Beauty Law #13

...Silence the judge and the critic within and you will see Beauty abundantly... Mother Nature never forgets this Law. Seek and find Beauty in all you think, say and do....

Cynthia F. Davidson, excerpted from the Wisdom Wheel Beauty Law card

What if Beauty was a Law? Could it reduce the amount of ugliness, sickness and violence in our world? It is not the glossy made-up magazine type Beauty I mean, but the kind that needs no airbrushing or faking. The Beauty which radiates from within, no matter what the age of the person, place or thing. Not just visual Beauty, but a quality you can sense and feel, emanating as you approach, a sacredness and holiness. 

Since ancient times the Navajo people, aka Diné or Naabeehó from the Southwestern USA, have based their way of life upon this Law. They call it the Beauty Way and seek to maintain harmony, goodness, normality, success, well-being, blessedness, and happiness via this philosophy, which includes the ideals of prettiness, pleasantness and worthiness. The Navajo are the largest federally recognized tribe with over 300,000 enrolled members. Even today, when one is ill, they seek the help of a medicine person, to conduct a healing ceremony, to re-establish Balance and Beauty in their life so they can return to wellness. Here is an English adaptation of one of the prayers. 

Today may I walk in beauty.

With beauty may I walk.

With beauty before me, may I walk.

With beauty behind me, may I walk.

With beauty above me, may I walk.

With beauty below me, may I walk.

With beauty around me, may I walk.

It is finished in beauty.

It is finished in beauty.

Repeat this at least once a day, for the next ten days, and see what happens. Listen to the Navajo musician R. Carlos Nakai's transporting flute music. Bring up the subject of Beauty often. Ask others what they believe about it. Many are cynical about Beauty because it has been commercialized, and exploited, to sell everything from lingerie to cars. Let go of any sarcasm you might have, about your own capacity for Beauty, and try to appreciate it instead for the coming days.  
      

Here are a few nuggets of wisdom about Beauty.

Beauty is the ideal of perfect harmony which is in the universal being; truth the perfect comprehension of the universal mind. We individuals approach it through our own mistakes and blunders, through our accumulated experience, through our illumined consciousness - how, otherwise, can we know truth? Beauty is truth's smile when she beholds her own face in a perfect mirror… By plucking her petals, you do not gather the beauty of the flower. 

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) sobriquet Gurudev, a Bengali polymath; poet, novelist, musician, and playwright, won 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first Asian Nobel laureate

We ascribe beauty to that which is simple; which has no superfluous parts; which exactly answers its end; which stands related to all things; which is the mean of many extremes… Things may be pretty, graceful, rich, elegant, handsome, but, until they speak to the imagination, not yet beautiful…. Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.

Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983)

Beauty is indeed the sphere of unfettered contemplation and reflection; beauty conducts us into the world of ideas, without taking us from the world of sense…By beauty the sensuous man is brought back to matter and restored to the world of sense.

Friedrich von Schiller

 Science will never be able to reduce the value of a sunset to arithmetic. Nor can it reduce friendship to formula. Laughter and love, pain and loneliness, the challenge of beauty and truth: these will always surpass the scientific mastery of nature.

Louis Orr in 1960 speech to the American Medical Association

Beauty is an experience, nothing else. It is not a fixed pattern or an arrangement of features. It is something felt, a glow or a communicated sense of fineness. What ails us is that our sense of beauty is so bruised and blunted, we miss all the best.

D. H. Lawrence, English novelist

The soul's beauty is harder to see than the beauty of the body. The beauty that addresses itself to the eyes is only the spell of the moment; the eye of the body is not always that of the soul.

George Sand aka Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin, (1804 – 1876), became Baroness Dudevant, first female French novelist to gain a major reputation

All that one loves becomes beautiful. Beauty is nothing but the expression of the fact that something is being loved.

Robert Musil (1880 - 1942) Austrian novelist, books include The Man Without Qualities.

…beauty is simply reality seen with the eyes of love. 

Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941) English theologian and mystic

When we meet a person who’s beautiful, we say they ‘lit up the room’… transcendent beauty is an inner beacon, brilliantly lit and brimming with bliss. Learn how to attract light while calming the ego— when the mind abides by the soul, the body, in turn, is connected to this knowingness, and transcendent beauty follows. Such people live in harmony—their health is abundant, their bodies are agile and fit, and their minds are vibrant and inspired. People talk about attractiveness but that is merely physical, while true beauty comes from the soul.

