The Universe is the University

Holding Up the Sky

2012-02-13T13:03:00.002-05:00

One day an elephant saw a hummingbird lying on its back with its tiny feet up in the air. "What are you doing?" asked the elephant.

The hummingbird replied, "I heard that the sky might fall today, and so I am ready to help hold it up, should it fall."

The elephant laughed cruelly. "Do you really think," he said, "that those tiny
feet could help hold up the sky?"

The hummingbird kept his feet up in the air, intent on his purpose, as he
replied, "Not alone. But each must do what he can. And this is what I can do."

— A Chinese Folktale

Enjoying Fish

2012-02-12T23:06:00.000-05:00

One day Chuang Tzu and a friend were walking by a river. "Look at the fish swimming about," said Chuang Tzu, "They are really enjoying themselves."

"You are not a fish," replied the friend, "So you can't truly know that they are enjoying themselves."

"You are not me," said Chuang Tzu. "So how do you know that I do not know that the fish are enjoying themselves?"

Gandhi on Forgiveness

2010-04-01T14:09:00.000-04:00

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

- Mohandas Gandhi

Beyond Imagination

2010-04-01T14:08:00.000-04:00

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dremt of in your philosophy.

- William Shakespeare (Hamlet)

Let's Know Each Other Always

2010-04-01T14:06:00.000-04:00

In prosperity, our friends know us; in adversity, we know our friends.

- John Churton Collins

Good Advice

2010-04-01T14:04:00.001-04:00

It is never too late to give up your prejudices.

- Henry David Thoreau

Anger Burns

2010-04-01T14:01:00.000-04:00

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.

- Buddha

Carry Love in Your Heart

2010-04-01T13:59:00.000-04:00

Without love in the heart, Life is like a sapless tree in a barren desert. What good is a body perfect in outer ways, If inwardly it is impaired by lack of love? With love enshrined in the heart, one lives. Without it, the body is but bone encased in skin.

- Tirukkural 8:78-80

Shoestrings and Skies

2010-03-18T15:34:00.000-04:00

"Slipping on my shoes, boiling water, toasting bread, buttering the sky: that should be enough contact with God in one day to make anyone crazy."

- Hafiz

2009-11-14T23:12:00.001-05:00

A poor devotee points to the sky and says, "God is up there." An average devotee says, "God dwells in the heart as the Inner Master." The best devotee says, "God alone is and everything I perceive is a form of God."

- Ramakrishna

How are We Going to Live?

2009-11-14T23:10:00.000-05:00

You don't get to choose how you're going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you're going to live. Now.

~Joan Baez

Guidance

2009-11-14T23:08:00.003-05:00

After you ask for guidance--Listen!

~Unknown

Improvements

2009-11-12T10:42:00.000-05:00

There's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self.

~Aldous Huxley

Teaching

2009-10-26T10:57:00.001-04:00

When one teaches, two learn.

- Robert Half

One

2009-10-22T13:05:00.000-04:00

There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it.

~George Bernard Shaw

The Immortal Infinite

2009-10-21T18:55:00.000-04:00

Said the sage Sanatkumara to Narada: "Where one realizes the indivisible unity of life, sees nothing else, hears nothing else, knows nothing else, that is the Infinite. Where one sees separateness, hears separateness, knows separateness, that is the finite. The Infinite is beyond death, but the finite cannot escape death."

- Chandogya Upanishad

The Moving Flag

2009-10-20T21:54:00.002-04:00

Two Buddhist monks were arguing about a flag flapping in the wind. "It's the wind that is really moving," stated the first one. "No, it is the flag that is moving," contended the second. A third interrupted them.

"Neither the flag nor the wind is moving," he said, "It is MIND that is moving."

Living by Dying

2009-10-20T16:58:00.001-04:00

I believe that he is the true warrior who does not die killing but who has mastered the mantra of living by dying.

- Mohandas Gandhi

You Are Not Separate

2009-10-20T16:55:00.000-04:00

When you worship, you are aware of your separateness from God; you are the subject and he is the object. The more you worship, the more you acquire this sense of separateness from God. Union with God comes when this sense of your separateness from God is stripped away.

- Qushayri, "Risalah"

Experience

2009-10-20T15:54:00.000-04:00

Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with what happens to him.

- Aldous Huxley

Self-Discipline

2009-10-19T10:31:00.000-04:00

Self-discipline is when your conscience tells you to do something and you don't talk back.

- W.K. Hope

Dragons and Princesses

2009-10-19T10:29:00.001-04:00

Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave.

