----------------------------------------.................------------------------....----------home page
your personal history
..... something that Carlos Castaneda's teacher, the Nagual Don Juan, had told him about what it takes to reach the highest level of impeccability......"One day," he said, "I finally realized that I no longer needed a personal history, and just like drinking I gave it up, and that, and only that, has made all the difference."
Give up your personal history which is nothing more than low energy thoughts that you carry around about the way things used to be and why you are upset today ..... Know in your heart that everything in your ... personal history had to take place in order for you to be where you are today. And what is my evidence for making such a statement? Everything did take place, period. Rather than curse it, bless it, and bring love and acceptance to it.
Perhaps the best advice I can give you in offering up a spiritual solution to this inclination to place your energy on what always has been, comes from Jesus of Nazareth. "No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of Heaven." .... Look back and your life will be hell.
Wayne Dyer, There's a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem, © 2001
an open letter to terrorists and those who harbor and support you.
From an American Grandfather.The Reverend Charles Stanley of North Carolina sent this to every major newspaper in the world,
including Pakistan and Iran, (Afghanistan, Iraq & Syria do not have newspapers on the Internet).
I am told by the leaders of my government that you are intelligent people. In light of your actions, I am having growing difficulty believing that. At the very least, it has become increasingly obvious that you lack a fundamental comprehension of my psychology as an American. I hear on our news broadcasts that your rage is fueled by my support of Israel. It has never been about nationality or religious faith - never about Jew vs. Arab. I thought you would finally have understood that when I sent my children into harm's way in order to protect the innocent citizens of Arab Kuwait from the savage wolf who would devour them for his own gain.
It has everything to do with the lessons taught to me by my father - and his before him for many generations before the white man came to this land we call America. I have a vivid memory of coming home, as a boy of about nine years of age, and telling my father of feeling helpless horror as I watched the neighborhood bully unmercifully torment a boy even smaller than myself. My father reflected for a long moment, then quietly inquired of me as to what I had done about it. I said that I had watched until it was over and had then come home. The look in his eyes penetrated me to my core for he had never looked at me in that way before. He said that he was deeply ashamed of me and he sent me to my room with instructions to think about what had happened. It seemed hours before he came to my door. He sat beside me on my bed and, for a painfully long while, he said nothing. When finally he spoke, he explained, "There will always be among us dishonorable men who are devoid of humanity and compassion. They are but naked animals and an empty shell of what truly is a man. They attempt to fill their emptiness by the exercise of power over others, thinking that it makes them whole men. Often they are enraged that they do not even understand their own emptiness, what it is that they lack. When these men are also cowards, they disguise themselves as sheep among the flock and attack from the shadows. This is the vilest form of subhuman behavior for even animals attack openly when they must attack. When humanity and integrity are present in a man, he expresses them as compassion. When compassion and strength achieve perfect balance within a man, they manifest as wisdom. The compassionate man feels the pain of others. The wise man protects others from pain. For, if you watch and do nothing to protect others, who will come to your aide when you alone remain and the bully comes for you? Some things are far more important than your personal safety and freedom from pain. If ever again you see someone being hurt, protect him, even if you are certain to be injured in the process. Then I will know that I have truly raised a man"
Anyone who understands the impact of this lesson - and how deeply it runs in the man I have become, will understand my unflinching willingness to sacrifice my children in defense of Arab and Jew alike when they are threatened by the bullies and cowards of the world. And please do not insult my intelligence with claims of Jewish treatment of Palestinians. I am old enough to retain vivid memories of 1948. I remember the excitement of the Jews over the prospect of governing "with" them. But the Palestinian's reaction, and that of their neighbors, was to attempt to finish what the Nazis could not.
Repeatedly; intelligent men? I, for one, am stunned by the monumental stupidity of your arrogance. Did you actually think that only Americans would occupy the World Trade Center? You have but fired the first pitiful salvo of World War III, for the entire world is now preparing to come after you, your host, your financiers and your supporters. And please, do not listen to what I say. You would do far better to watch the sky. I must say that I owe you a profound debt of gratitude. Not for what you have done or what you have unleashed upon the world, but for what you have accomplished. For not one among us could have accomplished it. On Monday, September 10, 2001, we were a divisive, apathetic nation. Our young people had nothing by which to identify with our history or heritage; our people were divided by factions of religion and skin color; our government was polarized and paralyzed by political party affiliation, able to agree upon nothing; the military had difficulty obtaining volunteers and most of us simply changed TV channels in response to Red Cross pleas for blood donations. Your actions have changed all of that in a way that has occurred only twice before in the history of this nation -- once in 1776 and again on December 7, 1941.
