-Germaine Greer

Meister Eckhart, translated by Daniel Ladinsky

You’ve traveled up ten thousand steps in search of the Dharma.
So many long days in the archives, copying, copying.

The gravity of the Tang and the profundity of the Sung
make heavy baggage.

Here! I’ve picked you a bunch of wildflowers.
Their meaning is the same
but they’re much easier to carry.

~ Xu Yun ~

Henna, soap, and silk-these are the first three.

The plough, the livestock, and the hives of bees-

That makes six.

The sun when it rises over the mountains-

That makes seven.

The crescent moon, as thin as a Christian’s blade-

That makes eight.

With horses and with books we come to ten.”

-from The Tenth Gift by Jane Johnson

Taylor Caldwell

And what is the real thing, the thing for which she longs? The love affair with her own spirit, the inner marriage that commits her to her destiny, the rituals of soul that feed her deepest hunger, and the sense of being pregnant with her Self, her creative essence.”

Jill Mellick, Coming Home To Myself

Abraham-Hicks
Boulder, CO (6-11-05)

This opening to life
we have refused
again and again
until now.

-David Whyte

Progress

Let there be many windows to your soul,
That all the glory of the universe
May beautify it. Not the narrow pane
Of one poor creed can catch the radiant rays
That shine from countless sources. Tear away
The blinds of superstition; let the light
Pour through fair windows broad as truth itself
And high as God.

Why should the spirit peer
Through some priest-curtained orifice, and grope
Along dim corridors of doubt, when all
The splendor from unfathomed seas of space
Might bathe it with the golden waves of Love?
Sweep up the debris of decaying faiths;
Sweep down the cobwebs of worn-out beliefs,
And throw your soul wide open to the light
Of Reason and of Knowledge. Tune your ear
To all the wordless music of the stars
And to the voice of Nature, and your heart
Shall turn to truth and goodness as the plant
Turns to the sun. A thousand unseen hands
Reach down to help you to their peace-crowned heights,
And all the forces of the firmament
Shall fortify your strength. Be not afraid
To thrust aside half-truths and grasp the whole.

~Ella Wheeler Wilcox

(note: I transcribed this from a radio show, so I have all the phrasing and punctuation are my own interpretation, not necessarily how it’s actually written.)

When the rhythm of the heart becomes hectic,
time takes on the strain until it breaks.

Then all of the unattended stress falls in on the mind
like an endless, increasing weight.

The light in the mind becomes dim.

Things you could take in your stride before now become laborsome events of will.

Weariness invades your spirit.

Gravity begins falling inside you, dragging down every bone.

The ride you never valued has gone out,
and you are marooned on unsure ground.

Something within you has closed down
and you cannot push yourself back to life.

You have been forced to enter empty time.

The desire that drove you has relinquished.

There is nothing else to do now but rest,
and patiently learn to receive the self you have forsaken for the race of days.

At first your thinking will darken,
and sadness take over like listless weather.

The flow of unwept tears will frighten you.

You have traveled too far over false ground;
now your soul has come to take you back.

Take refuge in your senses.

Open up to all the small miracles you rushed through.

Become inclined to watch the way of rain when it falls slow and free.

Imitate the habit of twilight,
taking time to open the well of color that fostered the brightness of day.

Draw alongside the silence of stone until its silence can claim you.

Be excessively gentle with yourself.

Stay clear of those vexed in spirit;
learn to linger around someone of ease,
who feels they have all the time in the world.

Gradually, you will return to yourself,
having learned a new respect for your heart,
and the joy that dwells far within slow time.