- Rainer Maria Rilke

The Sage That Points Out Treasure

2009-10-19T10:26:00.000-04:00

Regard him as one who points out treasure, the wise one who seeing your faults rebukes you. Stay with this sort of sage. For the one who stays with a sage of this sort, things get better, not worse.

- Dhammapada, 6, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Love is a Flame

2009-10-15T19:29:00.000-04:00

Love is the flame which, when it blazes, consumes everything other than the Beloved. The lover wields the sword of Nothingness in order to dispatch all but God: consider what remains after Nothing. There remains but God: all the rest is gone. Praise to you, O mighty Love, destroyer of all other "gods."

- Mathnawi [V, 588-590]

Visitors

2009-10-15T19:27:00.000-04:00

This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor...Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.

- Rumi

Quit Playing the Victim!

2009-10-09T15:50:00.000-04:00

Take the word victim off of your person--out of your vocabulary. It reeks with the old energy and does not suit your magnificence.

- Kryon

On Reincarnation

2009-10-02T20:05:00.001-04:00

The human being has two states of consciousness: one in this world, the other in the next. But there is a third state between them, not unlike the world of dreams, in which we are aware of both worlds, with their sorrows and joys. When a person dies, it is only the physical body that dies; that person lives on in a nonphysical body, which carries the impressions of his past life. It is these impressions that determine his next life. In this intermediate state he makes and dissolves impressions by the light of the Self.

- Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

How to Help

2009-09-25T15:13:00.001-04:00

The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but to reveal to him his own.

- Benjamin Disraeli

Be Better!

2009-09-25T13:48:00.000-04:00

Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.

~William Faulkner

It's True for Me

2009-09-24T01:17:00.000-04:00

Once in a while it really hits people that they don't have to experience the world in the way they have been told to.

- Alan Keightley

So, What Do You Think?

2009-09-24T01:14:00.001-04:00

I have started a discussion based on a quote that is posted on my other blog. Please stop by and share your point of view.

http://visionsoftheworld.blogspot.com/2009/09/so-what-do-you-think.html

Shine on Us

2009-09-24T01:05:00.000-04:00

Glorified by heaven, O radiant Sun, illumine the earth forever and more that the hearts of its inhabitants unite and ascend and become one with the exalted Divine.

- Rumi, "Mathnawi"

Associate with the Admirable

2009-09-24T00:03:00.001-04:00

Don't associate with bad friends. Don't associate with the low. Associate with admirable friends. Associate with the best.

- Dhammapada 78, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

The Vampirism of the Ego

2009-09-24T00:00:00.000-04:00

I struggled hard but did not reap the fruits of my labors. Then I gazed into myself and found that my ego and my heart were unified. When the ego and the heart are united, a portion of all that shines upon the heart is seized by the self. Thus I came to know the cause of my dilemma, that the light illuminating my heart was being seized by my ego.

- Al-Nuri, in "Islamic Sufism"

Where to Find Happiness

2009-09-23T23:29:00.000-04:00

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet.

- James Oppenheim

The All and All in the All

2009-09-17T19:24:00.000-04:00

This is the paradox, that the Overself is at once universal and individual. It is the first because it overshadows all men as a single power. It is the second because it is found by each man within himself. It is both space and the point in space. It is infinite Spirit and yet it is also the holy presence in everyone's heart.

~Paul Brunton

Hmmm....

2009-09-13T14:08:00.001-04:00

One man believes in existence, Another says, "There is nothing!" Rare is the man who believes in neither. He is free from confusion.

- Ashtavakra Gita 18:42

Making a Commitment

2009-09-09T22:41:00.000-04:00

It takes a deep commitment to change and an even deeper commitment to grow.

~Ralph Ellison

Interconnectedness

2009-09-03T01:01:00.001-04:00

Everything in the universe is connected, everything is osmosis. You cannot separate any part from the whole: interdependence rules the cosmic order.

- Taisen Deshimaru

Seeing the World with New Eyes

2009-09-03T00:55:00.001-04:00

The wicked see this universe as a hell, and the partially good see it as heaven, while the perfect beings realize it as God Himself. Only when a man sees this universe as God does the veil fall from his eyes; then that man, purified and cleansed, finds his whole vision changed.

- Vivekananda

Take a Look Within

2009-08-31T21:15:00.001-04:00

The essential truth of suffering is that neither individual nor social problems are due chiefly to external conditions.

- B. Alan Wallace, Tibetan Buddhism From the Ground Up

Mother Earth

2009-08-31T21:09:00.001-04:00

Speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee.

