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

...

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. 

...

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...