As long as we live by Raymond Carver

There isn't enough of anything
as long as we live. But at intervals
a sweetness appears and, given a chance
prevails.
Raymond Carver

Our latest moment our supreme moment by Samuel Butler

Our latest moment is always our supreme moment.
Five minutes delay in dinner now is more important
than a great sorrow ten years gone.
Samuel Butler

Planet Earth:Amazing nature scenery

Here's a little story from Plato's most famous book, The Republic.

Plato was a famous Greek philosopher who has had a great influence on human thought and civilization. Follow one of his thought-provoking arguments here, in which he encourages us to think intelligently for ourselves.

Imagine a group of people sitting in the gloom of a cave. They are prisoners, bound by their hands and feet, unable to move freely.All they can do is sit in a line and look straight ahead at the wall of the cave.

Now imagine that you are one of those shackled prisoners. However, you do not know you are a prisoner because you were born in the cave and it is the only life you have ever known. Because of the darkness of the cave, you cannot even see the other prisoners - although you know they are there, because you can talk to each other.

Every day on the cave wall in front of you, you see shapes pass back and forth. You and your fellow prisoners recognise these different shapes and give them names such as 'cat' or 'tree' or 'girl'. Amongst yourselves, you see who can be the best at telling which image will come along next.You are satisfied with your life because you cannot imagine anything different.

But unknown to you, your life in the cave is not a full picture of the truth. If we look behind you and your fellow prisoners, we can see that a walled roadway passes through the cave. People carry life-sized cut-outs of objects such as 'cats', 'trees' or 'girls' along this path.

If we pull back further still, we can see a fire burning away fiercely. This fire creates shadows of the life-sized cut-outs that are carried across in front of it. It is these shadows that you and the other prisoners are watching on the cave wall. What you think is true, is actually only a flat, shadowy copy of reality.

Now, imagine you are suddenly freed from your chains. You stand up and turn around for the first time... You cannot understand what you are seeing! A bright light that dazzles you! Clear objects and people that before you had only seen in gloomy shadows!

Confused, you walk past the fire and the walled roadway, and towards another light - and you find yourself outside in fresh air and daylight. The darkness of the cave has been left behind and for the first time in this new, outside world, you see colours and shapes. How terrible to have only seen shadows before!

Now your eyes have adjusted to the light, you look up and see the sun shining brightly in the sky. You begin to think - if the fire in the cave was responsible for creating those shadows on the wall, then it must be the sun that brings this better world to life.

Realising that you have been living a lie and have only been watching a shadow-play, you rush back to the other prisoners to tell them the truth. But they laugh at you and do not believe what you say! How can they? They have never seen anything but the inside of the cave and the shadows projected on the wall.

"...So you see my young student, we must strive hard to look beyond what seems obvious at first. Knowledge and truth comes only with effort - like having to clamber out of a rocky cave, perhaps to be dazzled by the light. There are greater truths and ideas still to be found...and once you find this 'outside world,' you will never want to go back to live the lie of life imprisoned in the shadows..."

Most people, including ourselves, live in a world of relative ignorance. We are even comfortable with that ignorance, because it is all we know. When we first start facing truth, the process may be frightening, and many people run back to their old lives. But if you continue to seek truth, you will eventually be able to handle it better. In fact, you want more! It's true that many people around you now may think you are weird or even a danger to society, but you don't care. Once you've tasted the truth, you won't ever want to go back to being ignorant!

