The only real rules in art are the ones we discover for ourselves.
— Richard Boleslavsky, Acting: The First Six Lessons
(Thanks to Robert Pond, from whom I wrested this book years ago. I am reading it at night to soothe my aching heart at his passing. It’s an old book; he had acquired several copies to loan out– I convinced him to let me keep one.)
Embrace the opposites and fly free.
Meditation opens the mind to the greatest mystery that takes place daily and hourly; it widens the heart so that it may feel the eternity of time and infinity of space in every throb; it gives us a life within the world as if we were moving about in paradise.
~ Shunryu Suzuki
Be Yourself. Life is precious as it is. All the elements for your happiness are already here. There is no need to run, strive, search, or struggle. Just Be.
–Thich Nhat Hanh
Be Yourself. Life is precious as it is. All the elements for your happiness are already here. There is no need to run, strive, search, or struggle. Just Be.
–Thich Nhat Hanh
If you can just appreciate each thing, one by one, then you will have pure gratitude. Even though you observe just one flower, that one flower includes everything.
~ Shunryu Suzuki
When you sit, allow Mother Earth to sit for you. When you
breathe, allow Mother Earth to breathe for you. When you walk,
allow Mother Earth to walk for you. Don’t make any effort. Allow
her to do it. She knows how to do it.
When you are sitting, allow the air to enter your lungs. Allow
the air to go out of your lungs. We don’t need to try to breathe in.
We don’t need to try to breathe out. We just allow nature, allow
the Earth to breathe in and out for us. We just sit there and enjoy
the breathing in and the breathing out. There is no “you” who is
breathing in and breathing out. The breathing in and the breathing
out happen by themselves. Try it.
We allow our body to relax totally, without striving or even
making an effort. Behave like the fetus in the womb of the mother.
Allow your mother to do everything for you, to breathe, to eat, to
drink. This is possible if you know how to take refuge in Mother
Earth.
Take Refuge in Mother Earth
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
(Thanks to David Salminen)
The story is not merely a telling.
It is not merely a remembering.
The story is an action.
The story is a bringing something forth.
The story, followed, enacted, and living,
is a world coming into being.
Deena Metzger
(Thanks, Laura Simms)
It was as though the growing things that were all around me– trees, grass, flowers in their carefully tended beds, suddenly became aware of me– and that I was listening, really looking, really sensing their own unique signature. And they were glad, very glad indeed, and sent back their own responses at seeing me!
— John Matthews, The Sidhe
Kipling reverberated through my mind. “Our England is a garden.” Here were still, rural regions, peaceful and beloved, where tranquil rivers flowed, rolling meadows shone in the sun, and castles and cathedrals sat serenely, much as they do in the Britain of storybooks. A little farther afield were grim moors, abrupt hills, and threatening islands. And beyond and behind this outer landscape– I now knew this truth with certainty– there was a hidden world all around me, a world full of magic, mystery, and adventure, and I considered how the character of the British people was molded and informed as much by the quiet and secluded valleys and the steep crags as the mysteries that emanate from behind the trembling veil that separates the unseen world from this one.
— Simon Buxton, The Shamanic Way of the Bee