Inspirational Archive
2003-2004
January 6, 2003
"Truth can be lost in a fact, like a shadow in darkness.... grasshopper."
~ Master Po -
"Kung Fu" TV series
January 13, 2003
"As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world... as in being able to remake ourselves. "
~Mahatma Gandhi
January 20, 2003
"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant."
~Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 27, 2003
Befriending Our Demons
"When the resistance is gone, so is the demon."~Pema Chodron
Milarepa is one of the lineage holders of the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. He is one of the heroes, one of the brave ones, a very crazy, unusual fellow. He was a loner who lived in caves by himself and meditated wholeheartedly for years. He was extremely stubborn and determined. If he could not find anything to eat for a couple of years, he just ate nettles and turned green, but he never stopped practicing.
One evening Milarepa returned to his cave after gathering firewood, only to find it filled with demons. They were cooking his food, reading his books, sleeping in his bed. They had taken over the joint. He knew about non duality of self and other, but he still did not quite know how to get these guys out of his cave. Even though he had the sense that they were just a projection of his own mind - all the unwanted parts of himself - he did not know to get rid of them.
So, first he taught them the dharma. He sat on a seat that was higher than they were and said things to them about how we are all one. He talked about compassion and shunyata and how poison is medicine. Nothing happened. The demons were still there. Then he lost his patience and got very angry and ran at them. They just laughed at him. Finally, he gave up and just sat down on the floor, saying, “I am not going away and it looks like you are not either, so let us just live here together.“
And at that point, all of them left except one. Milarepa said, “Oh, this one is particularly vicious.“ (We all know that one. Sometimes we have lots of them like that. Sometimes we feel that is all we have got.) He did not know what to do, so he just surrendered himself even further. He walked over and put himself right into the mouth of the demon and said, “Just eat me up, if you want to.“ Then the demon left too. The moral of the story is, when the resistance is gone, so are the demons.
~From "Start Where You Are” by Pema Chodron
February 3, 2003
"A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth-that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and is love."
~Viktor Frankl, "Man's Search for Meaning
February 10, 2003
"Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence."
~Erich Fromm
February 17, 2003
"It is a heavenly love that is free from jealousy, rich and never harmful to the spirit. It is a deep affinity that bathes the soul in contentment; a deep hunger for affection which, when satisfied, fills the soul with bounty; a tenderness that creates hope without agitating the soul, changing earth to paradise and life to a sweet and beautiful dream."
~Kahlil Gibran
February 24, 2003
"Too many of us stay walled because we are afraid of being. We are afraid to care too much, for fear that the other person does not care at all."
~Eleanor Roosevelt
March 3, 2003
"No matter what you are doing, keep the undercurrent of happiness. Learn to be secretly happy within your heart in spite of all circumstances."~Paramahansa Yogananda
March 10, 2003
"Silence is a great help to the seeker after truth. In the attitude of silence, the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after truth, and the soul requires inward restfulness to attain its full height."
~Mahatma Gandhi
March 17, 2003"Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict."
~William Ellery Channing
March 24, 2003"The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men."
~Martin Luther King, Jr.
March 31, 2003
"Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts."
~Charles Dickens
April 7 , 2003
"The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly."
~ Buddha
April 21, 2003
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end."
~Ursula K. Le Guin
May 19 , 2003
"Whatever there is of God and goodness in the universe, it must work itself out and express itself through us. We cannot stand aside and let God do it."
~Albert Einstein
May 26, 2003
"People are like stained-glass windows.
They sparkle and shine when the sun is out,
but when the darkness sets in,
their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within."~Elizabeth Kübler-Ross
June 30, 2003
"I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve."
~Albert Schweitzer
July 7, 2003
"We also need to accept the fact that if our first goal is to be happy, and to believe that what we do makes a difference, the rest will take care of itself"
~ Diane Morton, writer/intuitive guide and Friend
July 14 , 2003
"To fall in love is easy, even to remain in it is not difficult; our human loneliness is cause enough. But it is a hard quest worth making to find a comrade through whose steady presence one becomes steadily the person one desires to be."
~Anna Louise Strong
July 21 , 2003
"The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny."
