Heart and Soul

Courage is the capacity to meet the anxiety which arises as one achieves freedom.
-Rollo May

When we neglect what matters most to us, that then becomes the matter with us.
-Paula M. Reeves

No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.
-Helen Keller

Join The Dance

"Music is a delight because of its rhythm and flow. Yet the moment you arrest its flow and prolong a note or chord beyond its time, the rhythm is destroyed. Struggle as we may, "fixing" will never make sense out of change. The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance."
Alan Watts, Anglican priest, philosopher, author and dean of the American Academy of Asian Studies in San Francisco, 1915-1973

We Could Never Fly

One day as a small opening appeared on a cocoon, a man sat for several hours watching the butterfly struggle to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no further. So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily, but it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened.

In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly. What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening was nature's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings. Then the butterfly would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If we were allowed to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could be. We could never fly.
-(from: Maat Foundation)

Grades of Character

Man is made or unmade by himself: in the armory of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself; he also fashions the tools by which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace.

By right choice and true application of thought, man ascends to the Divine Perfection; by the abuse and wrong application of thought, he descends below the level of the beast.

Between these two extremes are all the grades of character, and man is their maker and master.
-"As a Man Thinketh" - By James Allen

Rewarding Failure!

One very successful company I have worked with has a large banner hung over the entranceway that boldly proclaims, "Reward Failure." This may seem strange at first, but when you understand the logic behind it, the simple wisdom is apparent.

If no one fails, then no one is trying anything new, innovative, or different. This happens because people are afraid they will be punished if their efforts are not successful, so they play it safe and do things the way they have always done them. Meanwhile, the competition eats their lunch. Encouraging risk taking may mean the death of one idea that didn't work, but the attitude and the determination to improve will insure the long term survival of the organization.
Rewarding failure!
-"The Wisdom of Wolves" by Twyman L. Towery, Ph.D.

The Oak Sleeps in the Acorn

The oak sleeps in the acorn; The bird waits in the egg;
And in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs.
-As a Man Thinketh, by James Allen

Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions, but when he realizes that he is a creative power, and that he may command the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow, he then becomes the rightful master of himself.
-As a Man Thinketh " , by James Allen

Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are. Their whims, fancies, and ambitions are thwarted at every step, but their inmost thoughts and desires are fed with their own food, be it foul or clean. The "divinity that shapes our ends" is in ourselves, it is our very self. Man is manacled only by himself: thought and action are the jailers of Fate- they imprison, being base; they are also the angels of Freedom- they liberate, being noble. Not what he wishes and prays for does a man get, but what he justly earns. His wishes and prayers are only gratified and answered when they harmonize with his thoughts and actions.
-As a Man Thinketh " , by James Allen

Millions! and then what?

In a small Portuguese coastal village, a fishing boat was returning to port. An American, who happened to be on the pier, complimented the fisherman on the good quality of his catch and enquired how long had he been at sea.

The fisherman replied "Not very long."

"Well, why didn't you stay at sea and catch even more fish?" asked the American. The fisherman said that he had caught enough for his needs.

The American then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

"I sleep-in every morning, I fish a little, I play with my children, and I spend as much time as possible with my wife. In the evening I go to the village to see my friends. We drink port or iced beer and talk about the people coming and going in the village. In fact, my life is quite full."

The American interrupted him: "I have a fantastic plan for you! I have a Harvard MBA and I can show you how to get rich. You should start by fishing for a little longer each day. With the extra revenue, you could buy a bigger boat and be able to catch even more fish!

With the even greater profits, you could buy a second boat and so on until you own a fleet of fishing boats! Instead of selling your catch to a middleman, who reduces your profit, you could directly negotiate with the fish processor or better still, open your own cannery!

Then you can leave your small village and move your offices to Lisbon and from there to L.A., or even New York! From there you could direct all your businesses and expand globally.

The fisherman became thoughtful and said at last, "Well, your plan of my career is interesting. How much time will all this take?"

"10 or 20 years," replied the American.

“Really?! And then what?”

“After that?! This is where it gets interesting!" replied the American smiling with his perfect white teeth and laughing, "When that moment arrives, you float your company on the stock market! The sale of your stock to the public will earn you millions!"

“Millions! And then what?”

"Well, once have made your fortune, you could retire, reside in a small coastal village, sleep-in every morning, play with your children, go fishing for a while, take an afternoon nap with your wife and spend the evenings drinking and chatting with your
friends..."

...................................................................

Have you really examined why you work? The fisherman, while seeming naive, understood that one should not live to work but rather work to live. Work provides the money necessary for our basic needs and for enjoying our leisure, but it is not the goal. Work and money are nothing more than means for attaining a higher goal: a successful life, the highest achievement anyone can aspire to.

