The Universe is the University

Clouded Sight

2012-02-17T08:00:00.001-05:00

"Soon the child's clear eye is clouded over by ideas and opinions, preconceptions and abstractions. Simple free being becomes encrusted with the burdensome armor of the ego. Not until years later does an instinct come that a vital sense of mystery has been withdrawn. The sun glints through the pines, and the heart is pierced in a moment of beauty and strange pain, like a memory of paradise. After that day, we become seekers." -Peter Matthiessen-

The Blind Men and the Elephant

2012-02-16T10:11:00.000-05:00

Several citizens ran into a hot argument about God and different religions, and each one could not agree to a common answer. So they came to the Lord Buddha to find out what exactly God looks like.

The Buddha asked his disciples to get a large magnificent elephant and four blind men. He then brought the four blind to the elephant and told them to find out what the elephant would "look" like.

The first blind men touched the elephant leg and reported that it "looked" like a pillar. The second blind man touched the elephant tummy and said that an elephant was a wall. The third blind man touched the elephant ear and said that it was a piece of cloth. The fourth blind man held on to the tail and described the elephant as a piece of rope. And all of them ran into a hot argument about the "appearance" of an elephant.

The Buddha asked the citizens: "Each blind man had touched the elephant but each of them gives a different description of the animal. Which answer is right?"

Precious Gift

2012-02-15T06:30:00.001-05:00

A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream.
The next day she met another traveler who was hungry,
and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food.

The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation.
The traveler left rejoicing in his good fortune.
He knew the stone was worth enough to give him
security for a lifetime. But, a few days later,
he came back to return the stone to the wise woman.
"I've been thinking," he said. "I know how valuable this stone is,
but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something
even more precious. Give me what you have within you that
enabled you to give me this stone.
" Sometimes it's not the wealth you have
but what's inside you that others need.

Holding Up the Sky

2012-02-13T13:03:00.002-05:00

One day an elephant saw a hummingbird lying on its back with its tiny feet up in the air. "What are you doing?" asked the elephant.

The hummingbird replied, "I heard that the sky might fall today, and so I am ready to help hold it up, should it fall."

The elephant laughed cruelly. "Do you really think," he said, "that those tiny
feet could help hold up the sky?"

The hummingbird kept his feet up in the air, intent on his purpose, as he
replied, "Not alone. But each must do what he can. And this is what I can do."

— A Chinese Folktale

Enjoying Fish

2012-02-12T23:06:00.000-05:00

One day Chuang Tzu and a friend were walking by a river. "Look at the fish swimming about," said Chuang Tzu, "They are really enjoying themselves."

"You are not a fish," replied the friend, "So you can't truly know that they are enjoying themselves."

"You are not me," said Chuang Tzu. "So how do you know that I do not know that the fish are enjoying themselves?"

Gandhi on Forgiveness

2010-04-01T14:09:00.000-04:00

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

- Mohandas Gandhi

Beyond Imagination

2010-04-01T14:08:00.000-04:00

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dremt of in your philosophy.

- William Shakespeare (Hamlet)

Let's Know Each Other Always

2010-04-01T14:06:00.000-04:00

In prosperity, our friends know us; in adversity, we know our friends.

- John Churton Collins

Good Advice

2010-04-01T14:04:00.001-04:00

It is never too late to give up your prejudices.

- Henry David Thoreau

Anger Burns

2010-04-01T14:01:00.000-04:00

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.

- Buddha

Carry Love in Your Heart

2010-04-01T13:59:00.000-04:00

Without love in the heart, Life is like a sapless tree in a barren desert. What good is a body perfect in outer ways, If inwardly it is impaired by lack of love? With love enshrined in the heart, one lives. Without it, the body is but bone encased in skin.

- Tirukkural 8:78-80

Shoestrings and Skies

2010-03-18T15:34:00.000-04:00

"Slipping on my shoes, boiling water, toasting bread, buttering the sky: that should be enough contact with God in one day to make anyone crazy."

- Hafiz

2009-11-14T23:12:00.001-05:00

A poor devotee points to the sky and says, "God is up there." An average devotee says, "God dwells in the heart as the Inner Master." The best devotee says, "God alone is and everything I perceive is a form of God."

- Ramakrishna

How are We Going to Live?

2009-11-14T23:10:00.000-05:00

You don't get to choose how you're going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you're going to live. Now.

~Joan Baez

Guidance

2009-11-14T23:08:00.003-05:00

After you ask for guidance--Listen!

~Unknown

Improvements

2009-11-12T10:42:00.000-05:00

There's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self.

~Aldous Huxley

Teaching

2009-10-26T10:57:00.001-04:00

When one teaches, two learn.

- Robert Half

One

2009-10-22T13:05:00.000-04:00

There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it.

~George Bernard Shaw

The Immortal Infinite

2009-10-21T18:55:00.000-04:00

Said the sage Sanatkumara to Narada: "Where one realizes the indivisible unity of life, sees nothing else, hears nothing else, knows nothing else, that is the Infinite. Where one sees separateness, hears separateness, knows separateness, that is the finite. The Infinite is beyond death, but the finite cannot escape death."

- Chandogya Upanishad

The Moving Flag

2009-10-20T21:54:00.002-04:00

Two Buddhist monks were arguing about a flag flapping in the wind. "It's the wind that is really moving," stated the first one. "No, it is the flag that is moving," contended the second. A third interrupted them.

"Neither the flag nor the wind is moving," he said, "It is MIND that is moving."

Living by Dying

2009-10-20T16:58:00.001-04:00

I believe that he is the true warrior who does not die killing but who has mastered the mantra of living by dying.

- Mohandas Gandhi

You Are Not Separate

2009-10-20T16:55:00.000-04:00

When you worship, you are aware of your separateness from God; you are the subject and he is the object. The more you worship, the more you acquire this sense of separateness from God. Union with God comes when this sense of your separateness from God is stripped away.

- Qushayri, "Risalah"

Experience

2009-10-20T15:54:00.000-04:00

Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with what happens to him.

- Aldous Huxley

Self-Discipline

2009-10-19T10:31:00.000-04:00

Self-discipline is when your conscience tells you to do something and you don't talk back.

- W.K. Hope

Dragons and Princesses

2009-10-19T10:29:00.001-04:00

Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave.

- Rainer Maria Rilke