Admit it. You aren’t like them. You’re not even close. You may occasionally dress yourself up as one of them, watch the same mindless television shows as they do, maybe even eat the same fast food sometimes. But it seems that the more you try to fit in, the more you feel like an outsider, watching the “normal people” as they go about their automatic existences. For every time you say club passwords like “Have a nice day” and “Weather’s awful today, eh?”, you yearn inside to say forbidden things like “Tell me something that makes you cry” or “What do you think deja vu is for?”. Face it, you even want to talk to that girl in the elevator. But what if that girl in the elevator (and the balding man who walks past your cubicle at work) are thinking the same thing? Who knows what you might learn from taking a chance on conversation with a stranger? Everyone carries a piece of the puzzle. Nobody comes into your life by mere coincidence. Trust your instincts. Do the unexpected. Find the others…

Timothy Leary

The moment you enter the Now with your attention,

you realize that life is sacred.

There is a sacredness to everything you perceive

when you are present.

The more you live in the Now,

the more you sense the simple yet profound joy

of Being and the sacredness of all life.

Most people confuse the Now

with what happens in the Now,

but that's not what it is.

The Now is deeper than what happens in it.

It is the space in which it happens.

Eckhart Tolle

The only one who is free in the world 

is the one who is free of the world.

Wu Hsin

Always there is a beginning 

a new day, 

a new month, 

a new season, 

a new year.

Forever the old passes away 

and newness emerges 

from the richness that was. 

Nothing is ever lost 

in the many changes 

time brings.

What was, in some way, 

will be, 

though changed in form.

Know this: 

This moment is a beginning; 

and your lives, 

individually and together, 

are full of richness, of freshness, 

of hope and of promise.

Edward Searl

In my house there is a cave

And in the cave is nothing at all

Pure and wonderfully empty

Resplendent, with a light like the sun.

Han shan

Pray 

Meditate 

Be aware/Stay awake 

Bow 

Practise yoga 

Feel 

Chant and sing 

Breathe and smile 

Relax/Enjoy/Laugh/Play 

Create/Envision 

Let Go/Forgive/Accept 

Walk/Exercise/Move 

Work/Serve/Contribute 

Listen/Learn/Enquire 

Consider/Reflect 

Cultivate oneself/Enhance competencies 

Cultivate contentment 

Cultivate flexibility 

Cultivate friendship and collaboration 

Lighten up 

Celebrate and appreciate 

Dream 

Give thanks 

Evolve 

Love 

Share/Give/Receive 

Walk softly/Live gently 

Expand/Radiate/Dissolve 

Simplify 

Surrender/Trust 

Be born anew

from Awakening The Buddha Within by Lama Surya Das

Without our story about people, we can hear them.

Byron Katie

The only journey is the one within.

Rainer Maria Rilke

We have forgotten what rocks, plants, and animals still know. 

We have forgotten how to be - to be still, to be ourselves, 

to be where life is: Here and Now.

Eckhart Tolle

There are days we live 

as if death were nowhere

in the background; from joy 

to joy to joy, from wing to wing,

from blossom to blossom to 

impossible blossom, 

to sweet impossible blossom.

Li-Young Lee

Every day

I see or hear

something

that more or less

kills me

with delight,

that leaves me

like a needle

in the haystack

of light.

It was what I was born for 

to look, to listen,

to lose myself

inside this soft world 

to instruct myself

over and over

in joy,

and acclamation.

Nor am I talking

about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful,

the very extravagant 

but of the ordinary,

the common, the very drab,

the daily presentations.

Oh, good scholar,

I say to myself,

how can you help

but grow wise

with such teachings

as these 

the untrimmable light

of the world,

the ocean’s shine,

the prayers that are made

out of grass?

Mary Oliver_From "Why I Wake Early"

When Man Enters Woman

When man

enters woman,

like the surf biting the shore,

again and again,

and the woman opens her mouth with pleasure

and her teeth gleam

like the alphabet,

Logos appears milking a star,

and the man

inside of woman

ties a knot

so that they will

never again be separate

and the woman

climbs into a flower

and swallows its stem

and Logos appears

and unleashes their rivers.

This man,

this woman,

with their double hunger,

have tried to reach through

the curtain of God

and briefly they have,

though God

in His perversity

unties the knot.

Anne Sexton

The only reason we don’t open our hearts and minds to other people is that they trigger confusion in us that we don’t feel brave enough or sane enough to deal with. To the degree that we look clearly and compassionately at ourselves, we feel confident and fearless about looking into someone else’s eyes.

Pema Chödrön

Cherry blossoms

Fall at the peak of their beauty

In this world

To teach our hearts

To be free of attachment.

Rengetsu 

There is no light outside of yourself...you are the light.

Sunnydreams