RE: Inspiring quotes

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RE: Inspiring quotes - 1/7/2008 4:27:10 PM

Hildegard

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I can't find the exact quote by Meister Eckhart right now, but here is a paraphrase, "What use is it if Jesus was born ...hundred years ago if he is not born in our time in our hearts." This living in our hearts does not take away from a belief in a Second Coming!

Edda

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Peace and joy!

Post #: 81

RE: Inspiring quotes - 1/7/2008 6:51:55 PM

buttington

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Dear Edda,
I was concerned that David Spangler's belief that Jesus had already come, and this time he didn't come into an earthly body, but into all of our hearts instead, would possibly upset some people. Some Christians believe in the concept of God as being outside of themselves, rather than inside.
Jude

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Love is the only way

Post #: 82

RE: Inspiring quotes - 1/7/2008 11:33:44 PM

Hope coach

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Jude, Alchemist and fellow Light Workers....I was driven to log in here this evening.....I am tired and had a busy day still I felt I could not close up the office technology without verbalizing my gratitude and saying a hello.....what a beautiful and validating shared message the two of you gave and I received earlier from the new Inspiring Music thread a beautiful video on The Art of Blessing...yesterday I attended a special Mass I attend 1 time a month it is held in a recovery home by a recovering priest who is so dear he also survived a brain tumor a real Light Worker....well he gave his homily on the Epiphany and he used and defined the way God can be manifested by us daily through us turning our life over to God daily....now this was an Epiphany for me because I have always felt Christ within ever since I was a child the more they taught me about God and Christ the Holy Spirit was the concept I related to....Thank you for sharing tonight and validating my spirituality as my Mom would say when we would have a spiritual realization or experience Alleluia! I am so happy to feel that I can manifest the Christ within if I keep open to him within
namaste and peace for the Buddha in me too. I know that God spoke to me through my yoga, Zen and him
Warmly
Hope coach
Barbara T.

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In the Spirit of Recovery

Post #: 83

RE: Inspiring quotes - 1/8/2008 5:30:15 AM

Alchemist

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Barbara

We are all here to support each other as we make our way through life. I am glad you found some validation in what was posted. A short story comes to mind.

A certain man planted a rose and watered it faithfully, and before it blossomed, he examined it. He saw the bud that would soon blossom and also the thorns. And he thought, "How can any beautiful flower come from a plant burdened with so many sharp thorns?" Saddened by this thought, he neglected to water the rose, and before it was ready to bloom, it died.

So it is with many people. Within every soul there is a rose. The God-like qualities planted in us at birth grow amid the thorns of our faults. Many of us look at ourselves and see only the thorns, the defects. We despair, thinking that nothing good can possibly come from us. We neglect to water the good within us, and eventually it dies. We never realize our potential.

Some people do not see the rose within themselves; someone else must show it to them. One of the greatest gifts a person can possess is to be able to reach past the thorns and find the rose within others. This is the characteristic of love, to look at a person, and knowing his faults, recognize the nobility in his soul, and help him realize that he can overcome his faults. If we show him the rose, he will conquer the thorns. Then will he blossom, blooming forth thirty, sixty, a hundred-fold as it is given to him.

Our duty in this world is to help others by showing them their roses and not their thorns. Only then can we achieve the love we should feel for each other; only then can we bloom in our own garden.

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We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that Self may prove to be.
~ May Sarton

Post #: 84

RE: Inspiring quotes - 1/8/2008 4:33:23 PM

J1937

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From: Austria/Europe
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Alchemist and everyone who has posted here lately: I cannot but join you in confirming from my point of view (can I say "my point of faith"?) what you have said: Christ wants to be and is born in each human being, and, as Thomas Merton claims, in each one in quite a different, unique way. I remember him saying (in one of his tape recordings, I think) that there is a "Thomas Christ" ... - and we may continue filling in all our names... If we bear this in mind, the two commandments of loving God and loving one´s neighbor become so closely linked...

Alchemist, I am sorry to say that I cannot read your latest post, the characters being so small. So I may have missed some essential point(s).

