Water, when it flows downstream, does not have a model of what it’s doing. Its just being water, and water flows downstream, because that’s how water works.
The thing that is extraordinarily hard for any of us to truly realize and have sufficient faith to accept, is that if you stop having views, having models, planning, desiring, organizing and structuring….
it’s all right.
Ram Dass
If you assume that purpose is something big, you might think its something that you’ll feel at some point down the road, after you’ve achieved something significant. You’re pushing purpose off into the future instead of creating it day-to-day. This mindset prevents you from identifying all the small ways you can contribute to the world right now.
Lori Deschene, Tiny Buddha blog
I hate endings.….The temptation towards resolution, towards wrapping up the package, seems to me a terrible trap.
Why not be more honest with the moment?
The most authentic endings are the ones which are already revolving towards another beginning. That’s genius.
Sam Shepard, 1943 – 2017, American actor, playwright, author, screenwriter, and director.
I had a similar encounter yesterday with swallows in Emo Park
There are days when I am convinced that Heaven starts already, now, in this ordinary life, just as it is, in all its incompleteness, yet, this is where Heaven starts.
See within yourself, if you can find it.
I walked through the field in front of the house, lots of swallows flying, everywhere! Some very near me. It was magical.
We are already one, yet we know it not.
Thomas Merton
In the course of [my] travels it became clear to me that tranquility and peace have nothing to do with the most beautiful places on earth or the most interesting experiences.
They are only to be found in one’s heart.
Ayya Khema, I Give you my life: The Autobiography of a Buddhist Nun
In the Western tradition there is a recognized hierarchy of beings, with, of course, the human being on top – the pinnacle of evolution, the darling of Creation – and the plants at the bottom.
But in Native ways of knowing, human people are often referred to as “the younger brothers of Creation.”
We say that humans have the least experience with how to live and thus the most to learn – we must look to our teachers among the other species for guidance. Their wisdom is apparent in the way that they live. They teach us by example. They’ve been on the earth far longer than we have been, and have had time to figure things out.
Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass
