The grass must bend when the wind blows accross it.

Confucius

Do not be despondent because of ill-fate; there cannot be sesame-oil without crushing the sesame seeds.

Pancatantra II

Heaven's Way

Heaven's Way is to nourish, not to harm.

The Sage's Way is to work, yet not compete.

John R. Mabry in "The Little Book of The Tao Te Ching" page 48

Know the divine

If you wish to know the divine, feel the wind on your face and the warm sun on your hand.

Jack Kornfield in "Buddha's Little Instruction Book" page 123.

Right presence of mind

This state, in which nothing definite is thought, planned, striven for, desired or expected, which aims in no particular direction and yet knows itself capable alike of the possible and the impossible, so unswerving is its power - this state, which is at bottom purposeless and egoless, was called by the Master truly 'spiritual'. It is in fact charged with spiritual awareness and is therefore also called 'right presence of mind'. This means that the mind or spirit is present everywhere, because it is nowhere attached to any particular place. And it can remain present because, even when related to this or that object, it does not cling to it by reflection and thus lose its original mobility. Like water filling a pond, which is always ready to flow off again, it can work its inexhaustible power because it is free, and be open to everything because it is empty. This state is essentially a primordial state, and its symbol, the empty circle, is not empty of meaning for him who stands within it.

Eugen Herrigel in "Zen in the Art of Archery" page 54

Relationship, behaviour and order are essential for meditation

Yoga exercises are excellent; the speaker does them every day, for an hour or more; but that is merely physical exercise, to keep the body healthy, and so on. But through them you can never come upon the other - never! Because if you give them all importance, you are not giving importance to the understanding of yourself which is to be watchful, to be aware, to give attention to what you are doing, every day of your life; which is to give attention to how you speak and what you say, to what you think, how you behave, whether you are attached, whether you are frightened, whether you are pursuing pleasure and so on. To be aware of the whole movement of thought; for if you are and you are really serious about it, then you will have established right relationship, obviously. Relationship becomes extraordinarily important when all things about are chaotic - when the world is going to pieces, as it is. But when there is this establishment of total relationship, whole relationship, not between you and me, but human relationship with the whole of the world, then you have the basis. From there you can go on to behaviour - how you behave. If your behaviour is based on pleasure or on reward, it is not behaviour. It is merely the pursuit of pleasure from which fear arises. Relationship, behaviour and order, these are absolutely essential if you want to go into the question of meditation. If you have not laid this foundation, then do what you like - stand on your head, breathe in for the next ten thousand years and repeat words, words - there will be no meditation.

Krishnamurti in "Total Freedom"

Immortality of the new

The death that meditation brings about is the immortality of the new.

J. Krishnamurti

Gravity

I look at nature and reflect on the existence in it of a force so silent and invisible that human beings were not aware of it till lately; and yet so mighty that the world is moved by it: the force of gravity.

Because of it the bird flies in the sky,
mountains are held in place, 
leaves flutter to the ground,
planets are kept in orbit.

There is no better symbol of God's power and presence.

Anthony de Mello in "Wellsprings" page 58

 

Glory to thee, thou sun

The eye of the great God,
The eye of the God of glory,
The eye of the King of hosts,
The eye of the King of the living,
Pouring upon us
At each time and season,
Pouring upon us
Gently and generously.

Glory to thee, thou sun,
Thou glorious sun.

Glory to thee, thou sun, Face of the God of life.

From the Carmina Gadelica

 

My brain

Nothing right in my left brain.

Nothing left in my right brain.

Love or transaction

If love does not know how to give and take without restrictions, it is not love, but a transaction.

Emma Goldman

Catching up

I'm just catching up with yesterday; by tomorrow I should be ready for today.

Anonymous

The enlightened never stop forging themselves

Those who are enlightened never stop forging themselves. The realizations of such masters cannot be expressed well in words or by theories. The most perfect actions echo the patterns found in nature.

Morihei Ueshiba trans. John Stevens in "The Art of Peace" page 52

Suffering

A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears.

Michel de Montaigne

Feeling and naming

Feeling and naming are almost simultaneous, are they not? Can they be separated? Can there be a gap between a feeling and the naming of it? If this gap is really experienced, it will be found that the thinker ceases as an entity separate and distinct from thought. The verbalizing process is part of the self, the 'me', the entity who is jealous and who attempts to get over his jealousy. If you really understand the truth of this, then fear ceases. Naming has a physiological as well as a psychological effect. When there is no naming, only then is it possible to be fully aware of that which is called the void of loneliness. Then the mind does not separate itself from that which is.

Krishnamurti in "Commentaries On Living Series II" Chapter 53 Envy And Loneliness

Sometimes we suffer

Sometimes we suffer, not from the pain itself, but from the resistance to the pain.

Tycho Photiou

Help lies about you everywhere

If someone has helped you and you make of him your authority, then are you not preventing all further help, not only from him, but from everything about you? Does not help lie about you everywhere? Why look in only one direction? And when you are so enclosed so bound, can any help reach you? But when you are open, there is unending help in all things, from the song of a bird to the call of a human being, from the blade of grass to the immensity of the heavens. The poison and corruption begin when you look to one person as your authority, your guide, your saviour.

Krishnamurti in "Commentaries On Living Series II" Chapter 45 Help

Every beginning has an ending

Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.

Jack Kornfield in "Buddha's Little Instruction Book" page 68

We are injured by our attitude and response

We are injured and hurt emotionally, not so much by other people or what they say or don't say, but by our own attitude and our own response.

Maxwell Maltz

There are enough names

Once the whole is divided, the parts need names. 
There are already enough names; know when to stop.
Know when reason sets limits to avoid peril.

from Verse 32 of the Tao in "Change your thoughts change your life" by Wayne Dyer. Page 156.

A seeker doesn't see what is under his nose.

"When someone is seeking" said Siddhartha, "it happens quite easily that he only sees the thing that he is seeking; that he is unable to find anything, unable to absorb anything because he is only thinking of the thing he is seeking, because he has a goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal. You, O worthy one, are perhaps indeed a seeker, for in striving towards your goal, you do not see many things that are under your nose."

Herman Hesse, "Siddhartha"

The ocean of consciousness is wide

The ocean of Consciousness is wide and our forms bob on its surface like empty cups, until we become full with its waters, and then we sink to its depths.

Rumi

Wickedness only harms the culprit

The general wickedness of mankind cannot injure the universe; nor can the particular wickedness of one man injure a fellow-man. It harms none but the culprit himself; and he can free himself from it as soon as he so chooses.

Marcus Aurelius translated by Maxwell Staniforth

God has no religion

God has no religion.

Mahatma Gandhi

All life is perfect

All life is perfect and as it should be.
Each life experience falls into its own placement and leads you to your next step forward in TIME.
Accept this understanding and you are free.

Scott Shaw in "Zen O'clock" page 123

All I really need to know

ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned:

Share everything.  Play fair.  Don't hit people.  Put things back where you found them.  Clean up your own mess.  Don't take things that aren't yours.  Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.  Wash your hands before you eat.  Flush.  Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.  Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.  
Take a nap every afternoon.  
When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.  Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.  Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Robert Fulghum in "All I really need to know I learned in Kindergarten" Page 6

The way to enlightenment

Student: "Show me the way to enlightenment."
Master: "Do you hear that babbling brook?"
Student: "Yes."
Master: "Enter there."