The worst in the worst of Allah's children has brought out the best in the best of Allah's children and, for this, I thank you. Since your cowardly act, Muslim, Jew, Christian, black, white, yellow and brown have stood shoulder to shoulder for hours in the hot sun to donate blood for the injured. Our government has suddenly become totally united in its purpose. Our military is having difficulty handling the flood of volunteers from among our young people. Our flag makers report that there is no way humanly possible that they can keep up with the demand -- shipments are sold out within minutes. You have accomplished a miracle that only God could have anticipated. And, it would seem, the hand of God was present even in the date that you selected for your attack, for you could not have chosen a date more in keeping with a reawakening of American pride and purpose. There is in America a nationwide system for seeking help in times of emergency. Every American knows that, when threatened, he can pick up any telephone and dial 911 and help is immediately on the way to assist and protect him. By selecting September, (our 9th month), 11, 2001 to exhibit your cowardice, you unwittingly placed a 911 call that has brought all of America together in a way that brings tears of joy and pride to my eyes. No longer is our battle cry, "Remember Pearl Harbor!" Thanks to you and your kind it will now and forevermore be, "Remember 911!" whenever the innocents of any nation find themselves threatened by cowards with guns.
I do not, for a moment, deny that you hurt me. Far too many parents and children now go to bed wondering where their loved ones are. And, yes, I am momentarily reeling. But it is from the sudden realization that I share the planet with anyone capable of such an atrocity against the humanity of so many nations. In his Inaugural Address in Washington, DC on January 20, 1961, President John F. Kennedy said, "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty." He was talking about the liberty of all men, of all faiths, of all nations. You need to understand that the truth of that statement is the very fabric of who and what I am. I wish neither to rule nor to inflict injury upon the innocents of any nation. I am the lion who sleeps with God's lambs to protect them from ravenous wolves that would devour them. Your 911 call has awakened the lion and now I hunger for the flesh of wolves.
In closing let me state, Mohammed taught that Allah is a God of love - yet you have the unmitigated gall to bastardize Islam to suit your own personal, unholy agenda. Who now is the infidel?
Ghandi: As human beings our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world ...... as being able to remake ourselves.
* * *there are no accidents
Do you really think anything happens by accident?
I tell you again, there is perfection in the design.
Nothing happens in life by accident. Nothing.
Nothing occurs in your life by chance. Nothing.
Nothing takes place without producing the opportunity for real and lasting benefit to you. Nothing at all.
The perfection of every moment may not be apparent to you, yet that will make the moment no less perfect.
It will be no less a gift.from Friendship with God by Neale Donald Walsch
Saint Francis prayer
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.O divine Master, grant that I may not so much
seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.Saint Francis of Assisi
Francesco di Pietro di Bernardone (1181 - 1226)
a Hopi elder speaks:
"You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour, now you must go back and tell the people that THIS IS THE HOUR. And there are things to be considered
Where are you living? What are you doing? What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation? Where is your water?Know your garden. It is time to speak your Truth. Create your community.
Be good to each other. And do not look outside yourself for the leader."Then he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said, "THIS COULD BE A GOOD TIME ! "
WISDOM OF THE ELDERS
There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift, that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They wlll feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly. Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water. And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate.
At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally. Least of all, ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt. The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves!
Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
WE ARE THE ONES WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR.
Oraibi, Arizona, Hopi Nation
The future has already arrived, it's just not widely distributed.
William Gibson, cyberspace novelist
Emerson not an egoist
Every rational creature has all nature for his dowry and estate. It is his, if he will. He may divest himself of it; he may creep into a corner, and abdicate his kingdom, as most men do, but he is entitled to the world by his constitution. In proportion to the energy of his thought and will, he takes up the world into himself.
From Nature, by Ralph Waldo Emerson
By "constitution," a word which Emerson used often, is meant "how human beings are constituted." Our nature is constructed of body, "the office where I work," Emerson said; mind, the faculties of imagination, reflection, thought and Reason; and soul, the faculty of intuition or instinct and the natural connection to divinity.
Being "entitled to the world" is a troublesome phrase, having been taken by some as license to use the world as resource without due measure. Superficial readings of Emerson were part of the nineteenth century landscape in America, and the robber barons used Emerson as well as Darwin to justify their ravaging ambitions. These men were not about to "creep into a corner" when the continent beckoned to those with the will to succeed. This form of blind egotism was as far from Emerson as Thoreau was from being an industrialist, but in some of those corners the errors persist.
A student recently asked if Emerson's philosophy was the same as Ayn Rand's. He was under the impression that Self-Reliance in Emersonian terms was essentially egoistic. Where there is no perception of something higher than human will, then Ayn Rand's "self-reliance" produces the Galts of the world, and, unfortunately, those who perceive them as positive.
