A flame to warm the heart

A woodland in full color is awesome as a forest fire, in magnitude at least, but a single tree is like a dancing tongue of flame to warm the heart.

Hal Borland

Autumn

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.

Albert Camus

Reformation

To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake; and all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on himself.

Thomas Carlyle

Solitude is strength

Solitude is strength; to depend on the presence of the crowd is weakness. The man who needs a mob to nerve him is much more alone than he imagines.

Paul Brunton

He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.

Immanuel Kant

What is it that affects you most?

Finding fame or your true nature, which appeals to you? Nature or materialism: which means more? In life's ups and downs, what is it that affects you most?
Telescopic ambition is unhealthy. Unbridled accumulation leads to unimaginable loss.
Equanimity knows no ruin. Equilibrium needs no safety-net.
Understanding these things, leads to peace and plenty.

From the Tao Teh Ching by Lao Tzu translated by Louise Milne

The facilitating power of stillness

The gentlest and softest can overpower granite. Spirit permeates even the impregnable.
Knowing this, we can see the wisdom in holding our peace, in remaining quietly unprovoked.
Only very few realise the facilitating power of stillness: the silent promise of peaceful resolve, fairness and equanimity.

From the Tao Teh Ching by Lao Tzu translated by Louise Milne

Simplicity

It is a great paradox that simplicity comes from passing through many complex stages of learning.

Brahma Kumaris calendar 19th October

The meditator is the meditation.
The observer is the observed.

Krishnamurti

The Laws of Mathematics

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

Albert Einstein

You're free to change your mind

You are led through your lifetime by the inner learning creature, the playful spiritual being that is your real self.
Don't turn away from possible futures before you're certain you don't have anything to learn from them.
You're always free to change your mind and choose a different future, or a different past.

Richard Bach "Illusions The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah" page 51

Creation can take place only in the mind that is totally empty

The cup is useful only when it is empty.  With most of us, the mind is clouded, cluttered up with so many things - pleasant and unpleasant experiences, knowledge, patterns or formulas of behaviour, and so on.  It is never empty.  And creation can take place only in the mind that is totally empty.  Creation is always new, and therefore the mind is made constantly fresh, young, innocent; it doesn't repeat, and therefore doesn't create habits. I don't know if you have ever noticed what sometimes happens when you have a problem, either mathematical or psychological.  You think about it a great deal, you worry over it like a dog chewing on a bone, but you can't find an answer.  Then you let it alone, you go away from it, you take a walk; and suddenly, out of that emptiness, comes the answer.  This must have happened to many of us.  Now, how does this take place?  Your mind has been very active within its own limitations about that problem, but you have not found the answer, so you have put the problem aside.  Then your mind becomes somewhat quiet, somewhat still, empty; and in that stillness, that emptiness, the problem is resolved.

Krishnamurti in Saanen 10th Public Talk 1st August 1965

Faith

Faith is the fearless search for truth. So it is not lost when one questions one's beliefs.

Anthony De Mello

Truth is a state of experiencing

You cannot repeat truth, because truth is never constant. Truth is a state of experiencing, and what you can repeat is a static state; therefore it is not the truth.

Krishnamurti

Perfection

The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection.

Goethe

Do not reproach another for a blemish that is in you.

Rashi

To carry a grudge is like being stung to death by one bee.

William H. Walton

Be Real

Forget 'holiness', abandon 'intelligence' and people will be a hundred times better off.
Give up 'humanitarianism', put away 'righteousness' and people will discover brotherly love and kindness.
Forget 'great art', throw away 'profit' and there will be no more thieves.
These things are superficial and are simply not enough.
People need something solid to hold on to.
And here it is:

Be real.

Embrace simplicity.

Put others first.

Desire little.

John R Mabry "The Little Book of the Tao Te Ching" page 17

Right or Wrong

The self-reliant measure right or wrong not by public rule, but by the spirit God has conferred on them.

Peter O. Erbe

Wisdom of the body

Our own physical body possesses a wisdom which we who inhabit the body lack. We give it orders which make no sense.

Henry Miller

Just observe

Most people are unhappy; and they are unhappy because there is no love in their hearts. Love will arise in your heart when you have no barrier between yourself and another, when you meet and observe people without judging them, when you just see the sailboat on the river and enjoy the beauty of it. Don't let your prejudices cloud your observation of things as they are; just observe, and you will discover that out of this simple observation, out of this awareness of trees, of birds, of people walking, working, smiling, something happens to you inside. Without this extraordinary thing happening to you, without the arising of love in your heart, life has very little meaning.

Krishnamurti "This Matter of Culture"

Mysteries of the soul

The mysteries of the soul are revealed in the movements of the body.

Michelangelo

Chinese proverb

Tell me and I forget.
Show me and I remember.
Involve me and I understand.

Gravity will not allow you to stay the same

The more you use your body as it is designed to be used, the better your posture will become and the better it will feel. Conversely, poor use invites deterioration. You can get better or you can get worse, but gravity will not allow you to stay the same.

Mary Bond "The New Rules of Posture" page 12

Children of Gravity

We are children of gravity. As we age, we reach a point where we begin to yield to it. Sagging skin and organs, varicose veins, arthritis, failing hearts, these all come from the lost battle against gravity.

Ralph Pelligra

Love keeps no record of wrongs.

1 Corinthians 13.5