sayings

 

 

”Sorrow makes us all children again.” Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1883), American, poet, essayist, philosopher, and leader of the Transcendentalist Movement.

  “It doesn’t matter how long you have forgotten, only how soon you remember.” The Buddha

 “It is looking at things for a long time that ripens you and gives you a deeper understanding.” Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Dutch painter.

 “Our life is to be a continuous dying to self: a voluntary relinquishing of a small and more relative life in order to actualize a larger and more permanent one.” -Rev. Dr. Cynthia Bourgeault, author of Centering prayer and inner awakening.

 “The way to peace is to cry a cornucopia of tears.” Sri Anandamayi Ma (1896-1981), Indian mystic.

  “What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?” Mahatma Gandhi, UK-trained lawyer and Indian freedom-fighter known for his advocacy of non-violent protest.

      “What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves? This is the most important of all voyages of discovery, and without it, all the rest are not only useless, but disastrous … .” Thomas Merton (1915-1968), Trappist monk, social activist, author of dozens of books, poems, and essays on monastic life, prayer, world religions, contemplation, solitude, and inter-faith dialogue.  

 

  “Prayer and love are learned in the hour when prayer has become impossible and your heart has turned to stone.” Thomas Merton

 “In your daily life, please accept yourself as you are and your life as it is. / Be intimate with yourself. / I want you to take advantage of every chance you have to become a really intimate being.” Taizan Maezumi Roshi founded the LA Zen Center and is my Dharma grandfather by way of being the teacher of my teacher Jan Chozen Bays Roshi, co-abbess of Great Vow Zen Monastery.

 “I am in the present. I cannot know what tomorrow will bring forth. I can know only what the truth is for me today. That is what I am called upon to serve, and I serve it in all lucidity.” Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky Игорь Фёдорович Стравинский (1882-1971) Russian composer, pianist, and conductor; widely considered the most influential composer of the 20th century. 
“The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.” Thomas Merton. (1955). No Man Is an Island (1955).

  “If a man loses pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music in which he hears, however measured, or far away.” Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), American naturalist, tax resister, development critic, philosopher.

 “To reach something good it is very useful to have gone astray, and thus acquire experience.” St. Teresa of Avila (1551-1582), Spanish nun, mystic, writer

  “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” Joseph Campbell (1904-1984), American mythology professor, writer, orator. 

 ”To guide us toward the love we most desire, we must be taken where we could not and would not go on our own.” St. John of the Cross (1542-1491), Spanish monk and mystic.

 “Humility of heart is a great treasure because it keeps us honest, cutting away self-deception, falsehood, and inauthenticity. It forces us to be real, even when it is uncomfortable. It rescues us from superficiality, and compels us to always be true to ourselves and to others.” Br. Wayne Teasdale (The mystic heart, 2001, p.150)

 

 “Renunciation is not getting rid of the things of this world, but accepting that they pass away.” Robert Aitken Roshi, senior American Zen teacher

 

 “Go into your own ground and learn to know yourself there.” Meister Eckhart (1260–1328), German theologian, philosopher, and mystic.