Inspirational Anciant Wisdom & Insights from from the Classic Teachings Of Confucius,Lao Tzu & Buddha

Music:Classic chinese music
Don’t Decorate Your Dreams-Huang Jiangqin

A man is born soft and supple;
at his death he is hard and stiff.
All things,including the grass and trees,
are soft and pliable in life;dry and brittle in death.
Stiffness is thus a companion of death;
flexibility a companion of life.
An army that cannot yield will be defeated.
A tree that cannot bend will crack in the wind.
The hard and stiff will be broken;
the soft and supple will prevail.

Lao Tzu

Water is fluid, soft, and yielding.
But water will wear away rock,which
is rigid and cannot yield.As a rule,
whatever is fluid,soft,and yielding
will overcome whatever is rigid and hard.
This is another paradox:what is soft is strong.
Lao Tzu

Fill your bowl to the brim
and it will spill.
Keep sharpening your knife
and it will blunt.
Chase after money and security
and your heart will never unclench.
Care about people's approval
and you will be their prisoner.
Do your work, then step back.
The only path to serenity.
Lao Tzu

The master of the art of living makes little distinction
between his work and his play,his labor and his leisure,
his mind and his body, his education and his recreation,
his love and his religion.He simply pursues his vision
of excellence in whatever he does,leaving others to decide
whether he is working or playing.
To him, he is always doing both.
Lao Tzu

The Path is not far from man.
When men try to pursue a course, which is far from the common indications of consciousness,this course cannot be considered The Path.
confucius

If I have even just a little sense,
I will walk on the main road and my only
fear will be of straying from it.
Keeping to the main road is easy,
but people love to be sidetracked.
lao tzu

It is the way of the superior man to prefer the concealment of his virtue,while it daily becomes more illustrious,and it is the way of the mean man to seek notoriety,while he daily goes more and more to ruin.
confucius

The superior man examines his heart,that there may be nothing wrong there,and that he may have no cause for dissatisfaction with himself. That wherein the superior man cannot be equaled is simply this — his work which other men cannot see.
confucius

By three methods we may learn wisdom:
First,by reflection,which is noblest;
Second,by imitation,which is easiest;
and third by experience,which is the bitterest.
confucius

In the pursuit of knowledge:
everyday something is added.
in the pursuit of enlightenment:
everyday something is dropped.
Lao Tzu

When a man’s knowledge is sufficient to attain, and his virtue is not sufficient to enable him to hold, whatever he may have gained,he will lose again.”
confucius

To study,and then in a timely fashion to practice
what you have learned—is this not satisfying?
To have companions arrive from afar—is this not a joy?
To remain unrecognized by others and yet remain free
of resentment—is this not the mark of the gentleman?”
confucius

A man should demand much from himself,but little from
others.When you meet a man of worth,think how you may
attain to his excellence.When you meet an unworthy one,
then look within and examine yourself.
Confucius

Knowing others is intelligence;knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power.

If a person seems wicked,do not cast him away.
Awaken him with your words,elevate him with
your deeds,repay his injury with your kindness.
Do not cast him away;cast away his wickedness.
Lao Tzu

Humankind differs from the animals only by a little and most people throw that away.

If a man has no humaneness what can his propriety be like?
If a man has no humaneness what can his happiness be like?

A man of humanity is one who,in seeking to establish himself, finds a foothold for others and who,in desiring attaining himself,helps others to attain.
Confucius

Elena Shumilova Photography

This is how to contemplate our conditioned existence in this fleeting world:
Like a tiny drop of dew,or a bubble floating in a stream;
Like a flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
Or a flickering lamp,an illusion,a phantom,or a dream.
So is all conditioned existence to be seen.
Buddha

He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings,and all beings in his own Self,and
looks on everything with an impartial eye.

In the end
these things matter most:
How well did you love?
How fully did you live?
How deeply did you let go?”
Buddha

Just to say 'I believe' or 'I do not doubt' does not mean that you understand and see. To force oneself to see and accept a thing without understanding is political and not spiritual or intellectual.

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.

Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.

But after observation and analysis,when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.
Buddha

This is what should be done
By those who are skilled in goodness,
And who know the path of peace:
Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and gentle in speech.

Humble and not conceited,
Contented and easily satisfied.
Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.
Peaceful and calm, and wise and skillful,
Not proud and demanding in nature.
Let them not do the slightest thing
That the wise would later reprove.

Wishing: in gladness and safety,
May all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be;
Whether they are weak or strong,omitting none,
The great or the mighty,medium,short or small,
The seen and the unseen,
Those living near and far away,
Those born and to-be-born

May all beings be at ease!
Let none deceive another,
Or despise any being in any state.
Let none through anger or ill-will
Wish harm upon another.
Even as a mother protects with her life
Her child,her only child,
So with a boundless heart
Should one cherish all living beings;
Buddha

Tear Of Grief by Maurice Maeterlinck & Maurice Sendak

When we lose one we love,our bitterest tears are called forth by the memory of hours when we loved not enough.
Maurice Maeterlinck

I cry a lot because I miss people.They die and I can't stop them.They leave me and I love them more.
Maurice Sendak

Lessons of the geese(The goose Story)

Next autumn, when you see geese heading south for the winter, flying in a "V" formation, you might consider what science has discovered as to why they fly that way.

As geese flap their wings, they create an uplift for the bird following. By flying in a V formation, the whole flock adds 71% greater flying range than if any bird were to fly alone. If we share a common direction and a sense of community, we can get where we are going more quickly and easily because we are traveling on the thrust of one another!

Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to fly alone, and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front. If we have as much sense as geese, we will stay in formation with those who are headed where we want to go, and we will be willing to accept their help as well as give ours to others.

When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates back into formation and another goose flies at the point position. If we take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership as with the geese, we become interdependent with one another.

The geese in formation honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed. If we “honk,” we need to make sure it is positive and encouraging.

When a goose gets sick or wounded or is shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to help and protect it. They stay with it until it is able to fly again or dies. They then launch out on their own, with another formation or catch up with the flock. If we have as much sense as geese, we too will stand by each other in difficult times, as well as when we are strong. Let us all try to fly in formation and remember to drop back to help those who might need it!

Music:Billy Joel - Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)

Inspirational Heart Quotes

The head learns new things,
but the heart forever practices old experiences.
Henry Ward Beeche

Keep your feet on the ground,
but let your heart soar as high as it will.
A. W. Tozer

Within your heart,keep one still,
secret spot where dreams may go.
Louise Driscoll

All the knowledge I possess everyone can acquire,
but my heart is all my own.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The mind cannot long play the heart's role.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

The best work is done with the heart breaking,
or overflowing.
Mignon McLaughlin

I wish I could make him understand that a loving good heart is riches enough, and that without it intellect is poverty.
Mark Twain,The Diary of Adam and Eve

Wisdom of the Heart

Behold,thou desirest truth in the inward being;
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
Psalms 51.6

Intellect Quotes

Some people think only intellect counts – knowing how to solve problems,knowing how to get by, knowing how to identify an advantage and seize it. But the functions of intellect are insufficient without courage,love,friendship, compassion and empathy.
Dean Koontz

Man's mind may be likened to a garden,which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild.
James Allen,As a Man Thinketh

Minds, unlike brains, are not entirely given at birth.Minds are also forms of cultural achievement.
Elliot W. Eisner

An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex.
Aldous Huxley

It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.
Rene Descartes

Before the Throne of Beauty by Khalil Gibran

Music:
El Manor-John Sokoloff

Before the Throne of Beauty

Khalil Gibran

One heavy day I ran away from the grim face of society and the dizzying clamor of the city and directed my weary step to the spacious alley.I pursued the beckoning course of the rivulet and the musical sounds of the birds until I reached a lonely spot where the flowing branches of the trees prevented the sun from the touching the earth.

I stood there,and it was entertaining to my soul-my thirsty soul who had seen naught but the mirage of life instead of its sweetness.

I was engrossed deeply in thought and my spirits were sailing the firmament when a hour,wearing a sprig of grapevine that covered part of her naked body,and a wreath of poppies about her golden hair,suddenly appeared to me.As she realized my astonishment, she greeted me saying,"Fear me not;I am the Nymph of the Jungle."

"How can beauty like yours be committed to live in this place? Please tell me who your are,and whence you come?" I asked. She sat gracefully on the green grass and responded,"I am the symbol of nature! I am the ever virgin your forefathers worshipped, and to my honor they erected shrines and temples at Baalbek and Jbeil."

And I dared say, "But those temples and shrines were laid waste and the bones of my adoring ancestors became a part of the earth;nothing was left to commemorate their goddess save a pitiful few and the forgotten pages in the book of history."

She replied,"Some goddesses live in the lives of their worshippers and die in their deaths,while some live an eternal and infinite life.My life is sustained by the world of beauty which you will see where ever you rest your eyes,and this beauty is nature itself;it is the beginning of the shepherds joy among the hills,and a villagers happiness in the fields,and the pleasure of the awe filled tribes between the mountains and the plains.This Beauty promotes the wise into the throne the truth."

Then I said,"Beauty is a terrible power!" And she retorted, "Human beings fear all things,even yourselves.
You fear heaven,the source of spiritual peace;
you fear nature,the haven of rest and tranquility;
you fear the God of goodness and accuse him of anger,while he is full of love and mercy."

After a deep silence,mingled with sweet dreams,
I asked,"Speak to me of that beauty which the people interpret and define,each one according to his own conception;I have seen her honored and worshipped in different ways and manners."

She answered,"Beauty is that which attracts your soul, and that which loves to give and not to receive.
When you meet Beauty,you feel that the hands deep within your inner self are stretched forth to bring her into the domain of your heart.

It is the magnificence combined of sorrow and joy;
it is the Unseen which you see,and the Vague which you understand,and the Mute which you hear-
it is the Holy of Holies that begins in yourself and ends vastly beyond your earthly imagination."

Then the Nymph of the Jungle approached me and laid her scented hands upon my eyes.And as she withdrew, I found me alone in the valley.When I returned to the city, whose turbulence no longer vexed me, I repeated her words:

"Beauty is that which attracts your soul,and that which loves to give and not to receive."

The Universe:Infinite Storm Of Beauty

Music:
Land of the Unknown-Shaun Paul

Inspirational Spring Quotes

For thou,O Spring! canst renovate
All that high God did first create.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON

And look upon the laughing earth,
Where spring in careless play
Puts forth its fairest blossoms,but
To deck them with decay.
WILLIAM B. TAPPAN

Spring is God's way of saying,'One more time!
Robert Orben

Behold,my friends,the spring has come;the earth has received the embraces of the sun and we shall soon see the results of that love!
Sitting Bull

Spring Is like a child by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow & Rainer Maria Rilke

Spring has returned.The Earth is like a child that knows poems.
Rainer Maria Rilke

The spring came suddenly,bursting upon the world
as a child bursts into a room,with a laugh and
a shout and hands full of flowers.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

Sonnet XVII Van Pablo Neruda(Liefdes gedicht )

Sonnet XVII
Pablo Neruda

Ik bemin je niet als was je een roos van zout,topaas,
of een pijl van anjers die het vuur voortstuwen.
Ik bemin je zoals men houdt van zekere donkere zaken,
heimelijk,tussen de schaduw en de ziel.

Ik bemin je als de plant die niet bloesemt maar
het licht van de bloemen leidt,verborgen,in zich,
en dankzij jouw liefde leeft de krappe geur die
uit de aarde stijgt duister in mijn lijf.

Ik bemin je zonder te weten hoe,of wanneer,of waarvan.
Ik bemin je onmiddellijk zonder problemen of trots.
Ik bemin je zo omdat ik het op geen andere manier kan

Behalve op deze wijze die ik niet ben,noch jij,
zo dicht dat je hand op mijn borst de mijne is,
zo dicht dat jouw ogen zich sluiten met mijn droom.

Sieh den Morgen...Von Victor Hugo

Sieh den Morgen
Victor Hugo
Aus dem Französischen
von Ferdinand Freiligrath.

O sieh den Morgen lächelnd sich entschleiern,
O sieh den Turm, wie er von Strahlen glüht.
Horch! Wie dem Ruhm die Freude, zieht
Des jungen Tages ersten Feuern
Entgegen schon der Wälder erstes Lied.

Ja, lächle nur bei all dem Schönen.
Dieselbe Sonne leuchtet deinen Tränen,
Wenn morgen mich der dunkle Sarg verschlingt.
Ob meinem Grabe von denselben Tönen
Erschallt der Wald, davon er heute klingt?

Dann aber wird die Seele selig schweben
Im Grenzenlosen über Raum und Zeit.
Im Morgenrot der Ewigkeit
Wird man erwachen einst vom Leben,
Gleichwie aus wüster Traumgesichte Streit.

Nature Paints a Picture - Neal Topliff

You are half water by Margaret Atwood

Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can't go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.
Margaret Atwood,The Penelopiad

I LOVE A TREE by Samuel N. Baxter

I LOVE A TREE
Samuel N. Baxter

When I pass to my reward.
Whatever that may be,
I'd like my friends to think of me
As one who loved a tree.

I may not have a statesman's poise
Nor thrill a throng with speech
But I may benefit mankind
If I set out a beech.

