Nan Merrill

November 1997 (Vol. X, No. 10)

BLESSINGS be yours, dear friends, as in teh Silence we consider our relationship to forgieness -- that miracle of grace whereby what was separated by broken trust is healed through love.

We hunger to be known and understood

Frederick Buechner Longing for Home

We hunger to be known and understood. We hunger to be loved. We hunger to be at peace inside our own skins. We hunger not just to be fed these things but, often without realizing it, hunger to feed each other these things because they too are starving for them. We hunger not just to be loved but to love, not just to be forgiven but to forgive, not just to be known and understood, but to know and understand each other to the point of seeing that in the last analysis we all have the same good times, the same bad times, and that for that very reason there is no such thing in the world as anyone who is really a stranger.

Faithful creator, You are the source

Adei-Mai Morningstar Grenpastures

Faithful creator, You are the source and resource of all purposed and created life. In an attitude of gratitude I accept your encouragement to learn what it means to be authentically human and make peace with my own humanity, so that I can accept a sacredness of other beings. With thanksgiving I accept the spiritual, ethical and moral responsibility for my own inner healing and joy. I embrace the mystery of healthy loving relationships as I learn to be an agent of change, reason and tenderness upon the earth that is an outpouring of your love for all life. I accept your help so that I may learn to live honorably in covenant community, lifting my voice in care, over criticism. Amen.

Forgiveness is a miracle of grace whereby the offense no longer separates

Richard J. Foster Prayer

Forgiveness is a miracle of grace whereby the offense no longer separates. ... It means that we will no longer use the offense to drive a wedge between us, hurting and injuring one another. Forgiveness means that the power of love that holds us together is greater than the power of the offense that separates us. That is forgiveness. In forgiveness we are releasing our offenders so that they are no longer bound to us ... freeing them to receive God's grace.

I am challenged to strengthen my soul through forgiveness

Joan Borysenko Handbook of the Soul

When I feel betrayed by someone, instead of sulking, clinging to my resentment and playing the role of victim, I am challenged to strengthen my soul through forgiveness. By forgiving the person who hurt me, I strengthen my soul... And each time we are called upon to forgive, we nourish our souls and learn more about who we are and what we have to share in this world.

Forgiveness means that I am willing to forgive the other person for not being God

Henri Nouwen

Bless all you've been, bless who you are now, bless who you are becoming, and then, as after forgiveness, let go...

Forgiveness means that I am willing to forgive the other person for not being God -- for not fulfilling all my needs. I, too, must ask forgiveness for not being able to fulfill other people's needs. Our heart -- the center of our being -- is part of God. Thus our heart longs for satisfaction and total communion... But since we want so much and we get only a part of what we want, we have to keep on forgiving people for not giving us all we want. The interesting thing is that when you can forgive people for not being God, then you can celebrate that they are a reflection of God.

To live without forgiveness

Robin Casarjian Forgiveness

To live without forgiveness is to live separated from the sacred and from the most basic instincts of our heart. To live with forgiveness is to reveal in each moment the beauty and value of life. To live with forgiveness is to choose in each moment an active role in creating relationships, organizations, communities, and a world that works for everyone.

The body seeks a harmonic balance with the earth

Gregg Braden Awakening to Zero Point

Recent studies have validated the brain/earth relationship through magnetics. Ancient texts tell us that the body seeks a harmonic balance with the earth. This balance is the goal of the life experience, and may be consciously regulated through non-polarized thoughts of forgiveness and feelings of compassion.

Every time you forgive

Paul Ferrini Love Without Conditions

Every time you forgive, you dissolve a condition you have placed on your own capacity to love. Every time you forgive, love is awakened in you more deeply and your capacity to extend love is increased. That is the nature of the journey.

When two persons want reconciliation through forgiveness

John Yungblut Shaping a Personal Myth to Live By

When two persons want reconciliation through forgiveness, the whole cosmos is involved, and the energy springing from forgiveness is released for other forms of service. Forgiveness makes possible a deeper communion than that which existed before. One can begin to see another reason why forgiveness is important. Its importance is on the scale of evolution and it springs from the Creator of evolution. It invariably releases love, and love is the energy of creation.

Forgiving sets in motion mighty waves of love

Marian Scheele

Forgiving, truly and deeply forgiving, sets in motion mighty waves of love that flow down from the very gates of heaven, washing and making clean everything in its path. When this happens, everything is made new, and the shadows of pain and confusion are illuminated with understanding.