Juliana
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Post #: 85

RE: Inspiring quotes - 1/8/2008 4:36:38 PM

J1937

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Oh, I forgot to mention how vividly your long quote speaks to me, Alchemist, and how much I appreciate it !!!
Thank you.
Juliana

Post #: 86

RE: Inspiring quotes - 1/8/2008 6:22:02 PM

Alchemist

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Juliana

I have included the story from the previous post and made it bigger. I hope you can read it now. Some browsers display fonts differently.

Alchemist

A certain man planted a rose and watered it faithfully, and before it blossomed, he examined it. He saw the bud that would soon blossom and also the thorns. And he thought, "How can any beautiful flower come from a plant burdened with so many sharp thorns?" Saddened by this thought, he neglected to water the rose, and before it was ready to bloom, it died.

So it is with many people. Within every soul there is a rose. The God-like qualities planted in us at birth grow amid the thorns of our faults. Many of us look at ourselves and see only the thorns, the defects. We despair, thinking that nothing good can possibly come from us. We neglect to water the good within us, and eventually it dies. We never realize our potential.

Some people do not see the rose within themselves; someone else must show it to them. One of the greatest gifts a person can possess is to be able to reach past the thorns and find the rose within others. This is the characteristic of love, to look at a person, and knowing his faults, recognize the nobility in his soul, and help him realize that he can overcome his faults. If we show him the rose, he will conquer the thorns. Then will he blossom, blooming forth thirty, sixty, a hundred-fold as it is given to him.

Our duty in this world is to help others by showing them their roses and not their thorns. Only then can we achieve the love we should feel for each other; only then can we bloom in our own garden.

_____________________________

We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that Self may prove to be.
~ May Sarton

Post #: 87

RE: Inspiring quotes - 1/8/2008 9:24:53 PM

Hope coach

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Juliana
I want to share I love your translations from the books and quotes you share...they really visualize the words fr me and bring a much deeper meaning to the scriptures I was taught as a child....please continue them..

Barbara your quotes from Wabi Sabi and the Tea ceremony have transported me and bring to me th truth that my father taught me in a differant way...he walked me to a canvas of his and said all the master artists leave a flaw in their work because they do not want or can they reach perfection..I think since that momnt I embraced impermanenc and imperfection even my own cracks
Namaste Hope coach
Barbara T

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In the Spirit of Recovery

Post #: 88

RE: Inspiring quotes - 1/12/2008 12:42:17 PM

J1937

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Thank you for your response, Barbara T.! It encourages me to continue sharing what I have collected in quite a number of years, not for myself only, but for others.

Thank you, Alchemist, for going to the trouble of writing down the story once more! I appreciate it greatly, as an important truth comes across beautifully in the image of the rose.

Namaste! Juliana
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Speak Peace in a World of Conflict

Post #: 89

RE: Inspiring quotes - 1/12/2008 1:54:48 PM

buttington

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This gave me food for thought in my post this morning. Jude

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.

also this one, but for different reasons.
The world has never been changed by well-behaved women.

-- Source unknown

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Post #: 90

RE: Inspiring quotes - 1/13/2008 12:13:14 AM

Imenuff

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Juliana,What a really special idea especially to use when someone is really "getting on my last nerve". Not just using it in reference to ourselves, but also to use it for that person I am really angry at or who is getting on my last nerve --"Susan Christ", "Jane Christ", Michael Christ" whatever the name of my irritating person at that particular moment. Thank you.
Alchemist,There is such tremendous truth in your story. I am sure each of us can look at our own lives and see how often someone willingly looked past our own "thorns" to show us our own unique personal rose. "What you have been given give as a gift."
Jude,there is so much wisdom in your first quote. Unless and until we accept the thorns and begin seeing the beauty in ourselves, it is so difficult to see it in others. Your second quote is one that all of us who are women really need to focus on. Society makes it too easy for us to be the "nice" person who readily backs down rather than taking a stand.

Thank you all for an abundance of wisdom.

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Shalom(May you be at peace in Body, Mind,& Spirit)

I'menuff

Post #: 91

RE: Inspiring quotes - 1/13/2008 4:59:24 AM

J1937

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Jude and Betty, What you say about "well-behaved women" reminds me of M.B.Rosenberg´s claim: "Don´t be nice - be real!" If we internalize this, it will mean real progress.