On Prejudice & educating ourselves by ANDRE GIDE

An unprejudiced mind is probably the rarest thing in the world....
Most often people seek in life occasions for persisting in their opinions rather than for educating themselves.
ANDRE GIDE

Vision Quote by Ken Kesey

You don't lead by pointing and telling people some place to go.
You lead by going to that place and making a case.
Ken Kesey

Excerpt from"The Old Man and the Sea"

He always thought of the sea as 'la mar' which is what people call her in Spanish when they love her. Sometimes those who love her say bad things of her but they are always said as though she were a woman. Some of the younger fishermen, those who used buoys as floats for their lines and had motorboats, bought when the shark livers had brought much money, spoke of her as 'el mar' which is masculine.They spoke of her as a contestant or a place or even an enemy. But the old man always thought of her as feminine and as something that gave or withheld great favours, and if she did wild or wicked things it was because she could not help them. The moon affects her as it does a woman, he thought.
Ernest Hemingway,The Old Man and the Sea

My friend by Khalil Gibran

Music:
Richard Clayderman-Les Fleurs Sauvages

My friend
Khalil Gibran

Excerpt from"The Madman
His Parables and Poems"

My friend, I am not what I seem. Seeming is but a garment I wear—a care-woven garment that protects me from thy questionings and thee from my negligence.

The "I" in me, my friend, dwells in the house of silence, and therein it shall remain for ever more, unperceived, unapproachable.

I would not have thee believe in what I say nor trust in what I do—for my words are naught but thy own thoughts in sound and my deeds thy own hopes in action. When thou sayest, “The wind bloweth eastward,” I say, “Aye, it doth blow eastward”; for I would not have thee know that my mind doth not dwell upon the wind but upon the sea. Thou canst not understand my seafaring thoughts, nor would I have thee understand. I would be at sea alone.

When it is day with thee, my friend, it is night with me; yet even then I speak of the noontide that dances upon the hills and of the purple shadow that steals its way across the valley; for thou canst not hear the songs of my darkness nor see my wings beating against the stars—and I fain would not have thee hear or see. I would be with night alone.

When thou ascendest to thy Heaven I descend to my Hell—even then thou callest to me across the unbridgeable gulf, “My companion, my comrade,” and I call back to thee, “My comrade, my companion”—for I would not have thee see my Hell. The flame would burn thy eyesight and the smoke would crowd thy nostrils. And I love my Hell too well to have thee visit it. I would be in Hell alone.

Thou lovest Truth and Beauty and Righteousness; and I for thy sake say it is well and seemly to love these things. But in my heart I laugh at thy love. Yet I would not have thee see my laughter. I would laugh alone.

My friend, thou art good and cautious and wise; nay, thou art perfect—and I, too, speak with thee wisely and cautiously. And yet I am mad. But I mask my madness. I would be mad alone.

My friend, thou art not my friend, but how shall I make thee understand? My path is not thy path, yet together we walk, hand in hand.

Counting The troubles & Joys by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Joy & Light of The world by Felix Adler

At bottom, the world is to be interpreted in terms of joy, but of a joy that includes all the pain, includes it and transforms it and transcends it.

The Light of the World is a light that is saturated with the darkness which it has overcome and transfigured.
Felix Adler

Inclined to persecute or to persaude by Charles Caleb Colton

Whenever we find ourselves more inclined to persecute
than to persuade,we may then be certain that our zeal
has more of pride in it than of charity.
Charles Caleb Colton

Die Kunst des Liebens Von Erich Fromm(Auszug)

Wenn ich einen Menschen wahrhaft liebe, so liebe ich alle Menschen, so liebe ich die Welt, so liebe ich das Leben. Wenn ich zu einem anderen sagen kann: "Ich liebe dich", muss ich auch sagen können. "Ich liebe in dir auch alle anderen, ich liebe durch dich die ganze Welt, ich liebe in dir auch mich selbst.

Liebe ist nicht in erster Linie eine Bindung an eine bestimmte Person. Sie ist eine Haltung, eine Charakterorientierung, welche die Bezogenheit eines Menschen zur Welt als Ganzer und nicht nur zu einem einzigen "Objekt" der Liebe bestimmt.