True forgiveness blesses all

Baird T. Spalding Life and Teachings

True forgiveness blesses all and begins in the heart of the individual. As we give ourselves and others truly righteous thoughts for all inharmonious ones, we are making ready the harvest of a great spiritual feast which is certain to follow the seedtime. Forgiveness has two-fold mission. It frees both the erring and loving one, for back of the application of forgiveness is a deep, radiant love, a love founded on principle, a love that desires to give for the joy of giving with no thought of reward.

True forgiveness always has a sacrificial character

Prokofieff The Hidden Significance of Forgiveness

True forgiveness always has a sacrificial character. It can never have a passive character. For we do not simply make a decision to "forget" the wrong or injustice that has been perpetrated upon us but, in addition, we take upon ourselves an inner obligation to MAKE AMENDS for the objective harm which evil action has wrought not only upon us but also upon the world. In true forgiveness we willingly, out of complete inner freedom, take upon ourselves an inner obligation to give the world as much compassion, love, and goodness as the evil action has objectively taken away from it.

October 1997 (Vol. X, No. 9)

BLESSINGS and every good wish, friends. Peace be with you! Peace comes within our souls when we realize our oneness with the universe. And the world will become more peaceful when we have the same capacity to be silent as we have to speak. Blessed are all who practice silence!

We need a deep mystical awakening

Matthew Fox

We need a deep mystical awakening the likes of which the planet has never witnessed before -- a mystical awakening that is truly planetary, that draws out the wisdom and the mystic, the player and the justice maker from the wisdom traditions of all religions and cultures. Such a mystical awakening would surely birth that "peace on earth" for which creation longs. ... Peace ON earth cannot happen without peace WITH the earth and peace among all earth creatures.

There is no way to peace

A. J. Muste
There is no way to peace, PEACE IS THE WAY.

Lead me from hate to love, from war to peace,

St. John the Divine Cathedral Peace Prayer

Lead me from death to life, from falsehood to truth,
Lead me from despair to hope, from fear to trust,
Lead me from hate to love, from war to peace,
Let peace fill our hearts, our world, our universe.

The great task for human beings is to repair the ancient vessels

Patricia Hopkins, Sherry Ruth Anderson The Feminine Face of God

A legend: In the beginning of the world the divine light was held in primeval vessels. But somehow no one knows how the vessels were shattered, and discord and confusion spread everywhere. The great task for human beings is to repair the ancient vessels, to gather together the sacred light, to call home all those who have been lost or in exile, to heal the separation and bring peace to the world.

I weave silence on my lips

Unknown Celtic Prayr

I weave a silence on my lips
I weave a silence into my mind
I weave a silence within my heart
I close my ears to distractions
I close my eyes to attractions
I close my heart to temptations.
Calm me, O God, as You stilled the storm
Still me, O God, keep me from harm
Let all tumult within me cease
Enfold me, O God, in your peace.

Peace in the present moment

Thich Nhat Hanh Peace Is Every Step

Enlightenment, peace, and joy will not be granted by someone else. The well is within us, and if we dig deeply enough in the present moment, the water will spring forth. We must go back to the present moment in order to be really alive... You will be able to make a breakthrough and discover joy and peace right in the present moment, inside of yourself and all around you.

Silence is our deepest nature

Gunilla Norris Sharing Silence

Silence is our deepest nature,
our home, our common ground,
our peace.
Silence reveals.
Silence heals.

Becoming that which is desired

Gregg Braden Awakening to Zero Point

The highest form of intervention that an individual may offer within a given situation, is not to ask for something to be, rather to become that which is desired. If peace is THE DESIRED REALITY within the global matrix, peace must BECOME THE REALITY within the local matrix of your experience. You must BECOME THAT PEACE.

In allowing ourselves to heal, we become the healers of the world

Marianne Williamson Illuminata

Every loving thought we think is a powerful key to the kingdom. Through prayer, meditation, and the silence of a profound holiness, we focus our dispersed and irresponsible thought forms. We thus take up the challenge to redirect world history. We must relinquish our passive observation of the world outside; we can open the door to the world we really want. In understanding ourselves, we come to understand the world. In allowing ourselves to heal, we become the healers of the world. In praying for peace, we become bringers of peace. Thus we actualize the power within us to remedy the soul wounds of humanity.

Peace is not the absence of war

Frederick Franck A Little Compendium on That Which Matters

"Peace is not the absence of war." Spinoza said it, but it is mindlessly quoted out of context, for he added, "It is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice."

