Ford
37
We Are All Born Good, We Are All Born Different
Ren zhi chu
Xing ben shan
Xing xiang jin
Xi xiang yuan
Gou bu jiao
Xing nai qian
Jiao zhi dao
Gui yi zhuan
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When a child is born,
At the root, is good.
Everyone’s nature is the same
But everyone experiences different things.
If there is no Way,
We will move away from our nature.
The teaching of the Way
Is valuable because it is particular to each [woman and] man.
—Thirteenth Century Southern Chinese Poem
38
Let Us Exult in the Sheer Delight of Being Alive
What, you ask, is the beginning of it all?
And it is this…
Existence that multiplied itself for sheer delight of being
and plunged into numberless trillions of forms
so that it might find itself innumerably.
—Sri
39
Still Awareness
I believe it is the most important.
It is our most unique gift. It is perhaps the greatest gift we can give.
In our language this quality is called dadirri.
It is inner, deep listening and quiet, still awareness…
When I experience dadirri,
I am made whole again.
I can sit on the river bank or walk through the trees;
even if someone close to me has passed away,
I can find my peace in this silent awareness.
There is no need of words…
It is just being aware…
—Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Bauman,
Aboriginal Artist & Teacher
40
Healing Touch
Touch the pain of the world
and release hope into the darkness.
—Sister Simone Campbell, Sisters of Social Service
41
Have Faith in Yourself, Too
If the whole universe can be found in our own body and mind, this is where we need to make our inquiries. We all have the answers within ourselves, we just have not got in touch with them yet. The potential of finding the truth within requires faith in ourselves.
—Ayya Khema
42
Let Us Love One Another
Together we travel the ongoing concentric spiral
knowing that we are loving to know how loving we are.
We are loving to know how loving we are.
Knowing that we are loving.
Loving to know how.
How loving we are to know.
We are loving to know how loving we are.
—Amy Leader
43
Everything You Need to Know Is Inside You
The answer lies within ourselves. If we can’t find peace and happiness there, it’s not going to come from the outside.
—Tenzin Palmo
44
Love Holds the World Together
The Goddess falls in love with Herself, drawing forth her own emanation, which takes on a life of its own. Love of self for self is the creative force of the universe. Desire is the primal energy, and that energy is erotic: the attraction of lover to beloved, of planet to star, the lust of electron for proton. Love is the glue that holds the world together.
—Starhawk
45
Turning toward God Every Day
To surrender oneself is something more
than to devote oneself, more than to give oneself,
it is even more than to abandon oneself to God.
To surrender oneself is to die to everything and to self,
to keep it continually turned towards God.
Self-surrender is no longer to seek self-satisfaction in anything
but solely God’s good pleasure.
It should be added that self-surrender is to follow
that complete spirit of detachment
which holds to nothing;
neither to persons nor to things—
The whole thing consists in making a generous act
at the very beginning,
by saying with all the sincerity of your heart:
“My God, I wish to be entirely thine; deign to accept my offering”
—then all is said…
You must always remember that you have surrendered yourself.
—St. Thérèse Couderc
46
Life Comes at You Fast
This life you must know
as
