Two roads - I took the one less traveled by

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

- Robert Frost

Searching for what’s not lost

You who seek God apart, apart,
The thing you seek, thou art, thou art;
Why then search for what you have not lost?
Searching for what’s not lost, distrust, distrust!

- Jalal-e-Din Mevlavi Rumi

Caravan of life

One Moment in Annihilation's Waste,
One moment, of the Well of Life to taste--
The Stars are setting, and the Caravan
Starts for the dawn of Nothing--Oh, make haste!

- Omar Khayyam

Life is Difficult

Life is difficult
This is a great truth,
one of the greatest truths.

It is a great truth because
once we truly see this truth,
we transcend it.

Once we truly know that life is difficult,
once we truly understand and accept it,
then life is no longer difficult.

Because once it is accepted,
the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.

- M. Scott Peck (The Road Less Travelled)

Watch The Thought

The thought manifests as the word;
The word manifests as the deed;
The deed develops into habit;
And habit hardens into character;
So watch the thought and its ways with care,
And let it spring from love
Born out of concern for all beings.

- The Buddha

So the darkness shall be the light

I said to my soul, be still,
and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing;

Wait without love
For love would be love of the wrong thing;
there is yet faith
But the faith and the love
and the hope are all in the waiting.

Wait without thought,
for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light,
and the stillness the dancing.

- T.S. Eliot

Dried Brown Strands

Ripeness is
what falls away with ease.
Not only the heavy apple,
the pear,
but also the dried brown strands
of autumn iris from their core.

- Jane Hirshfield

I Want - Only That

Whatever happens. Whatever
what is is is what
I want. Only that. But that.

- Galway Kinnell

Dance in a Spring Wind

This is now. Now is,
all there is. Don't wait for Then;
strike the spark, light the fire.

Sit at the Beloved's table,
feast with gusto, drink your fill

Then dance
the way branches
of jasmine and cypress
dance in a spring wind.

The green earth
is your cloth;
tailor your robe
with dignity and grace.

- Rumi

They run, and they run

A lover doesn't figure the odds.

He figures he came clean from God
as a gift without a reason,
so he gives without cause
or calculation or limit.

A lover gambles everything, the self,
the circle around the zero! He or she
cuts and throws it all away.

This is beyond any religion.

Lovers do not require from God any proof,
or any text, nor do they knock on a door
to make sure this is the right street.

They run, and they run.

- Rumi

Make a Cup

You say nothing is created?
Don't worry. With clay
of the earth make a cup
so your brother can drink.

- Antonio Machado

Wise man teach us

In our souls everything
moves guided by a mysterious hand.
We know nothing of our own souls
that are ununderstandable and say nothing.

The deepest words
of the wise man teach us
the same as the whistle of the wind when it blows
or the sound of the water when it is flowing.

- Antonio Machado

For the sake of other men

Strange is our situation here upon earth.
Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why,
yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose…

Strange is our situation here upon earth.
Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why,
yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose.

From the standpoint of daily life, however
there is one thing we do know:
that man is here for the sake of other men

above all for those upon whose smile
and well-being our own happiness depends,
and also for the countless unknown souls
whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy.

- Albert Einstein

Empty and be full

Yield and overcome;
Bend and be straight;
Empty and be full;
Wear out and be new;
Have little and gain;
Have much and be confused.

- Lao Tzu

Different kinds of good weather

Sunshine is delicious,
rain is refreshing,
wind braces us up,
snow is exihilerating;
there is really no such thing a bad weather,
only different kinds of good weather.

- John Rushkin

Grown beyond their greed

Blessed are the man and the woman
who have grown beyond their greed
and who have put an end to their hatred
and no longer nourish illusions.
But they delight in the way things are
and keep their hearts open, day and night.

They are like trees planted near flowing rivers,
which bear fruit when they are ready.
Their leaves will not fall or wither.
Everything they do will succeed.

