Forget distinctions
Leap into the boundless
and make it your own.
Zhuang Zhou, Chinese philosopher, 4th century BC
Not limiting oneself
Tag: impermanence
a life without regret
December 6 is the feastday of the legendary Saint Nicholas, traditionally a big celebration in the Low Countries, Germany and Eastern Europe. Most children have a natural sense of wonder and adventure which life has a tendency to erode.
Twenty years from now
You will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do
than by the ones you did.
Mark Twain
Let nothing disturb you
From the beginning
the flying birds have left
no footprints on the blue sky
Musō Soseki, 1275 – 1351, Zen Buddhist Monk, calligraphy artist and garden designer, 1275 – 1351
Created anew
Every morning
the world
is created.
Under the orange
sticks of the sun
the heaped
ashes of the night
turn into leaves again
and fasten themselves to the high branches —
and the ponds appear
like black cloth
on which are painted islands
of summer lilies.
If it is your nature
to be happy
you will swim away along the soft trails
for hours, your imagination
alighting everywhere.
And if your spirit
carries within it
the thorn
that is heavier than lead —
if it’s all you can do
to keep on trudging —
there is still
somewhere deep within you
a beast shouting that the earth
is exactly what it wanted —
each pond with its blazing lilies
is a prayer heard and answered
lavishly,
every morning,
whether or not
you have ever dared to be happy,
whether or not
you have ever dared to pray.
Mary Oliver, Morning Poem
Holding both
Though the years are sad,
the days have a way of being jubilant
Edith Wharton’s autobiography, A Backward Glance
Inner freedom
Life is not accomplishing some special work
but attaining to a degree of consciousness and inner freedom which is beyond all works and attainments.
That is my real goal.
It implies “becoming unknown and as nothing”.
Thomas Merton
Mindfulbalance 