Drop They still dews of quietness

John Greenleaf Whittier

Drop They still dews of quietness
Til all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
the beauty of Thy peace.

Coming to peace in ourselves

Dhyani Ywahoo Voices of our Ancestors

Each of us contributes to tomorrow by our thoughts, word and deed. Coming to peace in ourselves, forgiving our relatives and ourselves for what should have been, what could have been, and accepting who we are -- this is a primary step upon the Beauty Path. Casting our patterns of attachment and expectation enables us to act in the now. Once we make that step, we ever walk in the way of beauty.

Peace is all around us

Brian J. Piere

Peace is all around us -- in the world, in nature and within us -- in our bodies and our spirits. Once we learn to touch this peace, we will be healed and transformed.

The first peace

Black Elk

The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.

If you give your life as a prayer

Peace Pilgrim

If you give your life as a prayer, you intensify the prayer beyond all measure. To attain inner peace you must actually give your life, not just your possessions. When you at last give your life bringing into alignment your beliefs and the way you live, then, and only then, can you begin to find inner peace.

Making peace with ourselves

Frances Vaughan Shadows of the Sacred

Making peace with ourselves means accessing inner peace that can be cultivated and extended to others. Authentic inner peace does not mean living in isolation, but discovering our own true nature and living in harmony with other people and the environment.

September 1997 (Vol. X, No. 8)

BLESSINGS of the Silence be with you, friends! In the rush and noise of life, pause, step within yourself and be still. Rest and wait upon God. This will enable you to flow through the day's affairs. Ask, what is my best Work.

May your work and heart's joy ever be as one

Nan Merrill

May your feet ever lead you to where your heart is...
May your work and your heart's joy ever be as one.

If the inward work is great

Meister Eckhart
The outward work will never be puny if the inward work is great.

There are times not to answer the door

Jim Forest Praying with Icons

There are times not to answer the door, not to answer the phone, not to do undone things, but to rest in silence from everything. The world can wait five minutes. In fact no matter how busy we are, no matter how well organized, no matter how little rest we allow ourselves, we will never do all that needs to be done. But to do well what we are called to do, it is essential to nurture a capacity for inner stillness. Such quiet, deep-down listening is itself prayer.

When you take a dirty floor

Eileen Caddy

When you take a dirty floor ... and make it spotlessly clean, and this polish it until it shines, it radiates back to you the love which you poured into it; the divinity of that floor has been drawn forth.

To see our work as prayer

Dhyani Ywahoo

To see our work as prayer and an opportunity to bring forth a flash of truth is a great gift. To know that even the busy world is a holy world is quite a change of heart.

Behind all the strange puzzles of life there is the secret working of God

S.D.C. Father Andrew Christ the Companion

In all our activities we may be seeking God: in our work, on our social occasions, as we walk along the road, even when we are so busy that we have not time to think of anything except what we are doing... God can deal with us under a thousand forms for our spiritual hallowing. Behind all the strange puzzles of life there is the secret working of God, creating life, creating character, accepting service -- all sorts of spiritual shaping going on.

The object of work is holiness

Eric Gill A Holy Tradition of Working

The object of leisure is work. The object of work is holiness ... meaning wholeness. Recreation is for the sake of work. Leisure time is for the sake of recreation in order that the labourer may the better return to work. Games are like sleep -- necessary for the health of body and mind -- a means to health, the health of the labourer, the one who prays, the contemplative. Leisure is secular, work is sacred. Holidays are the active life, the working life is the contemplative life.

All the stages of one's work have a poetic nature

Sue Bender Plain and Simple

"All the stages of one's work have a poetic nature," he continued. "No one gets paid for keeping their own tools cleaned. It is an act of real art; otherwise you don't have a rapport with the tool; then it becomes a rebellious servant, not respected, not properly handled."

One day I confided to Ruth that I felt her house was a living thing. She recalled returning to her home after being aways for four months. "I waxed and shined desks and chairs, and these dead objects returned to life. Their wood almost sprouted new leaves and blossoms. I no longer felt desolate in the house."

Tino's relationship with his tools, and Ruth's care and tending of the objects in her home speak of their attitude to all things. I had to go away, to a foreign land in America, before I could see that the qualities I was looking for were here, practically in my own backyard.