If I transport a sapling oak
To rear its mighty head
Twill make for them a childhood shrine,
That will not soon decay.

Of if I plant a tree with fruit,
On which the birds may feed,
Then I have fostered feathered friends
And that's a worthy deed.

For winter when the days grow short
And spirits may run low
I'd plant a pine upon the scape
T'would lend a cheery glow.

I'd like a tree to mark the spot
Where I am laid to rest
For that would be the epitaph
That I would like the best.

Tho it's not carved upon a stone
For those who come to see
But friends would know that resting there
Is he, who loved a tree

Orphan's Heart:Poems:An Orphan's Lament by Anne Brontë*The Little Orphan by BY EDGAR ALBERT GUEST*The Poor Orphan Child by Charlotte Bronte

Music:
Secret Garden-Sometimes when it rains

An Orphan's Lament
Anne Brontë

She's gone -- and twice the summer's sun
Has gilt Regina's towers,
And melted wild Angora's snows,
And warmed Exina's bowers.
The flowerets twice on hill and dale
Have bloomed and died away,
And twice the rustling forest leaves
Have fallen to decay,

And thrice stern winter's icy hand
Has checked the river's flow,
And three times o'er the mountains thrown
His spotless robe of snow.

Two summers springs and autumns sad
Three winters cold and grey --
And is it then so long ago
That wild November day!

They say such tears as children weep
Will soon be dried away,
That childish grief however strong
Is only for a day,

And parted friends how dear soe'er
Will soon forgotten be;
It may be so with other hearts,
It is not thus with me.

My mother, thou wilt weep no more
For thou art gone above,
But can I ever cease to mourn
Thy good and fervent love?

While that was mine the world to me
Was sunshine bright and fair;
No feeling rose within my heart
But thou couldst read it there.

And thou couldst feel for all my joys
And all my childish cares
And never weary of my play
Or scorn my foolish fears.

Beneath thy sweet maternal smile
All pain and sorrow fled,
And even the very tears were sweet
Upon thy bosom shed.

I shall not know again
While life remains, the peaceful joy
That filled my spirit then.

Where shall I find a heart like thine
While life remains to me,
And where shall I bestow the love
I ever bore for thee?

Elena shumilova Photography

The Little Orphan
EDGAR ALBERT GUEST

The crowded street his playground is,a patch of blue his sky;
A puddle in a vacant lot his sea where ships pass by:
Poor little orphan boy of five,the city smoke and grime
Taint every cooling breeze he gets throughout the summer time;
And he is just as your boy is,a child who loves to play,
Except that he is drawn and white and cannot get away.

And he would like the open fields,for often in his dreams
The angels kind bear him off to where are pleasant streams,
Where he may sail a splendid boat,sometimes he flies a kite,
Or romps beside a shepherd dog and shouts with all his might;
But when the dawn of morning comes he wakes to find once more
That what he thought were sun-kissed hills are rags upon the floor.

Then through the hot and sultry day he plays at “make-pretend,”
The alley is a sandy beach where all the rich folks send
Their little boys and girls to play,a barrel is his boat,
But,oh,the air is tifling and the dust fills up his throat;
And though he tries so very hard to play,somehow it seems
He never gets such wondrous joys as angels bring in dreams.

Poor little orphan boy of five,except that he is pale,
With sunken cheeks and hollow eyes and very wan and frail,
Just like that little boy of yours,with same desire to play,
Fond of the open fields and skies,he’s built the self-same way;
But kept by fate and circumstance away from shady streams,
His only joy comes when he sleeps and angels bring him dreams.

Magdalena Berney Photography

The Poor Orphan Child
Charlotte Bronte
(From Jane Eyre,chapter three.)

My feet they are sore,and my limbs they are weary;
Long is the way,and the mountains are wild;
Soon will the twilight close moonless and dreary
Over the path of the poor orphan child.

Why did they send me so far and so lonely,
Up where the moors spread and grey rocks are piled?
Men are hard-hearted,and kind angels only
Watch o'er the steps of a poor orphan child.

Yet distant and soft the night breeze is blowing,
Clouds there are none,and clear stars beam mild,
God,in His mercy,protection is showing,
Comfort and hope to the poor orphan child.

Ev'n should I fall o'er the broken bridge passing,
Or stray in the marshes, by false lights beguiled,
Still will my Father,with promise and blessing,
Take to His bosom the poor orphan child.

There is a thought that for strength should avail me,
Though both of shelter and kindred despoiled;
Heaven is a home, and a rest will not fail me;
God is a friend to the poor orphan child.'