We don’t understand
that life is heaven,
for we have only to understand that
and it will at once be fulfilled
in all its beauty,
we shall embrace each other and weep.
Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
Tag: inspiration
Sunday Quote: waiting
It is not uncommon for people to spend their whole life
waiting to start living.
Eckhart Tolle
Sunday Quote: Dazzled
It must be a great disappointment to God
if we are not dazzled at least ten times a day
Mary Oliver, Blue Horses
Sunday Quote: Not a dress rehearsal
Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now? Are you waiting
for time to show you some better thoughts?
William Stafford, You Reading This, Be Ready
for E and B, wandering through Italy at this moment
Saturday: Getting a break from the thinking mind
Don’t you wish they would stop,
all the thoughts swirling around in your head,
bees in a hive, dancers tapping their way across the stage.
I should rake the leaves in the carport, buy Christmas lights.
Was there really life on Mars? What will I cook for dinner?
I walk up the driveway, put out the garbage bins.
I should stop using plastic bags, visit my friend
whose husband just left her for the Swedish nanny.
I wish I hadn’t said Patrick’s painting looked “ominous.”
Maybe that’s why he hasn’t called.
Does the car need oil, again? There’s a hole in the ozone
the size of Texas, and everything seems to be speeding up.
Come, let’s stand by the window and look out
at the light on the field. Let’s watch how
the clouds cover the sun, and almost nothing
stirs in the grass.
Danusha Lameris, 1971 – American Poet, from The Moons of August
Letting go of self development
When we seek happiness through accumulation, either outside of ourselves – from other people, relationships, or material goods – or from our own self-development, we are missing the essential point. In either case we are trying to find completion. But according to Buddhism, such a strategy is doomed.
Completion comes not from adding another piece to ourselves but from surrendering our ideas of perfection.
Mark Epstein, Going to Pieces without Falling Apart: A Buddhist Perspective on Wholeness
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