Your job in the divine plan

Peace Pilgrim The Spiritual Athlete

Communication with God is a deep inner knowing that God is within you and around you. God "speaks" through the still, small voice within. When you have constant communion with God, a constant receiving from within, there is never any doubt; you know your way. You become an instrument through which a job is done, therefore you have no feeling of self-achievement... The main things, if you are to find inner peace, are to bring your life into harmony with the laws which govern this universe (these are the same for all of us), and to find and fit into your special work in this world -- your job in the divine plan.

True service isn't an act, but an attitude

Dan Millman No Ordinary Moments

True service isn't an act, but an attitude. We can do things for other people with all kinds of self-serving motives. True service, however, stems from a feeling of humility, gratitude, and the essential recognition that we are in this together... Service is love in action -- as simple as a friendly smile or nod to a stranger -- or as all embracing as the life of Peace Pilgrim or Mother Teresa.

The master in prayer to the guild's patron saint before turning to the work

Jean K. Martine Working For a Living

Guild members, we are told, would begin their day with the master in prayer to the guild's patron saint before turning to the work, and prayers of one kind or another punctuated the whole day. ... Oh, for the ordered structure of the guild workshop! The strong clear voice "re-minding" me, in the real sense of that word, to return to the silence.

Art arises from a spiritual longing

Gary Kowalski The Souls of Animals

Art arises from a spiritual longing that all people share: to make our mark on the world and to spend our life energy in a work that rises above the mundane, adding grace to existence. We respond to the light of the world around us by giving expression to our own inner light, and when the two are on the same wave-length, the world seems more brilliant and finely focused.

The spiritual nature of work

Simone Weil

Our age has its own particular mission or vocation: the creation of a civilization founded upon the spiritual nature of work.

Good work that leaves the world softer and fuller and better

Joan Chittister

Good work that leaves the world softer and fuller and better than ever before is the stuff of which human satisfaction and spiritual value are made.

Things just happen in the right way

Bejamin Hoff The Tao of Pooh

Any type of work can be meaningful. It is the spirit in which you do it that makes the difference.

Things just happen in the right way, at the right time. At least they do when you LET them, when you work WITH circumstances instead of saying, "This isn't supposed to be happening this way", and trying hard to make it happen some other way. If you're in tune with The Way Things Work, then they work the way they need to, no matter what you may think about it at the time. Later on, you can lookback and say, "Oh, now I understand. That had to happen so that THOSE could happen, and those had to happen in order for THIS to happen..." Then you realize that even if you'd tried to make it all turn out perfectly, you couldn't have done better, and if you'd REALLY tried, you would have made a mess of the whole thing.

July-August 1997 (Vol. X, No. 7)

Wishing each friend A BLESSED SUMMER! Through pauses in the Silence, may you remain aware of the Sacred Journey to wholeness wherever you are, wherever you travel. May you invite times of quiet relaxtion and re-creation into your life. As Frederick Franck reminds us in The Zen of Seeing, "In this twentieth century, to stop rushing around, to sit quietly on the grass, to switch off the world and come back to the earth, to allow the eye to see a willow, a bush, a cloud, a leaf, is an unforgettable experience".

A journey whose ultimate destination is unknown

Carl Hammerschlag Theft of the Spirit

Why is it so difficult to give up old perceptions when it is clear that what we really know is only a fraction of what there is to be known? The tiny fraction we see is not the only way it is. Whenever we say, "I know it," it means that we no longer want to struggle with other ways of seeing it. But the way we once saw it may not be the way it is now. Certainly the way something is now does not determine that it will always be that way because we are, all of us, on a journey whose ultimate destination is unknown.

The spiritual journey is an expanding awareness of the Divine as all in all

Sue Monk Kidd

The spiritual journey is an expanding awareness of the Divine as all in all, vividly and actually present in all external reality, without dualistic separations. Here is the simple truth I keep trying to own, the one that breaks the bounds of beauty: everything is in God, and God is in everything. Think of it. There is no separation, no conflict, no obstruction between the world and the Divine. All that exists is penetrated with divinity. Creation, matter, our bodies -- everything is a vast incarnation or manifestation of Real Presence.

Our real journey

Thomas Merton
Our real journey in life is interior: a matter of growth, deepening, and of an ever greater surrender to the creative action of love and grace in our hearts.

Our journey is a collective one

Michael Newton Journey of the Souls

We are divine but imperfect beings who exist in two worlds, material and spiritual. Knowing we have a home of everlasting love waiting for us, makes us receptive to the higher spiritual power within our minds... The highest forms of self-expression are acts of kindness. Our soul may be traveling away from a permanent home, but we are not just tourists. We bear responsibility in the evolution of a higher consciousness for ourselves and others in life. Thus, our journey is a collective one.

