Still Voice

The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.

Mohandas Gandhi

Celtic Prayer

I arise today
through the strength of heaven, light of sun,
Radiance of moon,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightening,
Swiftness of wind,
Depth of sea,
Stability of earth,
Firmness of rock.

"St Patrick's Breastplate/The Deer's Cry," translated by Kuno Meyer in Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom by John O'Donouhe

Christianity

We are not going to win the masses to Christianity until we live it.

Dorothy Day, December 1961

Imperative of Humanity

To make pain real is the task of the writer.  To pursue the end of pain is the imperative of humanity.

Alice Sebold

Discovery

To myself I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast ocean of truth lie undiscovered before me.

Isaac Newton

A Blessing of Solitude

May you recognize in your life the presence, power, and light of your soul.
May you realize that you are never alone,
that your soul in its brightness and belonging connects you intimately with the rhythm of the universe.  ...
May you learn to see yourself with the same delight, pride, and expectation with which God sees you in every moment.

John O'Donohue, A Blessing of Solitude, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

Peace

Divine Peace-Bringer,
take what is jagged in my relationships,
and transform it with your grace.
I will do my best to bid farewell
to whatever keeps me from inner peace.
Help me bring your enduring harmony
into every part of my existence.
I open the door of my heart to you.
I open the door.


Joyce Rupp, The Open Door

Leadership

The true leader must at some point or other convince her or his followers that she or he is in this whole business not for self-aggrandizement but for the sake of others.

Desmond Tutu, No Futuer Without Forgiveness

Be the Change

Be the change that you wish to see in the world.


Mahatma Ghandi

Imagination

The imagination is the great friend of the unknown.  Endlessly, it invokes and releases the power of possibility.

John O'Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

Passage of Time

The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.

Richie Havens

Will to Live

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Dylan Thomas, Do not go gentle into that good night

Colours

Colours are the wounds of light.

William Blake

Wounds of the Spirit

Die Wunden des Geistes Heilen, ohne dass Narben bleiben.

The wounds of the spirit heal and leave no scars.

Hegel

Choice

Every choice we make can be a celebration of the world we want.

Frances Moore Lappé and Anna Lappé

Miracles

And as to me, I know of nothing else but miracles.

Walt Whitman

Solitude

When you cease to fear your solitude, a new creativity awakens in you.  ...  You come home to yourself and learn to rest within.

John O'Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

Eternity

I think that maybe
I will be a little surer
of being a little nearer.
That's all.  Eternity
is in the understanding
that little is more than enough.

R. S. Thomas

Labour Pains

There is only one truth.
I shall give birth to a child,
truth driving outward from my inwardness.
Neither good nor bad; no sham about it.

Yosako Akiko, Labour Pains

Beannacht ("Blessing")

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.

John O'Donohue, Beannacht ("Blessing")

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