Modesty creates success

The wise man gladly leaves fame to others. He does not seek to have credited to himself things that stand accomplished, but hopes to release active forces; that is, he works in such a manner that they may bear fruit for the future.

It is only when we have the courage to face things exactly as they are, without any sort of self-deception or illusion, that a light will develop out of events, by which the path to success may be recognised. This recognition must be followed by resolute and persevering action.

Danger arises when a man feels secure in his position. Destruction threatens when a man seeks to preserve his worldly estate. Confusion develops when a man has put everything in order. Therefore, the superior man does not forget danger in his security, nor ruin when he is well established, nor confusion when his affairs are in order. In this way he gains personal safety and is able to protect the empire.

Modesty creates success. The superior man carries things through. The destinies of men are subject to immutable laws that must fulfil themselves. But man has it in his power to shape his fate, according as his behaviour exposes him to the influence of benevolent or destructive forces.

Modesty is not to be confused with weak good nature that lets things take their own course. When a man holds a responsible position, he must at times resort to energetic measures.

- From the “I Ching”, Book of Changes (@ www.timesofindia.com)

Be and Become

All the Buddhas of all the ages have been telling you a very simple fact: Be -- don't try to become. Within these two words, be and becoming, your whole life is contained. Being is enlightenment, becoming is ignorance.

- Osho

Falling in love

Falling in love you remain a child; rising in love you mature. By and by love becomes not a relationship, it becomes a state of your being. Not that you are in love - now you are love.

- Osho

No-mind is clarity

Mind is repetitive, mind always moves in circles. Mind is a mechanism: you feed it with knowledge, it repeats the same knowledge, it goes on chewing the same knowledge again and again. No-mind is clarity, purity, innocence. No-mind is the real way to live, the real way to know, the real way to be.

- Osho

Heart is always right

The heart is always right-- if there's a question of choosing between the mind and the heart-- because mind is a creation of the society. It has been educated. You have been given it by the society, not by existence. The heart is unpolluted.

- Osho

Full of Junk

Man has to be absolutely empty, only then is the space created for God to descend in him. And we are so full of rubbish, so full of junk; even if God wants to enter he will not find any place inside. Our cups are full... We have to empty the cup completely.

- Osho

The Special Relationship

The bombs go off
The legs go off
The heads go off

The arms go off
The feet go off
The light goes out

The heads go off
The legs go off
The lust is up

The dead are dirt
The lights go out
The dead are dust

A man bows down before another man
And sucks his lust.

- Harold Pinter (Nobel Laureate, 2005)

Note:
The poem above refers to the cozy US-UK war alliance, and the atrocities committed on Iraqi soldiers at Abu Ghraib.

Between two breaths

A life-time is not what's between,
The moments of birth and death.
A life-time is one moment,
Between my two little breaths.

The present, the here, the now,
That's all the life I get,

I live each moment,
In full, in kindness, in peace,
without regret.

- Chade Meng

Guarded mind

The mind is very difficult to see,
Very delicate and subtle;
It moves and lands wherever it pleases.

The wise one should guard his mind,
For a guarded mind brings happiness.

- Dhammapada

Autumn's colors dropping

Autumn's colors dropping
from branches in masses of failing leaves.

Cold clouds bringing rain
into the crannies of the mountains:

Everyone was born with the same sort of eyes;
Why do mine keep seeing things as a Zen koan?

- Muso

Misspent time

An inch of time is an inch of gold:
Treasure it.
Appreciate its fleeting nature;

Misplaced gold is easily found,
Misspent time is lost forever.

- Loy Ching-Yuen

Simply wait!

You do not need to leave your room.
Remain sitting at your table and listen.
Do not even listen, simply wait.
Do not even wait, be still and solitary.

The world will freely offer itself to you
To be unmasked, it has no choice.
It will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

- Frantz Kafka

Toss out one, hold other..

Where there is beauty, there is ugliness.
When something is right, something else is wrong.

Knowledge and ignorance depend on each other.
It has been like this since the beginning.
How could it be otherwise now?

Wanting to toss out one and hold onto the other
makes for a ridiculous comedy.

You must still deal with everything ever-changing,
even when you say it’s wonderful.

- Ryokan

Nothing to choose, nothing to discard

Daily,
Nothing particular,
Only nodding to myself,
Nothing to choose, nothing to discard.
No coming, no going,
No person in purple,
Blue mountains without a speck of dust.
I exercise occult and subtle powers,
Carrying water,
Shouldering firewood.

- Ho Koji

Sage has no name

The perfect man has no self;
the spiritual man has no achievement;
the sage has no name.

- Chuang Tzu

Nothing is hidden

See with your eyes,
hear with your ears.
Nothing is hidden.

- Tenkei

Sacred prayers

I have not heard of a sinlge Buddha,
past or present,
who has been enlightened by
sacred prayers and scriptures.

- Bassui

Spring comes, grass grows by itself

Good and evil have no self nature;
Holy and unholy are empty names;

In front of the door is the land of stillness and quiet;
Spring comes, grass grows by itself.