- Psalm 1

Grown beyond their greed

Blessed are the man and the woman
who have grown beyond their greed
and who have put an end to their hatred
and no longer nourish illusions.
But they delight in the way things are
and keep their hearts open, day and night.

They are like trees planted near flowing rivers,
which bear fruit when they are ready.
Their leaves will not fall or wither.
Everything they do will succeed.

- Psalm 1

Grown beyond their greed

Blessed are the man and the woman
who have grown beyond their greed
and who have put an end to their hatred
and no longer nourish illusions.
But they delight in the way things are
and keep their hearts open, day and night.

They are like trees planted near flowing rivers,
which bear fruit when they are ready.
Their leaves will not fall or wither.
Everything they do will succeed.

- Psalm 1

The oak sleeps in the acorn

Dream lofty dreams,
and as you dream, so shall you become.
Your Vision is the promise of what you shall one day be.
Your Ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.

The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream.
The oak sleeps in the acorn;
the bird waits in the egg; and
in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs.
Dreams are the seedlings of realities

- James Allen - As a man Thinketh

When Spirit Rises and Commands

You will be what you will to be;
Let failure find its false content
In that poor word, "environment,"
But spirit scorns it, and is free.

Be not impatient in delay,
But wait as one who understands;
When spirit rises and commands,
The gods are ready to obey.

- James Allen - As a man Thinketh

Thought and Purpose

He who has conquered doubt and fear
has conquered failure.
His every thought is allied with power, and
all difficulties are bravely met and wisely overcome.

His purposes are seasonably planted, and
they bloom and bring forth fruit which
does not fall prematurely to the ground.

- James Allen - As A Man Thinketh

Stand together, yet not too near together

Love one another but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf

And stand together, yet not too near together;
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow

- Kahlil Gibran (The Prophet) - About Marriage

Quite Astonishingly Beautiful

The universe is still and complete.
Everything that ever was, is;
everything that ever will be, is
and so on, in all possible combinations.

Though in perceiving it we imagine
that it is in motion, and unfinished,
it is quite finished and quite astonishingly beautiful.

- Dr. Wayne Dyer

Standing back far enough

Nothing is predetermined;
it is determined, or was determined, or will be determined.
No matter, it all happened at once, in less than an instant,
and time was invented because we cannot comprehend in one glance
the enormous and detailed canvas that we have been given
so we track it, in linear fashion, piece by piece.

Time, however, can be easily overcome;
not by chasing light,
but by standing back far enough
to see it all at once.

- Dr. Wayne Dyer

Nothing is Random in this world

Nothing is random, nor will anything ever be, whether a long string of perfectly blue days that begin and end in golden dimness, the most seemingly chaotic political acts, the rise of a great city, the crystalline structure of a gem that has never seen the light, the distributions of fortune, what time the milkman gets up, the position of the electron, or the occurrence of one astonishingly frigid winter after another.

Even electrons, supposedly the paragons of unpredictability, are tame and obsequious little creatures that rush around at the speed of light, going precisely where they are supposed to go. They make faint whistling sounds that when apprehended in varying combinations are as pleasant as the wind flying through a forest, and they do exactly as they are told. Of this, one can be certain.

- Dr. Wayne Dyer

Bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger

Work is love made visible.
And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste,
It is better that you should leave your work and
Sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
For if you bake bread with indifference,
You bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger.
And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes,
Your grudge distils a poison in the wine.
And if you sing though as angels and not love the singing,
You muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.

- Kahlil Gibran

Rejoice in the way things are

Fame or integrity: which is more important?
Money or happiness: which is more valuable?
Success or failure: which is more destructive?
If you look to others for fulfillment,
you will never truly be fulfilled.
If your happiness depends on money,
you will never be happy with yourself.
Be content with what you have;
rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize that nothing is lacking,
the whole world belongs to you!

