“Iola Pond” - A place I once lived
Weekly Tao Te Ching
CHAPTER 39
Walking the Tao brings many benefits: Our thinking becomes clear; our actions become beneficial; our relationships become trustworthy; our daily lives become serene; and our communities prosper.
Abandoning the Tao brings much suffering: Our minds become cluttered; our work becomes harmful; our relationships become deceitful; our daily lives become chaotic; and our communities become deficient.
Only with the Tao will life unfold in harmony and simplicity, rather than with greed and misery, With the Tao life rolls like a wagon, simply doing its work without fanfare. And we too just roll along, like common stones in a river.
🛎 William Martin’s Website / His Books📚
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Weekly - Mirabai Starr
“Your God would never punish you for being a human being: this life itself is your penance...But it is also more than that: it is a crucible for transformation. Each trial, every loss, is an opportunity for you to meet suffering with love and make of it an offering, a prayer. The minute you lift your pain like a candle the darkness vanishes, and mercy comes rushing in to heal you.”
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Weekly - Anthony de Mello
“The genius of a composer is found in the notes of his music; but analyzing the notes will not reveal his genius. The poet's greatness is contained in his words; yet the study of his words will not disclose his inspiration. God reveals himself in creation; but scrutinize creation as minutely as you wish, you will not find God, any more than you will find the soul through careful examination of your body.”
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Weekly - Alan Watts
“Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.”
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Doodle of the Week (1)
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Weekly - Deng Ming Dao
“A moving door hinge never corrodes. Flowing water never grows stagnant.”
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Weekly - Peter Rollins
“Genuine faith is not some weapon that shields us from the storms of life while pronouncing judgement upon others, but neither is it wholly self-destructive. Rather, it is a weapon that both shields and lacerates the one who wields it, offering comfort to the distressed and distress to the comforted. To advocate this kingdom of love, mercy and truth involves self-sacrifice and self-critique.”
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Weekly - Maya Angelou
We are here to love each other. That is why you are alive. That is what life is for.
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Weekly - Thich Nhat Hanh
"Our own life has to be our message.”
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Doodle of the Week (2)
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Weekly - Richard Rohr
“When you don't need to play the victim or create victims you are FREE”
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Weekly - Adyashanti
When you stand in your own authority, based in your own direct experience, you meet that ultimate mystery that you are. Even though it may be at first unsettling to look into your own no-thingness, you do it anyway. Why? Because you no longer want to suffer. Because you're willing to be disturbed. You're willing to be amazed. You're willing to be surprised. You're willing to realize that maybe everything you've ever thought about yourself really isn't true.
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Weekly - William Paul Young
“The arrival of the unforeseen reveals the depths of one’s heart.”
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Weekly - Brian D. McLaren
"Politically, we produce and sell weapons in unimaginable numbers and then tax the profits to build defenses against those to whom we sold the weapons. We build an economy of war in hopes that it will produce for us a world of peace.
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Keith’s Weekly Pick
“Vote”
The word comes from the Latin word for VOW.
To act from the deepest truth within us.
The truth of compassion and kindness and love. A sacred act.
We are all interconnected in a great net, a fine web, a woven fabric.
Every action affects the whole.
A bat bit a pangolin across the world from New York City and life changed for everyone everywhere.
Each vote affects the whole.
Every vote that comes from care and compassion increases care and compassion everywhere.
Vote with love. Love heals. It replaces fear.
Vote. It's a sacred act.
~ Mirabai Bush, Founding Chairperson, LSRF
"Cranes, Pines, and Bamboo" by Ogata Kōrin (1658-1716)