- Seung Sahn

With Empty Mind..

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

Thinking about it

Though I think not
To think about it,
I do think about it
And shed tears
Thinking about it.

- Ryokan

Important thing

The most important thing is to find out
what is the most important thing.

- Shunryu Suzuki

Whole moon and entire sky!

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water.
The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken.

Although its light is wide and great,
The moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide.
The whole moon and the entire sky
Are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.

-- Dogen

Sweet taste of wine

You, who in carnal lusts your time employ,
Wearing your precious spirit with annoy,
Know that these things you set your heart upon
Sooner or later must the soul destroy!

They say in heaven are beautiful lovers
Sweet taste of wine in the air hovers
Fear not if succumbed to same earthly powers
In the end the same, one discovers.

- Omar Khayyam

Before time was

True I drink wine, like every man of sense,
For I know Allah will not take offense;
Before time was, He know that I should drink,
And who am I to thwart His prescience?

- Omar Khayyam

Their dogmas were but air

They that have passed away, and gone before,
Sleep in delusion's dust for evermore;

Go, boy, and fetch some wine, this is the truth,
Their dogmas were but air, and wind their lore!

- Omar Khayyam

Built on empty wind

O unenlightened race of humankind,
Ye are a nothing, built on empty wind!
Yea, a mere nothing, hovering in the abyss,
A void before you, and a void behind!

- Omar Khayyam

Ek lafz se mohabbat hai

Ek lafz se mohabbat hai
adna sa fasana hai
simte to dil-e-aashik
faile to zamana hai

- Jigar Muradabadi

When you're in love

You know you're in love
when you can't fall asleep
because reality is
finally better than your dreams.

- Sam Keen

False Optimism

Burnout is nature's way of telling you, you've been going through the motions your soul has departed; you're a zombie, a member of the walking dead, a sleepwalker. False optimism is like administrating stimulants to an exhausted nervous system.

- Sam Keen

You come to love

You come to love
not by finding the perfect person
but by seeing
an imperfect person perfectly.

- Sam Keen

From behind the veil

Some look for truth in creeds, and forms, and rules;
Some grope for doubts or dogmas in the schools;

But from behind the veil a voice proclaims,
"Your road lies neither here nor there, O fools. "

- Omar Khayyam

Behind the veil

The secrets eternal neither you know nor I
And answers to the riddle neither you know nor I
Behind the veil there is much talk about us, why
When the veil falls, neither you remain nor I.

- Omar Khayyam

Both paths leads astray..

Some are thoughtful on their way
Some are doubtful, so they pray.
I hear the hidden voice that may
Shout, "Both paths lead astray."

- Omar Khayyam

I have plucked your flower, O'World!

I have plucked your flower, O world!
I pressed it to my heart
and the thorn pricked.
When the day waned
and it darkened, I found that
the flower had faded,
but the pain remained.

More flowers will come to you
with perfume and pride, O world!
But my time for flower-gathering is over,
and through the dark night
I have not my rose, only the pain remains.

- Rabindranath Tagore ('The Gardener')

Break every chain

From the depths of earth to heights of Saturn
We’ve solved all riddles, turn after turn
Break every chain, our ignorance burn
Except the riddle that fills the urn.

- Omar Khayyam

Divorce my mind

Tonight I shall embrace a gallon cup
With at least two cups of wine I‘ll sup
I’ll divorce my mind and religion stop
With daughter of vine, all night I’ll stay up.

- Omar Khayyam

A few cups back

All my companions, one by one died
With Angel of Death they now reside
In the banquette of life same wine we tried
A few cups back, they fell to the side.

- Omar Khayyam

In love i pay my endless debt to thee

I touch God in my song
as the hill touches the far-away sea
with its waterfall.

The butterfly counts not months but moments,
and has time enough.

Let my love, like sunlight, surround you
and yet give you illumined freedom.

Love remains a secret even when spoken,
for only a lover truly knows that he is loved.

Emancipation from the bondage of the soil
is no freedom for the tree.

In love i pay my endless debt to thee
for what thou art.

-- Rabindranath Tagore

Do not go, my love..

Do not go, my love, without asking my leave.
I have watched all night,
and now my eyes are heavy with sleep
I fear lest I lose you when Iam sleeping.

Do not go, my love, without asking my leave.
I start up and stretch my hands to touch you.
I ask myself, "Is it a dream?"
Could I but entangle your feet
with my heart and hold them
fast my breast!
Do not go, my love, without asking my leave.

-- Rabindranath Tagore (From 'The Gardener')

Before we can find it

Even if we travel the world
in search of beauty,
we must first have it in ourselves
before we can find it.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Part for you, part for me

Nothing happens by chance, my friend...
No such thing as luck.
A meaning behind every little thing,
and such a meaning behind this.

Part for you, part for me,
may not see it all real clear right now,
but we will, before long.

- Richard Bach (from "Nothing By Chance")