Subscribe To WonderGaze
Posts
All Comments
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Peace & Religion
Peace involves a profound crisis of identity. The boundaries of self and other, friend and foe, must be redrawn. … If faith is enlisted in the cause of war, there must be an equal and opposite counter-voice in the name of peace. If religion is not part of solution, it will certainly be part of the problem.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations
Friday, February 18, 2011
In silence
In silence we must wrap much of our life, because it is too fine for speech.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Thursday, February 17, 2011
This we know
This we know:
We were
not meant
to suffer
so much
& to learn
nothing.
Alice Walker, The Taste of Grudge, Hard Times Require Furious Dancing
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Love everything
Love all God’s creation, the whole of it and every grain of sand. Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light! Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. And once you have perceived it, you will begin to comprehend it ceaselessly, more and more every day. And you will at least come to love the whole world with an abiding, universal love.
Fyodor Mikhail Dostoevsky
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
When you love
When you are touched,
May it be the gentleness
You desire,
Your lover’s hands sending
Each caress deep into your skin
Like a discovering glance.
John O’Donohue, For Eros
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Individuals
Individuals are expressions of all those who have influenced their lives.
Michael Schut, Simpler Living, Compassionate Life: A Christian Perspective
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
Breakage
Breakage, whatever its cause, is the dark complement to the act of making; the one implies the other. The thing that is broken has particular authority over the act of change.
Louise Gluck
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Walk Alone
Walk alone
If they answer not thy call, walk alone;
If they are afraid and cower mutely facing the wall,
O thou of evil luck,
Open thy mind and speak out alone.
Rabindranath Tagore
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
In a room alone
All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.
Blaise Pascal
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
The gaze
Most people don’t look . . .
The gaze that pierces – few have it –
What does the gaze pierce?
The question mark.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Seeing beyond
Like the bee gathering honey from the different flowers, the wise person accepts the essence of the different scriptures and sees only the good in all religions.
Mahatma Gandhi
Saturday, February 5, 2011
What we do for God
It is not what God does for us, but what we do for God, that changes us.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Covenant & Conversation
Friday, February 4, 2011
Walks
How one walks through the world, the endless small adjustments of balance, is affected by the shifting weights of beautiful things.
Elaine Scarry
Thursday, February 3, 2011
At the edge
The beautiful can exist at the edge precisely because it has nothing to lose and everything to give away.
Frederick Turner
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Neutrality
If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.
Bishop Desmond Tutu
Monday, January 31, 2011
To be free
To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.
Nelson Mandela
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Artist
To be an artist is not a matter of making paintings or objects at all. What we are really dealing with is our state of consciousness and the shape of our perception. . . . The act of art is a tool for extended consciousness.
Robert Irwin
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Beauty
When you reach the heart of life you shall find beauty in all things, even in the eyes that are blind to beauty.
Khalil Gibran
Friday, January 28, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Empty Handed
Born empty handed,
Die empty handed.
I witnessed life at its fullest,
Empty handed.
Marlo Morgan
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Look and See
Oh Lord, how shining and festive is your gift to us, if we
only look, and see.
Mary Oliver, Look and See
Monday, January 24, 2011
Care for the world
All that I have created, I created for you. Take care, therefore, that you do not destroy my world, for if you do, there will be no one left to repair what you have destroyed.
Ecclesiastes Rabbah, Midrash
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Prayer
Be thankful and repay
Growth with good work and care.
Work done in gratitude
Kindly, and well, is prayer.
Wendell Berry
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Conversation
The greatest single antidote to violence is conversation.
Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations
Friday, January 21, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Prayers
I believe that all prayers that come from the heart converge in God’s infinity, where all persons are loved if they themselves love.
Jonathan Sacks, To Heal a Fractured World: The Ethics of Responsibility
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Particularity & Universality
Our particularity is our universality. Only by being what we uniquely are, can we respect other people for what they uniquely are.
Jonathan Sacks, To Heal a Fractured World: The Ethics of Responsibility
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Worth
We are worth what we are willing to share.
Jonathan Sacks, To Heal a Fractured World: The Ethics of Responsibility
Monday, January 17, 2011
Everything belongs
In God's reign "everything belongs," even the broken and poor parts.
Richard Rohr, Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Being human
Everyone has relevant observations to make about the nature of God and ultimate things – that the raw material of our lives is stuff of which we construct our sensibility of meaning and purpose in this life, or how the divine intersects or interacts with our lives, of what it means to be human.
Krista Tippett, Speaking of Faith: Why Religion Matters and How to Talk About It
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Friday, January 14, 2011
Technologies
Technologies are not mere exterior aids but also interior transformation of consciousness, and never more so than when they affect the word.
Walter J. Ong, Orality and Literacy
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Moses
The great concern of Moses was … to lay the foundation of a social state in which deep poverty and degrading want should be unknown.
Henry George, Moses
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
God
God is always bigger than the boxes we build for God, so we should not waste too much time protecting the boxes.
Richard Rohr, Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemporary Prayer
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
How to see
All religious teachers have recognized that we human beings do not naturally see; we have to be taught how to see.
Richard Rohr, Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemporary Prayer
Monday, January 10, 2011
Inter-Be
To be is to inter-be. We cannot just be by ourselves alone. We have to inter-be with every other thing.
Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Saturday, January 8, 2011
How well we love
I believed – and still believe – that when all is said and done, none of us will be measured on how much we accomplish but on how well we love.
Krista Tippett, Speaking of Faith: Why Religion Matters – and How to Talk About It
Friday, January 7, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Experiencing beauty
Although the wind
blows terribly here,
the moonlight also leaks
between the roof planks
of this ruined house.
Izumi Skikibu
We become available to the beauty of the moment as it is,
and available to one another as we are.
and available to one another as we are.
Joyce Kornblatt, This Ruined House, The Beautiful Mind: A Conversation with Gina Sharpe, Parabola, 35:4
Monday, January 3, 2011
In presence
Unless we completely inhabit ourselves, it’s not possible to be completely present. If we are not completely present, we’re not inclusive – and when we’re not inclusive, that’s when we exclude others who have different views, different opinions, different upbringings – difference. In presence, we see the beauty in what was previously unbeautiful – in difference and alikeness. It’s all of life.
Gina Sharpe, The Beautiful Mind: A Conversation with Gina Sharpe, Parabola, 35:4
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Saturday, January 1, 2011
"Remembering Forward"
It's a poor sort of memory that only works backward.
Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)