That enormously complex biological interactions are so flawlessly coordinated as to result in such obvious manifestations as human thought or the electrical activity that dries the heartbeat is as exciting to me -- actually more exciting -- than such phenomena were when I was a small boy and thought them divinely (in the supernatural sense) driven.
— Sherwin B. NulandWhat if your Vision Board came true?
— Juliette PowerZen has been called the 'religion before religion,' which is to say that anyone can practice, including those committed to another faith. And that phrase evokes that natural religion of our early childhood, when heaven and a splendorous earth were one. But soon the child's clear eye is clouded over by ideas and opinions, preconceptions and abstractions. Not until years later does an instinct come that a vital sense of mystery has been withdrawn. The sun glints through the pines, and the heart is pierced in a moment of beauty and strange pain, like a memory of paradise. After that day, at the bottom of each breath, there is a hollow place filled with longing. We become seekers without knowing that we seek, and at first, we long for something 'greater' than ourselves, something apart and far away. It is not a return to childhood, for childhood is not a truly enlightened state. Yet to seek one's own true nature is 'a way to lead you to your long lost home.' To practice Zen means to realize one's existence moment after moment, rather than letting life unravel in regret of the past and daydreaming of the future. To 'rest in the present' is a state of magical simplicity...Out of the emptiness can come a true insight into our natural harmony all creation. To travel this path, one need not be a 'Zen Buddhist', which is only another idea to be discarded like 'enlightenment,' and like 'the Buddha' and like 'God.
— Peter MatthiessenDaily life, the sacred time of a man.
— Lailah Gifty AkitaIt’s said that the Buddha’s enlightenment is great than that of a traveler setting out, in the same proportion as the heavens are bigger than what can be seen of them through the eye of a needle. But in both cases, what you see is the sky.
— Matthieu RicardThe life sciences contain spiritual values which can never be explained by the materialistic attitude of present day science.
— Sherwin B. NulandRelations are also like living things, they breath, grow and make our lives wonderful and happier by their fragrance. Don't press or crush their necks……! Let them breath……! Let them grow……!Because if we are climbing a mountain, each step may get harder but we should keep going, because we know that the view will be very beautiful from the Top....!Take good care of you and your relations...!
— ziaYou turn the light on, you get all kinds of bugs.
— Rob BellDivinity retains the appearance of insight, when in reality it celebrates ignorance. Its tenets are so much clay, and when the clay sets, it becomes dogma.
— Anthony RyanThe light within my spirit is a sacred lamp.
— Lailah Gifty Akita