Poetry And Quotes

[irreverance]

I thought it would be fun to have a place dedicated to cool quotes that we come across in our various readings. Make sure to identify where you got it (author, title, page).

[Guest jeep]

Good idea:

 

Here's one to chew on:

 

"Nothing real can be threatened, nothing unreal exists;Herein lies the Peace of God"

------A Course in Miracles,2nd Edition, pg.x.

 

Jeep

[PantaRhea]

"How can it be meaningful to take a single step, if the whole journey is meaningless?" - Charles Birch, Regaining Compassion for Humanity and Nature , p. 206

[fatherman]

"The natural life in each of us is something self-centred, something that wants to be petted and admired, to take advantage of other lives, to exploit the whole universe."

 

--Mere Christianity -- C.S. Lewis

 

"[The natural life] knows that if the spiritual life gets hold of it, all its self-centredness and self-will are going to be killed and it is ready to fight tooth and nail to avoid that."

 

--Mere Christianity  -- C.S. Lewis

[fatherman]

He who would own everything, should seek to own nothing. He who would be everything, should seek to be nothing. He who would know everything, should seek to know nothing.

 

St. John of the Cross (given the title "Doctor of the Church" by Pope Pius XI)

 

Comments on the above quote by Swami Kriyananda

 

When we refuse to accept any wisdom as our own, to take credit for anything

that we do, or to consider anything we have as our own—then suddenly, we find that we

are a part of everything.

 

Then the Infinite One can shine through us. A stained glass window is colorless and

dull until the sun shines through it. We, too, are without beauty and brilliance until,

through total self-offering, the divine light can shine through us.

Edited January 7, 2005 by fatherman

[AletheiaRivers]

“Life is this simple. We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent, and God is shining through all the time.

 

This is not just a fable or a nice story. It is true.

 

If we abandon ourselves to God and forget ourselves, we see it sometimes, and we see it maybe frequently.

 

God shows Himself everywhere, in everything – in people and in things and in nature and in events.

 

It becomes very obvious that God is everywhere and in everything and we cannot be without Him. It’s impossible. The only thing is we don’t see it.”

 

- Thomas Merton

[Guest jeep]

I am becoming that I am becoming.

---Exodus 3:14(as translated by J.J.Dewey in his book"The Immortal"Book 1,pg.108

 

Jeep

[fatherman]

Exodus

14:14: "The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still"

[irreverance]

"The attention of the heart, this quietness within movement is actually another, intimate movement that spontaneously arises in the moment between life and death, when the ego is wounded and God is still distant; this attention is prayer in the sense of the Psalmist who asks, and asks and asks; it is that which watches and waits in the night."

~~Jacob Needleman, Lost Christianity: A Journey of Rediscovery to the Centre of Christian Experience, 165.

[fatherman]

 

God is often like a cup of water in front of blind, thirsty man.

 

Strangely, God is often like a cup of water in front of a seeing, thirsty man.

 

First we are attached to our blindness, then we are attached to our thirst.  ~ Fatherman

[fatherman]

(not sure if this is a true story or not, but it's a good one)

 

 

The professor of a well known local university

challenged his students

with this question. "Did God create everything that

exists?"

 

A student answered bravely, "Yes, he did".

 

The professor then asked, "If God created

everything, then he created

evil. Since evil exists (as noticed by our own

actions), so God is evil.

 

The student couldn't respond to that statement

causing the professor to

conclude that he had "proved" that "belief in God"

was a fairy tale, and

therefore worthless.

 

Another student raised his hand and asked the

professor, "May I pose a

question? "

 

"Of course" answered the professor.

 

The young student stood up and asked : "Professor

does Cold exist?"

 

The professor answered, "What kind of question is

that? ... Of course

cold exists ... haven't you ever been cold?"

 

The young student answered, "In fact sir, Cold does

not exist.

 

According to the laws of Physics, what we consider

cold, in fact is the

absence of heat. Anything is able to be studied as

long as it transmits

energy (heat). Absolute Zero is the total absence of

heat, but cold does

not exist. What we have done is create a term to

describe how we feel if

we don't have body heat or we are not hot."

 

"And, does Dark exist?", he continued. The

professor answered "Of

course".

 

This time the student responded, "Again you're

wrong, Sir. Darkness

does not exist either. Darkness is in fact simply

the absence of light.

Light can be studied, darkness cannot. Darkness

cannot be broken down. A

simple ray of light tears the darkness and

illuminates the surface where

the light beam finishes. Dark is a term that we

humans have created to

describe what happens when there's lack of light."

 

Finally, the student asked the professor, "Sir,

does evil exist?"

 

The professor replied, "Of course it exists, as I

mentioned at the

beginning, we see violations, crimes and violence

anywhere in the world,

and those things are evil."

 

The student responded, "Sir, Evil does not exist.

Just as in the

previous cases, Evil is a term which man has created

to describe the

result of the absence of God's presence in the

hearts of man.

 

After this, the professor bowed down his head, and

didn't answer back.

 

The young man's name was ALBERT EINSTEIN

[irreverance]

This is not quite exact, but it comes from M. Night Shyamalan's The Village.

 

"Love is what moves people. They kneel before it in awe."