Crystal Andrus author of Transcendent Beauty

For beauty is the cause of harmony, of sympathy, of community. Beauty unites all things and is the source of all things. It is the great creating cause which bestirs the world and holds al things in existence by the longing inside them to have beauty. And there it is ahead of all as…the Beloved…toward which all things move, since it is the longing for beauty which actually brings them into being.

Pseudo-Dionysius in The Divine Names

They who manifest the Beauty of My thinking in the orderliness of Universal Law(s)…are already in My house. The doors of My kingdom are opened to them…

Walter Russell (1871–1963), controversial American artist and author, books include The Universal One and The Book of Beauty

Beauty is how the gods attract us into life. 

James Hillman

Our hearts yearn for beauty. In the Kabbalah, beauty, called tiferet, is where spirit and form meet and the human and divine are in balance. Linked to compassion and harmony, beauty is at the very center of the Tree of Life. 

J. Ruth Gendler in her book Notes on the Need for Beauty 

Because we have so disastrously neglected the Beautiful, we find ourselves in such terrible crisis…In the experience of beauty we awaken and surrender in the same act. Beauty brings a sense of completion and sureness. Without any of the usual calculation, we can slip into the Beautiful with the same ease as we slip into the seamless embrace of water; something ancient within us already trusts that this embrace will hold us.

John O’Donohue in The Invisible Embrace of Beauty

In ten days, I'll post the 14th Law of the Eternal Present. Until then, enjoy your inherent Beauty, and the universal Beauty all around you in Nature.

Integrity Law #12

To act powerfully in the world, all parts must synchronize. No one can take on the whole world, or live a whole life, until they become a whole person. Discuss the relationship between ‘integrate’ and Integrity…  (excerpt from the Integrity card, available at www.thewisdomwheel.com)

Time to consider the Law of Integrity and why the laws of our land have failed to instill Integrity in our culture. Based on the daily news, about everything from crime statistics to cheating scandals at schools, banks and in politics, I think we need a lot of ethical rehab, not just drug and alcohol rehab. 

Is Integrity a head, heart or a gut issue in your life? Do you believe you can be a person of Integrity without first being whole? Notice that the Law of Trust balances this Law on the Wheel. Without one, you won't have the other.

For the next ten days, make Integrity your watch word. Bring it up in conversation often enough to be considered a bit of a pest. Find out what people believe about Integrity. How important is it to you? Have you left any job(s) for the sake of Integrity? People who 'sell their souls' have usually sold their Integrity. This causes the psychic pain of conscience which can drive many to abuse drugs & alcohol...there's always a link.

Identify one thing you can do this week about your Integrity. Help someone else maintain theirs. Be honest, keep your word, be a person of Integrity. All the money in the world can't buy it back. 

      

Here are some nuggets of wisdom about Integrity.

Integrity requires that I discern what is integral to my selfhood, what fits and what does not - and that I choose live-giving ways of relating to the forces that converge within me... By choosing integrity, I become more whole, but wholeness does not mean perfection. It means becoming more real by acknowledging the whole of who I am. 

Parker J. Palmer, American teacher and author, books include Hidden Wholeness

Knowing what we value deeply-what we hold most dear, when in alignment with being of service to the greater will of all, allows us to take right action in our personal and professional lives. When the will and action are conscious, and in alignment, integrity follows…There is a voice within us that tells us when we are acting right.

Maureen Simon

If we want more brotherhood and goodwill, more intelligence, more clear thinking, more honesty and sincerity, more tolerance and human understanding we must concentrate upon cultivating these qualities within ourselves... There is no substitute for personal integrity. 

Howard W. Hintz, DD

…instead of dividing into mirror-image opposites…people need to achieve a healthier balance of integration. But such integration is difficult. It represents that high human achievement: wisdom. In the absence of wisdom, people are compelled to struggle in their folly. Each side, wedded to its half-truth, sees the other as the problem. But the problem is a property of the system: the polarization and conflict are symptoms of the failure to find a way to bring together those values that are in tension. 

Andrew Bard Schmookler books include Beyond Dispute: Working Through America's Moral Polarization and Fool's Gold: The Fate of Values in a World of Goods

 The saying, “to thine own self be true,” means to act in accord with one’s deepest feelings and values, no matter what the social consequences.  Such emotional integrity could well lead to deliberately provoking a confrontation, for instance, in order to cut through duplicity or denial – this clearing of the air is something a social chameleon would never attempt.

Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ

Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people.

