Excellence and Intensity

The excellency of every art is in its intensity, capable of making all disagreeables evaporate.
-- Keats

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The Power of a Touch

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
-- Leo Buscaglia (1925 - 1998)

Photo by Leopoldo Esteban

Ideals are like Stars

Ideals are like stars: you will not succeed in touching them with your hands, but like the seafaring man on the ocean desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them, you reach your destiny.
-- Carl Schurz (1829 - 1906)

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The Divine is the Principle of Life

The Divine is present in everyone, in all beings, in everything. Like space it is everywhere, all pervading, all powerful, all knowing. The Divine is the principle of Life, the inner light of consciousness, and pure bliss. It is our very own Self.
-- Amma

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Trust in an Unfolding We Can't Design or Ordain

Any ordinary favor we do for someone or any compassionate reaching out may seem to be going nowhere at first, but may be planting a seed we can't see right now. Sometimes we need to just do the best we can and then trust in an unfolding we can't design or ordain.
-- Sharon Salzberg

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Merely Effects of Past Causes

Identifying himself with a shallow ego, man takes for granted that it is he who thinks, wills, feels, digests meals, and keeps himself alive, never admitting through reflection (only a little would suffice) that in his ordinary life he is naught but a puppet of past actions (karma) and of Nature or environment. Each man's intellectual reactions, feelings, moods, and habits are merely effects of past causes...
-- Paramhansa Yogananda

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Instant Karma

Instant karmas gonna get you
Gonna knock you off your feet
Better recognize your brothers
Everyone you meet

Why in the world are we here
Surely not to live in pain and fear
Why on earth are you there
When youre everywhere
Come and get your share

Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Yeah we all shine on
Come on and on and on on on
-- John Lennon

Photo by Mari Pack

What Your Soul Sings

You are not a human being having a spiritual experience, but a spiritual being having a human experience.

Photo by °aurelias°

The Silent Mystery of Love

The sleep that flits on baby's eyes -- does anybody know from where it comes? Yes, there is a rumour that it has its dwelling where, in the fairy village among shadows of the forest dimly lit with glow-worms, there hang two shy buds of enchantment. From there it comes to kiss baby's eyes.

The smile that flickers on baby's lips when he sleeps -- does anybody know where it was born? Yes, there is a rumour that a young pale beam of a crescent moon touched the edge of a vanishing autumn cloud, and there the smile was first born in the dream of a dew-washed morning -- the smile that flickers on baby's lips when he sleeps.

The sweet, soft freshness that blooms on baby's limbs -- does anybody know where it was hidden so long? Yes, when the mother was a young girl it lay pervading her heart in tender and silent mystery of love -- the sweet, soft freshness that has bloomed on baby's limbs.
-- Rabindranath Tagore, The Source

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Everything Lies in the Intensity

It is not enough for an activity to satisfy your desire for knowledge, bring you joy, or make you calmer and more relaxed. In every activity you must look for an opportunity to perfect yourself and become free inside. Yet even the manner in which humans practise art and science, as well as religion, betrays the fact that they are not really looking for a means of self-perfection. You will ask, ‘But what does perfecting yourself mean, then? What must we do to succeed?’ Perfecting yourself means to change the quality of your vibrations, so that you make them more intense or, in other words, more spiritual.

Everything lies in the intensity of your thoughts, feelings and the life within you; that is what initiatic Science reveals to us. Once human beings manage to live this intense life, all their activities, physical as well as spiritual, will only contribute to their evolution.
-- Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

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Where Can I Find A Man Who Has Forgotten Words?

The purpose of a fish trap is to catch fish, and when the fish are caught, the trap is forgotten. The purpose of a rabbit snare is to catch rabbits. When the rabbits are caught, the snare is forgotten. The purpose of words is to convey ideas. When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words? He is the one I would like to talk to.
-- Chuang Tzu

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Do, Every Day, Something No One Else Would...

Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity.
-- Christopher Morley

Photo by SophieMuc