Wendell Berry: The Only Question We Have a Right To Ask

We don't have a right to ask whether

we're going to succeed or not.

The only question we have a right to ask is -

What's the right thing to do?

What does this Earth require of us

if we want to continue to live on it?

- Wendell Berry

 

Karen Armstrong: Spiritual Revolution

We need myths that will help us to identify with all our fellow-beings, not simply with those who belong to our ethnic, national or ideological tribe. We need myths that help us to realize the importance of compassion, which is not always regarded as sufficiently productive or efficient in our pragmatic, rational world. We need myths that help us to create a spiritual attitude, to see beyond our immediate requirements, and enable us to experience a transcendent value that challenges our solipsistic selfishness. We need myths that help us to venerate the earth as sacred once again, instead of merely using it as a 'resource.' This is crucial, because unless there is some kind of spiritual revolution that is able to keep abreast of our technological genius, we will not save our planet.
 

― Karen Armstrong, A Short History of Myth

 

Karen Armstrong: Breaking Through Our Barricades

Some people simply bury their heads in the sand and refuse to think about the sorrow of the world, but this is an unwise course, because, if we are entirely unprepared, the tragedy of life can be devastating.

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All religions are designed to teach us how to live, joyfully, serenely, and kindly, in the midst of suffering.

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It is always tempting to try to shut out the suffering that is an inescapable part of the human condition, but once it has broken through the cautionary barricades we have erected against it, we can never see the world in the same way again.
 

― Karen Armstrong, Buddha

 

Hafiz: Come To My Door

Come to my door at any hour
Even if your eyes 
Are frightened by my light
My heart and my arms are open .....
And need no rest -
 

 They will always welcome YOU

Hafiz
 

from Rumi, Saadi, Hafiz (Poems and Quotes)

Rumi: Listen

There is a voice that doesn't use words.

LISTEN.

- Rumi

Sharon Salzberg: To Reteach a Thing Its Loveliness

To reteach a thing its loveliness is the nature of metta. 

Through lovingkindness, everyone and everything 

can flower again from within.

 

― Sharon Salzberg

 

from Tara Lemieux

  

Karen Armstrong: Look Into Your Own Heart

Look into your own heart, 

discover what it is that gives you pain and then refuse, 

under any circumstance whatsoever, 

to inflict that pain on anybody else.
 

― Karen Armstrong

 

Christina Feldman: Compassion

Compassion is not just a feeling; 

it is a response to pain that is deeply rooted in wisdom.

 It is a commitment to alleviating suffering and 

the cause of suffering in all its forms.

- Christina Feldman, Compassion: Listening to the Cries of the World
 

Pema Chödrön: Let the Things That Enter Your Life Wake You Up

Life's work is to wake up, to let the things that enter into your life wake you up rather than put you to sleep. The only way to do this is to open, be curious, and develop some sense of sympathy for everything that comes along, to get to know its nature and let it teach you what it will. It's going to stick around until you learn your lesson, at any rate. You can leave your marriage, you can quit your job, you can only go where people are going to praise you, you can manipulate your world until you're blue in the face to try to make it always smooth, but the same old demons will always come up until finally you have learned your lesson, the lesson they came to teach you. Then those same demons will appear as friendly, warmhearted companions on the path.
 

-  Pema Chödrön, from The Pocket Pema Chödrön

and from When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advise For Difficult Times
  

The Dalai Lama: True Happiness

I believe all suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their happiness or satisfaction. Yet true happiness comes from a sense of inner peace and contentment, which in turn must be achieved through the cultivation of altruism, of love and compassion and elimination of ignorance, selfishness and greed.

 - Dalai Lama XIV