uncommonsense: pithe to folk wisdom :)

[reality]

Hi. I hope you and yours are well and will continue to be. It doesn't
hurt to remember that, while women are 55 % of the world, and some of
them gave birth to the other 45 %, as well, there's a global war
against middle-class to poor men; and, in Western societies, women
side with the corporate structure. For, if, for no other reason, the
beauteous writing, prosaic or poetic, of many of our most revered and
cherished works are at once literary gems and wisdom, of mundane to
mystical, is it not this truth they all have in common, we‘re all one;
and, therefore, all of humanity shares in common? Where to start,
Rumi, Milarepa, Thomas Merton's translations, especially of Chuang-
Tzu, the Sermon on the Mount, et al, are so inspiring and lyrical,
that we could surely believe they weren't penned by mortal hand; even
though they were. Here's a few less commonly cited :)



"If there was something in the air
If there was something in the wind
If there was something in the trees or bushes
That could be pronounced and once was overheard by animals,
Let this Sacred Knowledge be returned to us again.

Artharvaveda (VII, 66) as quoted in Entering the Circle"



"Discipline is the art of feeling awe.

Carlos Castenenda"



"Do not rush to answers, let the questions be questions until the
answers are revealed.

Martha Graham"



"To walk in seasons is to question,
A flower is opening.

Basho"



And, if I may be so bold, one of mine:

clarity

Sword that cuts all ways,
Without, for, there's no cutting;
And a pointless point.

Jmn




"Then a cloud passed, and the pool was empty....
Go, go, go, said the bird, human kind
Cannot bear very much reality.
And yet there is that other dimension altogether

in the very fact of consciousness itself:
To be conscious is not to be in time.
... Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
I can only say, there we have been: but I cannot say where,

And I cannot say, how long, for that is to place it in time.
I will say to my soul, Be still, and let the dark come upon you,

Which shall be the darkness of God.
The inner freedom from the practical desire,
The release from action and suffering, release from the inner

And outer compulsion, yet surrounded
By a grace of sense, a white light still and moving ...
And what the dead had no speech for, when living,
They can tell you, being dead: the communication
Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.

T.S. Eliot's poetic opus, the cycle called "Four Quartets"



"The Native Mind tends to view wisdom and environmental ethics as
discernible in the very structure and organization of the natural
world rather than as the lofty product of human reason far removed
from nature. The Native Mind tends to view the universe as the
dynamic interplay of elusive and ever-changing natural forces, not as
a vast array of static physical objects. It tends to see the entire
natural world as somehow alive and animated by a single, unifying
life force, whatever its local Native name. It does not reduce the
universe to progressively smaller conceptual bits and pieces. It
tends to view time as circular (or as a coil-like fusion of circle
and line), as characterized by natural cycles that sustain all life,
and as facing humankind with recurrent moral crises-rather than as an
unwavering linear escalator of "human progress". It tends to accept
without undue anxiety the probability that nature will always possess
unfathomable mysteries. It does not presume that the cosmos is
completely decipherable to the rational human mind. It tends to view
human thought, feelings, and communication as inextricably
intertwined with events and processes in the universe rather than as
apart from them. Indeed, words themselves are considered spiritually
potent, generative, and somehow engaged in the
continuum of the cosmos, not neutral and disengaged from it. The
vocabulary of Native knowledge is inherently gentle and accommodating
toward nature rather than aggressive and manipulative. The Native
Mind tends to emphasize celebration of and participation in the
orderly designs of nature instead of rationally "dissecting" the
world. It tends to honor as its most esteemed elders those
individuals who have experienced a profound and
compassionate reconciliation of outer- and inner-directed knowledge,
rather than virtually anyone who has made material achievement or
simply survived to chronological old age. It tends to reveal a
profound sense of empathy and kinship with other forms of life,
rather than a sense of separateness from them or superiority over
them. Each species is seen as richly endowed with its own singular
array of gifts and powers, rather than as somehow
pathetically limited compared with human beings. Finally, it tends to
view the proper human relationship with nature as a continuous
dialogue (that is, a two-way,
horizontal communication between Homo sapiens and other elements of
the cosmos) rather than as a monologue (a one-way, vertical
imperative).