- Job 12:8

(I also recommend reading a post that Kathy made to her blog at http://kathytrejo.blogspot.com/2009/08/mother-earth.html.)

About That Incredible Something

2009-08-30T03:12:00.000-04:00

There exists something that cannot be described.

- Maharamayana

X Marks the Spot - Treasure

2009-08-27T17:00:00.002-04:00

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

~Carl Sagan

Renewal

2009-08-26T00:19:00.001-04:00

Whether you and I and a few others will renew the world some day remains to be seen. But within ourselves we must renew it each day.

- Herman Hesse

Far and Wide

2009-08-24T22:08:00.000-04:00

The Divine Presence is everywhere.

- Hoshaia Rabba. Talmud: Baba Bathra

No Worry

2009-08-24T22:06:00.000-04:00

People differ greatly in the amount of anxiety and worry they can stand: some can endure a great deal without being adversely affected, while others soon show signs of strain. You should observe yourself closely, so that you understand your own powers of endurance. By this means you will learn to divest yourself before any harm is done.

- Razi: Kitab al-Muluki

No Expectations

2009-08-21T13:30:00.001-04:00

In meditation, don't expect anything. Just sit back and see what happens. Treat the whole thing as an experiment. Take an active interest in the test itself, but don't get distracted by your expectations about the results. For that matter, don't be anxious for any result whatsoever.

- Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, "Mindfulness in Plain English"

Revolution

2009-08-21T13:16:00.001-04:00

Our problems, both those we experience externally such as wars, crime and violence and those we experience internally as emotional and psychological suffering will not be solved until we address this underlying neglect of our inner dimension. That is why the great movements of the last hundred years and more--democracy, liberalism, socialism, and Communism--have all failed to deliver the universal benefits they were supposed to provide, despite many wonderful ideas. A revolution is called for, certainly, but not a political, an economic, or a technical revolution. We have had enough experience of these during the past century to know that a purely external approach will not suffice. What I propose is a spiritual revolution.

- His Holiness the Dalai Lama

No Separateness

2009-08-21T13:12:00.001-04:00

Those who dwell on and long for sense-pleasure are born in a world of separateness. But let them realize they are the Self and all separateness will fall away.

- Mundaka Upanishad

Surroundings

2009-08-21T13:08:00.000-04:00

To guard your home by mysterious ceremonies is not enough, you must guard it by good deeds. With good deeds you should turn to your parents in the east, your teachers in the south, your wife and children in the west and your friends in the north. Above you, worship the spirit, and below you, honor all that serve you.

- Majjhima Nikaya

Contentment

2009-08-21T13:05:00.000-04:00

Once a person said to a dervish, "All I ask for is a small dwelling in Paradise." The dervish replied, "If you displayed the same contentment with what you already have in this world, you would have found ultimate bliss."

- Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jillani, "Fayuz E Yazdani"

Hunger for Knowledge

2009-08-15T03:13:00.001-04:00

"We have a hunger of the mind which asks for knowledge of all around us, and the more we gain, the more is our desire; the more we see, the more we are capable of seeing."

~Maria Mitchell

One With All

2009-08-13T22:47:00.001-04:00

All human beings are interconnected, one with all other elements in creation.

~Henry Reed

Faces

2009-08-13T22:44:00.002-04:00

In the faces of men and women I see God.

~Walt Whitman

2009-08-10T23:23:00.000-04:00

"People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes. All is a miracle."

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Remember

2009-08-09T11:45:00.001-04:00

Remember the clear light, the pure clear white light from which everything in the universe comes, to which everything in the universe returns; the original nature of your own mind. The natural state of the universe unmanifest. Let go into the clear light, trust it, merge with it. It is your own true nature, it is home.

- Tibetan Book of the Dead

Seeing

2009-08-08T00:32:00.002-04:00

My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.

- Albert Einstein

A Great Discovery

2009-08-08T00:30:00.000-04:00

One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do.

Henry Ford

Measuring Risks

2009-08-07T15:32:00.001-04:00

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

- Anais Nin

When You Need to Calm Down

2009-08-03T13:33:00.002-04:00

"'I am breathing in and making my whole body calm and at peace. I am breathing out and making my whole body calm and at peace.' This is how one practices."

- The Sutra on Full Awareness of Breathing

Have a Good Laugh

2009-07-31T10:59:00.000-04:00

What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul.

- Yiddish proverb

Shining Light

2009-07-31T10:57:00.000-04:00

My nature is light, Nothing but light. When the world arises I alone am shining.