Wenn jemand nur eine einzige andere Person liebt und ihm alle übrigen Mitmenschen gleichgültig sind, dann handelt es sich bei seiner Liebe nicht um Liebe, sondern um eine symbiotische Bindung oder um einen erweiterten Egoismus. Trotzdem glauben die meisten Menschen, Liebe komme erst durch ein Objekt zustande und nicht aufgrund einer Fähigkeit. Sie bilden sich tatsächlich ein, es sei ein Beweis für die Intensität ihrer Liebe, wenn sie außer der "geliebten" Person niemanden lieben. Weil man nicht erkennt, dass die Liebe ein Tätigsein, eine Kraft der Seele ist, meint man, man brauche nur das richtige Objekt dafür zu finden und alles andere gehe dann von selbst.

Man könnte diese Einstellung mit der eines Menschen vergleichen, der gern malen möchte und der, anstatt diese Kunst zu erlernen, behauptet, er brauche nur auf das richtige Objekt zu warten, und wenn er es gefunden habe, werde er wunderbar malen können.

Ich möchte den Leser davon überzeugen, daß alle seine Versuche zu lieben fehlschlagen müssen, sofern er nicht aktiv versucht, seine ganze Persönlichkeit zu entwickeln, und es ihm so gelingt, produktiv zu werden; ich möchte zeigen, daß es in der Liebe zu einem anderen Menschen überhaupt keine Erfüllung ohne die Liebe zum Nächsten, ohne wahre Demut, ohne Mut, Glaube und Disziplin geben kann.

Trotz unserer tiefen Sehnsucht nach Liebe halten wir doch fast alles andere für wichtiger als diese: Erfolg, Prestige, Geld und Macht.Unsere gesamte Energie verwenden wir darauf, zu lernen, wie wir diese Ziele erreichen, und wir bemühen uns so gut wie überhaupt nicht darum, die Kunst des Liebens zu erlernen. Halten wir vielleicht nur das für der Mühe wert, womit wir Geld verdienen oder was unser Prestige erhöht, und ist die Liebe, die „nur“ unserer Seele nützt und die im modernen Sinne keinen Gewinn abwirft, ein Luxus, für den wir nicht viel Energie aufbringen dürfen?

Liebe ist eine Aktivität und kein passiver Affekt. Sie ist etwas, das man in sich entwickelt, nicht etwas, dem man verfällt.

Ganz allgemein kann man den aktiven Charakter der Liebe so beschreiben, daß man sagt, sie ist in erster Linie ein Geben und nicht ein Empfangen.

Was gibt ein Mensch dem anderen? Er gibt etwas von sich selbst, vom Kostbarsten, das er besitzt, er gibt etwas von seinem Leben. Das bedeutet nicht unbedingt, daß er sein Leben für den anderen opfert – sondern daß er ihm etwas von dem gibt, was in ihm lebendig ist; er gibt ihm etwas von seiner Freude, von seinem Interesse, von seinem Verständnis, von seinem Wissen, von seinem Humor, von seiner Traurigkeit – von allem, was in ihm lebendig ist. Indem er dem anderen auf diese Weise etwas von seinem Leben abgibt, bereichert er ihn, steigert er beim anderen das Gefühl des Lebendigsein und er stärkt damit auch das Gefühl des Lebendigsein in sich selbst. Er gibt nicht, um selbst etwas zu empfangen; das Geben ist an und für sich eine erlesene Freude.

Die Liebe ist aber nicht nur ein Geben, ihr "aktiver" Charakter zeigt sich auch darin, daß sie in allen ihren Formen stets folgende Grundelemente enthält: Fürsorge, Verantwortungsgefühl, Achtung vor dem anderen und Erkenntnis.

Achtung, Respekt für eine wichtige Grundlage für die Kunst des Liebens: Achtung hat nichts mit Furcht und nichts mit Ehrfurcht zu tun: Sie bezeichnet die Fähigkeit, jemanden so zu sehen, wie er ist, und seine einzigartige Individualität wahrzunehmen. Achtung bezieht sich darauf, daß man ein echtes Interesse daran hat, daß der andere wachsen und sich entfalten kann.

Achtung gibt es nur auf der Grundlage der Freiheit: L'amour est l'enfant de la liberté [Liebe ist ein Kind der Freiheit] heißt es in einem alten französischen Lied.