Our spiritual journey is deeply reflected by the evolution of the voice

Charlotte S. Kasl A Home for the Heart

Our spiritual journey is deeply reflected by the evolution of the voice and by the ways in which we communicate with others. Our fears, softness, sharp edges, peacefulness, and joy are carried to others by our tone, words or lack of words. As people become more whole and in tune with themselves, they usually speak with greater simplicity, resonating from both heart and head.

A common journey

Anna Lemkov
Knowingly or not, all of us are embarked on a common journey in consciousness whose goal is our full awakening to unity.

The only little journey we have to make

John O'Donohue

The only little journey we have to make -- the only little moment of transition -- is the moment where we actually become aware of the dignity and beauty and light of the presence in which we already are. I think that being here in this graced planet of landscape, nature, presence, and person is the miracle -- is the journey.

The prime challenge of the spiritual journey

David Tame Beethoven and the Spiritual Path

The sublimation of the human will to the Greater Will is the prime challenge of the spiritual Journey. In fact, this transference of one's allegiance from self to Self, and to God, IS the essence of the spiritual Path. All other aspects of this Path -- all practices, all tests and trials, all teachings and disciplines, and all of the love and the adversity are a part of the great drama of the gradual fusing of the mortal, lesser self with that which is immortal and immutable. But in order to become one with God, the soul itself must first possess an identity, rounded out and matured as a worthy offering to give back to its Creator.

Pull anchor

Mary Anne Hershey On Friendship and Dreaming

pull anchor
and journey
to that place
where all land
cries yes
and all water
envelops
limitless
possibility.

We are not yet what we shall be

Martin Luther

We are not yet what we shall be,
but we are growing toward it;
the process is not yet finished,
but it is going on;
this is not the end,
but it is the road.

In the luminous darkness through which we travel on our human journey,

Sam Keen Hymns to an Unknown God

In the luminous darkness through which we travel on our human journey, we are often lonely but never alone. Road-weary, overwhelmed by the magnitude of the difficulties we face during our brief days, we are tempted to despair or to settle for cheap optimism. But in the deep place of the spirit, we are moved and called forth to undertake this ongoing adventure by the yearning, restless, and creative One who -- though called by the ten thousand names of God -- is still clothed in marvelous silence.

The journey into the inner self

W. B. Yeats
The journey into the inner self is not just the important one, it is the only one. We need to listen to the sound beyond the silence.

What the journey is really about

Joseph Campbell
The journey is really about losing yourself, giving yourself to Another.

What is the journey?

Unknown
And the Journey is from a place we have never left to a place we have ever been ...

June 1997 (Vol. X, No. 6)

BLESSED BE, dear friends, as we journey into a new season. May we remember to pause and listen to bird-song: a reminder that each one of us has a soul-son deep within the silence of our hearts to bring forth into the world.

Those who know the music

Sam Hamill

There are those who know all the notes; and there are those who know the music.

To dance through life

Alan Fischer

To dance through life
we must listen to the
music within.

Praying without words

Unknown

BACH gave us God's Word
MOZART gave us God's Laughter
BEETHOVEN gave us God's Fire
God
gave us MUSIC that we
might pray without words.

Adding our separate voices to the song

Reginald Winder Sonnets of the Ancient Teaching

We are part of the tremendous through
Forever surging in transcendent flight,
Perilous though the journey be long.
And all, it is ordained, will earn the right
To add our separate voices to the song
Rising triumphant from the chorus of the light.

We can be played by the wind

Reshad Feild Reason Is Powerless in the Expression of Love

We can be played by the wind, and what we speak will be the sound of the moment, bringing with the word the possibility of real change rather than the apparency of change. We all know this somewhere deep within ourselves, and although God gives us everything, it is up to us to be so finely tuned that the music that is played is of Truth itself.

Without music no discipline can be perfect

Isadore of Seville

Without music no discipline can be perfect, for there is nothing without it. For the very universe is held together by a certain harmony of sounds, and the heavens themselves are made to revolve by the modulation of harmony. Music moves the feelings and changes the emotions... The very beasts also, even serpents, birds, and dolphins, music incites to listen to her melody. And every word we speak, every pulsation in our veins, is related by musical rhythms to the powers of harmony.

