"The greatest wisdom is in simplicity. Love, respect, tolerance, sharing, gratitude, forgiveness. It's not complex or elaborate. The real knowledge is free. It's encoded in your DNA. All you need is within you. Great teachers have said that from the beginning. Find your heart, and you will find your way." Carlos Barrios
It is strange to be here. The mystery never leaves you alone. Behind your image, below your words, above your thoughts, the silence of another world waits. A world lives within you. No one else can bring you news of this inner world. Through the opening of the mouth, we bring out sounds from the mountain beneath the soul. These sounds are words. The world is full of words. There are so many talking all the time, loudly, in rooms, on streets, on television, on radio, in the paper, in books. The noise of words keeps what we call the world there for us. We take each other's sounds and make patterns, predictions, benedictions, and blasphemies. Each day, our tribe of language holds what we call the world together. Yet the uttering of the word reveals how each of us relentlessly creates. Everyone is an artist. Each person brings sound out of silence and coaxes the invisible to become visible. John O'Donohue - Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom.
Celebrating the International Year of Co-operatives
A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history. Mohandas Gandhi
If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place. Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead
Chant is the music of the cosmic spheres and the natural expression of our own consciousness. Chant is not an obscure musical ritual – it is an important tool used by people everywhere to heal their bodies, quiet their minds, and bring the sacred into their lives. Let us all take note of the variety of great music that resonates throughout our world and not forget to enchant our lives with it every day. Discovering Spirit in Sound - Robert Gass
I will not die an unlived life. I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open me, to make me less afraid, more accessible, to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise. I choose to risk my significance; to live so that which came to me as seed goes to the next as blossom and that which came to me as blossom, goes on as fruit. Fully Alive - Dawna Markova
The poem is a candle that my soul holds out to me, requesting I find a way to remember what it is to live a life with passion, on purpose. There is only enough light to take the journey step by step, but that is all any of us really needs. When we have the courage to shape our life from the essence of who we are, we ignite, becoming truly alive. This requires letting go of everything that is inauthentic.
Traveling from the known to the unknown requires crossing an abyss of emptiness. We first experience disorientation and confusion. Then if we are willing to cross the abyss in curious and playful wonder, we enter an expansive and untamed country that has its own rhythm. Time melts and thoughts become stories, music, poems, images, ideas. This is the intelligence of the heart, but by that I don't mean just the seat of our emotions. I mean a vast range of receptive and connective abilities, intuition, innovation, wisdom, creativity, sensitivity, the aesthetic, qualitative and meaning making. It is here that we uncover our purpose and passion.
I BELIEVE that each individual has the power to change the world I BELIEVE that every Action we take can ripple out farther than we realize I BELIEVE that ordinary people can do extraordinary things I BELIEVE that Compassion is stronger than hatred I BELIEVE that Knowledge is stronger than ignorance I BELIEVE that Understanding is stronger than fear I BELIEVE that it is possible to see through another's eyes if you try I BELIEVE that each of us is connected by our shared Humanity I BELIEVE that our similarities are more important than our differences I BELIEVE that all individuals have a right to dignity and respect I BELIEVE that you should do unto others as you would like others to do unto you I BELIEVE that Hope is stronger than despair I BELIEVE that every Random Act of Kindness makes this world a better place I BELIEVE that while governments make treaties, individuals make Peace I BELIEVE that it is possible to change the Path you are traveling I BELIEVE that each individual must make a conscious decision to choose Peace I BELIEVE that you have to lead by example I BELIEVE that Peace Will Prevail I BELIEVE that together, we can Heal the Heart of Humanity Christopher B. Buck
Arjuna decision to fight or not to fight was confined to his limited discretion. Lord Krsna instructed that the individual is not all in all. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, the localized Supersoul, sits in the heart directing the living being. After changing bodies, the living entity forgets his past deeds, but the Supersoul, as the knower of the past, present and future, remains the witness of all his activities. Here Lord Krsna tells Arjuna that he can do as he chooses. God does not interfere with the little independence of the living entity. In Bhagavad-gita, the Lord has explained in all respects how one can elevate his living condition. The best advice imparted to Arjuna is to surrender unto the Supersoul seated within his heart. By right discrimination, one should agree to act according to the order of the Supersoul. That will help one become situated constantly in Krsna consciousness, the highest perfectional stage of human life. Missing point in the modern civilization
There is an indefinable mysterious power that pervades everything, I feel it though I do not see it. It is this unseen power which makes itself felt and yet defies all proof, because it is so unlike all that I perceive through my senses. It transcends the senses... I can see that in the midst of death life persists, in the midst of untruth truth persists, in the midst of darkness light persists. Hence I gather that God is life, truth, light. Mahatma Gandhi
"Protest non-violently, 'cause violence begets violence." -John Lennon The voice of a peaceful revolution that continues to echo in the hearts and mind of us all.
