Poems & Quotes

"The most beautiful
and most profound emotion
we can experience
is the sensation of the mystical.
It is the source
of all true science.
He to whom the emotion
is a stranger,
who can no longer wonder
and stand rapt in awe,
is as good as dead.
To know that
what is impenetrable to us
really exists, manifesting itself
as the highest wisdom
and the most radiant beauty
which our dull faculties
can comprehend
only in their primitive forms,
this knowledge,
this feeling
is the center
of true experience.”
–Albert Einstein

Joy in life
comes from
expressing ourselves,
in taking risks
and jumping in.
–Andrew Matthews

Beliefs hide the truth.
Truth is to be experienced
not learned.
–St Germain

"Our real blessings
often appear to us
in the shape of pains, losses
and disappointments;
but let us have patience
and we soon shall see them
in their proper figures."
–Joseph Addison

“Take the first step in faith.
You don't have to see
the whole staircase,
just take the first step."
–Martin Luther King Jr.

Beliefs hide the truth.
Truth is to be experienced
not learned.
–St Germain

"We cannot live
only for ourselves.
A thousand fibers
connect us.
–Herman Melville

"When you see a good man
think of emulating him;
when you see a bad man,
examine your own heart."
–Confucius

A poor devotee
points to the sky and says,
God is up there."

An average devotee says,
"God dwells in the heart
as the Inner Master."

The best devotee says,
"God alone IS
and everything I perceive
is a form of God."
–Hindu

"It's not so much how busy you are, but why you are busy.
The bee is praised.
The mosquito is swatted."
–Mary O'Connor

“Remember your own experience in the shattering of your belief
system? It is the same for all people. Religion is a learned way to
worship God. Man needs to
experience God directly before he realizes that he and God are one.”
–Rev. Betty Tatalajski

On The Way---The DailyZen Journal
www.dailyzen.com
Sayings of Daikaku (1203-1268) - Part I

Zen practice is not clarifying
conceptual distinctions, but throwing away one's preconceived views
along with the sacred texts and all the rest, and then piercing through the layers
covering over the spring of self behind them.

All of the holy ones have turned within
and sought the self
and by this went beyond all doubt.
To turn within
means all the twenty-four hours
and in every situation,
to pierce one by one through the layers
covering the self, deeper and deeper,
to a place which cannot be described.
It is then that thinking comes to an end
and making distinctions ceases;
wrong views and ideas
disappear of themselves
without having to be driven forth with;
and without being sought
the true action and true impulse
appear of themselves.
It is then one can know
the truth of the heart.

“They live in freedom
who have gone beyond
the dualtities of life.
Completing with no one,
they are alike in success and failure
and content
with whatever comes to them.
They are free,
without selfish attachments;
their minds are fixed in knowledge.
They perform all work
in the spirit of service,
and their karma is dissolved.”

–Bhagavad Gita
4:22-23 translated by Eknath Easwaran

WORDS OF WISDOM
on the Web chosen by Lama Surya Das

I have learned so much from God
that I can no longer call myself
a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim,
a Buddhist, a Jew.
The truth has shared so much
of itself with me
that I can no longer call myself
a man, a woman, an angel
or even a pure soul.
Love has befriended Hafiz
so completely
it has turned to ash and freed me
of every concept and image
my mind has ever known.

~ Hafiz
Thanks Peter

"Do not wait for leaders;
do it alone, person to person."
–Mother Teresa

Love in the past is
only a memory.
Love in the future is a fantasy.
Only here and now
can we truly love.
–Buddha

The Perfect Way
is only difficult for those
who pick and choose.
Do not like, do not dislike;
all will then be clear.
Make a hairbreadth difference,
and Heaven and Earth are set apart.
– Seng-Ts'an

The Perfect Way
is only difficult for those
who pick and choose.
Do not like, do not dislike;
all will then be clear.
Make a hairbreadth difference,
and Heaven and Earth are set apart.
– Seng-Ts'an

It is easy to love
the people far away.
It is not always easy
to love those close to us.
It is easier
to give a cup of rice
to relieve hunger
than to relieve the loneliness
and pain of someone unloved
in our own home.
Bring love into your home
for this is where our love
for each other must start.”

— Mother Teresa

TOUCHING
Touch my heart
give me the pleasure.
Touch my heart
for now and ever.
Touch my heart
it beats anew
Touch my heart
it longs for you.

Touched your heart
your soul and mind.

Touched your heart
so warm and kind.

Touched your heart
with love so strong
Touched and touched
our love lives on.

Touched our hearts
Touched our lips
Touched our hair
-and fingertips
Touched and touched
all day long
Touching, touching
now has gone
My love for you
when two were one.
–Richard Talbot Tully
©2001