Nobody has all the answers. Knowing that you do not know everything is far wiser than thinking that you know a lot when you really do not. The wise person has learned how painful it is to fake knowledge. Being wise and not wanting the pain, the wise person does not indulge in pretending. Anyway, it is a relief to be able to say: "I don't know."
If there is to be peace in the world,
there must be peace in the nations. If there is to be peace in the nations, there must be peace in the cities. If there is to be peace in the cities, there must be peace between neighbors. If there is to be peace between neighbors, there must be peace in the home. If there is to be peace in the home, there must be peace in the heart. - Lao-tzu, Chinese sage One change gets piled on top of another,
and we lose our balance. One thought leads to another, and we forget our Source. This Source is at the center of this spinning wheel of life. It is the womb from which we came, the home in which we live, and the haven to which we journey. As we return to this Source our obsessive thoughts fade to silence and our fear gives way to trust. A counselor provides a safe place to spill out the secrets and pain - and the hopes - that have been held inside. And in that sharing, a transformation takes place:
Some people think a therapist will try to fix them, like an auto mechanic - tinker here, adjust there, change a part - and this will feel disruptive and invasive and troubling. But if it's a good therapeutic relationship, it's not like that. Ultimately you do get healed, but in the places you need to be and in a way that feels right. It's comforting and it's a relief. In a strong therapeutic relationship, a special kind of magic takes place. Feelings are reclaimed, ancient hurts resolve, lives are re-envisioned, and the future opens up with possibility. Therapy can be a powerful vehicle for change. - The Courage to Heal, Ellen Bass & Laura Davis And in the end
The love you take is equal to the love you make - The Beatles, British rock and roll band Expecting life to bring us what we want
and to deliver us from what we do not want is to suffer needlessly. Finding that we are adequate for everything that happens is to be at peace. Preferring some things and avoiding others, we struggle through life. Sitting quietly and breathing deeply, we find renewal within ourselves. Sitting quietly with another one we watch her find renewal within herself. - The Caregiver's Tao Te Ching As we willingly enter each place of fear, each place of deficiency and insecurity in ourselves, we will discover that its walls are made of untruths, of old images of ourselves, of ancient fears, of false ideas of what is pure and what is not.
- Jack Kornfield, American Buddhist writer and teacher The wise person establishes a clear and wholesome climate in the presence of others. In the light of awareness, others naturally act in a wholesome manner.
When the wise person practices silence, others remain focused. When the wise person does not impose, others discover their own goodness. When the wise person acts unselfishly, others simply do what is to be done. Wisdom consists of doing less and being more. - The Universe When the Way is lost
Righteousness and justice appear to give direction Knowledge and shrewdness follow Ensuring great hypocrisy. When harmonious relationships dissolve Laws manifest to limit our homes. As a nation falls to chaos Yoked loyalty and patriotism become the norm. - The Universe I am so smart I know what is wrong with the world. Everybody asks during and after our wars, and the continuing terrorist attacks all over the globe, “What’s gone wrong?”
What has gone wrong is that too many people, including high school kids and heads of state, are obeying the Code of Hammurabi, a King of Babylonia who lived nearly four thousand years ago. And you can find his code echoed in the Old Testament, too. Are you ready for this? “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” A categorical imperative for all who live in obedience to the Code of Hammurabi, which includes heroes of every cowboy show and gangster show you ever saw, is this: Every injury, real or imagined, shall be avenged. Somebody’s going to be really sorry. When Jesus Christ was nailed to a cross, he said, “Forgive them, Father, they know not what they do.” What kind of a man was that? Any real man, obeying the Code of Hammurabi, would have said, “Kill them, Dad, and all their friends and relatives, and make their deaths slow and painful.” His greatest legacy to us, in my humble opinion, consists of only twelve words. They are the antidote to the poison of the Code of Hammurabi, a formula almost as compact as Albert Einstein’s “E = mc2.” But I say with all my American ancestors, “If what Jesus said was good, and so much of it was absolutely beautiful, what does it matter if he was God or not?” If Christ hadn’t delivered the Sermon on the Mount, with its message of mercy and pity, I wouldn’t want to be a human being. I would just as soon be a rattlesnake. Revenge provokes revenge which provokes revenge which provokes revenge — forming an unbroken chain of death and destruction linking nations of today to barbarous tribes of thousands and thousands of years ago. We may never dissuade leaders of our nation or any other nation from responding vengefully, violently, to every insult or injury. In this, the Age of Television, they will continue to find irresistible the temptation to become entertainers, to compete with movies by blowing up bridges and police stations and factories and so on… But in our personal lives, our inner lives, at least, we can learn to live without the sick excitement, without the kick of having scores to settle with this particular person, or that bunch of people, or that particular institution or race or nation. And we can then reasonably ask forgiveness for our trespasses, since we forgive those who trespass against us. And we can teach our children and then our grandchildren to do the same — so that they, too, can never be a threat to anyone. - A collection of perspectives by Kurt Vonnegut, an American writer and humorist known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels |
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