Juliana
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Post #: 92

RE: Inspiring quotes - 1/14/2008 12:25:43 AM

Thankful one

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I like the enthusiasm for life that the next quote brings to mind.

"'On with the dance, let the joy be unconfined!' is my motto, whether there's any dance to dance or any joy to unconfine." - Mark Twain

Thankful one

Post #: 93

RE: Inspiring quotes - 1/14/2008 6:55:12 AM

Alchemist

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Juliana and Thankful one

Continuing the theme of always doing one's best, here is a quote which honors one's effort in integrity.

When you do something you should burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.

~ Shunryu Suzuki

Alchemist

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We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that Self may prove to be.
~ May Sarton

Post #: 94

RE: Inspiring quotes - 1/14/2008 8:29:48 AM

zenmember

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From: Sarnia, Ontario, Canada
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Back on Dec 11th, Lyla questioned the source of a quote she shared: "If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you dream it, you can become it."

It reminds me very much of the following:
"Whatever you can do, or dream, you can begin. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now." - Goethe

For all who ponder the risk of offending Christians with thoughts from mystical sources, one of my favorites is from pre-hinduism writings:

"The Lord is enshrined in the hearts of all; the Lord is the supreme reality. Rejoice in him through renunciation; covet nothing for all belongs to the Lord."

And this last bit is one of the invocations to the Upanishads;
Guard me and my teacher against all harm, Guard me and my teacher against all harm. Om shanti, shanti shanti

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." - FDR

Be still and know that you are not alone,,, be yourself and rejoice in it

Post #: 95

RE: Inspiring quotes - 1/16/2008 6:34:11 AM

Alchemist

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Because many of us are in the middle of the winter season, I am reminded of a quote which can brighten one's outlook.

God gave us memory that we might have roses in December.

~James Barrie

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We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that Self may prove to be.
~ May Sarton

Post #: 96

RE: Inspiring quotes - 1/16/2008 8:03:14 AM

J1937

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Thank you for this one, Alchemist! It is so true: the more we live each one of our given moments consciously and gratefully, the more happy memories can we gather. The "miracle" is that even the hardest, most challenging times of our lives are turned into roses in retrospect.

Namaste! Juliana
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Speak Peace in a World of Conflict

Post #: 97

RE: Inspiring quotes - 1/16/2008 10:15:26 AM

Imenuff

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Alchemist, Your quote reminded me of why I continue the discipline of journaling. When those "winter seasons" come into our lives, it is so good and brings such hope to re-read those times when the rose garden was in full bloom, knowing full well that it will be in full bloom again.
Juliana, In retrospect, some of the most difficult times become the most beautiful roses.

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Shalom(May you be at peace in Body, Mind,& Spirit)

I'menuff

Post #: 98

RE: Inspiring quotes - 1/16/2008 10:56:35 AM

Alchemist

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Juliana

Thank you. The following quote expresses how we might feel should we be able to see the challenging times in perspective as they occur instead of just in retrospect. It may be a nearly impossible ideal to see all challenges as adventures, but some we can.

Imenuff

Although I don't do journaling (a somewhat lost art I suspect) I do have a lot of correspondence I can re-read as well as some wonderful interactions I have had on another forum. And these can resurrect some magical times and remind me of what is possible when all seems hopeless. Thank you for the reminder.

We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.

~ Jawaharlal Nehru

_____________________________

We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that Self may prove to be.
~ May Sarton

Post #: 99

RE: Inspiring quotes - 1/16/2008 3:20:05 PM

Thankful one

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Gracious souls,
The quote, "If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you dream it, you can become it." is from William Arthur Ward, American author.

Here's another quote, "Don't cry because it is over. Smile because it happened."

Today I'm going for a walk in the woods to calm my soul and find my smile. I am going to breathe deep and keep the kind words from this forum innermost in my heart.

Thanks to each of you for sharing your journeys with me. I guess I'm the most happy that people share their pain as this lifts mine and truly helps me to find a joyous place.

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Thankful one

Gratitude is the acknowledgement of goodness in one's life. In gratitude we say yes to life... from Thanks - How the new science of gratitude can make you happier by Robert Emmons, Ph.D.

Post #: 100