Month: September 2021

Different channels

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Recently, one friend asked me, “How can I force myself to smile when I am filled with sorrow? It isn’t natural.” I told her she must be able to smile to her sorrow, because we are more than our sorrow. A human being is like a television set with millions of channels. If we turn the Buddha on, we are the Buddha. If we turn sorrow on then we are sorrow. If we turn a smile on, we really are the smile. We can not let just one channel dominate us. We have the seed of everything in us, and we have to seize the situation in our hand, to recover our own sovereignty.

Thich Nhat Hanh, Smile

Wait

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“Wait on the Lord” is a constant refrain in the Psalms, and it is a necessary word, for God often keeps us waiting. He is not in such a hurry as we are, and it is not his way to give more light on the future than we need for action in the present, or to guide us more than one step at a time. When in doubt, do nothing, but continue to wait ….. When action is needed, light will come.

J.I. Parker, 1926 – 2020 Canadian evangelical theologian, cleric and writer 

Never imitate

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Insist on yourself; never imitate.

Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life’s cultivation;

but of the adopted talent of another you have only an extemporaneous, half possession.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The only gate

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Nirvana is this moment seen directly. There is no where else than here. The only gate is now. The only doorway is your own body and mind. There’s nowhere to go. There’s nothing else to be. There’s no destination. It’s not something to aim for in the afterlife. It’s simply the quality of this moment.

Jane Hirshfield, American poet, in the PBS documentary, The Buddha

Adding

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So, what if, instead of thinking about solving your whole life, you just think about adding additional good things.

One at a time.

Just let your pile of good things grow.

Rainbow Rowell, American author, Attachments

The secret

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His steps leave no trace. He has no power.
He achieves nothing, has no reputation.
Since he judges no one
No one judges him.
Such is the perfect man:
His boat is empty

Chuang Tzu, China, 4th Century BC.