- Ashtavakra Gita 2:8

Here, There and Everywhere

2009-07-31T10:44:00.001-04:00

There’s a strange frenzy in my head, of birds flying, each particle circulating on its own. Is the one I love everywhere?

- Rumi

Words of Wisdom from Abe

2009-07-18T17:55:00.001-04:00

Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?

- Abraham Lincoln

Do You Believe in Miracles?

2009-07-18T17:32:00.001-04:00

The miracle is this--the more we share, the more we have.

- Leonard Nimoy

From Whence All Comes

2009-07-18T17:24:00.003-04:00

What use are the scriptures to anyone who knows not the one source from whom they come, in whom all gods and worlds abide? Only those who realize him as ever present within the heart attain abiding joy.

- Shvetashvatara Upanishad

Lost in Our Own Little Worlds

2009-07-13T03:06:00.002-04:00

"How little attention we pay to things about us, to observe and to consider. We are so self-centered, so occupied with our worries, with our own benefits, we have no time to observe and understand. This occupation makes our mind dull and weary, frustrated and sorrowful, and from sorrow we want to escape. As long as the self is active there must be weary dullness and frustration. People are caught in a mad race, in the grief of self-centered sorrow. This sorrow is deep thoughtlessness. The thoughtful, the watchful are free from sorrow."

- J. Krishnamurti

Universal Fabric

2009-07-11T20:54:00.000-04:00

As a wave, Seething and foaming, Is only water So all creation, Streaming out of the Self, Is only the Self. Consider a piece of cloth. It is only threads! So all creation, When you look closely, Is only the Self.

- Ashtavakra Gita 2:4-5

Our Friend Will

2009-07-05T01:09:00.000-04:00

To those who have conquered themselves, the will is a friend. But it is the enemy of those who have not found the Self within them.

- Bhagavad Gita 6:6

Love Without Attachment

2009-06-27T19:30:00.000-04:00

We confuse attachment with love. Attachment is concerned with my needs, my happiness, while love is an unselfish attitude, concerned with the needs and happiness of others.... A relationship free of unrealistic grasping is free of disappointment, conflict, jealousy, and other problems, and is fertile ground for the growth of love and wisdom.

- Kathleen McDonald, "How to Meditate"

A Recently Spotted Bumper Sticker

2009-06-26T18:00:00.001-04:00

"God favors no group--only religions do that."

Natural Sleeping Medication

2009-06-25T01:58:00.001-04:00

Each night, before retiring, forgive whomever offended you.

- Asher b. Yehiel, "Hanhaga"

Spiritual Equality

2009-06-23T14:01:00.001-04:00

On the spiritual path no one has higher or lower status than anyone else.

- Nizam al-Din, “Fawa’id al-Fu’ad”

How to be Noble

2009-06-22T02:05:00.000-04:00

Not by harming life does one become noble. One is termed noble for being gentle to all living things.

- Dhammapada, 19, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

The Mystical Way

2009-06-22T00:14:00.000-04:00

There are many people who are shocked by mysticism, and they mock it, calling it nonsense. These people are blinded by ignorance. By following the mystical way I came to understand the true nature of God’s revelations to Muhammad.

- Ghazali, "al-Munqidh min ad-Dalal"

Energy Conversion

2009-06-21T23:46:00.001-04:00

I have learned through bitter experience the one supreme lesson: to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmitted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmitted into a power that can move the world.

- Mahatma Gandhi

Spread Happiness, But it Starts with You!

2009-06-10T16:23:00.000-04:00

He who wants to expand the field of happiness, let him lay the foundation of it on the bottom of his heart.

- Tao saying

Molehills or Mountains?

2009-06-10T16:16:00.000-04:00

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The House May be Beautiful, but it's What's Inside that Counts

2009-06-10T03:24:00.002-04:00

There is none dwelling in the house but God. When a man is awakened he melts and perishes. - Jalaluddin Rumi

Personal note: This reminds me of a short verse in the story of Layla and Majnun -

I pass by these walls, the walls of Layla
And I kiss this wall and that wall
It’s not Love of the houses that has taken my heart
But of the One who dwells in those houses

YOU Have the Key

2009-06-08T17:25:00.000-04:00

All beginnings require that you unlock a new door.

- Rebbi Nachman of Breslov

A Word

2009-06-08T03:47:00.000-04:00

ما

We

Testing Patience

2009-05-31T17:49:00.000-04:00

The test of good manners: to bear patiently with bad ones.

