Allspirit Inspiration Page 22
i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginably You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
– e. e. cummings
Before the soul can see,
the harmony within must be attained,
and fleshly eyes be rendered blind
to all illusion.
Before the soul can hear,
the image (Man)
has to become as deaf
to roarings as to whispers,
to cries of bellowing elephants
as to the silvery buzzing
of the golden fire-fly.
Before the soul can comprehend
and may remember,
she must unto the silent speaker
be united,
just as the form
to which the clay is modelled
is first united
with the potter’s mind.
For then the soul will hear,
and will remember.
And then to the inner ear will speak
the voice of silence.
From: Helena Blavatsky
The Voice of the Silence
Stream of Life
“The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.
It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of
leaves and flowers.
It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and
of death, in ebb and in flow.
I feel my limbs made glorious by the touch of this world of life. And
my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this
moment.”
– Rabindranath Tagore
from The Heart of God
“The real work is in the Heart:
Wake up your Heart!
Because when the Heart is completely awake,
Then it needs no Friend.”
~ Rabi’a
Doorkeeper of the Heart; Charles Upton
If A Simple Meditation Works, Trust It
by John Haag
“Somewhere a disaster, however small, is refusing
to happen. An infant falling from a 6th-story window
lights uninjured on an awning. This time the mouse
escaped the cat, the gnat evaded the nighthawk.
Someone said Yes when who’d have thought it.
Hundreds of mineshafts didn’t quite collapse
and John Wayne missed on his first shot. Well
I admit my luck hasn’t been all bad. And since
each instant, once it arrives, will be exactly
like this instant, I have a lot to think about:
a jackknife at the bottom of a lake; an asteroid
in someone else’s galaxy; your warm night-smell-
things too far or too near for ordinary attention.
Six weeks from now I’ll pack up and drive East,
and I’ll say, Here I am driving East, as I knew
I would. And each mile will be its particular mile
and I’ll be there just as I am here, and just as
I will be the moment I know I’m dying, which will be
the same instant I’ve always lived, and it’s been,
all the way, a fantastic instant, and I’m convinced
it’s worth more than ordinary attention.”
from Stones Don’t Float by John Haag,
Ohio State University Press, 1996.
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most
intelligent, but the most responsive to change.”
~ Charles Darwin
Little Stones at My Window
“Once in a while
joy throws little stones at my window
it wants to let me know that it’s waiting for me
but today I’m calm
I’d almost say even-tempered
I’m going to keep anxiety locked up
and then lie flat on my back
which is an elegant and comfortable position
for receiving and believing news
who knows where I’ll be next
or when my story will be taken into account
who knows what advice I still might come up with
and what easy way out I’ll take not to follow it
don’t worry, I won’t gamble with an eviction
I won’t tattoo remembering with forgetting
there are many things left to say and suppress
and many grapes left to fill our mouths
don’t worry, I’m convinced
joy doesn’t need to throw any more little stones
I’m coming
I’m coming.”
From Little Stones at My Window by Mario Benedetti;
Charles Hatfield translator.
Spring-Watching Pavilion
by Ho Xuan Huong (~ 1776-1820)
“A gentle spring evening arrives
airily, unclouded by worldly dust.
Three times the bell tolls echoes like a wave.
We see heaven upside down in sad puddles.
Love’s vast sea cannot be emptied.
And springs of grace flow easily everywhere.
Where is nirvana?
Nirvana is here, nine times out of ten.”
Spring Essence: The Poetry of Ho Xuan Huong; edited and translated
by John Balaban; Copper Canyon Press, 2000
The tree or the flower in front of you has more power to bring
you present than all the books in the world and all the teachers
who have ever existed. All you have to do is bring yourself present
with that which is present.
~ Leonard Jacobson
More Quotations: