another prayer for these times

O God, early in the morning I cry to you.
Help me to pray and gather my thoughts to you. I cannot do it alone.
In me it is dark, but with you there is light.
I am lonely, but you do not desert me.
My courage fails me, but with you there is help.
I am restless, but with you there is peace.
In me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience.
I do not understand your ways, but you know the way for me.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Lutheran pastor imprisoned and executed by Nazis.





Keep the mind high

What is important is to keep our mind high in the world of true understanding and returning to the world of our daily experience to seek therein the truth of beauty.

No matter what we may be doing at a given moment, we must not forget that it has a bearing upon our everlasting self, which is poetry.

Matsuo Bashō, 1644 – 1694

How we live

The value of a life
does not depend on
the place we occupy;

It depends on the way
we occupy that place.

attributed to Therese of Lisieux

the deepest self

Same understanding as yesterday’s quote, but from the Western tradition

I have spoken at times of a light in the deepest self,

a light that is uncreated and uncreatable,

and to the extent that we can turn away from created things, we shall find our unity and blessing in that little spark,

which neither space nor time touches.

Meister Eckhart

for another person

All you can do for another person is be an environment

in which if they wanted to come up for air,

they could.

Ram Dass

Sit quietly

In moments of darkness and pain

remember all is cyclical.

Sit quietly behind your wooden door

Spring will come again

Loy Ching-Yuen (1873 – 1960) Chinese Taoist tai chi master.