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Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.

— Rumi

May 23, 2016

Real Prosperity

A rich man asked Sengai to write something for the continued prosperity of his family so that it might be treasured from generation to generation.

Sengai obtained a large sheet of paper and wrote: “Father dies, son dies, grandson dies.”

The rich man became angry. “I asked you to write something for the happiness of my family! Why do you make such a joke of this?”

“No joke is intended,” explained Sengai. “If before you yourself die your son should die, this would grieve you greatly. If your grandson should pass away before your son, both of you would be broken-hearted. If your family, generation after generation, passes away in the order I have named, it will be the natural course of life. I call this real prosperity.”

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“There are many universes and many Earths parallel to each other. Worlds
like yours, where people’s souls live inside their bodies, and worlds
like mine, where they walk beside us, as animal spirits we call daemons.

So many worlds. But connecting them all is Dust. Dust was here before
the witches of the air, the Gyptians of the water, and the bears of the
ice. In my world, scholars invented an alethiometer – a golden compass –
and it showed them all that was hidden. But the ruling power, fearing
any truth but their own, destroyed these devices and forbade the very
mention of Dust. One compass remains, however, and only one who can read
it.”—Serafina Pekkala/ The Golden Compass

May 16, 2016

Tags:air animals daemon earth film god movie Quote of the Day Serafina Pekkala soul Stardust The Golden Compass universe world

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You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.

— George Bernard Shaw

May 12, 2016

Tags:Art George Bernard Shaw Quote of the Day soul

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When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.

— Rumi

April 20, 2016

Tags:joy Quote of the Day Rumi soul

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Causes of Death

March 2, 2016

Tags:cancer Causes of Death Death External Infection mental soul

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How Grass and Trees Become Enlightened

During the Kamakura period, Shinkan studied Tendai six years and then studied Zen seven years; then he went to China and contemplated Zen for thirteen years more.

When he returned to Japan many desired to interview him and asked onscure questions. But when Shinkan received visitors, which was infrequently, he seldom answered their questions.

One day a fifty-year-old student of enlightenment said to Shinkan: “I have studied the Tendai school of thought since I was a little boy, but one thing in it I cannot understand. Tendai claims that even the grass and trees will become enlightened. To me this seems very strange.”

“Of what use is it to discuss how grass and trees become enlightened?” asked Shinkan. “The question is how you yourself can become so. Did you ever consider that?”

“I never thought of it in that way,” marveled the old man.

“Then go home and think it over,” finished Shinkan.

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