David Suzuki"



“The basis of all relations, including with self, and all studies,
including activism and advocacy, are also environmental, spiritual…”
jmn



"Believe nothing on the faith of traditions, even though they have
been held in honor for many generations and in diverse places. Do not
believe what you yourself have imagined persuading yourself a god
inspires you. Believe nothing on the authority of your masters or
priests. After examination believe that which you yourself have tested
and found to be
reasonable and conform your conduct thereto." ~ The Buddha



"With sincerity and earnestness one can realize God through all
religions. The Vaishnavas will realize God, and so will the Saktas,
the Vedantists, and the Brahmos. The Mussalmans and Christians will
realize Him to. All will certainly realize God if they are earnest and
sincere." ~ Ramakrishna, `The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna'



"In my humble opinion, non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as
is cooperation with good.", “Be the change you wish to see in the
world”. ~ Mahatma Gandhi



"What is life? It is a flash of a firefly in the night. It is the
breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which
runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset." ~ Crowfoot



"The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to
notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice, there is
little we can do to change until we notice how failing to notice
shapes our thoughts and deeds." ~ A KNOT, by R.D. Laing



"Take care of everyone and abandon no one. Take care of everything and
abandon nothing." ~ Lao Tzu



~ E F Schumacher says." Wisdom demands a new orientation of science
and technology towards the organic, the gentle, the non-violent, the
elegant and beautiful".



"What can be explained is not poetry." ~ WB YEATS



"We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a
single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, effects all
indirectly." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.



"Not to hurt our humble brethren is our first duty to them, but to
stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission, to be of service
to them whenever they require it."
~ St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals.



"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and
I'm not sure about the former." ~ Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)



"If you rejoice in victory, then you delight in killing. If you
delight in killing, you cannot fulfill yourself." ~ Lao Tzu



"Peace is the only battle worth waging." ~ Albert Camus



"There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent
people."
~ Howard Zinn



"How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make
right look like wrong, and wrong like right."
~ From Black Hawk (Makataimeshekiakiak) (1767-1838) Sauk war chief



"What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson



"If you want to know your past life, look into your present condition;
if
you want to know your future, look into your present action." ~
Padmisambha



"Yesterday is a dream, tomorrow but a vision. But today well lived
makes
every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of
hope.
Look well, therefore to this day." ~ Sanskrit Proverb



"Don't ask the Lord to guide your footsteps unless you are willing to
move
your feet." ~ Christian proverb

\
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"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop."
~ Confucius



"People usually fail when they are on the verge of success. So give as
much care to the end as to the beginning." ~ Lao Tzu



"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is
because we do not dare that things are difficult." ~ Seneca



"For the sake of the rose the thorn is watered too." ~ Africa



"As a great fish swims between the banks of a river as it likes, so
does the shining Self move between the states of dreaming and waking."
~ Brihadaranyaka Upanishad



"When spiders unite, they can tie down a lion."
~ Ethiopian Proverb, Courtesy of Strider, via Inez Matus



"To find yourself, think for yourself." ~ Socrates



"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a
habit." ~ Aristotle



"Skill to do comes of doing." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson



"Water always finds a way out." ~ Cameroon



"Leap, and the net will appear." ~ Julie Cameron



~ Lao-Tzu, "A journey of a 1000 miles begins with the first step."



"Know thyself." ~ Socrates



"Few men have enough virtue to withstand the highest bidder." ~ George
Washington



"You can't dismantle the man's house with the man's tools." ~ Audre
Lourde



"If a thousand [people] were not to pay their tax bills this year,
that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay
them and enable the state to commit violence and shed innocent blood."
~ Henry David Thoreau



~ Jean Baptiste Dubos (1670-1742) :) "The principal aim of painting is
to touch us. A work that touches us deeply must be excellent on the
whole. For the same reason, the work that touches us not at all and
that does not engage us is worthless; and if a critical examination
finds nothing that breaks the rules to reprove, the reason is that a
work can be bad without breaking the rules as work that breaks the
rules in many ways can be excellent."



"If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything; If you
don't ‘turn on’ politics, politics will turn on you." ~ Ralph Nader



"To walk in seasons is to question. A flower is opening. ~ Basho"



"Abhaya, fearlessness, is most important for an individual and a
country."
~ Mahatma Gandhi



"Painting is poetry which is seen and not heard, and poetry is a
painting which is heard but not seen." ~ Leonardo da Vinci



"It's better to light one candle than to curse the darkness" ~ Emily
Dickinson



"Nature is an instructive and impartial teacher, spreading no crude
opinions, and flattering none; she will be neither radical nor
conservative." ~ Henry David Thoreau



"What lies before us and what lies behind us are small matters
compared to what lies within us." ~ Emerson



"All it takes for evil to rule a land is for good men to remain
silent." ~ Daniel Webster



"The seeing is not reflecting on an object as if the seer had nothing
to do with it. The seeing, on the contrary, brings the seer and the
object seen together, not in mere identification but the becoming
conscious of itself, or rather its working. The seeing is an active
deed, involving the dynamic concept of self-being; that is of the
Mind." ~ Suzuki



~ Thomas Merton's Journals :)
"..the creative power of our liberty is perhaps.. A non-
destructiveness. If we can accept creation we concur in creating
because we have the 'power' to destroy. Our power to create is a power
to consent in creation....Our power to destroy seems more ours (and it
is so) and more of a power. What is happening now is that we
concentrate more and more on the power that is a rejection. Yet
paradoxically, to have the power to destroy and not destroy is to
'make'.........The problem is for people to see that the power to
nurture and preserve......is the only true power, and does not appear
as power. Whereas what appears as power, the power to destroy, is not
power but self-defeat. Strangely, this power is regarded as the one
great reality in our world...."