As if all notes were contained in any single note

Frank Conroy Body and Soul

The first three notes -- the root, the fifth, and the minor third -- seemed entirely magical. In their simplicity he heard the implication of the whole piece itself, and from that, from his awareness of the fugue, came an awareness of all-of-music, as if all notes were contained in any single note. The perception was evanescent, but so powerful as to wipe away thoughts of himself. Music is here! Music has been here forever and always will be here! It was so much larger than life, so ineluctable strong, so potent an indicator of a kind of heaven on earth, that all else was swept before it. He saw this in a flash. In a nanosecond.

We each listen to a different music within

Beverly Elaine Eanes Joy

We each listen to a different music within, one uniquely our own. A special joy is finding and refining the creative spark which leads us to follow in rhythm to the pace and tempo of our God-given talents.

Silence is a symphony

David J. Wolpe In Speech and Silence

Silence can contain within it all the music that can be played, for all of it emerges from silence. A word is a note. Silence is a symphony.

The infinite musical variations of wind

James Mahood

The infinite musical variations of wind, water, and bird summon differently, but each is woven into delightful textures of notes, tones, and silences.

How one cultivates silence

Thomas Moore Meditations

One cultivates silence not by forcing the ears not to hear, but by turning up the volume on the music of the world and soul.

Silence burst into song

David Steindl-Rast The Music of Silence

At a certain pitch of religious experience, the heart just wants to sing; it breaks into song. Paradoxically, you could say when silence finds its fullness, it comes to word. As the Book of Wisdom says, "When night in its swift course had reached its halfway point and deep silence embraced everything" -- when night was at its darkest and deepest -- there "the eternal Word leaped from the Heavenly throne": silence burst into song.

I did not hear the anthem, I was it

Edward Hoffman Re-Visioning Childhood Experiences

One night, as I kneeled beside my bed and prayed, I gazed through my window at the starry night. I thought of how God was THROUGH, and yet BEYOND, all space. Suddenly, I had the sensation of being surrounded by a musical harmony like a great anthem, only inaudible to the human ear. Then I just seemed to evaporate until I too was THROUGH and BEYOND the stars.

I was completely filling space, and the musical harmony was completely filling me. I did not see the proverbial Light, I experienced it. I did not hear the anthem, I was it... I understood that everything was part of God, everything in the universe was one.

A distant melody

Roberto Viola The House on the Dunes

In total silence he perceived a distant melody. It could be coming from the stars, from the bottom of the sea or from the night itself... It was not like any other, not even like the purring of the sea on tranquil nights before the storms... Juan sang drawn by the music that reached him, and, like the night, his song made him brother to the trees, the seagull, the mollusks, the wild flowers that spring up in the sand. "This melody is the murmur of the sea that covers all humankind."

We are the music of God

Laurence Freeman

Some time ago, I was at a concert and listening to the orchestra beginning to tune up. It was the most discordant sound I've ever heard. Each instrument was playing in its own way, in total disharmony. Then the oboe, a quiet little instrument, began to play and all the other instruments turned in on its note. And gradually, all the disharmony began to calm down. Then there was silence, and the concert began. It seems to me that the mantra is very much like that little oboe. In meditation, the mantra brings all the parts of our being, one by one, bit by bit, into harmony. And when we are in harmony, we are the music of God.

The origins of music lie far back in time

Di Jiangyue The Spring and Autumn Annals of Lu Buwei

The origins of music lie far back in time. It arises out of proportion and is rooted in the Great One ... That from which all beings arise and have their origin is the Great One ... When the world is at peace, when all things are at rest, then music can be brought to perfection.

For herein lies the Great Mystery

Enter into the Silence, into the
Heart of Truth;
For herein lies the Great Mystery
where life is ever unfolding;
Herein the Divine Plan is made known,
the Plan all are invited to serve.
Listen for the music of the Holy Word
in the resounding Silence of
the universe.
May balance and harmony be your aim
as you are drawn into the
Heart of Love.

May 1997 (Vol X, No. 5)

Dear friends, do you know how to make God laugh?  Tell God your plans.

If you could know that all the time the world would ever have is in the moment now in which you stand

Anne S. Watson

If you could know that all the time the world would ever have is in the moment now in which you stand, that in your hand the future's bent and all the promise of the past's intent is held, would you not wait and listen and be still? Would you not let such mystery poured from unimagined source fill and fill and finally overflow the moment, until you, a living fragment of eternity, hear its measured beat and take its temp for your heart and hands and feet?

