Hafiz (Islamic Sufi, Persia, 1320 - 1390)
"You are dawn: I am only a candle!"
I have learned
So much from God
That I can no longer
Call myself
A Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim,
A Buddhist, a Jew.
The Truth has shared so much of Itself
With me
That I can no longer call myself
A man, a woman, an angel,
Or even pure
Soul.
Love has
Befriended Hafiz so completely
It has turned to ash
And freed me
Of every concept and image
My mind has ever known.
"Why do we get angrier at people of color for pointing out white racism than we do at white folks for practicing it, and in so doing, perpetuating the notion that that's who we are--all of us? Do we not see that the reason we have so much anxiety about how someone might call us a racist if we say the wrong thing, is because we've been so silent in the face of white racism that folks of color logically come to wonder if we care, if we agree with the bigots in our midst, or if we're ever, ever going to stand up?"--Tim Wise
"You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books,
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self." Walt Whitman, Song of Myself
Socrates said that "[t]he unexamined life is not worth living." Basically, veganism and vegetarianism are about leading an examined life—really considering the health, environmental, human, and animal consequences of our food choices, and then opting to make choices that are in keeping with our basic values.
"When our intelligence is the servant of spirit, it becomes wisdom."
C. Kasl
A soul mate sometimes enters our life as someone to stir us up...To hold up the mirror so that we can see ourselves more clearly and antagonize us and make us so uncomfortable that we have to change because we can't continue to look at the same thing because we're looking at it clearly now..... this is the reason a soul mate may not last forever.....The encounter is so intense and so clarifying that we burn through those things quickly."
EVOLVE
i walk in stride with people
much taller than me
and partly it's the boots but
mostly it's my chi
and i'm becoming transfixed
with nature and my part in it
which i believe just signifies
i'm finally waking up
and there's this moth outside my kitchen door
she's bonkers for that bare bulb
flying round in circles
bashing in her exoskull
and out in the woods she navigates fine by the moon
but get her around a light bulb and she's doomed
she is trying to evolve
she's just trying to evolve
now let's get talking reefer madness
like some arrogant government can't
by any stretch of the imagination
outlaw a plant
yes, their supposed authority over nature
is a dream
c'mon people
we've got to come clean
cuz they are locking our sons
and our daughters in cages
they are taking by the thousands
our lives from under us
it's a crash course in religious fundamentals
now let's all go to war
get some bang for our buck
i am trying to evolve
i'm just trying to evolve
gunnin for high score in the land of dreams
morbid bluish-white consumers ogling luminous screens
on the trail of forgetting
cruising without a care
the jet set won't abide by that pesky jet lag
and our lives boil down to an hour or two
When someone pulls a camera out of a bag
and i am trying to evolve
i'm just trying to evolve
so i walk like i'm on a mission
cuz that's the way i groove
i got more and more to do
i got less and less to prove
it took me too long to realize
that i don't take good pictures
cuz i have the kind of beauty
that moves
--Ani Difranco
"I have been astonished that men could die martyrs for their religion -
I have shudder'd at it.
I shudder no more.
I could be martyr'd for my religion
Love is my religion
And I could die for that.
I could die for you."
~ by John Keats ~
"I will not die an unlived life.
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible,
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance;
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit." --Dawna Markova
Happiness be the lot of him who works for the happiness of others.
Religions are different roads converging upon the same point. What does it matter that we take different roads
so long as we reach the same goal.-Ghandi
"If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse gift will find a fitting place." —Margaret Mead
Seeking to find happiness by chasing after wealth, fame, or social status only distracts one from investigating the true source of happiness within their self.
"Being bitter or holding a grudge is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die"
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