bless

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Let me imagine that we will come again 
when we want to and it will be spring 
we will be no older than we ever were 
the worn griefs will have eased like the early cloud 
through which the morning slowly comes to itself 
and the ancient defenses against the dead 
will be done with and left to the dead at last 
the light will be as it is now in the garden 
that we have made here these years together 
of our long evenings and astonishment

—W.S. Merwin
To Paula in Late Spring

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peace mantra

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Om Om Om Sarvesham Svastir Bhavatu Sarvesham Shantir Bhavatu Sarvesham Poornam Bhavatu Sarvesham Mangalam Bhavatu Om, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti Mantra's Meaning: May there be happiness in all May there be peace in all May there be completeness in all May there be success in all

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breadcrumbs

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On land off an ice covered sea the traveler can ... detect the presence of open water, simply because it reflects less light than land or ice. The open sea’s telltale sign is thus a darkness on the underside of the clouds.

—Harold Gatty
finding your way without map or compass, excerpt

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the nature of the ten thousand things

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A beam or pillar can be used to batter down a city wall, but it is no good for stopping up a little hole - this refers to a difference in function. Thoroughbreds like Qiji and Hualiu could gallop a thousand li in one day, but when it came to catching rats they were no match for the wildcat or the weasel - this refers to a difference in skill. The horned owl catches fleas at night and can spot the tip of a hair, but when daylight comes, no matter how wide it opens its eyes, it cannot see a mound or a hill - this refers to a difference in nature. 

Now, do you say that you are going to make Right your master and do away with Wrong, or make Order your master and do away with Disorder? If you do, then you have not understood the principle of heaven and earth or the nature of the ten thousand things. 

This is like saying that you are going to make Heaven your master and do away with Earth, or make Yin your master and do away with Yang. Obviously it is impossible.
 

—Chuang Tzu (c.369 BC - c.286 BC)

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taoofphotography
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And The World Weeps

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here i came to the very edge 
where nothing at all needs saying,
everything is absorbed through weather and the sea,
and the moon swam back,
its rays all silvered,
and time and again the darkness would be broken
by the crash of a wave,
and every day on the balcony of the sea,
wings open, fire is born,
and everything is blue again like morning.

 
—Pablo Neruda

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War and Peace Within

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When we practice deep looking directed toward the heart of reality, we receive help, we receive understanding, we receive the wisdom that makes us free.

—Thich Nhat Hanh
True Love: A Practice for Awakening the Heart

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yes is a pleasant country

 

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yes is a pleasant country:

if's wintery

(my lovely)

let's open the year

both is the very weather

(not either)

my treasure,

when violets appear

love is a deeper season

than reason;

my sweet one

(and april's where we're)

—E. E. Cummings

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