I settled at Cold Mountain a while ago, already it seems like years and years.
Freely drifting, I wander the woods and streams
And sit there, watching things themselves; I am satisfied.
Not many come this far into the mountains,
White clouds sometimes touch and pass, thin grass does for a mattress,
The blue sky makes a good cover, a stone under my head. I am happy
I’ll let heaven and earth go about their changes.
Han Shan, Cold Mountain, poem 12
No matter how difficult a state of mind you may find yourself in,
if you hold firm,
eventually the floating clouds will vanish
and the withering wind must cease
Dogen
Your definitions of desirable and undesirable, as well as good and bad, all come about
because you have defined how things need to be, in order for you to be OK
Michael Singer
The magic that is needed to create or sustain anything is within all of us.
Our magic is unique to us,
and it is not distributed evenly or fairly, but it is within all of us.
Martha Graham, 1894 – 1991, American dancer and choreographer.
What if the path to happiness is not
bringing order into the mess of our lives
but instead relaxing amid the mess
and rejoicing in its aliveness and beauty
Haemin Sunim, Korean Zen Buddhist Teacher, When Things Don’t go your Way
This is a real discipline. It requires choosing for the light even when there is much darkness to frighten me, choosing for life even when the forces of death are so visible, and choosing for the truth even when I am surrounded with lies.
The reward of choosing joy is joy itself. Living among people with mental disabilities has convinced me of that. There is so much rejection, pain, and woundedness among us, but once you choose to claim the joy hidden in the midst of all suffering, life becomes celebration. Joy never denies the sadness, but transforms it to a fertile soil for more joy.
Henri Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son
