This is from: 'Long Days Journey into Night' Eugene O'Neill I lay on the bowsprit, facing astern, with the water foaming into spume under me, the masts with every sail white in the moonlight, towering high above me. I became drunk with the beauty and singing rhythm of it , and for a moment I lost myself - actually lost my life. I was set free! I dissolved in the sea, became white sails and flying spray, became beauty and rhythm, became moonlight and the ship and the high dim-starred sky! I belonged, without past or future, within peace and unity and a wild joy, within something greater than my own life, or the life of Man, to Life itself! To God, if you want to put it that way. And several other times in my life, when I was swimming far out, or lying alone on a beach, I have had the same experience. Become the sun, the hot sand, green seaweed anchored to a rock, swaying in the tide. Like a saint's vision of beatitude. Like the veil of things as they seem drawn back by an unseen hand. For a second you see - and seeing the secret, are the secret. For a second there is meaning!
Unity of Heart "Unity is this: that a man feel himself to be gathered together with all his powers in the unity of his heart. Unity brings inward peace and restfulness of heart. Unity of heart is a bond which draws together body and soul, heart and senses, and all the outward and inward powers and encloses them in the union of love." ~John of Ruysbroeck
Even at prayer, our eyes look inward; If the gate to the holy is shut, we just turn away. The One is only the One, everyone knows -- What mirroring icon could hold it face to face? Held back unvoiced, grief bruises the heart; Not reaching the river, a raindrop is swallowed by dust. If a story brings only tears and not blood to the eyes, It is simply a lovers' tale. Whoever can't see the whole in every part plays at blind man's buff; A wise man tastes the entire Tigris in every sip. ~Ghalib
The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with J. Krishnamurti January 19 Liberation from ignorance, from sorrow We listen with hope and fear; we seek the light of another but are not alertly passive to be able to understand. If the liberated seems to fulfill our desires we accept him; if not, we continue our search for the one who will; what most of us desire is gratification at different levels. What is important is not how to recognize one who is liberated but how to understand yourself. No authority here or hereafter can give you knowledge of yourself; without self-knowledge there is no liberation from ignorance, from sorrow.
An ancient Buddhist teaching says, "let those who desire enlightenment not train in many practices, but only one. Which one? Great compassion. Those with great compassion possess all the Buddha's teaching as if it were in the palm of their hand." 'The Way of Harmony' Jim Dreaver
Confucius: Sincerity is the way of Heaven. The attainment of sincerity is the way of men. He who possesses sincerity, is he who, without an effort, hits what is right, and apprehends, without the exercise of thought; he is the sage who naturally and easily embodies the *right* way. He who attains to sincerity, is he who chooses what is good, and firmly holds it fast. The Doctrine of Mean, Ch.XX,18
Mistakes There are no mistakes. The events we bring upon ourselves, no matter how unpleasant, are necessary in order to learn what we need to learn; whatever steps we take, they're necessary to reach the places we've chosen to go. ~Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever
Questions By the sea, the wild nocturnal sea, Stands a stripling-man; His breast full of woe, his mind full of doubt, And with gloomy lips he questions the waves: ' 0 solve me the riddle of life, The torturing ancient riddle So many heads have brooded upon, Heads in hieroglyph-covered hats. In turbans and birettas of black, Heads bewigged and a thousand more Poor, perspiring human heads - Tell me, what does Man signify Whence does he come? and whither go? Who dwells up there in the golden stars?' They murmur, waves, their eternal murmur, The wind it blows, the clouds run free, The stars shine on, Indifferent and cold, And a fool waits for an answer. ~Heinrich Heine
Ho! Mesmerized by the sheer variety of perceptions, which are like the illusory reflections of the moon in water, Beings wander endlessly astray in samsara's vicious cycle. In order that they may find comfort and ease in the luminosity and all-pervading space of the true nature of their minds, I generate the immeasurable love, compassion, joy and equanimity of the awakened mind, the heart of Bodhicitta. ~Jikmé Lingpa
Awareness, it turns out, is *itself* bodhicitta, and to become aware of bodhicitta is the most powerful way to concentrate it. If we turn our awareness to 'pure being' itself, lesser concerns drop away, in a gradual process that cannot be forced, but which, like water, goes on night and day, without haste and without rest. Once bodhicitta is recognized, the path becomes a pull rather than a push, we are drawn rather than forcing our way. Every day is a new adventure, a new challenge, and satisfaction is not found in our fate but in how we meet our fate. ~Terry Murphy
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