Wayfarer
Your whole mind and body have been tied
To the foot of the Divine Elephant
With a thousand golden chains.
Now, begin to rain intelligence and compassion
Upon all your tender, wounded cells
And realize the profound absurdity
Of thinking
That you can ever go Anywhere
Or do Anything
Without God’s will.
Hafiz
And the priestess spoke again and said: ‘Speak to us of Reason and Passion.’
And he answered saying:
Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against passion and your appetite.
Would that I could be the peacemaker in your soul, that I might turn the discord and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody.
But how shall I, unless you yourselves be also the peacemakers, nay, the lovers of all your elements?
Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul.
If either your sails or our rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas.
For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.
Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion; that it may sing;
And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.
I would have you consider your judgment and your appetite even as you would two loved guests in your house.
Surely you would not honour one guest above the other; for he who is more mindful of one loses the love and the faith of both.
Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows – then let your heart say in silence, ‘God rests in reason.’
And when the storm comes, and the mighty wind shakes the forest, and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky, – then let your heart say in awe, ‘God moves in passion.’
And since you are a breath In God’s sphere, and a leaf in God’s forest, you too should rest in reason and move in passion.
Kahlil Gibran
Every creature has a religion. Every
foot is a shrine where
a secret candle
burns.
Every cell in us worships
God.
Every arrow in the bow of desire
has rushed out in hope
of nearing
Him.
Thomas Aquinas
The First Training: Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I vow to cultivate compassion and learn ways to protect the lives of people, animals, plants and minerals. I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to condone any act of killing in the world, in my thinking and in my way of life.
The Second Training: Aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice, stealing and oppression, I vow to cultivate loving kindness and learn ways to work for the well-being of people, animals, plants and minerals. I vow to practice generosity by sharing my time, energy, and material resources with those in real need. I am determined not to steal and not to possess anything that should belong to others. I will respect the property of others, but I will prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of other species on earth.
The Third Training: Aware of the suffering caused by sexual misconduct, I vow to cultivate responsibility and learn ways to protect the safety and integrity of individuals, couples, families and society. I am determined not to engage in sexual relations without love and a long-term commitment. To preserve the happiness of myself and others, I am determined to respect my commitments and the commitments of others. I will do everything in my power to protect children from sexual abuse and to prevent couples and families from being broken by sexual misconduct.
The Fourth Training: Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful speech and the inability to listen to others, I vow to cultivate loving speech and deep listening in order to bring joy and happiness to others and relieve others of suffering. Knowing that words can create happiness or suffering, I vow to learn to speak truthfully, with words that inspire self-confidence, joy and hope. I am determined not to spread news that I do not know to be certain and not to criticize or condemn things of which I am not sure. I will refrain from uttering words that can cause division or discord; or words that can cause the family or the community to break. I will make all efforts to reconcile and resolve all conflicts, however small.
The Fifth Training: Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I vow to cultivate good health, both physical and mental, for myself, my family, and my society by practicing mindful eating, drinking and consuming. I vow to ingest only items that preserve peace, well being, and joy in my body, in my consciousness, and in the collective body and consciousness of my family and society. I am determined not to use alcohol or any other intoxicant or to ingest foods or other items that contain toxins, such as certain TV programs, magazines, books, films and conversations. I am aware that to damage my body and my consciousness with these poisons is to betray my ancestors, my parents, my society and future generations. I will work to transform violence, fear, anger and confusion in myself and in society by practicing a diet for myself and for society. I understand that a proper diet is crucial for self transformation and the transformation of society.
Thich Nhat Hanh
O Children of Nothing!
Truth can’t come in through your eyes,
Nor can speech go out through your mouth to find Him;
Hearing leads the speaker down the road to anxiety,
And if you follow your hands and feet you will arrive at confusion -
The real work is in the Heart:
Wake up your Heart! Because when the Heart is completely awake,
Then it needs no Friend.
Rabi’a
We stood before the waving sea
and stared at vast infinity,
and praised the Life that brought us here
to take our ride upon this sphere,
for when we reach the distant shore
I know we’ll be returning,
rich from the journey
rich from the journey.
You never know what’s up ahead.
The tempest rolls and the skies are red.
But, off into the world that waits
between tomorrow and today,
to seek our fortunes and our fates,
driven by this yearning,
to be rich from the journey,
rich from the journey.
and when it’s time to leave the harbour of this dream
we’ll have a heart that’s filled with memories.
So sail away sweet soul in peace.
Hoist your sails into the breeze.
Beneath these stars so hard to read,
Godspeed the winds that carry me
and tell my friends to look for me
for soon I’ll be returning,
rich from the journey.
Kimmie Rhodes
Glory be to God for dappled things -
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted & pieced – fold, fallow & plough;
And all trades, their gear & tackle & trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled, (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.
Gerard Manley Hopkins
The Great Buddha of Kamakura is a bronze statue of Amida Buddha.
The thought manifests as the word;
The word manifests as the deed;
The deed develops into habit;
And habit hardens into character.
So watch the thought and its ways with care,
And let it spring from love
Born out of concern for all beings.
The Buddha
Quetzalcoatl, Aztec god
Offer only lovely things on my altars -
the bread of life, and jewels, and feathers and flowers.
Let the streams of life flow in peace.
Turn from violence.
Learn to think for a long time how to change this world,
and how to make it better to live in.
All the people in the world ought to talk about it
and speak well of it always.
The it will last forever, and the flowers will bloom forever,
and I will come to you again.
Quetzalcoatl
"heart and soul"
The human heart craves certainty yet life is sometimes uncertain. In times of ambiguity, doubt and apprehension, I claim the certain safety of my spiritual connection. Reminding myself that even in the face of difficult change, my grounding in Spirit remains secure, I find ground on which to stand. It is timeless and serene. Spirit is the bedrock beneath all experience. When I am threatened and adrift, I remind myself Spirit is an inner fortress, constant and secure.
Today I embrace Spirit as the rock of my existence. Spirit gives my soul an earthly home.
Judith Cameron