You Are IT

We become compassionate not from altruism which denies the self for the sake of the other, but from the insight that sees and feels one IS the other.

~ Huston Smith

Sometimes there is a hum or low rumble in our environment, like a refrigerator or heater unit. When it stops, there is a kind of open, spacious quality and a sense of relief. Meditation is like that. Basically we sit and think and think and think; then occasionally that noisy mind stops for a moment and we experience a kind of open, spacious quality and a sense of relief. We can’t manufacture it and we can’t hold onto it. In Shambhala we call it “suddenly free from fixed mind.”

~ David Nichtern

If you cannot adore the Goddess
in the form of your own Breath,
where will you find Her?

If you cannot praise the Creator
as your mind’s own clear
and radiant silence before
a single thought arises,
why call his name?

‘Allah,’ ‘Jesus,’ ‘Buddha,’ ‘Ram’
need not be spoken
when the ocean of love
pours into your chest
and garlands your heart
with the light of a thousand stars.

Dear friend, your Beloved
has no plan, no commandment,
but abundant joy.

~ Fred LaMotte

It’s impossible to THANK and BLAME at the same time. They are two completely different frequencies, channels, vibrations. Living in gratitude is health. Living in blame is toxic.

One is a state of burning pride, discontent, heart-contraction; the other is a state of humble joy, warmth, heart-expansion. And when that expansion begins, it is like a spark in a basket of cotton. You catch fire very quickly. You hug distant stars, and sizzle your boundaries.

Your choice. The vibration you choose changes the world around you. I choose to live in the blessing of gratitude. The things I’m thankful for are not the blessings, just the occasions. Gratitude itself is the blessing. I hope you will bless the earth with your Thanksgiving.

~ Fred LaMotte

Where there is beauty, there is ugliness.

When something is right, something else is wrong.

Knowledge and ignorance depend on each other.

It has been like this since the beginning.

How could it be otherwise now?

Wanting to toss out one and hold onto the other makes for a ridiculous comedy.

You must still deal with everything ever-changing, even when you say it’s wonderful.

~ Ryōkan

We know that from time to time there arise among human beings people who seem to exude love as naturally as the sun gives out heat.

These people, usually of enormous creative power, are the envy of us all, and, by and large, man’s religions are attempts to cultivate that same power in ordinary people.

~ Alan Watts. The Spectrum of Love

The great way is not difficult
for those not attached to preferences.
When not attached to love or hate,
all is clear and undisguised.
Separate by the smallest amount, however,
and you are as far from it as heaven is from earth.
If you wish to know the truth,
then hold to no opinions for or against anything.
To set up what you like against what you dislike
is the disease of the mind.

~ Hsin-Hsin Ming