Madam Neoteric

“What many spiritual belief systems seem to have in common is what is often called the “journey within”, and I would agree that it is probably the most difficult journey of all. So easy is it to focus entirely on all our faults, mistakes, bad decisions, etc. that we can get “stuck” there… coming out of that into acceptance and self-love is often the longest and most difficult part of that journey.

“So much happens that is entirely out of our control… our parents die, our friends die, someday we too will die… hurricanes and tsunamis happen… governments and guerrillas wage war and it’s often those who had no part in any conflict who are the victims… experiencing all of that, even vicariously through reading the news can be horribly negative and lead to feelings of depression, powerlessness, and helplessness. That’s our kryptonite, much as most of us don’t really like Superman’s perfection, even he has a fatal flaw.

“And the gods and goddesses, whether they are real or simply creations of our own minds (I’m not here to debate that topic), whisper all around us… in the sound of wind through the trees, or the chirping of birds, or the aroma of fresh air after a rain storm… and so many of us go on in this rush-rush lifestyle of work, eat, sleep, work, repetitive cycle of existence that perhaps we are no longer listening to them, or hearing what they might advise.

“Things often do get a little unsettling when we forget who we are, where we are, what we are doing, why we are doing it. Just when things are going along swimmingly, something else we hadn’t noticed asserts itself: reality.

“Mystics do not describe enlightenment, they illuminate it. They help you recognize the path, they don’t put you on the path… because you were never really off it, you just didn’t See it. No one can give you enlightenment, teach you what it is; it must be discovered.”

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the fumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

— “High Flight” by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

This was something I posted over at one of the threads on Newsvine today.

“Acting on your heart’s instructions means abandoning all those careful strategies for avoiding rejection and bolting toward the fertile, gorgeous jungle of human imagination and possibility.”
— Martha Beck, author

“Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea
between the shores of your souls.”
— Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

“Infinite love is who we really are, and who we refuse to be.”
— David Deida

“Lips that taste of tears, they say,
Are the best for kissing.”
— Dorothy Parker

“For one human being to love another
that is perhaps the most difficult of our tasks;
the ultimate, the last test and proof;
the work for which all other work is but preparation.”
— Rainer Maria Rilke

“When I think of you,
fireflies in the marsh rise
like the soul’s jewels,
lost to eternal longing,
abandoning my body.”
— Izumi Shikibu (970-1030)

“There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread.”
— Mother Teresa

“Eros seizes and shakes my very soul
like the wind on the mountain
shaking ancient oaks.”
— Sappho

“The deeper that sorrow carves
into your being, the more joy
you can contain.”
— Kahlil Gibran

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength;
loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
— Lao Tzu

“In former days we’d both agree
that you were me, and I was you.
What has now happened to us two,
That you are you, and I am me?”
— Bhartrhari

“I am like a falling star who has finally found her place next to another in a lovely constellation, where we will sparkle in the heavens forever.”
— Amy Tan

“Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.”
— Anais Nin

“You know quite well, deep within you, that there is only a single magic, a single power, a single salvation… and that is called loving. Well, then, love your suffering. Do not resist it, do not flee from it. It is your aversion that hurts, nothing else.”
— Hermann Hesse

“Age does not protect you from love, but love to some extent protects you from age.”
— Jeanne Moreau

“If you were all alone in the universe with no one to talk to, no one with which to share the beauty of the stars, to laugh with, to touch, what would be your purpose in life? It is other life, it is love, which gives your life meaning. This is harmony. We must discover the joy of each other, the joy of challenge, the joy of growth.”
— Mitsugi Saotome

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
— Rumi

“The bottom line is that (a) people are never perfect, but love can be, (b) that is the one and only way that the mediocre and vile can be transformed, and (c) doing that makes it that. We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love.”
— Tom Robbins, Still Life With Woodpecker

“Love doesn’t just sit there like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new.”
— Ursula K. LeGuin

“Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart.”
— Washington Irving

“You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserves your love and affection.”
— Buddha

“If we want a love message to be heard, it has to be sent out. To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.”
— Mother Teresa