Ending Violence

"We first need to find our way out of the internal wars that are poisoning our thoughts, feelings, and attitudes toward others. If we can't put an end to the violence within us, there is no hope for putting an end to the violence without."
-The Anatomy of Peace
from the Arbinger Institute

Cultures at the far edge of the world

A fascinating twenty minutes on the world's cultural diversity and the need to protect it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bL7vK0pOvKI

Reason and Passion

Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against passion and your appetite.

Would that I could be the peacemaker in your soul, that I might turn the discord and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody.

But how shall I, unless you yourselves be also the peacemakers, nay, the lovers of all your elements?

Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul.

If either your sails or our rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas.

For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.

Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion; that it may sing;

And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.

I would have you consider your judgment and your appetite even as you would two loved guests in your house.

Surely you would not honour one guest above the other; for he who is more mindful of one loses the love and the faith of both.

Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows - then let your heart say in silence, "God rests in reason."

And when the storm comes, and the mighty wind shakes the forest, and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky, - then let your heart say in awe, "God moves in passion."

And since you are a breath In God's sphere, and a leaf in God's forest, you too should rest in reason and move in passion.

-Khalil Gibran
Lebanese poet

Travel

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."
-Mark Twain

A poem by Rainer Maria Rilke

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.
Flare up like flame
and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don't let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

What you can give to your children

"You may give your children your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts."
-Khalil Gibran

...........I Know the Way You Can Get..........

I know the way you can get

When you have not had a drink of Love:

Your face hardens,

Your sweet muscles cramp.

Children become concerned

About a strange look that appears in your eyes

Which even begins to worry your own mirror

And nose.

Squirrels and birds sense your sadness

And call an important conference in a tall tree.

They decide which secret code to chant

To help your mind and soul.

Even angels fear that brand of madness

That arrays itself against the world

And throws sharp stones and spears into

The innocent

And into one's self.

O I know the way you can get

If you have not been drinking Love:

You might rip apart

Every sentence your friends and teachers say,

Looking for hidden clauses.

You might weigh every word on a scale

Like a dead fish.

You might pull out a ruler to measure

From every angle in your darkness

The beautiful dimensions of a heart you once

Trusted.

I know the way you can get

If you have not had a drink from Love's

Hands.

That is why all the Great Ones speak of

The vital need

To keep remembering God,

So you will come to know and see Him

As being so Playful

And Wanting,

Just Wanting to help.

That is why Hafiz says:

Bring your cup near me.

For all I care about

Is quenching your thirst for freedom!

All a Sane man can ever care about

Is giving Love!

-Hafiz
Sufi poet

The Ability to Forget

"A retentive memory is a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness."
-Elbert Hubbard

As we allow people the freedom to have a new beginning every day, we allow them the freedom to change and grow. The same principle applies to ourselves. As we forgive ourselves and exercise faith in our ability to change, we become free to blaze our own trail, to abandon old habits, to set new patterns, and to liberate our spirits.

Empathy

True intellectual inquiry sometimes requires empathy. To understand a contrasting viewpoint, especially in the presence of strong emotional disapproval, demands that we suspend our perspective to entertain the validity of the opposing viewpoint. As we place ourselves in the shoes of others and sincerely seek to understand how they arrived at their conclusions, we will receive a glimpse of their orientation towards the issue and a better understanding of their personal context. This process requires both humility and curiosity. Our patience will be rewarded with a broadened perspective and a more generous heart. If we seek only to justify ourselves and defend our positions we will be blinded to any deeper understanding.

"Empathy is the experience of foreign consciousness in general."
-Edith Stein

You are what you think about

"Your mind will be like its habitual thoughts; for the soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts."
-Marcus Aurelius

We see the world as we are

"We do not see things as they are; we see things as we are."
-The Talmud

The way we see the world, our relationships, and our life situation is a direct representation of who we are. I'm reminded of the expression, "What you say about me says more about you than it does about me."

The Humanness in Kershisnik's Art

American painter, Brian Kershisnik, captures human life in its simple, awkward, and humorous manners. His creations breathe new perspective into our relationships to the divine, to ourselves, our spouses, our children, and even our pets. His works are profoundly spiritual but unidealized--in fact, they are often quite humorous. Here are some of my favorites. See more of his work at his website: http://www.kershisnik.com/


Flight Practice with Instruction



Father and Son



My Ancestors Kissed



That Song



This Splendid Inconvenience