On a day when the wind is perfect,

the sail just needs to open and the world is full of beauty.

Today is such a day

 

My eyes are like the sun that makes promises:

the promise of life

that it always

keeps

each morning.

 

The living heart gives to us as does that luminous sphere,

both caress the earth with great

tenderness.

 

There is a breeze that can enter the soul.

This love I know plays a drum.  Arms move around me;

who can contain their self before my beauty?

 

Peace is wonderful,

but ecstatic dance is more fun, and less narcissistic;

gregarious He makes our lips.

 

On a day when the wind is perfect,

the sail just needs to open

and the love starts.

 

Today is such

a day.

 

- Rumi
(Trans. Daniel Ladinsky - Love Poems from God)

 

Progress in Yoga is not necessarily characterized by daily mind-bending revelations.  Instead the path is marked by small but significant changes in how we act and react.  Perhaps we will be more patient when cut off in traffic.  Or we may find ourselves a little less fearful or anxious when speaking in public.  Attraction to violent movies may be replaced with more tranquil diversions.  Sages and saints are born from these beginnings.  There is one infallible sign of growth: We will be more peaceful and happy.  Maybe not everyday in every way, but if our happiness were marked on a chart, the trend over a period of time would definitely be upward.

 

- Swami Satchidananda

 

It is only after a while that you learn

the subtle difference between

holding a hand and chaining a soul

and you learn that love doesn't mean possession

and company doesn't mean security.

And you begin to learn that kisses aren't contracts

and presents aren't promises and you begin to accept

your defeats with your head up and your eyes ahead

with the grace of an adult not the grief of a child.

And you learn to build your roads today

because tomorrows ground is too uncertain for plans

and futures have ways of falling down in mid-flight.

After awhile you learn that even sunshine

burns if you get too much so you plant your

own garden and decorate your own soul

instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.

And you learn that you really can endure

that you really are strong

and you really do have worth

and you learn... you learn... what it means to

unconditionally share yourself with another

human being because you have first learned

what it means to love yourself -  real, divine love.

 

- Veronica A. Shoffstall

If I speak in the tonguesa of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13 New International Version

 

What makes you NOT a Buddhist

 

1)      All compounded objects are impermanent

2)      All emotions result in pain

3)      All phenomena are illusory and empty

4)      Enlightenment transcends any conceptualization of it

 

- Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse

If It Is Not Too Dark

Go for a walk, if it is not too dark.
Get some fresh air, try to smile.
Say something kind
To a safe-looking stranger, if one happens by. 

Always exercise your heart's knowing.

 

You might as well attempt something real

Along this path.

 

Take your spouse or lover in your arms

The way you did when you first met.

Let tenderness pour from your eyes

The way the Sun gazes warmly on the earth.

 

Play a game with some children.

Extend yourself to a friend.

Sing a few ribald songs to your pets and plants -

Why not let them get drunk and wild!

 

Let's toast

Every rung we've climbed on Evolution's ladder.

Whisper, “I love you! I love you!”

To the whole mad world.

 

Let's stop reading about God -

We will never understand him.

 

Jump to your feet, wave your fists,

Threaten and warn the whole Universe

 

That your heart can no longer live

Without real love!

 

- Hafiz

In humility is the greatest freedom.  As long as you have to defend the imaginary self that you think is important, you lose your peace of heart.  As soon as you compare that shadow with the shadows of other people, you lose all joy, because you have begun to trade in unrealities and there is no joy in things that do not exist.

 

- Thomas Merton

(From The Prophet)

You give little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow? And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the over prudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city? And what is fear of need but need itself? Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, the thirst that is unquenchable? There are those who give little of the much which they have- and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome. And there are those who have little and give it all. These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty. There are those who give with joy, and joy is their reward. And there are those who give with pain, and pain is their baptism. And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue; They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space. Through the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes He smiles upon earth.

- Kahlil Gibran

Love After Love

 

The time will come

when, with elation

you will greet yourself arriving

at your own door, in your own mirror

and each will smile at the other's welcome,

 

and say, sit here. Eat.

You will love again the stranger who was your self.

Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart

to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

 

all your life, whom you ignored

for another, who knows you by heart.

Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

 

the photographs, the desperate notes,

peel your own image from the mirror.

Sit. Feast on your life.

- Derek Walcott

When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and your discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.

- Patanjali