God believes in you

A rustic Russian priest was accosted by a brash young physicist who rehearsed all the reasons for atheism and arrogantly went on, "Therefore I do not believe in God."  The little priest, not put off at all, replied quietly, "Oh, it doesn't matter.  God believes in you."
God believes in us.  God depends on us to help make this world all that God wants it to be.

Desmond Tutu, No Future Without Forgiveness

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Suffering

When suffering knocks at your door

and you say there is no seat for him,

he tells you not to worry

because he has brought his own stool.

Chinua Achebe

Slowing Down

For fast-acting relief from stress, try slowing down.

Lily Tomlin

Spiritual Life

The true task of spiritual life is not found in faraway places or unusual states of consciousness: It is here in the present.  ...  Whatever our initial vision of spiritual life, to be authentic, it must be fulfilled here and now, in the place where we live.

Jack Kornfield, After the Ecstacy, The Laundry

Temple

Suppose you consider your neighbourhood to be your temple - how would you treat your temple, and what would be your spiritual task there?

Jack Kornfield

Stillness

To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is itself to succumb to the violence of our times.

Thomas Merton

Jump into experience

Jump into experience while you are alive.  ...  What you call "salvation" belongs to the time before death.

Kabir

Wonder

When I admire the wonder of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in worship of the Creator.

Mahatma Ghandi

Sowing

You sow a thought, you reap an action.
Reap an action, you sow a habit.
Sow a habit, you reap a character.
Sow a character, you reap your destiny.

Yogi Raman in The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma

Mutuality 2

Everything that lives,

lives not alone,

not for itself.

William Blake

Prefigurative Politics

Prefigurative politics:
means that you can and perhaps ought to embody what you avow - that you cannot get to peace through strife, to justice by bullying; that you win a small victory by embodying freedom, justice, or joy, not just campaigning for them.

Rebecca Solnit, Storming the Gates of Paradise: Landscapes for Politics

Life 4

There is more to life than increasing its speed.

Ghandi

Journey 2

We must embrace the pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.

Kenji Miyazawa

Saints

Saints are what they are not because of their sanctity but because the gift of sainthood makes it possible for them to admire everyone else.

Thomas Merton

Simplicity

I have to let go of the need to know so much.  What we can know is so small - the holiness around is so large.  Now I trust in simplicity, simplicity and love.

a Hindu teacher

Mutuality

If you come here to help me, you are wasting your time.  But if you recognize that your liberation and mine are bound together, we can walk together.

Lisa Watson, an Australian Aborigine

Life 3

Life is like photography.  You use the negatives to develop.

Life 2

Life is not about avoiding the storm. 
It is about learning to dance in the rain.

a quote on a board at a cancer ward

Dreamer

Show me a dreamer and I'll show you one of God's heartbeats for the human race.

Joan Chittister

Prayer for the fearful

O Lord, this world is full of fear.
Make my fear into a prayer for the fearful.

Henri Nouwen

Journey

The longest journey
Is the journey inwards
Of him who has chosen his destiny.

Dag Hammarsköld

To know God

But I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things.

Vincent van Gogh

Living

He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how.


Friedrich Nietzsche






It's not having what you want,


it's wanting what you've got.


Sheryl Crow, Soak Up the Sun

Higher Self

When you yearn for things that you cannot name and you grieve not knowing the course, be certain that you are growing as all things that grow, and rising towards your higher self.

Kahlil Gibran


Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly.

Anonymous

Life

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

Helen Keller

Emancipation

A young monk asked the Master:
"How can I ever get emancipated?"
The Master replied:
"Who has ever put you in bondage?"

Buddhist Teachings

Awakening

If you can’t find the truth where you are, where else do you expect to find it?

Dogen, the founder of Japanese Zen Buddhism

Hope 3

There is hope in honest error and none at all in the icy perfection of the mere stylist.

A quote on the new Scottish Parliament building.

Hope 2

Hope is the remembrance of the future.

Terrance Real

Beauty

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Margaret Wolfe Hungerford