Browse The Living Book

Come quickly - as soon as these blossoms open, they fall.

This world exists as a sheen of dew on flowers.
Izumi Shikibu (974)

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. Edith Wharton (1862)

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the Flesh, but according to the Spirit. New Testament

And this is a miracle: the moment that you realize that there is no way to make a home, then this whole existence is home. Then wherever you are, you are at home. A Course In Miracles (1975)

If you made a list of everything you own, everything you think of as you, everything you prefer, that list would be the distance between you and the living truth. Stephen Levine (1937)

Progress is the law of life; man is not man as yet. Robert Browning (1812)

Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. Dalai Lama (1935)

Thoughts held in mind produce after their kind. Unity/New Thought (1889)

When you deceive yourself that you work for the good of all, it makes matters worse, for you should not be guided by your own ideas of what is good for others. A man who claims to know what is good for others is dangerous. Nisargadatta (1897)

The world is like a sheet of paper on which something is typed. The reading and the meaning will vary with the reader, but the paper is the common factor, always present, rarely perceived. When the ribbon is removed, typing leaves no trace on the paper. So is my mind - the impressions keep on coming, but no trace is left. Nisargadatta (1897)

The most exquisite paradox . . . as soon as you give it all up, you can have it all. As long as you want power, you can't have it. The minute you don't want power, you'll have more than you ever dreamed possible. Ram Dass (1931)

One sees clearly only with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye. Antoine De Saint-Exupery (1900)

The fundamental truths are all men's property. Whether or not we live by them, we all know them, with deep instinctiveness. J. Donald Adams (1891)

There is an intuitive knowing within us that we are eternal but this gets covered over with the noise we create while identifying with the impermanent. Mooji (1954)

God's divinity comes of my humility, and this may be demonstrated as follows. It is God's peculiar property to give; but he cannot give unless something is prepared to receive his gifts. If, then, I prepare my humility to receive what he gives, by my humility I make God a giver. Since it is his nature to give, I am merely giving God what is already his own. It is like a rich man who wants to be a giver but must first find a taker, since without a taker he cannot be a giver. Similarly, if God is to be a giver, he must first find a taker, but no one may be a taker of God's gifts except by his humility. Therefore, if God is to exercise his divine property by his gifts, he well may need my humility; for apart from humility he can give me nothing--without it I am not prepared to receive his gift. That is why it is true that by humility I give divinity to God. Meister Eckhart (1260)

He who strikes terror into others is himself in continual fear. Claudian (370)

If you don't get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you don't want, you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can't hold on to it forever. Your mind is your predicament. It wants to be free of change. Free of pain, free of the obligations of life and death. But change is a law, and no amount of pretending will alter that reality. Dan Millman (1946)

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries,
And daub their natural faces unaware.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806)

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Jim Elliot (1927)

The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness. Abraham Maslow (1908)

Be the change you wish to see in the world. Mahatma Gandhi (1869)

There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his. Helen Keller (1880)

By every THOUGHT you mould your SOUL,
Which from the WHOLE exacts a toll,
That will just fill the impressed mould
Which CONTEMPLATION thus does hold.

God your answer is bound to pay;
The law's exact, the same alway.
For GOD is YOU and YOU are HE,
Just like a drop is to the sea.

Know that to think is to create,
And you will love instead of hate;
For when you think you make a mould
The Law will fill, if you but hold.
Retsama (1928)

The almighty Allah judges you neither by your countenance nor your wealth, but by the purity of your hearts and your deeds. Muhammed (570)

Nothing is more practical than
finding God, than
falling in Love
in a quite absolute, final way.
What you are in love with,
what seizes your imagination, will affect everything.
It will decide
what will get you out of bed in the morning,
what you do with your evenings,
how you spend your weekends,
what you read, whom you know,
what breaks your heart,
and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in Love, stay in love,
and it will decide everything.
Father Pedro Arrupe (1907)