 Spencer Johnson

It is no longer enough to be smart -- all the technological tools in the world add meaning and value only if they enhance our core values, the deepest part of our heart. Acquiring knowledge is no guarantee of practical, useful application. Wisdom implies a mature integration of appropriate knowledge, a seasoned ability to filter the inessential from the essential.

Doc Childre and Deborah Rozman

..it is not what we profess but what we practice that gives us integrity.

 Francis Bacon, Sr. (1561-1626) English lawyer and philosopher

What is not integrated repeats itself until it is integrated. I look at the personal story and the societal story as being one and the same, only in larger or smaller scale. In our families and in our nations, what we see is our disintegration being played out. The journey needed now is the integration of ancestor wisdom into the living community—personally in each of our families, and globally in the human family.

Angeles Arrien in The Four Fold Way

Principles are like a compass. A compass has a true north that is objective and external, that reflects natural laws or principles, as opposed to values which are subjective and internal. Because the compass represents the eternal verities of life, we must develop our value system with deep respect for "true north" principles… Consider the absurdity of trying to live a life or run a business based on the opposites…unfairness, deceit, baseness, uselessness, mediocrity, or degradation

Michael Lewis Norton

When you are fully integrated you can be either/or/both/all that you are. You are androgynous in spirit. Your physical nature is just something you take on, play with. No matter how you look, you are not as you seem, you are a soul. 

Christina Baldwin, in Life’s Companion 

The great spiritual leaders of humankind, Buddha, Jesus, Mahatma Gandhi, St. Francis or the Dali Lama, possessed integrated values that seem to put tension into a form that was not just a compromise on the lowest common denominators. At their level of integration, one might be at once freer than the libertines, and more disciplined than the straight-laced. One could be both a better warrior than the hawks and a better peacemaker than the doves. 

Andrew Bard Schmookler in The Dance of Polarization

It is in the integration of the inner and outer worlds that true spirituality can be distinguished from false. But this integration is greatly influenced by an internal struggle in the psyche for balance. From this struggle self-knowledge is attained.

Katherine Tyler Scott in ‘Leadership & Spirituality’ chapter of Spirit at Work

Integrity means living and acting in alignment with spiritual law and with our highest vision, despite impulses to the contrary. From the heart of integrity we recognize, accept and express our authentic interior reality, inspiring others now with words, but by our example.

Dan Millman in The Laws of Spirit

The personality is the integration of the physical, emotional and mental worlds in one…Integration of the soul with the personality connects to the plane of intuition and the spiritual world… The goal of all development is integration – of the individual as a personality; integration of the personality with the individual soul: integration of the human with the whole, until complete unity has been achieved.

Margo Kirtikar, Ph.D. in Cosmic and Universal Laws 

In ten days, we'll look at the 13th Law of Beauty. Until then, enjoy integrating your thoughts, feelings, intuitions and sense of spirit.

Higher Purpose Law #11

‘Be certain that all members can clearly state the shared purpose by heart… It is for each individual to find their personal alignment between group purpose and their life’s purpose… Once ‘cross-purposes’ are released, the energies can flow freely, and Higher Purpose can be accomplished.

     (from Higher Purpose card, available at www.thewisdomwheel.com)

Only 5% of Americans believe they are living out their Higher Purpose. Are you one of them? Imagine working with people who love what they are doing so much they'd do it for free? What difference does it make when you believe you are spending your days doing what you are meant to? 

On the Wisdom Wheel, the Law of Right Action balances Higher Purpose, as you can see above. It is easier to know what to do when your sense of deliberate intention informs every one of your Choices. Think of people you know who are living purposeful lives, not in a self-righteous way, but from a place of deep Commitment. What is the cost of not living from a place of deep, abiding purpose?   

For the next ten days, make Higher Purpose your watch word. Bring it up in conversation as often as you can. Learn more about how people discover their Higher Purpose. If you knew you only had a year left to live, what would you spend the next 365 days doing? This might hold a clue to your true purpose. 

Identify one thing you can do this week about your Higher Purpose, or to help someone else with finding or living by theirs. Don't wait till it's too late.

      

Here are some nuggets of wisdom about Higher Purpose from others.

This law says that we have taken physical form to fulfill a purpose. You have a unique talent and a unique way of expressing it. There is something that you can do better than anyone else in the whole world--and for every unique talent and unique expression of that talent, there are also unique needs. When these needs are matched with the creative expression of your talent, that spark creates affluence.

