“Just living is not enough,”
said the butterfly.
“One must have sunshine,
freedom and a little flower.”
Hans Christian Andersen
Tag: spirituality
Another World in Stone
“Only those who truly love and who are truly strong can sustain their lives as a dream. You dwell in your own enchantment. Life throws stones at you, but your love and your dream change those stones into the flowers of discovery. Even if you lose, or are defeated by things, your triumph will always be exemplary. And if no one knows it, then there are places that do. People like you enrich the dreams of the worlds, and it is dreams that create history. People like you are unknowing transformers of things, protected by your own fairy-tale, by love.”
Ben Okri
Ant No Thing to Fight About… There’s Plenty of Light
“There are three types of approaches towards the Lord; the Eagle type, which swoops down on the target with a greedy swiftness and suddenness which, by its very impact, fails to secure the object coveted; the Monkey type, which flits hither and thither, from one to another, unable to decide which is tasty; and the Ant type which moves steadily, though slowly towards the object which it has decided is desirable. The ant does not hit the fruit hard and makes it fall away; it does not pluck all the fruits it seeks; it appropriates just as much as it can assimilate and no more. Do not fritter away the time allotted to you for sojourning on the earth in foolish foppery and fanciful foibles, which always keep you outdoors. When are you to walk indoors into the warmth and quiet of your own interior? Retire into solitude and silence now and then; experience the joy derivable only from them.”
Atharva Veda
Daisy Don’t Doubt… Does He Love Me, Does He Love Me Not
“When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among
his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams
as the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you
so shall he crucify you.
Even as he is for your growth
so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and
caresses your tenderest branches
that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots
and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire,
that you may become sacred bread
for God’s sacred feast.
All these things shall love do unto you
that you may know the secrets of your heart,
and in that knowledge become
a fragment of Life’s heart.
But if in your fear you would seek
only love’s peace and love’s pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your
nakedness and pass out of love’s threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh,
but not all of your laughter, and weep,
but not all of your tears.
Love gives naught but itself and
takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.
When you love you should not say,
“God is in my heart,” but rather,
“I am in the heart of God.”
And think not you can direct the course of love,
for love, if it finds you worthy,
directs your course.
Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires,
let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook
that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and
give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and
meditate love’s ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer
for the beloved in your heart
and a song of praise upon your lips.”
Kahlil Gibran
Just Be a Butterfly
“The mark of your ignorance is
the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy.
What the caterpillar calls the end of the world,
the master calls a butterfly.”
Richard Bach
Dandelion Warmth
“No creature is fully itself till it is,
like the dandelion, opened in the bloom
of pure relationship to the sun,
the entire living cosmos.”
D.H. Lawrence
Sprout On Fire
“In front of me,
I see the jungle burning; behind me,
I see green plants sprouting.
We shall merge into the One
from whom we came.”
Sri Guru Granth Sahib
See How Her Tulips Glow
” … no girl had ever moved me with a story
of spiritual suffering and so beautifully her
soul showing out radiant as an angel
wandering in hell and the hell the
selfsame streets I’d roamed in watching,
watching for someone just like her
and never dreaming
the darkness and the mystery
and eventuality of our meeting in eternity.”
Jack Kerouac
Stars Reflection
“Service to humanity is service to God.
Let the love and light of the Kingdom
radiate through you until all who look
upon you shall be illumined by its reflection.
Be as stars, brilliant and sparkling
in the loftiness of their heavenly station.”
Abdu’l Baha
Let The Light Shine Through
“From within or from behind,
a light shines through us upon things,
and makes us aware that we are nothing,
but the light is all.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