...................................................................

"Work is useful to life, but a life made
up of work is meaningless.”
- M. De. Cornovardt.

Time is short - music won't last

Have you ever watched kids on a merry-go round? Or listened to the rain slapping on the ground? You better slow down, don't dance so fast. Time is short, the music won't last.

Do you run through each day on the fly? When you ask after your loved ones, do you hear their reply? When the day is done, do you lie unhappy in your bed with the next day's chores running through your head? You'd better slow down, don't dance so fast Time is short, the music won't last.

Ever told your most precious person we'll meet tomorrow and in your haste not seen his or her sorrow? Ever lost touch, let a great friendship die because you didn't have the words or the time or the forgiveness to call and say `hi'?

You'd better slow down, don't dance so fast Time is short, the music won't last. When you run so fast to get somewhere You miss half the fun of getting there. Life is then an unopened gift... thrown away. Life is no race, do take it slower Hear the music before your song is over.

-Anon

Sun Never Says

Even
After
All this time.
The Sun Never Says to the earth,
"You owe
Me."

Look
What Happens
With a love like that,
It lights the
Whole
Sky.

- Hafez

Right Here!

When I am with you, we stay up all night.
When you're not here, I can't go to sleep.

Praise God for these two insomnias!
And the difference between them.

-Rumi

---

Do not look for God,
Look for the one
Looking for God.
Buy why look at all?
He is not lost.
He is right here,
Closer than your own breath.

-Rumi

---

Someday our souls will be one
And our union will be forever.
I know that everything I give you
Comes back to me.
So I give you my life,
Hoping that You
Will come back to me

-Rumi

Caller Calls Loud

I don't know what sort of God we have been talking about.

The caller calls in a loud voice to the Holy One at dusk.
Why? Surely the Holy One is not deaf.
He hears the delicate anklets that ring on the feet of an insect as it walks.

Go over and over your beads, paint weird designs on your forehead,
Wear your hair matted, long, and ostentatious,
But when deep inside you there is a loaded gun, how can you have God?

-Kabir

Water is Thirsty

I Laugh When I hear that the Fish in the Water is thirsty.
You don't grasp the fact that what is most alive of all is inside your own house;
and so you walk from one holy city to the next with a confused look!
Kabir will tell you the Truth: go wherever you like, to Calcutta or Tibet:
If you can't find where your soul is hidden,
For you the world will never be Real!

-Kabir

The Boat

The Guest is inside you, and also inside me;
You know the sprout is hidden inside the seed.
We are all struggling; none of us has gone far.
Let your arrogance go, and look around inside.

The blue sky opens farther and farther,
The daily sense of failure goes away,
The damage I have done to myself fades,
A million suns come forward with light,
When I sit firmly in that world.

I hear bells ringing that no one has shaken;
Inside "love" there is more joy than we know of;
Rain pours down, although the sky is clear of clouds;
There are whole rivers of light.
The universe is shot through in all parts by a single sort of love.
How hard it is to feel that joy in all our four bodies!

Those who hope to be reasonable about it fail.
The arrogance of reason has separated us from that love.
With the world "reason" you already feel miles away.

How lucky Kabir is, that surrounded by all this joy
He sings inside his own little boat.
His poems amount to one soul meeting another.
These songs are about forgetting dying and loss.
They rise above both coming in and going out.

-Saint Kabir

What I said to the Wanting-Creature

I said to the wanting-creature inside of me:
What is this river you want to cross?
There are no travelers on the river-road, and no road.
Do you see anyone moving about on that bank, or resting?
There is no river at all, and no boat, and no boatman.
There is no towrope either, and no one to pull it.
There is no ground, no sky, no time, no bank, no ford!
And there is no body, and no mind!
Do you believe there is some place that will make the soul less thirsty?
In that great absence you will find nothing.
Be strong then, and enter into your own body;
there you have a solid place for your feet.
Think about it carefully!
Don't go off somewhere else!
Kabir says this: just throw away all thoughts of imaginary things,
and stand firm in that which you are.

-Kabir (Saint from india)

Stop Being So Religious

What
Do Sad people have in
Common?

It seems
They have all built a shrine
To the past

And often go there
And do a strange wail and
Worship.

What is the beginning of
Happiness?

It is to stop being
so religious
Like
That.

by Hafez

Death

Death is a Dialogue between
The Spirit and the Dust.
"Dissolve" says Death—The Spirit "Sir
I have another Trust"—

Death doubts it—Argues from the Ground—
The Spirit turns away
Just laying off for evidence
An Overcoat of Clay.

