when i was

  

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The true person is

Not anyone in particular;

But, like the deep blue color

Of the limitless sky,

It is everyone,

everywhere in the world.

—Dogen 

Japan, 13th cent

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When I was the stream, when I was the
forest, when I was still the field,
when I was every hoof, foot,
fin and wing, when I 
was the sky
itself,
no one ever asked me did I have a purpose, no one ever
wondered was there anything I might need,
for there was nothing
I could not
love.

It was when I left all we once were that 
the agony began, the fear and questions came,
and I wept, I wept. And tears
I had never known
before. 

So I returned to the river, I returned to 
the mountains. I asked for their hand in marriage again,
I begged—I begged to wed every object and creature, 
and when they accepted,
God was ever present in my arms.
And He did not say,
“Where have you been?” 
For then I knew my soul—every soul—
has always held Him.


—Meister Eckhart 
Daniel Ladinsky version

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It is a lie, any talk of God that does not comfort you.

—Meister Ekhart

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