“Iola Pond” - A place I once lived
Weekly Tao Te Ching
CHAPTER 45
So much of what we see around us seems flawed, imperfect, and distorted.
But how can the Tao, the essence of all forms, be imperfect?
We want it to be direct, but it winds around and about. We want it to be clear, but it seems confusing. We want it to speak, but it keeps silence.
So what are we to do?
Breathe in and out as the trees and mountains breathe. Be simply who you are and nothing more is needed.
🛎 William Martin’s Website / His Books📚
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Weekly - Mirabai Starr
“Longing may be our legacy, but wholeness is our birthright. It lies at the heart of the disappointments and delights of everyday life. In weeding the garden and burning the toast. In falling asleep alone or enfolded in the arms of another. In reading poetry instead of watching the news. In missing the grandmother you adored and becoming the father you never had. In weeping for the suffering of the oppressed, the degradation of the planet.”
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Weekly - Anthony de Mello
“You are so proud of your intelligence," said the master. "You are like a like a condemned man, proud of the vastness of his prison cell.”
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Weekly - Alan Watts
“It is interesting that Hindus, when they speak of the creation of the universe do not call it the work of God, they call it the play of God, the Vishnu lila, lila meaning play. And they look upon the whole manifestation of all the universes as a play, as a sport, as a kind of dance — lila perhaps being somewhat related to our word lilt”
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Weekly - William Paul Young
“A world doesn't make sense if there are no mutual relationships.”
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Doodle of the Week (1)
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Weekly - Deng Ming Dao
“Whatever comes to you, you must engage it somehow. You receive it, you may alter the circumstance and let it go, you may interject something of your own into it, or you may knowingly let it pass. Whatever you do, there is no need to be apathetic toward life. Instead, full participation in all things is the surest way to happiness, vitality, success, and a deep knowledge of Tao.”
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Weekly - Peter Rollins
“A helpful way of reflecting upon this involves thinking about how we interact with other people’s flesh. We can think of three basic ways that we can look at another. The first can be described as lust and involves reducing somebody to their purely physical appearance. The second could be called indifference and refers to times in which we see a person’s flesh and yet pay no attention to it – for instance, walking down a busy street can involve seeing hundreds of people while paying no real attention to any of them. The third way can be described in terms of love. In love we value the flesh of our beloved, but we do not reduce them to their flesh. In particular, the face of our beloved is important, for in his or her facial expressions we are able to perceive the existence of various emotions and feelings that are otherwise unavailable to us. Not only this, but when we look at the face of our beloved we are aware that we are looking at one who looks back at us.”
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Weekly - Maya Angelou
Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told, ‘I’m with you kid. Let’s go’.
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Weekly - Thich Nhat Hanh
"Understanding means throwing away your knowledge.”
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Doodle of the Week (2)
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Weekly - Richard Rohr
“Jesus did not come to change the mind of God about humanity; Jesus came to change the mind of humanity about God”
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Weekly - Brian D. McLaren
"We want to join God in joy. We want no happiness that God doesn't share, but we want to share God's pleasure in every little thing. We want to join God in love. We want to love what God loves — and not love what God doesn't love: pride, cruelty, fear, apathy, every bad thing. We want to join God in action, creating, reaching out, healing, empathizing, opposing, confronting, transforming, waiting, choosing, encouraging."
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Keith’s Weekly Pick
“Jesus did not come to change the mind of God about humanity; Jesus came to change the mind of humanity about God”
~Richard Rohr
"Cranes, Pines, and Bamboo" by Ogata Kōrin (1658-1716)
