Browse The Living Book

No tongue can tell Your secret
For the measure of the word obscures Your nature
But the gift of the ear
Is that it hears
What the tongue cannot tell.
Hakim Sanai (1080)

The very time I thought I was lost, the dungeon shook and my chains fell off. African American Spirituality

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes
William Shakespeare (1564)

Life only demands from you the strength you possess. Only one feat is possible -- not to have run away. Dag Hammarskjold (1905)

What you are looking for is who is looking. St. Francis Of Assisi (1181)

The thing about our choices is that after we have made them, they turn around and make us.

Anonymous

Walk softly, O My Sisters, O My Brothers.

Tread lightly, break not the stillness of the dawn, for in this stillness one can hear the whispers of the Great Spirit.

Choose your path and walk forward, turn not back. And, when the stone appears the obstacle, turn each stone one by one. Do not try to move the mountain, but turn each stone that makes the mountain. And when the desert sands sear your moccasins, curse not in despair lest the South Wind hear and construe and bring wrath upon your head. And when the path bristles with thorns, turn not from the path, for the strife of life are the thorns. Tread softly. Speak softly. For on this path you will need the wisdom of chieftains. The admonishments of your Chiefs can become your strength. And when the cold winds buffet you, bend with the wind. And, soon, you will walk unattended. On the path you may meet an old one, who will stop for you as you will stop for him. Age meets youth, and youth meets age. Remember the little ones along the way. Take time to walk with others along the path, especially those who have pointed your way to higher trails -- your Mother and your Father.

Walk softly so that you will hear the sounds. When you meet and hear the cries of the oppressed, the sick, the little ones, and those who seek you -- be not ashamed that your tear mingles with theirs.

For in this walking there is an awakening. Think twice before you walk the trail of the Red Man. Then walk softly, O My Sisters, O My Brothers.
Red Dawn, Santee Sioux (1921)

Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Jesus Christ (4 B.C.E.)

Do you not know that there comes a midnight hour when every one has to throw off his mask? Do you believe that life will always let itself be mocked? Do you think you can slip away a little before midnight in order to avoid this? Or are you not terrified by it? I have seen men in real life who so long deceived others that at last their true nature could not reveal itself;... In every man there is something which to a certain degree prevents him from becoming perfectly transparent to himself; and this may be the case in so high a degree, he may be so inexplicably woven into relationships of life which extend far beyond himself that he almost cannot reveal himself. But he who cannot reveal himself cannot love, and he who cannot love is the most unhappy man of all. Soren Kierkegaard (1813)

Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Carl Jung (1875)

Meditation - the true action of a quiet mind - is not the path to the divine; it is the action of the divine reflecting upon itself. Guy Finley (1949)

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
Emily Dickenson (1830)

Religion is doing; a man does not merely think his religion or feel it, he "lives" his religion as much as he is able, otherwise it is not religion but fantasy or philosophy. Georges Gurdjieff (1866)

Life Is Real Only Then, When 'I Am'. Georges Gurdjieff (1866)

Blessed art thou therefore if that thou canst stand still from Self-thinking and Self-willing, and canst stop the Wheel of they Imagination and Senses forasmuch as herby thou mayest arrive at length to see the great Salvation of God being made capable of all Manner of Divine Sensations and Heavenly Communications. Since it is nought indeed but thine own Hearing and Willing that do hinder thee, so that thou dost not see and hear God... Jacob Boehme (1575)

A sage is not only kind to the kind but also kind to the unkind. Lao Tse (604 B.C.E.)

The greater danger
for most of us
is not that our aim is
too high
and we miss it,
but that it is too low
and we reach it.
Michelangelo (1475)

I am a hole in a flute
That the Christ's Breath moves through
Listen to this Music.
Hafez (1315)

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. Pierre Teilhard De Chardin (1881)

The longest journey is the journey inward. Dag Hammarskjold (1905)

seek here..."there" doesn't exist Buddhism (500 B.C.E.)

Silence cannot be purchased but comes when the mind is no longer seeking caught in the process of becoming. J. Krishnamurti (1895)

Death is not an event in life; we do not live to experience death. If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present. Our life has no end in the way in which our visual field has no limits. Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889)

Ecstasy is our very nature; not to be ecstatic is simply unnecessary. To be ecstatic is natural, spontaneous. It needs no effort to be ecstatic, it needs great effort to be miserable. That's why you look so tired, because misery is really hard work; to maintain it is really difficult, because you are doing something against nature. Osho (1931)

The more detached and the purer the prayer, the more acceptable is it in the presence of God. Bab Siyyid Ali-Muhammad (1819)