From The Spiritual Teachings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, by Richard Geldard,
copyright 1993 (Previously titled The Esoteric Emerson)
Matisse, speaking about his Chapel of the Rosary in Vence:
For all its imperfections, I consider it my masterpiece, (the product of ) an entire life of work.I know that my `Way of the Cross' is criticized for being too simple, too rushed, criticism offered even by some good old friends of mine, but haven't they understood that I have treated the whole thing in an allusive manner, that it is intentionally made as a descriptive representation, like a notice board, a sum total of signs? I am afraid that `The Way of the Cross' will not be easily accepted because it does not correspond much to the idea held by the faithful.
I began with the secular, and here I am, in the evening of my life, ending up with the divine. I had no need for a conversion in order to work on the chapel in Vence, my internal approach did not change. It was the same as I would adopt in front of a face, a chair or a fruit. My only religion is the love of the work I am creating.
Do I believe in God? Yes, I do, when I am working. When I am submissive and modest, I feel surrounded by someone who makes me do things of which I am not capable. All art worthy of the name is religious. Whether it is made of lines or of colors, if this creation is not religious, it is not art. It is nothing more than a document, an anecdote.
Matisse completed the chapel 50 years ago, in 1951, at the age of 81.
downwind from flowers
Several years ago in Seattle, Washington, there lived a 52- year-old Tibetan refugee. "Tenzin," as I will call him, was diagnosed with one of the more curable forms of lymphoma. He was admitted to the hospital and received his first dose of chemotherapy. But during the treatment, this usually gentle man became extremely angry and upset. He pulled the IV out of his arm and refused to cooperate. He shouted at the nurses and became argumentative with everyone who came near him. The doctors and nurses were baffled. Then Tenzin's wife spoke to the hospital staff. She told them Tenzin had been held as a political prisoner by the Chinese for 17 years. They killed his first wife and repeatedly tortured and brutalized him throughout his imprisonment. She told them that the hospital rules and regulations, coupled with the chemotherapy treatments, gave Tenzin horrible flashbacks of what he had suffered at the hands of the Chinese. "I know you mean to help him," she said, "but he feels tortured by your treatments. They are causing him to feel hatred inside - just like he felt toward the Chinese. He would rather die than have to live with the hatred he is now feeling. And, according to our belief, it is very bad to have hatred in your heart at the time of death. He needs to be able to pray and cleanse his heart."
So the doctors discharged Tenzin and asked the hospice team to visit him in his home. I was the hospice nurse assigned to his care. I called a local representative from Amnesty International for advice. He told me that the only way to heal the damage from torture is to "talk it through". "This person has lost his trust in humanity and feels hope is impossible," the man said. "If you are to help him, you must find a way to give him hope." But when I encouraged Tenzin to talk about his experiences, he held up his hand and stopped me. He said, "I must learn to love again if I am to heal my soul. Your job is not to ask me questions. Your job is to teach me to love again." I took a deep breath. I asked him, "So, how can I help you love again?" Tenzin immediately replied, "Sit down, drink my tea and eat my cookies". Tibetan tea is strong black tea laced with yak butter and salt. It isn't easy to drink! But that is what I did. For several weeks, Tenzin, his wife, and I sat together, drinking tea. We also worked with his doctors to find ways to treat his physical pain. But it was his spiritual pain that seemed to be lessening. Each time I arrived, Tenzin was sitting cross-legged on his bed, reciting prayers from his books. As time went on, he and his wife hung more and more colorful "thankas," Tibetan Buddhist banners, on the walls. The room was fast becoming a beautiful, religious shrine.
When the spring came, I asked Tenzin what Tibetans do when they are ill in the spring. He smiled brightly and said, "We sit downwind from flowers." I thought he must be speaking poetically. But Tenzin's words were quite literal. He told me Tibetans sit downwind so they can be dusted with the new blossoms' pollen that floats on the spring breeze. They feel this new pollen is strong medicine. At first, finding enough blossoms seemed a bit daunting. Then, one of my friends suggested that Tenzin visit some of the local flower nurseries. I called the manager of one of the nurseries and explained the situation.
The manager's initial response was: "You want to do what?" But when I explained the request, the manager agreed. So, the next weekend, I picked up Tenzin and his wife with their provisions for the afternoon: black tea, butter, salt, cups, cookies, prayer beads and prayer books. I dropped them off at the nursery and assured them I would return at 5:00. The following weekend, Tenzin and his wife visited another nursery. The third weekend, they went to yet another nursery. The fourth week, I began to get calls from the nurseries inviting Tenzin and his wife to come again. One of the managers said, "We've got a new shipment of nicotiana coming in and some wonderful fuchsias and oh, yes! Some great daphne. I know they would love the scent of that daphne! And I almost forgot! We have some new lawn furniture that Tenzin and his wife might enjoy." Later that day, I got a call from the second nursery saying that they had colorful wind socks that would help Tenzin predict where the wind was blowing. Pretty soon, the nurseries were competing for Tenzin's visits. People began to know and care about the Tibetan couple. The nursery employees started setting out the lawn furniture in the direction of the wind. Others would bring out fresh hot water for their tea. Some of the regular customers would leave their wagons of flowers near the two of them. It seemed that a community was growing around Tenzin and his wife.