LIEBE ist ein Lebensquell. Was ist der Mensch ohne sie? In den "Brüder Karamasow" läßt Dostojewski den alten Sossima klagen:

"Ihr Väter und Lehrer, was ist die Hölle? Ich denke, sie ist der Schmerz darüber, daß man nicht mehr zu lieben vermag."

Not quite intelligent enough by Aldous huxely

It is man's intelligence that makes him so often behave more stupidly than the beasts. Man is impelled to invent theories to account for what happens in the world. Unfortunately, he is not quite intelligent enough, in most cases, to find correct explanations.

So that when he acts on his theories, he behaves very often like a lunatic. Thus, no animal is clever enough, when there is a drought, to imagine that the rain is being withheld by evil spirits, or as punishment for its transgressions. Therefore you never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religion. No horse, for example would kill one of its foals to make the wind change direction... Asses do not bray a liturgy to cloudless skies. Nor do cats attempt, by abstinence from cat's meat, to wheedle the feline spirits into benevolence.

Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, intelligent enough.
Aldous huxely

The Unseen Battlefields OF Life by Victor Hugo

For there are many great deeds done in the small struggles of life. There is a determined though unseen bravery that defends itself foot by foot in the darkness against the fatal invasions of necessity and dishonesty. Noble and mysterious triumphs that no eye sees and no fame rewards, and no flourish of triumph salutes. Life, misfortunes, isolation, abandonment, poverty, are battlefields that have their heroes; obscure heroes, sometimes greater than the illustrious heroes.
Victor Hugo,Les Misérables

If you are to judge a man by Honore de Balzac

If you are to judge a man,you must know his secret thoughts,
sorrows, and feelings; to know merely the outward events
of a man’s life would only serve to make a chronological table —
a fool’s notion of history.
Honore de Balzac

O DO NOT TELL ME By Gustavo Adolfo Bcquer

Music:
GIOVANNI MARRADI - Romantico

O DO NOT TELL ME...
Gustavo Adolfo Bcquer
Translated by Jules Renard

O, do not tell me, that, its treasure, spent
The lyre is mute from lack of argument,
We may not always rich in poets be,
But never destitute of poesy.

While billows are inflamed with blushes bright
And tremble to receive the kiss of light;
While Phoebus may in majesty behold
The scattered clouds of purple fire and gold;

While in its bosom's folds, the atmosphere
Rare perfumes and sweet harmonies may bear,
While spring exists to fill the heart with glee
There will be always, always, poesy.

While science may not, of endeavor rife,
Discover the true origins of life;
While chasms still remain in sea or sky,
Which all our calculations may defy;

And, while humanity in darkness stalks,
Advancing, without knowing where is walks,
While there is left a single mystery,
There will be always, always, poesy.

While we may feel the soul rejoicing, while
Our lips do not endorse it with a smile;
While we may weep in silent misery
Without a single tear to dew the eye;

While heart and head, by adverse forces pricked
To useless strife,continue to conflict;
While hopes and recollections still may be,
There will be always,always,poesy.

While there are eyes, which may reflect the gaze
Of other eyes in sympathetic rays;
While one lip still with longing may reply
Unto another's corresponding sigh;

While two souls may confound in mutual bliss
And seal the compact with a fervent kiss;
While one fair woman lives for you and me,
There will be always,always,poesy.

The Original Spanish

Rima IV. No digáis que, agotado su tesoro...

No digáis que, agotado su tesoro,
de asuntos falta,enmudeció la lira;
podrá no haber poetas; pero siempre
habrá poesía.

Mientras las ondas de la luz al beso
palpiten encendidas,
mientras el sol las desgarradas nubes
de fuego y oro vista,
mientras el aire en su regazo lleve
perfumes y armonías,
mientras haya en el mundo primavera,
¡habrá poesía!