"The price of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance."
"Those who surrender Liberty, to get temporary Safety, deserve neither
Liberty nor Safety." ~ Benjamin Franklin



"O Beloved of hearts, I beseech only You. Have pity this day on those
who turn to You. My Hope, my Rest, my Delight, this heart can love
none other but You."
~ Rabi'a, "Rabi'a the Mystic"



"Our peace of mind increases in spite of suffering; we become braver
and more enterprising; we understand more clearly the difference
between what is everlasting and what is not; we learn how to
distinguish between what is our duty and what is not. Our pride melts
away and we become humble. Our worldly attachments diminish and,
likewise, the evil within us diminishes from day to day." ~ Mahatma
Gandhi



"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the
silence of our friends." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.



"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in
which you really stop to look fear in the face." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt



"When we are ignorant we live in His prison; when we become prudent we
live in His palace; when we fall asleep we become intoxicated; when we
are awakened we are in His hands." ~ Rumi, "Mathnawi"



"The fairest graciousness, they say, is a kindly look. Wherever it
thrives, the whole world flourishes." ~ Tirukkural 58:571



"Let a smile be your ambassador." ~ anon.



"Compassion is the willingness to play in the field of dreams even
though you are awake." ~ Matthew Flickstein, "Swallowing the River
Ganges"



"If we divide into two camps--even into violent and the nonviolent--
and stand in one camp while attacking the other, the world will never
have peace. We will always blame and condemn those we feel are
responsible for wars and social injustice, without recognizing the
degree of violence within ourselves. We must work on ourselves and
also with those we condemn if we want to have a real impact."
~ Ayya Khema, "Be An Island"



"We never know the worth of water till the well is dry." ~ France



"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards"
~ Danish philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard



"Compassion is the chief law of human existence." ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky



"As for those who seek the transcendental Reality, without name,
without form, contemplating the Unmanifested, beyond the reach of
thought and of feeling, with their senses subdued and mind serene and
striving for the good of all beings, they too will verily come unto
me." ~ Bhagavad Gita, 12:3-4



"It is the theory that decides what we can observe." ~ Albert Einstein



"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the people who
walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last
piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer
sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a person but one
thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in
any given set of
circumstances, to choose one's own way." ~ Viktor Frankl (1905-1997)



"When we have chosen the vocation in which burdens cannot overwhelm,
then we experience no meagre limited egotistic joy, but our deeds go
on forever and when we die the tears of noble men will fall on our
ashes." ~ Karl Marx



"The Master said, "A man who is not humane, what can he have to do
with ritual?"" ~ Confucianism, Analects 3.3.



"There was undoubtedly much in primitive Christianity to appeal to the
Indians, and Jesus' hard sayings to the rich, and about the rich were
entirely comprehensible to us. Yet, the religion that we heard
preached in churches and saw practiced by congregations, with its
element of display and self-aggrandizement, its active proselytism,
and its open contempt of all religions but its own, was for a long
time extremely repellent."
~ Ohiyesa, Charles Alexander Eastman, `The Soul Of An Indian'.



“All people, as all life, are threads in the whole of the fabric of
life, which will always need mending; yet, "we" can't allow it to be
torn asunder". ~ james m nordlund



Thurgood Marshall ~ "By recognizing the humanity in our fellow human
being, we pay ourself the highest tribute".



"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength; loving someone
deeply gives you courage." ~ Lao-Tzu



"Never borrow for what you don't need. Never think you need what you
have to borrow for. ~ Irish Proverb"



"We're not human beings having a spiritual experience, we're spiritual
beings having a human experience." - Wayne Dyer (supposedly)



Well, thanx, for a great read. "Painting is poetry which is seen and
not heard, and poetry is a painting which is heard but not seen." ~
Leonardo da Vinci. Enjoy a festive eve' as you can. Lest "we" forget,
if you don't exercise responsibility, its Siamese twin sister,
freedom, will wither, like a muscle, as well. Sadly, now, it first
needs to be exorcized before its exercised. Viva la evolution!



Matutinally Yours,


james m nordlund reality (aja) :)



Music is life's song accompanying the abundance of joy's Spring. For
those interested: "of or pertaining to the morning, day: relating to
or happening in the morning or in the early part of the day (formal),
(Mid-16th century, from late Latin matutinalis, from Matuta, goddess
of the dawn.)". I look forward to hearing from you. Copy, share, as
you will. Au revoir.