…
· 6 October 2006
The moment you place your happiness in the fulfillment of any want or wish that is outside yourself, outside the Way, in anything but the thing as it is, as it is becoming, at that moment your balance is lost and you fall straight from Heaven to Hell.
« πλ | Detachment »
A blog is…
· 5 October 2006
A blog is a unending book in which the author keeps writing the first page for readers constantly waiting for the last.
« πλ | Observation »
The birds of sadness…
· 4 October 2006
You cannot prevent the birds of sadness from passing over your head, but you can prevent their making a nest in your hair.
The beginning of love is…
· 3 October 2006
The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.
« πλ | Hospitality, Love »
Everything that irritates us…
· 2 October 2006
Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.
![[Jerusalem Cross with Heart]](http://cowpi.com/journal/grafiks/jerusalem-cross-heart.gif "Jerusalem Cross with Heart")