Deepak Chopra in The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success

Becoming a force of nature doesn't mean that all of our aspirations must be ‘grand.’ First steps are often small, and initial visions that focus energy effectively often address immediate problems. What matters is engagement in the service of a larger purpose rather than lofty aspirations that paralyze action. Indeed, it's a dangerous trap to believe that we can pursue only ‘great visions.’ 

Peter Senge in Presence : An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Society

A man…who knows the ‘why’ for his existence will be able to bear almost any ‘how.’ … What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him. 

Victor Frankl, psychologist & concentration camp survivor  

Every life needs a purpose to which it can give the energies of its mind and the enthusiasm of its heart. Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible and suddenly you are doing the impossible. 

Saint Francis of Assisi

The Vision that you glorify in your mind, the Ideal that you enthrone in your heart - this you will build your life by, this you will become. Until thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment. They who have no central purpose in their life fall an easy prey to petty worries, fears, troubles, and self-pityings, all of which are indications of weakness, which lead, just as surely as deliberately planted seeds, to failure, unhappiness and loss, for weakness cannot persist in a power-evolving universe.

James Allen (1864-1912) British philosophical author of As A Man Thinketh

Creating a joint venture between head and heart puts a power pack behind your goals. Getting your head in sync with your heart and harnessing the power of coherence gives you the energy efficiency you need to achieve changes that haven't been possible before. The head can notice what things need to change, but the heart provides the power and direction to actually bring about the changes.... By using your heart as your compass, you can see more clearly which direction to go to stop self-defeating behavior. If you take just one mental or emotional habit that really bothers or drains you and apply heart intelligence to it, you'll see a noticeable difference in your life.

Doc Childre and Howard Martin, The HeartMath Solution

There are three components to the Law of Dharma…a Sanskrit word that means ‘purpose in life.’

-The first says that each of us is here to discover our true Self.

-The second component is to express our unique talents; the expression of that talent takes you into timeless awareness.

-The third component is service to humanity.

When you combine the ability to express your unique talent with service to humanity, then you make full use of the Law of Dharma. 

Deepak Chopra in The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success

When I chased after money, I never had enough. When I got my life on purpose and focused on giving of myself and everything that arrived into my life, then I was prosperous.

Dr. Wayne Dyer

Chase your passion, not your pension.

Denis Waitley

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. And it will leave you unfulfilled.

Barack Obama, US President

Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to a divine purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: That we are here for the sake of others...for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German American physicist won 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics

We are visitors on this planet.  We are here for ninety, a hundred years at the very most.  During that period we must try to do something good, something useful with our lives.  Try to be at peace with yourself and help others share that peace.  If you contribute to others’ happiness, you will find the true goal, the meaning of life.

The Dalai Lama, Tibetan spiritual leader

The sole purpose of life is to grow... everything in life has purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from. ...The greatest rewards in your whole life will come from opening your heart to those in need. The greatest blessings always come from helping... It is very important that you do only what you love to do. You may be poor, you may go hungry, you may live in a shabby place but you will totally live. And at the end of your days, you will bless your life because you have done what you came here to do. 

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross,(1926- 2004) Swiss born psychiatrist and researcher studied death and dying and popularized the five stages of the dying process, books include memoir, The Wheel of Life. 

I'll post the next Law of Integrity ten days from now. Stay tuned.

Trust Law #10

Can you Trust these people? If a sudden fire broke out, who would risk their life to pull you to safety? Would you risk your life for anyone in this room? For everyone in this room? Is it easier to risk our lives than to Trust others with our truth?…

            Cynthia Davidson from Wisdom Wheel Trust card 

(To order cards, stones or a poster visit www.thewisdomwheel.com)

Who do you Trust? 
Are you a trustworthy person?  
The lack of Trust creates the absence of Integrity. These values Balance each other on the Wisdom Wheel, as you can see from their positions above, Laws #10 & #12, anchoring the North and South Directions. 
Each time you hear of another scandal; in business, politics or the personal lives of people you know, realize it's a breach of Trust. 
Such a short, simple word, yet how difficult to get it back, once it's been lost. Imagine the worst possible betrayal you could suffer. Losing your Trust in a spouse, a parent, friend or spiritual leader can trigger the most intense crisis; anger, depression and the questioning of all your beliefs. 

For the next ten days, make Trust your watch word. Bring it up in conversation as often as you can. Learn more about who and what inspires your Trust. Why is Trust declining, while lawyers and their fees continue climbing? When does distrust begin? What do you do when you doubt some one?  

