The prayer of the Frog

The Rule in a monastery was not, "Do not speak," but, "Do not speak unless you can improve on the silence."


Might not the same be said of prayer?


--


Nothing surpasses the holiness of those 
who have learnt perfect acceptance
of everything that is.


In the game of cards called life
one plays the hand one is dealt
to the best of one's ability.


Those who insist on playing, 
not the hand they were given
but the one they insist they should have been dealt
- these are life's failures


We are not asked if we will play
That is not an option. Play we must
The option is how.


--


Such is the fate of those who,
in their search for God,
are willing to shed everything
except their notions of what God really is.


--


Of what use is it to have eyes if the heart is blind?


--


Reconciliation alone will save the world,
not justice
which is generally another word for revenge


--


We almost never see reality.
What we see is a reflection of it
in the form of words and concepts
which we then proceed to take for reality.
The world we live in
is mostly a mental construct.


--


People do not want truth.
They want reassurance


--


Father to Svetaketu (considered greatest living expert on the scriptures when he was barely past his youth)


"Have you learned that by learning which there is no need to learn anything else?"


"Have you discovered that by discovering which all suffering ceases?"


"Have you mastered that which cannot be taught?"


"No", said Svetaketu.


"Then," said his father, "what you have learnt in all these years is worthless, my son"


So impressed was Svetaketu by the truth of his father's words that he set off to discover through silence the wisdom which cannot be expressed in words.


--


Those who seek for enlightenment fail to find it for they fail to understand that the object of the search is the seeker. God, like beauty, is in the I of the beholder.


--


Your duty is to be. Not to be somebody, not to be nobody -- for therein lies greed and ambition -- not to be this or that -- and thus become conditioned -- but just to be.


--


All it takes is a word of flattery or criticism to uncover the ego.


--


Among the truly religious
the Law is observed.
But it is neither feared ...
... nor revered ...
... it is neither absolutized ...
... nor magnified out of proportion ...
... nor exploited



--


The Truth that sets us free is almost always 
the Truth we would rather not hear


So when we say something isn't true what we all to frequently mean is:
"I do not like it"


--


I think,
therefore I am unconscious
At the moment of thought
I dwell in the UNREAL world
of abstraction
or - of the past
or of the future.


--