Our duty is wakefulness, the fundamental condition of life itself. The unseen, the unheard, the untouchable is what weaves the fabric of our see-able universe together.

Robin Craig Clark

The real meditation is how you live your life.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

The little things?

The little moments?

They aren't little.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

Spiritual opening is not a withdrawal to some imagined realm or safe cave. It is not a pulling away, but a touching of all the experience of life with wisdom and with a heart of kindness, without any separation. 

Jack Kornfield

Art by: Carmelo Blandino

You have to watch, as you watch a lizard going by, walking across the wall, seeing all its four feet, how it sticks to the wall, you have to watch it, and as you watch, you see all the movements, the delicacy of its movements. So in the same way, watch your thinking, do not correct it, do not suppress it--do not say it is too hard--just watch it...  

Jiddu Krishnamurti

The past is already past. Don’t try to regain it. The present does not stay. Don’t try to touch it. From moment to moment, the future has not come; don’t think about it beforehand. Whatever comes to the eye, leave it be. There are no commandments to be kept; There’s no filth to be cleansed. With empty mind really penetrated, the dharmas have no life.When you can be like this, you’ve completed the ultimate attainment.

Layman P’ang

The passing days and months

are eternal travelers in time.  

Basho

The Journey

A day begins; there are no promises.

Maybe the sun will shine, or not.

No one can be sure who is around that corner

or what news this next call might bring.

Seasons arrive like clockwork but how

they will turn out is a mystery. Still...

One day we will slip from our bodies

and slide into the Light; this we know.

Perhaps to rouse from sleep and put aside

the fear that hunts our hearts,

we could live each day

as if the Light was already ours.

Listen: The heart hears a deeper truth

than the head. Even the loneliest

one is never alone on

the winding journey home.

Arlene Gay Levine

Here is the road: the light 

comes and goes then returns again.

Be gentle with your fellow travelers

as they move through the world of stone and stars

whirling with you yet every one alone.

The road waits.

Do not ask questions but when it invites you

to dance at daybreak, say yes. 

Each step is the journey; a single note the song.

Arlene Gay Levine

(From Bless the Day: Prayers and Poems to Nurture Your Soul)

Photograph by: Wynn Bullock

 The greatest achievement is selflessness.

 The greatest worth is self-mastery.

 The greatest quality is seeking to serve others.

 The greatest precept is continual awareness.

 The greatest medicine is the emptiness of everything.

 The greatest action is not conforming with the world’s ways.

 The greatest magic is transmuting the passions.

 The greatest generosity is non-attachment.

 The greatest goodness is peace of mind.

 The greatest practice is humility.

 The greatest effort is not concerned with results.

 The greatest meditation is a mind that lets go.

 The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances.

Atisha

I think over again my small adventures,

my fears,those small ones that seemed so big,

all those vital things I had to get and to reach,

and yet there is only one great thing:

to live and see the great day that dawns

and the light that fills the world.

Innuit Traditional Song

The stuffed rabbit asked, “What is real?” 

And the rabbit asked, “Does it hurt?” 

And the horse said, “Sometimes.” 

“Does it happen all at once?” 

“It takes a long time. Generally, by the time you are real, most of your hair has been loved off, your eyes dropped out, and you get loose in the joints. But these things don’t matter at all because you are real. You can’t be ugly except to people who don’t understand.”

The Velveteen Rabbit

Humans born into this floating world

Quickly become like the roadside dust: 

At dawn small children, 

By sunset already grown white-haired, 

Without inner understanding, 

They struggle without cease. 

I ask the children of the universe: 

For what reason do you pass this way?

Ryokan

If it is peace you want, seek to change yourself, not other people. It is easier to protect your feet with slippers than to carpet the whole of the earth.

Anthony de Mello

In the the game of hide and seek 

the only person you can't hide away from

 is yourself.

Sunnydreams

Impermanence is not something to be afraid of. It’s the evolution, a never-ending horizon.

Deepak Chopra

Nothing is more important than reconnecting with your bliss. 

Nothing is as rich.

Nothing is more real.

Deepak Chopra

To be fully alive, fully human, 

and completely awake 

is to be continually thrown

 out of the nest.

Pema Chödrön

Live quietly in the moment and see the beauty of all before you.

 The future will take care of itself.

Parmahansa Yogananda

Learn to lose everything; we are temporary arrangements

Alanis Morissette

If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.

Buddha

Where you come from is gone, 

where you thought you were going to was never there,

and where you are is no good unless you can get away from it. 

Where is there a place for you to be? 

No place...

Nothing outside you can give you any place...

In yourself right now is all the place you've got.

Flannery O'Connor

Life is available to you only as much as you are available to life.

Sunnydreams

Happiness is a choice, not a result. Nothing will make you happy until you choose to be happy. No person will make you happy unless you decide to be happy. Your happiness will not come to you. It can only come from you.

Ralph Marston

The key to meditation is to exist one hundred percent in the here and now.

Ilchi Lee

In meditation we discover our inherent restlessness. Sometimes we get up and leave. Sometimes we sit there but our bodies wiggle and squirm and our minds go far away. This can be so uncomfortable that we feel’s it’s impossible to stay. 

Yet this feeling can teach us not just about ourselves but what it is to be human…we really don’t want to stay with the nakedness of our present experience.

It goes against the grain to stay present. These are the times when only gentleness and a sense of humor can give us the strength to settle down…so whenever we wander off, we gently encourage ourselves to “stay” and settle down. 

Are we experiencing restlessness? Stay! 

Are fear and loathing out of control? Stay! 

Aching knees and throbbing back? Stay! 

What’s for lunch? Stay! 

I can’t stand this another minute! Stay!

Pema Chödrön

Be soft.

Do not let the world make you hard.

Do not let the pain make you hate.

Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness.

Take pride that even though the rest

of the world may disagree,

you still believe it to be a beautiful place.

Hazrat Inayat Khan

Real power is showing up with your heart on your sleeve and absolutely refusing to waste one moment of your life hidden behind edginess and armour.

Jeff Brown

If you wish to glimpse inside a human soul and get to know a man, don't bother analyzing his ways of being silent, of talking, of weeping, of seeing how much he is moved by noble ideas; you will get better results if you just watch him laugh. If he laughs well, he's a good man.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky