Samuel Beckett

"Ever tried.  Ever failed.  No matter.  Try again. Fail again.  Fail better."

Don Miguel Ruiz

"Once lived, the past has very little value.  And yet we carry its lifeless body into all future moments.  Allowing it to crush us with its weight, to identify us, and to speak for us."

Mark Twain

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.  Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great"

Sakyong Mipham

"We are meant not to wait for moments of love to randomly arise but to be always cultivating love like a garden.  We need to till the soil so that the seed of our love can open, sprout and break through.  If we water it and give it air and sunshine, it will grow."

Nelson Mandela

"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear."

Jim Morrison

"Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free."

Bruce Lee

“I am learning to understand rather than immediately judge or to be judged. I cannot blindly follow the crowd and accept their approach. I will not allow myself to indulge in the usual manipulating game of role creation. Fortunately for me, my self-knowledge has transcended that and I have come to understand that life is best to be lived and not to be conceptualized. I am happy because I am growing daily and I am honestly not knowing where the limit lies. To be certain, every day there can be a revelation or a new discovery. I treasure the memory of the past misfortunes. It has added more to my bank of fortitude.”

Albert Camus

"In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer."

Dalai Lama

"Don't let the behaviors of others destroy your inner peace."

Paulo Coelho

"Life has many ways of testing a person's will, either by having nothing happen at all or by having everything happen all at once."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience."

Thich Nhat Hanh

"To be beautiful means to be yourself.  You don't need to be accepted by others.  You need to accept yourself."

Live In Truth

"Once when golfer Bobby Jones was playing in a big tournament, he inadvertently moved his ball a few inches in the rough.  He penalized himself based on what had happened.  When someone pointed out to him that no one else had seen the ball move, he said, 'I saw it move, and that is all that matters.'"

~Sakyong Mipham~

Ajahn Chah

"If you let go a little
you will have a little happiness.
If you let go a lot
you will have a lot of happiness.
If you let go completely
you will be free."

New Year

"Affirming the Good

Fun becomes fun, love becomes love, life becomes worth living. And we become grateful.

Wait, and expect good things—for yourself and your loved ones.
When you wonder what is coming, tell yourself the best is coming, the very best life and love have to offer, the best God and His universe have to send. Then open your hands to receive it. Claim it, and it is yours.
See the best in your mind; envision what it will look like, what it will feel like. Focus, until you can see it clearly. Let your whole being, body and soul, enter into and hold onto the image for a moment.
Then, let it go. Come back into today, the present moment. Do not obsess. Do not become fearful. Become excited. Live today fully, expressing gratitude for all you have been, all you are, and all you will become.
Wait, and expect good things.
Today, when I think about the year ahead, I will focus on the good that is coming."

~Melody Beattie~

The Dark Side

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”
– Yoda

Peace

"Peace requires us to surrender our illusions of control.  We can love and care for others but we cannot possess our children, lovers, family, or friends.  We can assist them, pray for them, and wish them well, yet in the end their happiness and suffering depend on their thoughts and actions, not on our wishes."

~Jack Kornfield~

Indifference

"Indifference pretends to create peace, but it is based on not caring, a silent resignation.  It is a movement away, a separation fed by a subtle fear of the heart.  We pull back, believing that what happens to others is not our concern.  Our courage leaves us.  Indifference is a misguided way of defending ourselves."
~Jack Kornfield~

John Gato

"Think of the things that are killing us as a nation: drugs, brainless competition, recreational sex, the pornography of violence, gambling, alcohol, and the worst pornography of all - lives devoted to buying things, accumulation as a religion."

Health & Healing

"To keep the body in good health is a duty... otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear." ~Buddha~

"The wish for healing has always been half of health." ~Lucius Annaeus Seneca~

"Every time you eat or drink you are either fighting disease or feeding it." ~Heather Morgan~

Pablo Picasso

"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."

J. Krishnamurti

"If you look into your mind, you will see it's like thousands of butterflies whirling about!  You can hardly trace a single idea in this complexity.  A way to bring clarity to the mind is to write down your immediate thoughts and feelings in response to the events of the day, and then ponder them.  If you emphasize one particular problem in this writing, it will gradually lead to all others."

Stevenson

"Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm."

I'm Waiting For The Sweet One

"One day Mullah Nasrudin was sitting in the market in front of a big basket of red hot chili peppers.  With tears streaming down his cheeks, eyes bloodshot, face red, and nose running, he kept eating one after another.  Every now and then he let out a big howl they were so hot! One of his students approached him and asked, 'Mullah! What on earth are you doing? Why do you keep eating them?'

'I'm waiting for the sweet one,' he replied."

~Idries Shaw~

Jane Dobisz

"It occurs to me in this vulnerable state that regardless of the practice, the teachings, or what I attain or don't attain, I can't control this body.  It will get sick, grow old, and die whether I like it or not, whether I am enlightened or not, and, most especially, whether I am ready or not."

Seung Sahn

The Human Route

"Coming empty-handed, going empty-handed — that is human.
When you are born, where do you come from?
When you die, where do you go?
Life is like a floating cloud which appears.
Death is like a floating cloud which disappears.
The floating cloud itself originally does not exist.
Life and death, coming and going, are also like that.
But there is one thing which always remains clear.
It is pure and clear, not depending on life and death.

Then what is the one pure and clear thing?"

Dhammapada

"Hostilities are not stilled
     Through hostility, regardless.
Hostilities are stilled
     Through Non-hostility:
This, an unending Truth."

Dr King

"The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live.  Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power.  We have guided missiles and misguided men."

Chinul

"Strengthen your will; reprimand yourself; reprove your own laziness.  Know your faults and turn toward what is good.  Reform and repent your bad conduct; train and control your mind.  Cultivate earnestly and the power of contemplation will grow; train continuously and your practice will become increasing pure."

Geri Larkin

"I've discovered a secret about this nowness.  In this place we can clean up our karma, the muck we've created in our lives that needs scrubbing.  When we see clearly we don't need to whine about anyone else, to blame them, or to run away.  We just need to see.  And then start scrubbing."