-Emily Dickinson

Shadows Flee Away..

I am your friend and my love for you goes deep. There is nothing I can give you which you have not got, but there is much, very much that while I cannot give it, you can take.

No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today. Take heaven! No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant. Take peace!

The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach is joy. There is radiance and glory in the darkness could we but see - and to see we have only to look. I beseech you to look!

Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its gifts by the covering, cast them away as ugly, or heavy or hard. Remove the covering and you will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love, by wisdom, with power.

Welcome it, grasp it, touch the angel's hand that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial, a sorrow, or a duty, believe me, that angel's hand is there, the gift is there, and the wonder of an overshadowing presence. Our joys, too, be not content with them as joys. They, too, conceal diviner gifts.

Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty - beneath its covering - that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven.

Courage, then, to claim it, that is all. But courage you have, and the knowledge that we are all pilgrims together, wending through unknown country, home.

And so, at this time, I greet you. Not quite as the world sends greetings, but with profound esteem and with the prayer
that for you now and forever, the day breaks, and the shadows flee away.

letter written by Fra Giovanni, 1513

if you can find a path with no obstacles,
it probably doesn't lead anywhere.
-anon

Its Not Hard

Once Mother Theresa was asked how she could continue day after day after day, visiting the terminally ill: feeding them, touching them, wiping their brows, giving them comfort as they lay dying.

And she said, "It's not hard, because in each one I see the face of Christ in one of His more distressing disguises."

And that is Mother's teaching: To urge us to see the face of Christ in each of His numerous disguises wherever we go.

Her plea was that we look for holiness not just in those who are ill or hungry or in obvious pain, but in the all the others, too. I mean those who are suffering from spiritual despair or emotional imprisonments which block their aliveness; restrict their freedom and wall them off from limitless joy and self realization.

These beings too, need our Silent Love for their pain is just as deep.

That is Mother Theresa's message about spiritual healing. And the truth is there are countless numbers of brothers and sisters who urgently need our blessing.

You don't have to go far to find them. They're right beside you at work; they drive next to you on the freeway. They shop with you at the grocery store.

In fact, you can probably find someone you need to bless right in your own mirror.

by Elsa Joy Bailey

The Further One goes

Without going out the door
one can know the whole world

Without glancing out the window
one can see the ways of Heaven

The further one goes - the less one knows

Thus the Sage does not go
yet he knows he does not look
yet he sees he does not do
yet all is done.

Lao Te Ching

Unseen Rain

My work is to carry this love
as comfort for those who long for You;
to go everywhere You've walked
and gaze at the pressed-down dirt.

What I most want
is to spring out of this personality,
then to sit apart from that leaping.
I've lived too long where I can be reached.

Who says the eternal being does not exist?
Who says the sun has gone out?
Someone who climbs up on the roof,
and closes his eyes tight, and says,
--I don't see anything.

.....With one silent laugh
You tilted the night
and the garden ran with stars.

From UNSEEN RAIN, By: Rumi

May God Give You

On his way to church, a scholar was surprised to see a man in tattered clothes and barefoot. Nevertheless, as a good Christian, he greeted the poor man: "May God give you a good morning!"

The poor man replied cheerfully, "I have never yet had a bad morning."

"Then may God give you good luck!"

"I have never yet had bad luck."

"Well, may God give you happiness!"

"I have never yet been unhappy."

The scholar then asked the man, "Could you you please explain yourself to me? I do not understand."

And the poor man replied, "With pleasure! You wish me a good morning, yet I have never had a bad morning. For when I am hungry, I praise God; when I feel cold, or when it is raining or snowing, I praise God; and that is why I have never had a bad morning.

"You wish that God may give me luck. However, I have never had bad luck. This is because I live with God and always feel what he does for me is the best. Whatever God sends me, be it pleasant or unpleasant, I accept with a grateful heart. That is why I have never had bad luck.

"Finally, you wish that God should make me happy. But I have never been unhappy. For all I desire is to follow God's will; I have surrendered my will so totally to God's will that, whatever God wants, that is what I also want.

"That is why I have never been unhappy."

by Meister Eckhart

Right Here

Look to this day!
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief span lie all the verities
and realities of your existence--
the bliss of growth, the glory of action,
the splendour of achievement.

For Yesterday
is but a dream and Tomorrow is only a vision;
but Today, well lived, can make Yesterday
a dream of Joy, and Tomorrow a vision of Hope.

Look well, therefore to this day.
Such is the Salutation to the Dawn.

by Kalidasa from "Meghadootam"
translated from the Sanskrit