The Buddha taught his students to develop a power of love so strong that their minds become like a pure, flowing river that cannot be burned.
No matter what kind of material is thrown into it, it will not burn.
Many experiences – good, bad, and indifferent – are thrown into the flowing river of our lives, but we are not burned, owing to the power of the love in our hearts.
Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindness
We have just passed the Spring Solstice. In Ireland this has meant more grey skies and rain than we saw in most of the Winter. Sometimes change happens out of sight and we have to keep going on trust
Our spirit persists like a man struggling
through the frozen valley
who suddenly smells flowers
and realizes the snow is melting
out of sight on top of the mountain,
knows that spring has begun
Jack Gilbert, 1925 – 2012, American poet
Everybody has a little bit of the sun and moon in them…..We have a universe within ourselves that mimics the universe outside. None of us are just black or white, or never wrong and always right. No one. No one exists without polarities.
Everybody has good and bad forces working with them, against them, and within them.
Suzy Kassem, 1975 – American Poet, Rise Up and Salute the Sun
The point here is to take life in all its rich variety just as it is, with its ten thousand opposites,
and to go along with whatever circumstances require, embracing things after their own inclination or according to chance,
letting things be, rather than getting in their way, and thus allowing each and every thing, each and every appearance, to pursue a meaning and purpose distinct from my own.
Totsudo Kato, 1870 – 1949, Japanese writer
The purpose of life is to bring forth goodness.
Now, in this life
Leo Tolstoy
Whenever we are between here and there,
whenever one thing has ended and we are waiting for the next thing to begin,
whenever we’re tempted to distract ourselves or look for an escape route
we can instead let ourselves be open, curious, tentative, vulnerable
Pema Chodron
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