At the end of the summer, Tenzin returned to his doctor for another CT scan to determine the extent of the spread of the cancer. But the doctor could find no evidence of cancer at all. He was dumbfounded. He told Tenzin that he just couldn't explain it. Tenzin lifted his finger and said, "I know why the cancer has gone away. It could no longer live in a body that is filled with love. When I began to feel all the compassion from the hospice people, from the nursery employees, and all those people who wanted to know about me, I started to change inside. Now, I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to heal in this way. Doctor, please don't think that your medicine is the only cure. Some compassion can cure cancer, as well."
By Lee Paton
Matisse on art
In art, truth and reality begin when you no longer understand anything you do or know and there remains in you an energy .... compressed, condensed. Then you must present it with the greatest possible humility, completely white, pure, candid, your brain seeming empty in the spiritual state of a communicant approaching the Lord's Table.
A new picture must be a unique thing, a birth bringing to the human spirit a new figure in the representation of the world. The artist must summon all his energy, his sincerity, and the greatest modesty, to shatter the old clichés that come so easily to hand while working, which can suffocate the little flower that does not come, ever, in the way one expects.From "Jazz"
the real purpose of philosophy
True philosophy doesn't involve exotic rituals, mysterious liturgy, or quaint beliefs. Nor is it just abstract theorizing and analysis. It is, of course, the love of wisdom. It is the art of living a good life. As such, it must be rescued from religious gurus and from professional philosophers lest it be exploited as an esoteric cult or as a set of detached intellectual techniques or brain teasers to show how clever you are. Philosophy is intended for everyone, and it is authentically practiced only by those who wed it with action in the world toward a better life for all.
Philosophy's purpose is to illuminate the ways our soul has been infected by unsound beliefs, untrained tumultuous desires, and dubious life choices and preferences that are unworthy of us. Self-scrutiny applied with kindness is the main antidote. Besides rooting out the soul's corruptions, the life of wisdom is also meant to stir us from our lassitude and move us in the direction of an energetic, cheerful life.
Skilled use of logic, disputation, and the developed ability to name things correctly are some of the instruments philosophy gives us to achieve abiding clear-sightedness and inner tranquility, which is true happiness.
This happiness, which is our aim, must be correctly understood. Happiness is commonly mistaken for passively experienced pleasure or leisure. That conception of happiness is good only as far as it goes. The only worthy object of all our efforts is a flourishing life.
True happiness is a verb. It's the ongoing dynamic performance of worthy deeds. The flourishing life, whose foundation is virtuous intention, is something we continually improvise, and in doing so our souls mature. Our life has usefulness to ourselves and to the people we touch.
We become philosophers to discover what is really true and what is merely the accidental result of flawed reasoning, recklessly acquired erroneous judgments, well-intentioned but misguided teachings of parents and teachers, and unexamined acculturation.
To ease our soul's suffering, we engage in disciplined introspection in which we conduct thought-experiments to strengthen our ability to distinguish between wholesome and lazy, hurtful beliefs and habits.
Epictetus, The Art of Living
A new interpretation by Sharon Lebell
going inside
Dwelling in stillness and looking inward for some part of each day, we touch what is most real and reliable in ourselves and most easily overlooked and undeveloped. When we can be centered in ourselves, even for brief periods of time in the face of the pull of the outer world, not having to look elsewhere for something to fill us up or make us happy, we can be at home wherever we find ourselves, at peace with things as they are, moment by moment.
............Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go There You Are* * * * * * *
Direct your eye right inward, and you'll find
A thousand regions in your mind
Yet undiscovered. Travel them and be
Expert in home-cosmography.
............Thoreau, Walden
Martin Luther King, Jr. - In Memorium
1929 - 1968I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring in every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
....................Speech at Civil Rights March on Washington, August 28, 1963Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resort to oppression and violence.
Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
....................Speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, December 11, 1964The Negro was willing to risk martyrdom in order to move and stir the social conscience of his community and the nation . . . he would force his oppressor to commit his brutality openly, with the rest of the world looking on . . . Nonviolent resistance paralyzed and confused the power structure against which it was directed.
...................Why We Can't Wait, 1964Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you , but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. . . .
So I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man.
.....................Address to sanitation workers, Memphis, Tennessee, April 3, 1968, the night before his assassination.
more quotes ...... 2000...... 2001...... 2002...... 2003...... 2004...... 2005...... 2006...... 2007
home...my art...walls gallery...quotes...philosophy...poems...books...links...art listings...contact