Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others,
even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars,
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

attributed to Max Ehrmann, 1927

Our Deepest Fear, by Marianne Williamson

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We were born to manifest the glory of God within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Aloha and Namaste

Aloha in the Hawaiian language means affection, love, peace, compassion, mercy, goodbye and hello, among other sentiments of a similar nature.  The word aloha derives from the Hawaiian words also meaning "presence," "front," "face," or "share"; and ha, meaning "breath of life" or "essence of life."  In ancient times - and to this day - Hawaiians put their foreheads together and say "alo," and then breathe out say "ha," thus literally facing and exchanging their life's breath.

Namaste in the Indian language means "I honour the place in you in which the entire Universe dwells, I honour the place in you which is of Love, of Truth, of Light and of Peace; when you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, we are One."

from http://www.aloha-namaste.com/

from Osho

Man creates his own confusion just because he goes on rejecting himself, condemning himself, not accepting himself.  Then a chain of confusion, inner chaos and misery is created.  Why don't you accept yourrself as you are?

Chinese wisdom

Greed makes man poor in this life, for the abundance of this world does not make him rich.  Happy is he who is without sickness, and rich who is without debt.

a quote by Dostoevsky

Love all that has been created by God, both the whole and every grain of sand.  Love every leaf and every ray of light.  Love the beasts and the birds, love the plants, love every separate fragment.  If you love each separate fragment, you will understand the mystery of the whole resting in God.

excerpts from Thus Spoke Zarathustra, by Friedrich Nietzsche

He who will one day teach men to fly will have moved all boundary stones; the boundary stones themselves will fly up into the air before him, and he will rebaptize the earth - "the light one."

The ostrich runs faster than the fastest horse, but even he buries his head gravely in the grave earth; even so, the man who has not yet learned to fly.  Earth and life seem grave to him; and thus the spirit of gravity wants it.  But whoever would become light and a bird must love himself: thus I teach.

Not, to be sure, with the love of the wilting and wasting; for among those even self-love stinks.  One must learn to love oneself - thus I teach - with a wholesome and healthy love, so that one can bear to be with oneself and need not roam...

And verily, this is no command for today and tomorrow, to learn to love oneself.  Rather, it is of all arts the subtlest, the most cunning, the ultimate, and the most patient.  For whatever is his own is well concealed from the owner; and of all treasures, it is our own that we dig up last...

And verily, much that is our own is also a grave burden!  And much that is inside man is like an oyster: nauseating and slippery and hard to grasp, so that a noble shell with a noble embellishment must plead for it.  But this art too one must learn: to have a shell and shiny sheen and shrewd blindness.  Moreover, one is deceived about many things in man because many a shell is shabby and sad and altogether too much shell.  Much hidden graciousness and strength is never guessed; the most exquisite delicacies find no tasters.  Women know this - the most exquisite do: a little fatter, a little slimmer - oh, how much destiny lies in so little!...

Verily, I also do not like those who consider everything good and this world the best.  Such men I call the omni-satisfied.  Omni-satisfaction, which knows how to taste everything, that is not the best taste.  I honor the recalcitrant choosy tongues and stomachs, which have learned to say "I" and "yes" and "no."

...and the most revolting human animal that I found I baptized "parasite": it did not want to love and yet it wanted to live on love...

Cursed I call those too who must always wait; they offend my taste: all the publicans and shopkeepers and kings and other land- and storekeepers.  Verily, I too have learned to wait - thoroughly - but only to wait for myself.  And above all I learned to stand and walk and run and jump and climb and dance.

By many ways, in many ways, I reached my truth: it was not on one ladder that I climbed to the height where my eye roams over my distance...

A trying and questioning was my every move; and verily, one must also learn to answer such questioning.  That, however, is my taste - not good, not bad, but my taste of which I am no longer ashamed and which I have no wish to hide.

"This is my way; where is yours?" - thus I answered those who asked me "the way."  For the way - that does not exist.

Thus spoke Zarathustra.