Hunger

We are all hungry one way or another.

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Nobel Lecture by V. S. Naipaul - Media Player at Nobelprize.org

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Interview with Doris Lessing - Media Player at Nobelprize.org

Happy Birthday

"What is time? It is a secret - lacking in substance and yet almighty." 

Quote from the novel The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann

You're my favorite deputy!

Some days I really miss the feeling I had as a child of really believing that my toys were alive. This brings me to contemplate the purity in imagination a child has.

Enjoy the Show...:)

I'm just a little bit caught in the middle
Life is a maze and love is a riddle 
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Happy to be Human

Every prophet to the world came alone, within him carrying a hundred unseen worlds. The cosmos was charmed by his depth and folded itself into his modest frame. The foolish thought he was lonely and weak. With the King as his companion, how is he weak?

~Rumi

We human beings are capable of saying such great things, aren't we?

 

Endearing

“Since Love has made ruins of my heart the sun must come and illumine them. Such generosity has broken me with shame.”

~Rumi

It's so fascinating how the Sufi writers manage to create a magical play of words in expressing our human vulnerabilities. On allowing the words to take deeper roots, they then get transformed into a place of deep spiritual connection whereto we reach and become one.

Cute!

Here is Heart!

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T'was Grace that taught...
my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear...
the hour I first believed.

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Free Anyway

One fine morning
Leading a sunny day
As I was walking
A leaf fell in my way

“Oh leaf, in whose love,”

I asked
“Do you leave the tree?”

“Well, it’s in love of the wind.”
It said
“I fall and become free.”

“But what use in being free?”
I asked
“You get stomped on, you dry, and die!”

“But thus slowly I wither,”
It said
“I become dust, and with the wind, I fly."

~ Gunjan Chowdhary ~ 

 

Source: Facebook Page "Tao & Zen"

About the Nobel Prize Medal for Literature

The medal of the Swedish Academy represents a young man sitting under a laurel tree who, enchanted, listens to and writes down the song of the Muse.

 The inscription reads:

Inventas vitam juvat excoluisse per artes

loosely translated "And they who bettered life on earth by their newly found mastery."
(Word for word: Inventions enhance life which is beautified through art.)

The words are taken from Vergilius Aeneid, the 6th song, verse 663;

Lo, God-loved poets, men who spake things worthy Phoebus' heart;
and they who bettered life on earth by new-found mastery

The name of the Leaureate is engraved on the plate below the figures, and the text "ACAD. SUEC." stands for the the Swedish Academy.

The Nobel Prize Medal for Literature was designed by Erik Lindberg.

Source: "The Nobel Prize Medal for Literature". Nobelprize.org. 17 Sep 2012 http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/medal.html

Old School

Saw this image on Scott Schuman's "The Sartorialist" blog. This image is of a glove store in Antwerp that still sells handmade gloves in six sizes. Pretty cool, huh? I love the thought of being able to purchase from such stores, inasmuch as I love writing with fountain pens. :-)

See original image here.

Fields of Gold

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We'll forget the sun in his jealous sky
As we lie in the fields of gold

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See the west wind move like a lover so
Upon the fields of barley

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See the children run as the sun goes down
Among the fields of gold

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Ease -- when the Zombies (in the head) aren't allowed to interfere

I’ve had thousands of problems in my life, most of which never actually happened.

-Mark Twain

Desiderata

by Max Ehrmann

{Abridged version narrated in video below by Ying Ruocheng}

{Unabridged version}

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. 

As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant, they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. 

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. 

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass. 

Take kindly to the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. 

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. 

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. 

With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. 

Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Lights!

“Love is the soul’s light.”

~ Rumi

Tao

by Anonymous

A balance
        exists between you, me, and
                  the others.
Can you see it?
                        Wait!
                        First, prepare yourself.

             What is this preparation
                     you talk of?

I will not answer your question,
for I recognize my inability to provide
an answer which your own will beat.

Contentment Marries Aspiration

 Be the Best of Whatever You Are

by Douglas Malloch

If you can't be a pine on the top of the hill,
Be a scrub in the valley — but be
The best little scrub by the side of the rill;
Be a bush if you can't be a tree.

If you can't be a bush be a bit of the grass,
And some highway happier make;
If you can't be a muskie then just be a bass —
But the liveliest bass in the lake!

We can't all be captains, we've got to be crew,
There's something for all of us here,
There's big work to do, and there's lesser to do,
And the task you must do is the near.

If you can't be a highway then just be a trail,
If you can't be the sun be a star;
It isn't by size that you win or you fail —
Be the best of whatever you are!

Strange

 

The problem is that our mind comes as standard equipment at birth. It's free. And things that are given to us for nothing, we place little value on. Things that we pay money for, we value.

The paradox is that exactly the reverse is true. Everything that's really worthwhile in life came to us free — our minds, our souls, our bodies, our hopes, our dreams, our ambitions, our intelligence, our love of family and children and friends and country. All these priceless possessions are free.

But the things that cost us money are actually very cheap and can be replaced at any time. A good man can be completely wiped out and make another fortune. He can do that several times. Even if our home burns down, we can rebuild it. But the things we got for nothing, we can never replace.

- Earl Nightingale

What a great human faculty!

To think.

To See Afresh

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The more we see, the more we are naturally in awe and wonder. Then it’s easy to be a beginner. Dogen said, “When the dharma does not fill your body and mind, it’s easy to think it’s already sufficient. When the dharma fills your body and mind, you understand something is missing.” When we forget this truth, waves begin to gather on the calm sea.

 

Pure jeweled eyes, virtuous arms—
formless and selfless they enter the fray.
This great function works in all ways—
These hands and eyes are the whole thing. 

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Source: Excerpted from a Dharma Discourse by Geoffrey Shugen Arnold

J.K. Rowling likes the Classics

As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.

Source: J.K. Rowling's punchline quote by Seneca in her 2008 Harvard Commencement Speech

A picture speaks a thousand words

and a beautiful song fills a million empty spaces...