- Ibn Gabirol

Beyond Good and Evil

2009-05-31T02:07:00.000-04:00

In the ultimate realization of Infinity there is neither the limitation of personality nor the distinction of the opposites of good and evil. In order to achieve Realization, one has to pass from the personal to the impersonal and from goodness to God, who is beyond the opposites of good and evil.

~Meher Baba

Longing

2009-05-30T15:54:00.000-04:00

Longing is like the rosy dawn. After the dawn out comes the sun. Longing is followed by the vision of God.

- Ramakrishna

Birth

2009-05-29T18:12:00.003-04:00

It is through giving that we receive, and it is through dying that we are born to eternal life.

- St. Francis of Assisi

(Personal note: He is not speaking of the death of the body.)

Overcome

2009-05-28T21:28:00.003-04:00

When God ordained that man should learn by woe,
He too ordained the path that he should go
Till through the mists that clothe the hills of pain
He should emerge and find the Sun again.

~Unknown Rosicrucian

The Fountain

2009-05-28T20:09:00.002-04:00

We all flow from one fountain— Soul. All are expressions of one love. God does not appear, and flow out, only from narrow chinks and round bored wells here and there in favored races and places, but He flows in grand undivided currents, shoreless and boundless over creeds and forms and all kinds of civilizations and peoples and beasts, saturating all and fountainizing all.

~John Muir

Human Being's Mirrors :)

2009-05-20T17:54:00.000-04:00

The only service a friend can really render is to keep up your courage by holding up to you a mirror in which you can see a noble image of yourself.

- George Bernard Shaw

More Humor

2009-05-20T17:53:00.001-04:00

The Buddhist Computer Addict

Q: What happens when a Buddhist becomes totally absorbed with the computer he is working with?

A: He enters Nerdvana.

The Other Side

2009-05-19T14:39:00.002-04:00

One day a young Buddhist on his journey home, came to the banks of a wide river. Staring hopelessly at the great obstacle in front of him, he pondered for hours on just how to cross such a wide barrier. Just as he was about to give up his pursuit to continue his journey he saw a great teacher on the other side of the river. The young Buddhist yells over to the teacher, "Oh wise one, can you tell me how to get to the other side of this river?"

The teacher ponders for a moment, looks up and down the river and yells back, "My son, you are on the other side."

Mind Expansion

2009-05-17T22:40:00.000-04:00

A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Prison Break

2009-05-17T19:06:00.002-04:00

"A human being is part of the whole, called by us Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest – a kind of prison, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty.” ~ Albert Einstein

Admirable Qualities

2009-05-17T18:50:00.000-04:00

It's not how much you have that makes people look up to you, it's who you are.

- Elvis Presley

Act One

2009-05-17T18:47:00.000-04:00

The world is a theatre of love.

- Kashmiri proverb

Ubiquitiousness

2009-05-16T12:58:00.000-04:00

The Divine Presence is everywhere.

- Hoshaia Rabba. Talmud: Baba Bathra

Knock Knock

2009-05-15T15:53:00.002-04:00

Get up! Wake up! Seek the guidance of an Illuminated teacher and realize the Self. Sharp like a razor's edge, the sages say, Is the path, difficult to traverse.

- Katha Upanishad

(The subject of finding an "Illuminated teacher" is one to be careful about. Just adding that from personal experience. The best teacher for you is you. The Master Teacher is within you, knocking, waiting for you to answer the door. Although, it might take a while for you to understand this, the same as it took me a long time to understand even after being told countless times - still I sought - still I was disappointed by the people I would call "teacher", especially after their flaws became very obvious - because they are human. It took being disappointed numerous times before I heard the knocking at the door. This is of course not to say that there aren't people out there that can help along the way, because there are.)

The Sleeping Prophet on Expressing Love

2009-05-14T18:13:00.001-04:00

. . to express love in thine activities to thy neighbor is the greater service that a soul may give in this mundane sphere.

Edgar Cayce Reading 499-2

A Puzzle to Ponder

2009-05-13T19:07:00.000-04:00

I pervade the entire universe in my unmanifested form. All creatures find their existence in me, but I am not limited by them. Behold my divine mystery!

- Bhagavad Gita 9:4-5

Philosophy Enables Discovery of Truth

2009-05-08T20:03:00.002-04:00

Without philosophy man lives a life but little higher than that of the animals, for he is dependent upon his senses, instincts, and the habits and experiences of others, but by philosophic disciplines he is enabled to discover and prove truth for himself, to know the real nature of himself and the world in which he lives.

- The Universal Order - Study Group Paper 1

http://www.shrineofwisdom.org.uk/