Tag: inspiration

Sunday Quote: The key to a relaxed mind

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buttercup-field

Anyone who understands impermanence

ceases to be contentious.

The Dhammapada

Being present

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bird-singing1

Since in order to speak,
one must first listen,
learn to speak by listening.

Rumi

Sunday Quote: Openness

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closed flower

Let us open our leaves like a flower,

and be receptive.

John Keats

…. being and doing

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File:Bucegi Romania feet.jpg

Music is pleasing not only because of the sound but because of the silence that is in it: without the alternation of sound and silence, there would be no rhythm. If we strive to be happy by filling in the silences of life with sound, productive by turning all life’s leisure into work, and real by turning all our being into doing, we will only succeed in producing a hell on earth. If we have not silence, God is not heard in our music. If we have not rest, God does not bless our work. If we twist our lives out of shape in order to fill every corner of them with action and experience, God will seem silently to withdraw from our hearts and leave us empty.

Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island

photo : jon rawlinson

Balance…

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File:Arc-en-ciel sur l'île d'Hoëdic.jpg

Happiness is not a matter of intensity,

but balance

Thomas Merton

photo Stephanie de Nadai

What makes the journey light

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File:Yoke china.jpg

My grandmother’s eyes say Allah is everywhere, even in death.  

When she talks of the orchard and the new olive press,  

when she tells the stories of Joha and his foolish wisdoms,  

He is her first thought, what she really thinks of is His name.

“Answer, if you hear the words under the words—

otherwise it is just a world with a lot of rough edges,  

difficult to get through, and our pockets full of stones.“

Naomi Shihab Nye, The Words Under the Words