Is humour something we construct to help us survive? Or does universal mind or creative intelligence, the unnameable, imageless source from which everything comes, have a sense of humour? Is there a form of cosmic laughter that doesn’t just make puny us the butt of a joke? How do we get in on the laughter? How do we begin to dance or twirl like Sufis?
At the quantum level, is the universe playing a game of hide and seek with itself in the apparent gap between time and eternity, a kind of peek a boo game? Hindus talk of the Akashic field where we co-create with the divine. Is life more like play than absolutely serious business, or is it both? Susan McCaslin, Arousing the Spirit
Habib Koite -Africa With "Africa" Habib proposes that Africans take charge of their own development and stop relying on aid and promises from the west.He encourages young Africans to stay in their native lands and help build a better future for their continent.
Believers sing and dance in the river Tundzha, as they celebrate Epiphany day in the town of Kalofer, Bulgaria. Valentina Petrova
I've spent many years learning how to fix life, only to discover at the end of the day that life is not broken. There is a hidden seed of greater wholeness in everyone and everything. We serve life best when we water it and befriend it. When we listen before we act. In befriending life, we do not make things happen according to our own design. We uncover something that is already happening in us and around us and create conditions that enable it. Everything is moving toward its place of wholeness. Befriending life requires that we listen for that potential which is trying to actualize itself over time. It will be there whether we are listening to a tree, a person, an organization, or a society. My Grandfather's Blessings: Stories of Strength, Refuge and Belonging. Rachel Naomi Remen
A wise old owl sat on an oak, The more he saw the less he spoke; The less he spoke the more he heard; Why aren't we like that wise old bird? Edward Hersey Richards
In a little while from now: if I'm not feeling any less sour, I promise myself to treat myself and visit a nearby tower. And climbing to the top, will throw myself off, in an effort to make it clear to whoever what it's like when you're shattered, left standing in the lurch at a church; Where people saying: "My God, that's tough" "She stood him up" "No point in us remaining" "We may as well go home". As I did on my own Alone again, naturally
To think that only yesterday I was cheerful, bright and gay, looking forward to who wouldn't do the role I was about to play? But as if to knock me down, reality came around. And without so much as a mere touch cut me into little pieces, leaving me to doubt. Talk about God in His mercy who if He really does exist why did He desert me? In my hour of need, I truly am indeed Alone again, naturally
It seems to me that there are more hearts broken in the world that can't be mended, left unattended. What do we do? What do we do? Alone again, naturally
Looking back over the years and whatever else that appears, I remember I cried when my father died. Never wishing to hide the tears and at sixty-five years old my mother, God rest her soul. Couldn't understand why the only man she had ever loved had been taken leaving her to start with a heart so badly broken. Despite encouragement from me no words were ever spoken and when she passed away I cried and cried all day. Alone again, naturally
To “all of us who need help and knowledge that is useful for resolving problems in our relationships" More Chaplin and Less Plato, Luis Miguel Diaz There is no life without coexistence and there is no coexistence without confrontation, but what distinguishes one life from another is the way in which each individual faces and deals with obstacles to life. One can face conflicts with either a competitive or a cooperative attitude. The former carries with it struggle and the use of force, whereas the latter emphasize effective communication, coordination of efforts, apportioning of tasks, belief in the existence of similarity of beliefs and values, and redefining conflicts as a mutual problem that must be solved by means of collaborative efforts. If we fight in face of a problem, we generate certain equally controversial reactions; if, however, in face of adversity we negotiate, then we create new forms of coexistence and, therefore, of survival. Cecilia Azar
The unhealable pain of any war, and why there never are victors, is that the first casualty is always our own innocence and best hopes. The highest calling of the warrior is not conquest, but sacrifice; not assault, but heroism and integrity. Kevin Annett
