Change the Future

"What you do in the present will redeem the past and thereby change the future." - Paulo Coelho

Where There's Joy

“Find a place inside where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.” - Joseph Campbell

Orderly Lives

"When we have disorderly lives, it makes it difficult for our minds to be orderly and for us to be at ease with disorder."

 

~Joan Halifax Roshi

Will Be

“I am not a has-been. I am a will be.” ~ Lauren Bacall

Compassion

"We live in a time when science is validating what humans have known throughout the ages: that compassion is not a luxury; it is a necessity for our well-being, resilience, and survival."

 

~Joan Halifax Roshi

Acceptance

"You must learn to outwardly trust, to accept others, to love others; but you must also trust, accept and love yourself. You must know that you are good enough for others to accept. Acceptance is freedom." - Deborah Livingston (Medium)  

Wherever We Go

“Wherever we go we do harm, forgiving
ourselves as wheels do cement for wearing
each other out. We set this house
on fire, forgetting that we live within.” ― Jim Harrison

True Happiness

"True happiness is always available to us, but first we have to create the environment for it to flourish."

 

~Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche

  

Somewhere Better

"Without giving up hope-that there's somewhere better to be, that there's someone better to be-we will never relax with where we are or who we are."

 

~Pema Chödrön

Beloved

"Many voices ask for our attention. There is a voice that says, 'Prove that you are a good person.' Another voice says, 'You'd better be ashamed of yourself.' There also is a voice that says, 'Nobody really cares about you,' and one that says, 'Be sure to become successful, popular, and powerful.' But underneath all these often very noisy voices is a still, small voice that says, 'You are my Beloved, my favor rests on you.' That's the voice we need most of all to hear. To hear that voice, however, requires special effort; it requires solitude, silence, and a strong determination to listen. That's what prayer is. It is listening to the voice that calls us 'my Beloved.' "  - Henri Nouwen

Light

"Live in rooms full of light." - Cornelius Celsus

Still Mind

"A mind that is fast is sick. A mind that is slow is sound. A mind that is still is divine." - Meher Baba

Happiness of Others

"I believe that the very purpose of life is to be happy. From the very core of our being, we desire contentment. In my own limited experience I have found that the more we care for the happiness of others, the greater is our own sense of well-being. Cultivating a close, warmhearted feeling for others automatically puts the mind at ease. It helps remove whatever fears or insecurities we may have and gives us the strength to cope with any obstacles we encounter. It is the principal source of success in life. Since we are not solely material creatures, it is a mistake to place all our hopes for happiness on external development alone. The key is to develop inner peace."

 

~Dalai Lama XIV

Daily Routine

"The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine."  ~ Mike Murdock

Growth of Wisdom

“The growth of wisdom may be gauged exactly by the diminution of ill temper.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

Serene Encounter

"In mindfulness one is not only restful and happy, but alert and awake. Meditation is not evasion; it is a serene encounter with reality."

 

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Accepting Yourself

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

 

~Thich Nhat Hanh

On Perseverance

In the realm of ideas, everything depends on enthusiasm. In the real world, all rests on perseverance. ” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

True Success

"True success is measured by how you treat the people in your life." - Che Garmon

Time to Heal

"We must not give up. It takes so much time to heal because we are not just healing our own wounds- we are healing the world’s wounds, too. We think we are alone with our ‘stuff’, but we aren’t. With every clearing of our emotional debris, with every foray into a healthier way of being, with every excavation and release of old material, we heal the collective heart. So many of our familial and karmic ancestors had little opportunity to heal their pains. When we heal, their spirits breathe a sigh of relief. We heal them backwards, while healing ourselves forward. We heal in unison." - Jeff Brown

Human Angels

"Happiness doesn’t come from expensive things. It comes from living our own passions." - from We are Human Angels

Shedding our Past

"Just as a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our past over and over again." - Gautama Buddha

Poetry Reading

Poetry Reading by Anna Swir

 I’m curled into a ball
like a dog
that is cold....

Who will tell me
why I was born,
why this monstrosity
called life.

The telephone rings. I have to give
a poetry reading.

I enter.
A hundred people, a hundred pairs of eyes.
They look, they wait.
I know for what.

I am supposed to tell them
why they were born,
why there is
this monstrosity called life.

Believe

“It's what we believe about ourselves that determines how others see us.”
― Beth Hoffman

Mystic's Quote

Goodwill and good intentions even with the strong foundations of philosophy are no guarantee that the road will take you to contentment or favorable recompense.

I have learnt that whatever you do, whatever road you take - you will suffer in... some inexplicable way.

Then the devil in your head, lurking quietly and waiting for its opportunity does mostly manage to make you lose your way by rationalizing certain possibilities – and before you know it you are trapped and wishing for release which often comes only with death.

If this will lead you to awakening is a matter solely dependent on your attitude to life.
Guru says that under their protection you are safe and the correct path will open up under all circumstances. This is as true as it can be but the painfulness that one has to bear does not get diminished. - The Mystic's Quotes (@ Facebook)