You are always doing spiritual work. To know whether you are doing it properly, watch your feelings. Are you becoming more and more easeful? More and more peaceful? Are you lessening your worries? Do you always feel happy? If it bothers you more and more, then you are not doing it right. It's not the action that is important, but how you do it.
To decide whether you are doing the work in a spiritual way or not, ask yourself: "Am I maintaining my peace while doing this?" If the answer is "No," then you are doing something wrong. Every job should make you happy, jubilant. You should enjoy it, whatever it is, and feel like doing more. You should forget yourself while you are doing it. Work should be fun, not a burden. If you become heavy while doing it, then you are doing it as a labor. Even if you look for a thank you, you are looking for some reward. When you do something for a reward, it's labor. It's not service. Labor means you do it to get it. Service means you just do it, and forget it.
- Sri Swami Satchidanandaji Maharaj
Quotes, poems and stories offered in a contemplative space (no comments or ads). Peace be with you.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
on Love
There is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer;
No disease that enough love will not heal;
No door that enough love will not open;
No gulf that enough love will not bridge;
No wall that enough love will not throw down;
No sin that enough love will not redeem. . . .
It makes no difference how deeply seated
may be the trouble,
How hopeless the outlook,
How muddled the tangle,
How great the mistake,
a sufficient realization of love
will dissolve it all. . .
if only you could love enough
you would be the happiest
and most powerful being in the world.
- Emmett Fox
No disease that enough love will not heal;
No door that enough love will not open;
No gulf that enough love will not bridge;
No wall that enough love will not throw down;
No sin that enough love will not redeem. . . .
It makes no difference how deeply seated
may be the trouble,
How hopeless the outlook,
How muddled the tangle,
How great the mistake,
a sufficient realization of love
will dissolve it all. . .
if only you could love enough
you would be the happiest
and most powerful being in the world.
- Emmett Fox
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Quote by Charles Dickens
I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time.
Quote by Thich Nhat Hanh
By nourishing awareness in the present moment,
You can avoid causing suffering to yourself and those around you.
The way you look at others, your smile, and your small acts of caring can create happiness.
You can avoid causing suffering to yourself and those around you.
The way you look at others, your smile, and your small acts of caring can create happiness.
My Father, a poem by Yehuda Amichai
The memory of my father is
wrapped up in white paper,
like sandwiches taken for
a day at work.
Just as a magician takes
towers and rabbits out of
his hat, he drew love
from his small body,
and the rivers of his hands
overflowed with good deeds.
wrapped up in white paper,
like sandwiches taken for
a day at work.
Just as a magician takes
towers and rabbits out of
his hat, he drew love
from his small body,
and the rivers of his hands
overflowed with good deeds.
Two Geese Poems
The Journey
by David Whyte, from The House of Belonging, Many Rivers Press, 2004
Above the mountains
the geese turn into
the light again
painting their black silhouettes
on an open sky.
Sometimes everything
has to be
enscribed across
the heavens
so you can find
the one line
already written
inside you.
Sometimes it takes
a great sky
to find that
first, bright
and indescribable
wedge of freedom
in your own heart
Sometimes with
the bones of the black
sticks left when the fire
has gone out
someone has written
something new
in the ashes
of your life.
You are not leaving
you are arriving.
*****************************
Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
by David Whyte, from The House of Belonging, Many Rivers Press, 2004
Above the mountains
the geese turn into
the light again
painting their black silhouettes
on an open sky.
Sometimes everything
has to be
enscribed across
the heavens
so you can find
the one line
already written
inside you.
Sometimes it takes
a great sky
to find that
first, bright
and indescribable
wedge of freedom
in your own heart
Sometimes with
the bones of the black
sticks left when the fire
has gone out
someone has written
something new
in the ashes
of your life.
You are not leaving
you are arriving.
*****************************
Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Transformation and the Inspired Heart
Selected quotes from: The Inspired Heart: An Artist's Journey of Transformation by Jerry Wennstrom (2002)
* * * * * * * * * * * *
We cannot impersonate true integrity.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Enlightenment is not a grand finale that leaves us blissfully risen, Buddha-like, above the suffering of the world. It is deep and unconditional surrender to what already exists and total trust in the larger inherent intelligence, which is willing to lead the way. To accomplish this is to die to everything we think is our personal identity, however intelligent, successful, and noble we think it may be.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Eating could potentially become an instinctual, living prayer, the miracle we perform daily to keep us from death.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
By taking responsibility for what is manageable in our lives and tending the small things with reverence, we can relinquish the impossible attempt to play god to our larger creation. There is great freedom in knowing that nothing is ours to hold or identify with.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Everything counts and fits into place. The way we get out of bed in the morning becomes as important as the moment of creating an inspired new work of art....High Art becomes the art of all things, of whispers from God in all directions.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
A time may come when you are asked to let go of everything you think you are and all that you think you possess. If you can give yourself to this process, what will emerge will be a truer self in a truer world. All will be well. All that you had hoped for, all that is most important to you, all that seemed to be impossible or gone forever will be sanctified and returned to you.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
for more about Jerry Wennstrom, see: http://www.handsofalchemy.com/
* * * * * * * * * * * *
We cannot impersonate true integrity.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Enlightenment is not a grand finale that leaves us blissfully risen, Buddha-like, above the suffering of the world. It is deep and unconditional surrender to what already exists and total trust in the larger inherent intelligence, which is willing to lead the way. To accomplish this is to die to everything we think is our personal identity, however intelligent, successful, and noble we think it may be.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Eating could potentially become an instinctual, living prayer, the miracle we perform daily to keep us from death.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
By taking responsibility for what is manageable in our lives and tending the small things with reverence, we can relinquish the impossible attempt to play god to our larger creation. There is great freedom in knowing that nothing is ours to hold or identify with.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Everything counts and fits into place. The way we get out of bed in the morning becomes as important as the moment of creating an inspired new work of art....High Art becomes the art of all things, of whispers from God in all directions.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
A time may come when you are asked to let go of everything you think you are and all that you think you possess. If you can give yourself to this process, what will emerge will be a truer self in a truer world. All will be well. All that you had hoped for, all that is most important to you, all that seemed to be impossible or gone forever will be sanctified and returned to you.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
for more about Jerry Wennstrom, see: http://www.handsofalchemy.com/
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