I have not posted thoughts from Pema Chodron for a while, but was reminded by a close friend as to how inspiring her words can be. She is perhaps the most quoted person on this blog, so here is another idea from her:
Some of us can accept others right where they are a lot more easily than we can accept ourselves. We feel that compassion is reserved for someone else, and it never occurs to us to feel it for ourselves. My experience is, that by practicing without “shoulds”, we gradually discover our wakefulness and our confidence. Gradually, without any agenda except to be honest and kind, we assume responsibility for being here in this unpredictable world, in this unique moment, in this precious human body.
Pema Chodron, When Things Fall Apart
photo SuSanA secretariat
What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments,
but what is woven into the lives of others.
Pericles, Greek Statesman, Orator and General, 495 – 429 BC
photo rod waddington
Our life has become so economic and practical in its orientation that, as you get older, the claims of the moment upon you are so great, you hardly know where the hell you are, or what it is you intended. You are always doing something that is required of you. Where is your bliss station? You have to try to find it.
Joseph Campbell
What then is our path, and what the manner of our flight? This is not a journey for the feet; Feet bring us only from land to land; nor need you think of a coach or a ship to carry you away;
All this order of things you must set aside and refuse to look at: Instead, you must close the eyes and call upon another vision which is to be waked within you, a vision, the birth-right of all, which few turn to use.
Plotinus, philosopher 204 – 270, The Enneads, 1.6.
photo bob embleton
Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful,
we must carry it with us, or we find it not.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
photo mailander00
