Would it not be strange if…
· 30 November 2006
Would it not be strange if a universe without purpose accidentally created humans who are so obsessed with purpose?
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Quotes for November 2006
The most real things…
· 29 November 2006
But sometimes seeing is believing. And sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can’t see.
Shadow passes…
· 28 November 2006
Transit umbra, lux permanet.
(Shadow passes, light remains.)
Breath is…
· 27 November 2006
Breath is giving and receiving, breathing out and in. We can’t hold our breath, we cannot clutch the life force. We must surrender to the rhythm and the gift. That is life.
Saying one used to be…
· 26 November 2006
Saying one used to be Catholic and is now Christian is like saying, “I used to be a man, but now I’m male.”
The prayer of listening makes…
· 25 November 2006
The prayer of listening makes things simple but it also makes us vulnerable, and that is frightening. Listening makes us open to Christ, the Word of God, spoken in all things: in the material world, the Scriptures, the Church, and sacraments and, sometimes most threateningly, in our fellow human beings. To listen at prayer is to take the chance of hearing the voice of Christ in the poor, the weak, those whom we love and those whom we do not love.
We all quote…
· 24 November 2006
By necessity, by proclivity and by delight, we all quote.
CowPi’s 1000th quote!
« πλ | Observation »
We all have within us…
· 23 November 2006
We all have within us a center of stillness surrounded by silence.
Prayer begins by talking to God…
· 22 November 2006
Prayer begins by talking to God, but it ends by listening to Him. In the face of Absolute Truth, silence is the soul’s language.
What it is that stands higher than…
· 20 November 2006
What it is that stands higher than words? Action. What is it that stands higher than action? Silence.
Silence is the language God speaks…
· 19 November 2006
Silence is the language God speaks and everything else is a bad translation.
A note of music gains…
· 18 November 2006
A note of music gains significance from the silence on either side.
Speech is silver…
· 17 November 2006
Speech is silver, silence is golden; speech is human, silence is divine.
If you lived each day, each breath, as…
· 15 November 2006
What would it be like if you lived each day, each breath, as a work of art in progress? Imagine that you are a masterpiece unfolding every second of every day, a work of art taking form with every breath.
Have you ever watched…
· 14 November 2006
Have you ever watched the unceasingness of a brook and imagined it to be the living waters of God, always accessible and always flowing?
The reality that is present…
· 13 November 2006
The reality that is present to us and in us: call it being…Silence. And the simple fact that by being attentive, by learning to listen (or recovering the natural capacity to listen) we can find ourself engulfed in such happiness that it cannot be explained: the happiness of being at one with everything in that hidden ground of Love for which there can be no explanations…. May we all grow in grace and peace, and not neglect the silence that is printed in the center of our being. It will not fail us.
When we look at our world…
· 12 November 2006
When we look at our world, its pain and suffering, and then at ourselves and our inability to do anything about it, we can become overwhelmed by our own helplessness and powerlessness. A good question then to ask ourselves is, ‘Who do you think you are?’ Our feelings of helplessness arise because we assume that we are the ones who should be able to effect lasting change; and we are leaving God out. But our Christian faith is faith in a God who, in Jesus, has entered into human suffering, human sinfulness, human death, and is risen again. God’s love has triumphed over evil and can transform it into good. The only thing we can change is ourselves, and the only thing in ourselves that we can change is our way of perceiving reality.
Not be too sure of having found…
· 11 November 2006
It is my belief, that we should not be too sure of having found Christ in ourselves until we have found him also in that part of humanity that is most remote from our own.
« πλ | Awareness, Christ, Compassion »
Silence before God has…
· 10 November 2006
Silence before God has little to do with achieving and a great deal to do with receiving.
Blunders of the World
· 9 November 2006
The Seven Blunders of the World:
1. Wealth without work
2. Pleasure without conscience
3. Knowledge without character
4. Commerce without morality
5. Science without humanity
6. Worship without sacrifice
7. Politics without principle
That your enemies…
· 8 November 2006
That your enemies have been created is God’s doing; that they hate you and wish to ruin you is their own doing. What should you say about them in your mind? “Lord be merciful to them, forgive them their sins, put the fear of God in them, change them!” You are loving in them not what they are, but what you would have them to become.
The opposite of grasping…
· 7 November 2006
Mindfulness in a way is the opposite of grasping, or attachment, or identification. And it can go very, very deep when we allow ourselves, because what we start to see—if we slow down a little bit and pay attention—is how it is a kind of conditioned phenomenon, like a machine, the mind spins this stuff out in a very orderly way by habit - thoughts, fantasies and memories. The world works in certain conditioned patterns, and that’s it’s nature, and it’s all impermanent and quite ungraspable. Where is yesterday? What happened to your weekend? Where is it? What happened to 1984, your 20’s, or whatever it was—where did they go? They all disappeared, gone. Isn’t that an amazing thing?
It’s a very profound thing to start to be aware of life coming out of nothing and disappearing into nothing. A day appears for awhile, and then it’s gone. It can’t be grasped, it’s like a bird flying. You cannot hold time and fundamentally you can’t hold yourself.
« πλ | Awareness, Detachment »
Those who dance…
· 6 November 2006
Those who dance are thought mad by those who don’t hear the music.
Every blade of grass has…
· 5 November 2006
Every blade of grass has an angel bending over it, saying, “Grow! Grow!”
« πλ | Grace, Life, Motivation »
Lovemaking…
· 4 November 2006
One day, a philosopher asked, “What is the purpose of creation?” “Lovemaking,” said the Master. Later, to his disciples, he said, “Before creation, love was. After creation, love was made. When love is consummated, creation will cease to be, and love will be forever.”
The nonconformist hates…
· 3 November 2006
If there is anything the nonconformist hates worse than a conformist, it’s another nonconformist who doesn’t conform to the prevailing standard of nonconformity.
« πλ | Community, Observation »
No word meaning “art” occurs in…
· 2 November 2006
No word meaning “art” occurs in Aivilik, nor does “artist”: there are only people. Nor is any distinction made between utilitarian and decorative objects. The Aivilik say simply, “A man should do all things properly.”
The great thing about human language…
· 1 November 2006
The great thing about human language is that it prevents us from sticking to the matter at hand.
« πλ | Observation »
![[Jerusalem Cross with Heart]](http://cowpi.com/journal/grafiks/jerusalem-cross-heart.gif "Jerusalem Cross with Heart")