What else should our lives be but a continual series of beginnings

David Malouf An Imaginary Life
What else should our lives be but a continual series of beginnings, of painful settings out into the unknown, pushing off from the edges of consciousness into the mystery of what we have not yet become, except in dreams that blow in from out there bearing the fragrance of islands we have not yet sighted in our waking hours, as in voyaging sometimes the first blossoming branches of our next landfall come bumping against the keel, even in the dark, whole days before the real land rises to meet us.

The journey of life is the journey of walking into your mystery

Carolyn Myss

Do you know how to make God laugh?
Tell God your plans. The journey of life
is the journey of walking into your mystery,
and, not getting there before God does.

O Mystery, You are life

Paul Winter Missa Gaia
O Mystery, You are life. I feel you all around
You are the fire in my heart, You are the holy sound.
You are all of life. It is to You I sing.
Grant that I may feel You, always in every thing.

To plunge boldly into the brilliance and immediacy of living

Alan McGlashan The Savage and Beautiful Country

Delight is a mystery. And the mystery is this: to plunge boldly into the brilliance and immediacy of living, at the same time as utterly surrendering to that which lies beyond space and time; to see life translucently ...

For herein lies the Great Mystery

Nan Merrill Psalms for Praying
Enter into the Silence, into the
Heart of Truth;
For herein lies the Great Mystery
where life is ever unfolding;
Herein the Divine Plan is made known,
the Plan all are invited to serve.
Listen for the music of the Holy Word
in the resounding Silence of
the universe.
May balance and harmony be your aim
as you are drawn into the
Heart of Love.

The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious

Albert Einstein The World As I See It

The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestation of the profoundest reasons and the most radiant beauty, which are only accessible to our reason in their most elementary forms. It is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, I am a deeply religious man.

Always I am tending to the birth of the sacred, to the mystery

Joyce Diltz Presence

However I may be asked to be with a person, always I am tending to the birth of the sacred, to the mystery -- to the inbreaking of God in this time and space in this person's life. That experience is always new, always precious -- like any birth.

The overwhelming experience of fly fishing is Mystery.

Larry Dossey Quest
The overwhelming experience of fly fishing is Mystery. It deals with the Unseen, with what lies in the invisible dimensions beneath the shimmering, rippling surface of an ever-changing mountain stream. It exercises every ounce of imagination and can bypass conscious awareness for extended periods. Fly fishing is an open doorway into the unconscious. After all, one is often standing waist-deep in water, which is a mighty symbol of the unconscious mind. There is no way to rush this process: One must STAND in the Mystery. ... In order to be a decent fly fisherman, on must BECOME the fish ... To enter Trout Mind means giving up the self. ... Landing a trout provides a great opportunity for nonattachment: thanking and blessing the fish, and releasing her.

The mystical experience

Dag Hammarskjold Markings

The "mystical experience." Always HERE and NOW -- in that freedom which is one with distance, in that stillness which is born of silence. But this is a freedom in the midst of action, a stillness in the midst of other human beings. The mystery is a constant reality to those who, in this world, are free from self-concern, a reality that grows peaceful and mature before the receptive attention of assent. In our era, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.

There is a Mystery that many call God

Dan Millman The Laws of Spirit

For, there is a Mystery that many call God, manifesting as Universal Love, a set of Laws and a Great Process. That Process works through each and all of us, and that Process is perfect. As we discover this fundamental truth in the journey of our loves, we find that wherever we step, the path appears beneath our feet.

The Great Mystery

T.C. McLuhan Touch the Earth
We believe profoundly in silence -- the sign of a perfect equilibrium. Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind and spirit. If you ask us: "What is silence?" we will answer: "It is the Great Mystery!" The holy silence is Great Spirit's voice!" If you ask: "What are the fruits of silence?" we will say: "They are self-control, true courage or endurance, patience, dignity, and reverence. Silence is the cornerstone of character.

April 1997 (Vol. X, No. 4)

BLESSINGS be with you all in thi seed-dowing season! Just as seed germinates in the silent, fertile soil, may the seed of God's Word be nourished in the silence of your soul.

The awareness of the unity and interconnectedness of all beings

Renee Weber Dialogues with Scientists and Sages

The awareness of the unity and interconnectedness of all beings leads -- if it is consistent -- to an empathy with others. It expresses itself as reverence of life, compassion, a sense of the communion of suffering humanity, and the commitment to heal our wounded earth and its peoples.

