Out of perfection nothing can be made. Every process involves breaking something up. The earth must be broken to bring forth life. If the seed does not die there is no plant.

- Joseph Campbell

Nothing whatsoever should be clung to.

- The Buddha

Someone approached the Buddha and asked him whether he could summarize his teachings in one phrase and, if he could, what it would be. The Buddha replied that he could. The Buddha then emphasized his point by saying that whoever had heard this core-phrase had heard all the Teachings, whoever put it into practice had practiced all the Teachings, and whoever had received the fruits of practicing this point had received all of the fruits of the Buddhist Teachings.

Remove the blinders that have distorted your perception. Realize that what you feel determines what you see. Perception rides on the currents of the heart like a canoe rides upon waters. When your heart experiences fear in any of its turbulent forms, understanding becomes jumbled, confused, you perceive through waves of illusion. When you abide in love, you understand, you share the vision, the very perception of God.

- Ken Carey, Return of the Bird Tribes

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

― Anaïs Nin

Each smallest act of kindness, reverberates across great distances and spans of time – affecting lives unknown to the one who’s generous spirit, was the source of this good echo. Because kindness is passed on and grows each time it’s passed until a simple courtesy becomes an act of selfless courage, years later, and far away. Likewise, each small meanness, each expression of hatred, each act of evil.

― Dean Koontz, From the Corner of His Eye

I am one of the searchers. There are, I believe, millions of us. We are not unhappy, but neither are we really content. We continue to explore life, hoping to uncover its ultimate secret. We continue to explore ourselves, hoping to understand. We like to walk along the beach, we are drawn by the ocean, taken by its power, its unceasing motion, its mystery and unspeakable beauty. We like forests and mountains, deserts and hidden rivers, and the lonely cities as well. Our sadness is as much a part of our lives as is our laughter. To share our sadness with one we love is perhaps as great a joy as we can know – unless it be to share our laughter.

We searchers are ambitious only for life itself, for everything beautiful it can provide. Most of all we love and want to be loved. We want to live in a relationship that will not impede our wandering, nor prevent our search, nor lock us in prison walls; that will take us for what little we have to give. We do not want to prove ourselves to another or compete for love.

For wanderers, dreamers, and lovers, for lonely men and women who dare to ask of life everything good and beautiful. It is for those who are too gentle to live among wolves.

- James Kavanaugh, There Are Men Too Gentle to Live Among Wolves

The Jigsaw Puzzle of Life

Life is a giant jigsaw puzzle and each day we are given a fresh piece of the mystery.

These individual pieces come in oddly shapes and they often do not seem to fit in with one another. As a result, we feel disheartened and unsure of our place in the bigger picture of things. To our delight sometimes, we would discover that several of the tiles interlock snugly together to reveal a glimpse of the whole. And in those moments, we think to ourselves that we have it all figured out.

As our collection grows, we come into focus what our life is turning out to be. We do not always like what we see and feel uncertain of the right action to take. We long for a life of order and meaning, but life seems to flow on, not caring for our deeply entrenched desires.

The previous collectors of the puzzle explain to us that the secret to the game is to carry on living each day fully and treasure every piece in the same manner; for our life is only complete when we have assembled all the pieces.

What do you think of this approach?

How people treat their fellow human beings, and indeed the world around them, largely depends on how they conceive of themselves. We may consider ourselves in terms of gender as men or women, or as followers of this or that religion, or as members of this or that race or nationality … Depending on which perspective we take, we raise different expectations of ourselves. And this in turn affects our behavior, including our treatment of other people.

It is of primary importance to have a clear understanding of what unites us all, namely our common humanity. We are all human, all seven billion of us. In this respect we are all one hundred percent the same.

- His Holiness The Dalai Lama

Golden Chain Prayer written by Annie Besant

I am a link in the Golden Chain of love that stretches around the world, and must keep my link bright and strong. So I will try to be kind and gentle to every living thing I meet and to protect and help all who are weaker than myself. And I will try to think pure and beautiful thoughts, and to do pure and beautiful actions. May every link in the Golden Chain become bright and strong.

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 8,000 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 13 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.