[des]

"He drew a circle and shut me out. Heretic, rebel, thing to flout. But Love and I had a wit to win. We drew a circle and took him in." Edwin Markham

 

posted by des

[irreverance]

It's close, but not exact. This came from a friend of mine's sermon last Sunday:

Love is a lot less like heart-shaped candies for Valentine's Day, and a lot more like willfully sitting down to table to share your bread with Judas."

I was floored when he said that.

[fatherman]

MERCY REACHES OUT, SAYING ...

 

RETURN. Turn. Let go of the old ways that lead to such pain. Start

over. Fast. Empty yourselves to be filled with something new.

 

-- Wendy M. Wright

THE RISING

[ComradeInChrist]

Repent and Rebel!

 

Spray painted on a dumpster behind a pub.

[irreverance]

Don't know whether I've posted this here before. It's from a fictional account of a fictional desert mother, Amma Ananda...

 

*****

"Amma Ananda," asked a disciple, "of all the words of Jesus, which do you think the church today would find most frightening?"

 

Amma replied, "His words in Nazareth, 'I have come to set the prisoners free.'"

 

"Prisoners?" asked the disciple.

 

"Yes," she answered, "true disciples of Jesus must not be prisoners of fear, guilt or shame. Nor should they be held bound by church laws that are made greater than, or even equal in value to, the commands of Christ."

 

~~Edward Hayes, The Ladder, 34.

[BrotherRog]

The Seven Deadly Social Sins

1. Politics without principle

 

2. Wealth without work

 

3. Commerce without morality

 

4. Pleasure without conscience

 

5. Education without character

 

6. Science without humanity

 

7. Worship without sacrifice

 

- attributed to Ghandi

[tariki]

Way back on a now defunct Forum someone began a favorite poetry and quotes thread. For me it became a treasury of various bits and pieces. Just thought it could be a good idea here. If you like, just add a few words to explain just how the verses/words have figured in your life..........but this is not obligatory!

 

So the door is open......

[tariki]

........and tariki enters. This is a poem that I first became aquainted with on the thread I spoke of. ITs important to me because when I first read it for some reason - now forgotten - I was eager to be somewhere else and it made no impression and was discarded by my mind. Later, when meandering through the thread again its words and meaning really hit home. So it reminds me just how easy it is for opportunities to be missed.........which to a certain extent is its meaning.

 

 

 

The Two-Headed Calf

 

Tomorrow when the farm boys find this

freak of nature, they will wrap his body

in newspaper and carry him to the museum.

 

But tonight he is alive and in the north

field with his mother. It is a perfect

summer evening: the moon rising over

the orchard, the wind in the grass. And

as he stares into the sky, there are

twice as many stars as usual.

 

- Laura Gilpin

[rivanna]

A touching, powerful poem by Laura Gilpin – I love it when a short piece can convey so much. I’d like to see more of her work.

Also liked the Billy Collins poem on Buddha in your Trees thread.

 

I tried to recall a poem related to thanksgiving or feasting, none came to mind, but this short poem by Rene Char seems to be about gratitude for small things – translated by Franz Wright, whose work is intensely spiritual.

 

 

The Truth Will Set You Free

 

You are the lamp, and you are the night.

This small upstairs window

is yours to look out from,

this cot is for your exhaustion alone;

this single drop of water’s

going to cure your thirst forever!

And these four walls belong to the being

your pure light brought into the world,

oh prisoner—

 

oh bride.

[JosephM]

OK Derek and Karen you romanticists... poetry it is. This and one other is all i got....

 

A Tree Like me (written 40years ago)

 

A tree that grows

beside the water

A tree whose branches

sweep majestically inside

is sadly led asunder

But time has come

It grips the earth

no longer filled with hunger

but only strength

to reach the sky

and shade the earth below

[tariki]

A couple of poems there for further thought. A Tree Like Me made me think of the very first psalm.

 

Well, here's a quote, actually the words of Sir Humphrey Davy. Another drawn from the treasury of the previous thread spoken of. For me the words seem to push aside some of the more "profound" insights, the talk of the various paths and ways that often seem beyond me to understand, let alone to walk. Just a reminder of what perhaps is a possibility for anyone........yet they can become truly profound in there own particular way....

 

Life is not made up of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things, of which smiles and kindness and small obligations, given habitually, are what win and preserve the heart.

[JosephM]

Derek,

 

Something later in life and more Zen- like .... copyrighted on back cover of book but printed here with permission of course.

Never really got into poetry perhaps because i could never really understand it at depth. But this is more simple minded....

 

 

Current Present Task

by Joseph Mattioli

 

 

A man can be about as happy,

as he will allow himself to be;

In spite of things and circumstance,

that happen to you and me.

A man can look outside himself,

to find the reasons why;

But the one that looks inside himself,

will do more than just to try!

 

A longer journey we all seek,

and refuge we do find;

But all our plans are spoiled at last,

cause time leaves us behind.

So if you understand my point,

then you will never ask;

To be satisfied by other,

than the current... present... task.

[tariki]

Dear Joe,

 

Thanks for your contribution to this thread. Given that I asked for favorite poetry and quotes, the fact that you have now posted two of your own pieces compels me to offer the following quote......

 

Ecclesiastes 1:2 All is vanity