Mientras la ciencia a descubrir no alcance
las fuentes de la vida,
y en el mar o en el cielo haya un abismo
que al cálculo resista,
mientras la humanidad siempre avanzando
no sepa a dó camina,
mientras haya un misterio para el hombre,
¡habrá poesía!

Mientras se sienta que se ríe el alma,
sin que los labios rían;
mientras se llore, sin que el llanto acuda
a nublar la pupila;
mientras el corazón y la cabeza
batallando prosigan,
mientras haya esperanzas y recuerdos,
¡habrá poesía!

Mientras haya unos ojos que reflejen
los ojos que los miran,
mientras responda el labio suspirando
al labio que suspira,
mientras sentirse puedan en un beso
dos almas confundidas,
mientras exista una mujer hermosa,
¡habrá poesía!

Gravitation of love by D.H. Lawrence

Love is the hastening gravitation of spirit towards spirit,
and body towards body, in the joy of creation.
D.H. Lawrence

Armik - Casa De Amor

Regret is stronger than gratitude by Anne Frank

Dead people receive more flowers than the living ones
because regret is stronger than gratitude.
Anne Frank

Count them by sensation by Benjamin Disraeli

But what minutes! Count them by sensation,
and not by calendars, and each moment is a day.
Benjamin Disraeli

Life is not lost by dying by Stephen Saint Vincent Benet

Life is not lost by dying;
life is lost minute by minute,day by day,in all
the thousand small,uncaring ways.
Stephen Saint Vincent Benet

Another way of Tears by Sanober Khan

I am infinitely yearning
brimming
and overflowing
in words

I discover
it’s another way
for me
to be in tears.
Sanober Khan,Turquoise Silence

Sadness & Happiness by Osho

Sadness gives depth.Happiness gives height.Sadness gives roots. Happiness gives branches.Happiness is like a tree going into the sky,and sadness is like the roots going down into the womb of the earth.

Both are needed,and the higher a tree goes, the deeper it goes, simultaneously. The bigger the tree,the bigger will be its roots.In fact, it is always in proportion. That's its balance.
Osho

Be greeting in Love’s name by Dante Alighieri

To every captive soul and gentle heart
Unto whose sight may come the present word,
That they thereof to me their thoughts impart,
Be greeting in Love’s name, who is their Lord.
Dante Alighieri

Nicolas De Angelis-Besame Mucho

Reconciliation by George William Russell

Reconciliation
George William Russell

I begin through the grass once again to be bound to the Lord;
I can see, through a face that has faded, the face full of rest
Of the earth, of the mother, my heart with her heart in accord,
As I lie 'mid the cool green tresses that mantle her breast
I begin with the grass once again to be bound to the Lord.

By the hand of a child I am led to the throne of the King
For a touch that now fevers me not is forgotten and far,
And His infinite sceptred hands that sway us can bring
Me in dreams from the laugh of a child to the song of a star.
On the laugh of a child I am borne to the joy of the King.

Achieving Goal by Henry David Thoreau

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.
Henry David Thoreau

My desire is for the lightning by Ibn ‘Arabi

He saw the lightning in the East and longed for the East,
but if it had flashed in the West he would have longed for the West.
My desire is for the lightning and its gleam, not for places and earth.
Ibn ‘Arabi

Is it a crime to love too well? Alexander pope

Is it, in Heav'n, a crime to love too well?
To bear too tender, or too firm a heart,
To act a lover's or a Roman's part?
Is there no bright reversion in the sky,
For those who greatly think, or bravely die?
Alexander pope

The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Music:
Daveed - A Beautiful Story

The Invitation
Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It doesn’t interest me
what you do for a living.
I want to know
what you ache for
and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me
how old you are.
I want to know
if you will risk
looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me
what planets are
squaring your moon...
I want to know
if you have touched
the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened
by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know
if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know
if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you
to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations
of being human.

It doesn’t interest me
if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear
the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know
if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live
or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me
who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me
where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know
what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know
if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like
the company you keep
in the empty moments.