Everyone post some favorite quotes!

[silent thunder]

Silence... is destroyed whenever we pronounce its name.

[Taomeow]

 

Edited August 29, 2020 by Taomeow

[natural]

"Leave me alone with my pizza and beer!"

Real life character the comic character Homer Simpson was based, at least in part, on.

[moment]

 

BABBLE

 

the great Tower of  Babble

not about the scattering: 

but the language taken back;

unity on earth now lost

  

 

our cultivators

tend to us with art

poetry, and mist, 

with failure and gain

 

Caretakers and the nurtured 

teachers and students 

all trying to make up for

that terrible loss

Edited August 30, 2020 by moment

[manitou]

5 hours ago, natural said:

"Leave me alone with my pizza and beer!"

Real life character the comic character Homer Simpson was based, at least in part, on.

 

 

The character of which you speak was certainly one of our dear Bums who passed.  Surely the real life character was Marblehead.

[moment]

I truly and sincerely believe, that every single human being in the world, truly and sincerely believes, at least one thing; that is not true.

Edited August 30, 2020 by moment

[CloudHands]

The result of a consistent and total substitution of lies for factual truth is not that the lie will now be accepted as truth, and truth be defamed as lie, but that the sense by which we take our bearings in the real world - and the category of truth versus falsehood is among the mental means to this end - is being destroyed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 30, 2020 by CloudHands

[neti neti]

Quote

"He who is in harmony with the Tao
is like a newborn child.
Its bones are soft, its muscles are weak,
but its grip is powerful.
It doesn’t know about the union
of male and female,
yet its penis can stand erect,
so intense is its vital power.
It can scream its head off all day,
yet it never becomes hoarse,
so complete is its harmony.

 

The Master’s power is like this.
He lets all things come and go
effortlessly, without desire.
He never expects results;
thus he is never disappointed.
He is never disappointed;
thus his spirit never grows old."

 

~Lao Tzu

 

Edited August 31, 2020 by neti neti

[moment]

all in front of you,

yet pierced with less than a word

availed and veiled

Edited August 31, 2020 by moment

[moment]

The layered bloom of hills and streams

Kingfisher shades beneath rose-colored clouds

mountain mists soak my cotton bandanna,

dew penetrates my palm-bark coat.

On my feet are traveling shoes,

my hand holds an old vine staff.

Again I gaze beyond the dusty world-

what more could I want in that land of dreams?---  Hanshan ( 1865-1944)

 

[moment]

“Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing.”
― Lao Tzu

 

“We may be floating on Tao, but there is nothing wrong with steering. If Tao is like a river, it is certainly good to know where the rocks are.”
― Deng Ming-Dao

 

“Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.”
― Alan Wilson Watts

Edited September 1, 2020 by moment

[Taomeow]

 

“Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law’ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.”

-- Thomas Jefferson 

[moment]

Wear the outer robe of the law; but wear the inner robe of the mystic.

[Taomeow]

“But would you kindly ponder this question: What would your good do if evil didn't exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared? After all, shadows are cast by things and people. Here is the shadow of my sword. But shadows also come from trees and living beings. 
Do you want to strip the earth of all trees and living things just because of your fantasy of enjoying naked light? You're stupid.” 
― Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita

[moment]

I feel peace, I feel love, I feel joy, I feel the tears well up in my eyes every single day, in the oddest places and times.  It sometimes happens in front of strangers and I am no longer embarrassed or try to wipe them away and damn; it feels good!

Edited September 5, 2020 by moment

[neti neti]

On 9/3/2020 at 7:30 PM, moment said:

Wear the outer robe of the law; but wear the inner robe of the mystic.

 

Love this. 

[neti neti]

On 7/17/2020 at 6:17 PM, silent thunder said:

Real dialogue is where two or more people become willing to suspend their certainty in each other's presence.
~ David Bohm

 

"The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply."

 

~Stephen R. Covey

[moment]

Standing alone and unchanging,

one can observe every mystery,

present at every moment and ceaselessly continuing--

This is the gateway to indescribable marvels.

 

                                                   Lao Tzu

[manitou]

jesus.

[neti neti]

[moment]

We need to honestly evaluate ourselves constantly, because our balance is a moving target. 

Edited September 10, 2020 by moment

[silent thunder]

3 hours ago, neti neti said:

After 51 years in this waking dream... and 47 years of lucid dreaming... the boundaries between them becomes less substantial and  distinct with each passing season and cycle of growth.  I have always experienced much resonant familiarity in the manners in which the Tibetans frame the dream like quality of 'waking life'.

 

The Bard has quite a few references to it as well.

 

"And like the baseless fabric of this vision,

The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,

The solemn temples, the great globe itself—

Yea, all which it inherit—shall dissolve,

And like this insubstantial pageant faded,

Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff

As dreams are made on, and our little life

Is rounded with a sleep."

 

Prospero, The Tempest, Act 4 sc. 1

 

"When I waked, I cried to dream again"

(Caliban, The Tempest)

 

"‘To die, to sleep – to sleep – perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub, for in that sleep of death what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, must give us pause.’ 

 

Hamlet

 

‘If it be thus to dream, still let me sleep!’

(Sebastian Twelfth Night)

 

 

 

 

[moment]

12 hours ago, neti neti said:

 

As a child Shams-e Tabrizied was different. His own parents thought he was retarded. 

Then one day Shams told them the story of the duck’s egg that was found by the hen and hatched. The hen raised the duckling with her other chicks. One day they walked to a lake. The duck went right in the water, Shams said to his parents, “Now, father and mother, I have found my place. I have learned to swim in the ocean, even if you must remain on the shore.”

Shams was Rumi's teacher.  Shams was a great sage.

Edited September 10, 2020 by moment

[moment]

“Instead of resisting to changes, surrender. Let life be with you, not against you. If you think ‘My life will be upside down’ don’t worry. How do you know down is not better than upside?”
― Shams Of Tabriz

 

“A life without love is of no account. Don't ask yourself what kind of love you should seek, spiritual or material, divine or mundane, eastern or western…divisions only lead to more divisions. Love has no labels, no definitions. It is what it is, pure and simple. Love is the water of life. And a lover is a soul of fire! The universe turns differently when fire loves water.”
― Shams Of Tabriz

Edited September 10, 2020 by moment

[silent thunder]

13 hours ago, moment said:

 

As a child Shams-e Tabrizied was different. His own parents thought he was retarded. 

Then one day Shams told them the story of the duck’s egg that was found by the hen and hatched. The hen raised the duckling with her other chicks. One day they walked to a lake. The duck went right in the water, Shams said to his parents, “Now, father and mother, I have found my place. I have learned to swim in the ocean, even if you must remain on the shore.”

Shams was Rumi's teacher.  Shams was a great sage.

Wow, memory blast...

 

My last role as an actor was Shams!

It was at LaMama theater Off-Broadway in NYC, back in the 90's.

LaMama was founded by my theatrical guru/motivator  Jerzey Grotowski in the 60's... and the poetry of Rumi was instrumental in some of my awakening, so it was the perfect retirement role for me.

 

The show was basically the poetry of Rumi and the meeting of he and Shams that set him on his path to awakening.  It was set to original music and whirling in the Dervish/Sufi tradition played heavily throughout.  It is a remarkable method for meditation and sammadhi.

 

We were fortunate to be instructed in whirling by experienced practitioners and I explored it extensively at that time (and occasionally it will arise spontaneously and I'll whirl again to this day).  It triggered several deeply affecting mystic experiences that still resonate.