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Anything that is a potent force
in your life, that has the capacity to create discomfort, can be used for your own personal transformation. It can be
a wakeup call to who you are and what you are here to contribute in life. When you have the courage to face
the initial discomfort and clearly discern the truth about the situation, life becomes easier. You don't have to keep
doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. And as Talullah Bankhead once said, "there may
be less to this than meets the eye."
Maria Nemeth, Ph.D.
Author of The Energy of Money
Comfort and Pain
There is a common misunderstanding
among the human beings who have ever been born on earth that the best way to live is to try to avoid pain and just try
to get comfortable. You see this even in insects and animals and birds. All of us are the same. A much more
interesting, kind and joyful approach to life is to begin to develop our curiosity, not caring whether the object of our curiosity
is bitter or sweet. To lead a life that goes beyond pettiness and prejudice and always wanting to make sure that everything
turns out on our own terms, to lead a more passionate, full, and delightful life than that, we must realize that we can
endure a lot of pain and pleasure for the sake of finding out who we are and what this world is, how we tick and how our world
ticks, how the whole thing just is. If we are committed to comfort at any cost, as soon as we come up against the least
edge of pain, we're going to run; we'll never know what's beyond that particular barrier or wall or fearful thing.
Pema Chodron
The Wisdom of No Escape And
the Path of Loving Kindness
Our deepest fear
is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear
is that
we are powerful beyond
measure.
It is our Light,
not our Darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves,
who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, talented,
fabulous?
Actually, who are
you NOT to be?
You are a child of
God.
Your playing small
does not serve the world.
There is nothing
enlightening
about shrinking so
that other people won't feel
unsure around you.
We were born to make
manifest the glory of God
that is within us.
It is not just in
some of us;
it is in everyone.
As we let our own
Light shine,
we unconsciously
give other people permission
to do the same.
As we are liberated
from our own fear, our presence
automatically liberates
others.
Marianne Williamson
(attributed
often to Nelson Mandela - he used this in his 1994 inaugural address in South Africa)
Power and Knowledge
As a man's real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower: until at last he chooses
nothing, but does only and wholly what he must do.
Ursula Le Guin
The Wisard of Earthsea
Miracles
Miracles rest not so much upon healing power coming suddenly near us from afar but upon our perceptions being made finer,
so that, for the moment, our eyes can see and our ears can hear what has been around us always.
Willa Cather
Death Comes For The Archbishop
“A man walking along a highroad sees a great river, its near bank dangerous and frightening,
its far bank safe. He collects sticks and foliage, makes a raft, paddles across
the river, and reaches the other shore. Now suppose that, after he reaches the
other shore, he takes the raft and puts it on his head wherever he goes. Would
he be using the raft in an appropriate way? No, a reasonable man will realize
that the raft has been very useful to him in crossing the river and arriving safely on the other shore, but that once he has
arrived, it is proper to leave the raft behind and walk on without it. This is
using the raft appropriately.
In the same way, all truths should be used to cross over; they should not be held on to once you have
arrived. You should let go of even the most profound insight on the most wholesome
teaching; all the more so, unwholesome teachings.”
The Buddha
The Enlightened Mind
Anthology of Sacred Prose
Edited by Stephen Mitchell
To
be active, well and happy implies great courage.
Thoreau
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