- Lao Tzu

Expressions of a single Whole

A mystic sees beyond the illusion of separateness
into the intricate web of life in which all things
are expressions of a single Whole.
You can call this web God, the Tao, the Great Spirit,
the Infinite Mystery, Mother or Father,
but it can be known only as love.

- Joan Borysenko

Raise your Sails

To be empty, completely empty, is not a fearsome thing
It is absolutely essential for the mind to be unoccupied
to be empty, unenforced, for then only,
it can move into unknown depths.

- J. Krishnamurti

The winds of grace are always blowing
but it is you that much raise your sails.

- Rabindarath Tagore

life is the creation of our mind

What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday,
and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow:
Our life is the creation of our mind.

If a man speaks or acts with an impure mind,
suffering follows him as the wheel of the cart
follows the beast that draws the cart.

If a man speaks or acts with a pure mind,
Joy follows him as his own shadow…

- Buddha

Decides for the moment

The superior man goes through his life
without any one pre-conceived
course of action or any taboo.
He merely decides for the moment
what is the right thing to do.

- Confucius

Complete Education

To accuse others for one’s misfortunes
is a sign of want of education.
To accuse oneself
shows that one’s education has begun.
To accuse neither oneself nor others
shows one’s education is complete.

- Epictetus

Floats on the Wind

There is a land where doubt and sorrows do not reign,
where the terror of death is unknown.
Its woods are floored with the flowers of spring,
and a fragrance, “I am He,” floats on the wind.
There, the bee of the heart is drowning in nectar
and desires no other joy.

- Saint Kabir

His thoughts and his feelings

A human being is part of the whole called by us a universe - a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and his feelings, as something separate from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.

This delusion is a kind of prison for us; it restricts us to our personal decisions and our affections to a few persons nearest to us.

Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

- Albert Einstein

Dream world of matter

The spirit of humankind is inseparable from the Infinite,
and can be satisfied with nothing short of the Infinite,
and the burden of pain will continue to weigh each persons heart,
and the shadows of sorrow continue to darken their pathway until,
ceasing from wanderings in the dream world of matter,
he or she comes back to their home in the reality of the Eternal.

- James Allen

Independence of Solitude

It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinions
it is easy in solitude to live after our own
but the Great Man is he who in the midst of the crowd
keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tools of Thought

Mind is the master planner that molds and makes
And man is mind and forever more he takes,

The tools of thought and shaping what he wills
Brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills

He thinks in secret and it comes to pass
His environment is but his looking glass

- James Allen

Birth is Suffering

Birth is suffering,
old age is suffering,
death is suffering,
grief, lamentation, discomfort, unhappiness and despair are suffering;
to wish for something and not obtain it is suffering;
briefly the five factors of attachment are suffering.

- Buddha

Pure Life

On life's journey
Faith is nourishment,
Virtuous deeds are a shelter,
Wisdom is the light by day and
Right mindfulness is the protection by night.
If a man lives a pure life nothing can destroy him;
If he has conquered greed nothing can limit his freedom.

- Buddha

Wisely and Earnestly

The secret of health for both mind and body
is not to mourn for the past,
worry about the future,
or anticipate troubles
but to live in the present moment
wisely and earnestly.

-Buddha

Joy follows a pure thought

We are what we think,
having become what we thought.
Like the wheel that follows the cart-pulling ox,
sorrow follows an evil thought.

And joy follows a pure thought,
like a shadow faithfully tailing a man.
We are what we think,
having become what we thought.

- Dhammapada

Emptiness and pain

I have lived and I have loved
I have waked and I have slept
I have sung and I have danced
I have smiled and I have wept
I have won and I have wasted treasure
I have had my fill of pleasure
And all these things were weariness
And some of them were dreariness
And all these things - but two things
Were emptiness and pain
And Love - it was the best of them
And Sleep - worth all the rest of them

- Anon

Souls dwell in the house of tomorrow

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

-Khalil Gibran

While the dawn is still dark

Faith is the bird
that feels the light
and sings
while the dawn is still dark.

-Rabindranath Tagore