~Albert Ellis
July 28, 2003"There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than there is for bread."
~Mother Teresa
August 4 , 2003
"Not one of them who took up in his youth with this opinion that there are no gods, ever continued until old age faithful to his conviction."
~Plato
September 22, 2003
"A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the
brave."~Mahatma Gandhi
September 29, 2003
"If you permit your thoughts to dwell on evil, you yourself will become ugly."
~ Paramahansa Yogananda
October 6 , 2003
"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."
~Mahatma Gandhi
October 13, 2003
"For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love."
~ Carl Sagan
October 20, 2003
"Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction."
~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
October 27, 2003
"Do not fear mistakes- there are none. "
~Miles Davis
November 3, 2003"Don't grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form."
~Rumi
November 10, 2003
"This the last of human freedoms--to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose ones own way."
~Viktor Frankl, "Man's Search for Meaning
November 17, 2003
"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls a butterfly."
~Richard Bach
November 24, 2003
"At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us."
~Albert Schweitzer
December 1, 2003
"Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful."
~The Buddha
December 8, 2003
"To love for the sake of being loved is human,
But to love for the sake of loving is angelic."~Alphonse De Lamartine
December 15, 2003
"As a mother watches over her child, willing to risk her own life to protect her only child, so with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings, suffusing the whole world with unobstructed loving-kindness.
Standing or walking, sitting or lying down, during all one's waking hours, may one remain mindful of heart and this way of living that is the best in the world."
The Buddha
December 29, 2003
"Resolve to make at least one person happy every day, and then in ten years you may have made three thousand, six hundred and fifty persons happy, or brightened a small town by your contribution to the fund of general enjoyment."
~Sydney Smith
January 5, 2004
"The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature."
~Anne Frank
January 19, 2004
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige and even his life for the welfare of others."
~Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 26, 2004
"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion."
~Dalai Lama
February 2, 2004
"Every moment of your life is infinitely creative and the universe is endlessly bountiful. Just put forth a clear enough request, and everything your heart desires must come to you.
~Shakti Gawain
February 16, 2004
"It is wrong to think that love comes from long companionship and persevering courtship. Love is the offspring of spiritual affinity and unless that affinity is created in a moment, it will not be created for years or even generations."
~Khalil Gibran
February 22, 2004
"Don’t take responsibility for those who do not heal. Don’t take responsibility for those who DO. Celebrate those who heal, cry over the ones that don’t, but don’t take responsibility for anything but the integrity of the energy you put out. Shine the light and stay in place."
March 1, 2004
"When you come to the edge of all the light you know, And are about to step off into the darkness of the unknown, FAITH is knowing one of two things will happen: There will be something solid to stand on or you will be taught how to fly."
March 15, 2004
"Love the heart that hurts you, but never hurt the heart that loves you."
~ Vipin Sharma
May 31, 2004
"Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much perfoms much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well."
~Vincent Van Gogh
June 7 , 2004
"The thought manifests as the word. The word manifests as the deed. The deed develops into habit. And the habit hardens into character. So watch the thought and its ways with care. And let it spring from love, born out of concern for all beings.."
~The Buddha
August 2 , 2004
"When love is lost, do not bow your head in sadness; instead keep your head up high and gaze into heaven for that is where your broken heart has been sent to heal."
~Andrew Cage
August 16, 2004
"Every experience empowers you twice: First when you enter into it with a whole heart, and again when you leave it with a whole heart."
~Alan Cohen
August 23, 2004
"Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle.
The world you desired can be won. It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours."
~Ayn Rand
August 30, 2004
"Here is a test to find out whether your mission in life is complete. If you're alive, it isn't."
~Richard Bach
September 20 , 2004
"When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it – always."
- Mahatma Gandhi
October 11, 2004
"Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment."
~Will Rogers
October 25, 2004
"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear."
~Ambrose Redmoon
December 6 , 2004
"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."
~Martin Luther King Jr.
December 13, 2004
"If I were asked to give what I consider the single most useful bit of advice for all humanity, it would be this: Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life, and when it comes, hold your head high. Look it squarely in the eye, and say, "I will be bigger than you. You cannot defeat me."
~Ann Landers
