Lenses

A few choice word-lenses to help in meditation,
collected from a variety of sources.
If you just have to know the source of this or that quote,
write Magellan's Log and we'll tell you.

§ When you understand that the external world has nothing to do with your real self, and you act accordingly, you then return to your original state.

§ The Tao is perfect, like vast space, where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess. Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept and reject that we fail to see the true nature of things. Live neither in the confusing entanglements of outer things nor in inner feelings of emptiness. Be serene in the oneness of things and such erroneous beliefs will disappear of themselves. When you use activity to try to achieve passivity, your very effort fills you with activity. As long as you live in one extreme or another, you will not know oneness.

§ The movement of the Tao consists in returning. The method of the Tao consists in softness. All things under heaven arise from the corporeal. The corporeal arises from the incorporeal. From what does the incorporeal arise?

§ Learn to see with the eyes of the formerly blind, to hear with the ears of the formerly deaf, to walk with the ears of the formerly lame, to speak with the tongue of the formerly mute.

§ As the irrigator directs water to the field, as the archer aims the arrow, as the carpenter carves wood, so the wise shape their lives.

§ Living in the dark, why do you not seek the light more often?

§ I will lift mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help.

§ There is no season when you are grown. You are always risen from the seeds you've sown. There is no reason to rise alone. Other stories given have sages of their own.

§ Live where your heart can be given, and your life starts to unfold in the forms you envision in this dream that's ages old. On the river layer is the only sayer. You receive all you can hold, like you've been told.

§ Every day's another dawning. Give the morning winds a chance. Always catch your thunder yawning. Lift your mind into the dance. Sweep the shadows from your awning. Shrink the fourfold circumstance that lies outside this house.

§ Draw from the Well of Unchanging. Its union nourishes on in the right re-arranging till the last confusion is gone. Water-brothers trust in the ultimate of the always singing song they pass along.

§ One-eyed men aren't really reigning. They just march in place until two-eyed men with mystery training finally feel the power fill. Three-eyed men are not complaining. They can yo-yo where they will. They slip inside this house as they pass by. Don't pass it by.

§ The bo-tree is everywhere.

§ The falling leaf feeds next spring's hidden seeds. Time and nature heal the heart's hidden needs.

§ Bow to the ocean, as the ocean bows to you. It was waiting for you tomorrow. It will be waiting for you yesterday.

§ All the world is but a play. Be thou the joyful player.

§ One light, the light that is one though the lamps be many.

§ You never enjoy the world aright till the sea itself floweth In your veins and you are clothed with the heavens and crowned with the stars."

§ Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

§ Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin.

§ Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

§ Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

§ The spirit of the valley never dies. It is called the subtle and profound female. The gate of the subtle and profound female is the root of Heaven and Earth. It is continuous, and seems to be always existing. Use it and you will never wear it out.

§ To yield is to be preserved whole. To be bent is to become straight. To be empty is to be full. To be worn out is to be renewed. To have little is to possess. To have plenty is to be perplexed.

§ One may know the world without going out of doors. One may see the Way of Heaven without looking through the windows. The further one goes, the less one knows. Therefore the sage knows without going about, understands without seeing, And accomplishes without any action.

§ In the blink of an eye a thousand changes can take place. When the wind ceases, the waves become calm.

§ Withdraw inwardly and search for the ground upon which you stand; thereby you will find out what Truth is.

§ When you exhale there is no guarantee that you will inhale again. How can you waste your self on useless things?

§ If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you have will destroy you.

§ To see a world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.

§ But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee. Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee; and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.

§ The bluebird carries the sky on its back.

§ We need the tonic of wildness. We can never have enough of nature.

§ Adversity can never rival the steadying power given us when we praise being.

§ The bee gathers nectar from the flower without marring its beauty or perfume.

§ The fool who knows he is a fool is that much wiser. The fool who thinks he is wise is a fool indeed.

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