I often wonder what it would be like if we dared to love this life

Carolyn McDade Through the Moons of August

I often wonder what it would be like if we dared to love this life -- the fragile and the vulnerable, the endangered, daring to be humble before the magnitude of our beginnings, daring to learn our species into a stubborn and pliant wonder, until reverence shines in all that we do -- until we live an economics of reverence -- until it permeates education, development and health care, homes and relationship, arts and agriculture -- a reverence for life, for planetary, social and personal wholeness. This is our purpose now. May we do it well, with thoroughness and love.

Thou can'st not stir a flower Without troubling a star

Francis Thompson thanks to Lyn Harmon

All things by immortal power
near or far
suddenly
to each other linked are.
Thou can'st not stir a flower
Without troubling a star.

Stone is storyteller

Frederic Lehrman

Stone is storyteller.
Stone is meditation master.
Stone performs the dance of stillness.

Then a tree becomes a mystery

Dag Hammarskjold

In the point of rest at the center of our being, we encounter a world where all things are at rest in the same way. Then a tree becomes a mystery, a cloud a revelation, each individual a cosmos of whose riches we can only catch glimpses. The life of simplicity is simple, but it opens to us a book in which we never get beyond the first syllable.

What a gift each morning to encounter some part of nature

David Steindl-Rast The Music of Silence

What a gift each morning to encounter some part of nature... It is a pure gift of beauty, of life. The sunrise can be a reminder of the day's gift because it comes unbidden. We don't produce it. The light is given. The world is reborn each morning, and we are given a whole new time of opportunity. Even if the difficulties are the same we had yesterday, we can tackle them in a new way. Primordial freshness is renewed each morning.

There is only one world

June Singer Seeing Through the Visible World

If we could even for a moment throw away our concepts and see with the inner eye through all the veils of conditioning, we would know there is only one world, one indissoluble whole. We would see that all creatures on earth are part of a sinle system. There is no preferred species; there is no preferred race. In the Eye of Wisdom ... What we do, we must do in this very moment. There is no other preferred moment. When we can accept what is before our eyes, accept it with whole heart, we no longer have anything to fear, anything to long for. All we need to set the world aright is here. We have only to see it.

Listen! The streams carry Love's Voice

Nan Merrill

Listen! The streams carry Love's Voice
mingled with bird song
sharing gratitude and praise
in support of Life!
Listen! Join the song of Creation!

Nature within us is part of the same great pattern as nature without

Dolores La Chapelle

Because nature within us is part of the same great pattern as nature without, to begin the turn-around from "ravaged" land to "reverenced" land, the first step is to take time out to permit our inner patterns to re-align with the greater beings -- the sun and the atmosphere -- which give us our life here on Earth.

The world is a sacred place and a sacred process

Daniel Quinn The Story of B

"The world is a sacred place and a sacred process," I told her, "and we're part of it."

“That's excellent -- simple and to the point. This is what was understood -- and is still understood among Leaver peoples. Wherever you were in the world, you found people who took it for granted that the world is a sacred place, and that we belong in that sacred place as much as any creature in the world." Smiling, she looked around the park, as if giving it a silent farewell. Then she included me in the smile as she said, "Maybe someday someone will find a way to say it that makes the ground tremble."

Walk and touch peace every moment

Thich Nhat Hanh Call Me By My True Names

Walk and touch peace every moment.
Walk and touch happiness every moment.
Each step brings a fresh breeze.
Each step makes a flower bloom under our feet.
Kiss the Earth with your feet.
Print on Earth your love and happiness.
Earth will be safe
When we feel in us enough safety.

Leave the ground unseeded

Clarissa Pinkola Estes The Faithful Gardiner

Uncle explained that the pines and oaks will not spread into the fields to grow and make a new woods, unless we leave the ground unseeded. My uncle envisioned that this barren land was to become a new forest, one of great beauty and repose. "To be poor and be without trees, is to be the most starved human being in the world. To be poor and have trees, is to be completely rich in ways that money can never buy."

The earth gives us life

Tim Fizharris Soaring with Ravens

The earth gives us life. The world around is beautiful and meant to be viewed with respect and wonder... The Sioux holy man, Black Elk, expressed it well when he said that any place you are is the center of the world. This beautiful creation is always speaking to us, it is just that we sometimes do not stop to look and listen. We forget to see as we were meant to see, not just through our eyes, but through the eye of the heart.

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