Identify one thing you can do to increase the degree of Trust you have in yourself, at least. Do you tend to give your Trust too early or too late?

      

Here are some nuggets of wisdom about Trust from others. 

The key to trust is action... Trust goes hand in hand with truth. Lying is always a breach of trust...telling the truth establishes trust, lying destroys it...The worst enemies of trust are cynicism, selfishness, and a naïve conception of life, in which one expects more than one is willing to give. Resentment, distrust, and in-authenticity are the result.... The freedom provided by trust is the freedom to think for ones’ self and to speak one's ideas.

Fernando Flores & Robert C. Solomon from their book, Building Trust: In Business, Politics, Relationships and Life (2001)

Self-trust is the most basic and most often neglected form of trust. Distrust is often a projection of missing self-trust.

Fernando Flores & Robert C. Solomon

To create a relationship of trust, ‘x’ and ‘y’ must learn each others’ beliefs. 

Robert Muller, ex-U.N. Assistant Secretary General, retired Chancellor of the University of Peace, in Costa Rica

Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear.

William E. Gladstone Minister (1868-1894) British Statesman and Prime minister

Trust is a leap of faith that makes us vulnerable – to betrayal, exploitation, incompetence, chance and the unexpected – a leap that flies in the face of guaranteed fail-safe passage.

Allan E. Mallinger, M.D. & Jeannette DeWyze

Trust cannot be forced…Love, trust and safety can be brought to our relationships once we have found them in ourselves, by letting go of fear, guilt and defensiveness.  …emotional nurturing and reflection enable us to release defenses that prevent us from experiencing wholeness.

Jack Gibb in Trust

To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.

George Macdonald

We don’t let go into trust until we have exhausted our egos.

Rob Lehman

The inability to open up to hope is what blocks trust, and blocked trust is the reason for blighted dreams… To sit patiently with a yearning that has not yet been fulfilled, and to trust that fulfillment will come, is quite possibly one of the most powerful ‘magic skills’ that human beings are capable of. It has been noted by most ancient wisdom traditions. 

Elizabeth Gilbert (1969 - ) American novelist, books include Eat, Pray, Love

Imagine what the world would be like, if we could not trust the food we buy, the water we drink or that the people we depend on would not manipulate or harm us? ...The only way we can expect trust is to be trustworthy ourselves. Unfortunately, many people don't trust themselves, nor their judgments and decisions, therefore, we experience disharmony in our lives...

Sidney Madwed

When they lose their sense of awe,

people turn to religion.

When they no longer trust themselves,

they begin to depend upon authority.

...The Master observes the world

but trusts his inner vision.

He allows things to come and go.

His heart is open as the sky.

Lao Tzu (c.604 - 531 B.C.)

It is possible to have mistaken expectations, but it is impossible to be “too trusting.” Real trust is deepened and informed by disappointment, just as spiritual vision is refined by disillusionment. Trust prepares us for the best by teaching us to prepare for a future far

better than what we may merely be hoping for.

D. Patrick Miller

Trust is about honor, integrity, and accountability. There is no greater freedom than absolutely knowing that you can trust another person. Trust brings peace. Trust lets me sleep at night. Trust feels right. Trust feels good. Trust is being free from worry.

Being trusted is an honor. Being trusted carries a responsibility and with that responsibility, there is pride. There is dignity. There is self worth. Trust is human. Trust is transformative. Trust is care. Trust is virtuous. Trust is authentic. Trust is pure. Trust is sincerity.  

Mark A. Taylor

You can Trust me to post another entry ten days days from now. It will be on Higher Purpose, the 11th Law. Until then, enjoy your Trust lessons.

Right Action Law #9

'...Right Action is grounded in soul knowledge, not the man-made world's aims or values. Very few have the patience for the 'waiting and becoming' that precedes Right Action...'

                       Cynthia F. Davidson from Wisdom Wheel Right Action card

(To order cards, stones or a poster visit www.thewisdomwheel.com)

Right Action isn't about goading yourself into doing more and more. We are human beings, not human doings, after all. Sometimes no action is the Right Action. Too quick to seek approval, curry favor, or make money, we do things we have not thought all the way through to their final consequences. 
In your heart you know what Right Action is, though if you refuse to listen to your heart, that wisdom is harder to access. Right Action is not about self-righteousness, dogma, or following arbitrary rules others made either. It's about your personal code of ethics and whether you use it to guide all your actions.

Love was our last Law, and it's worth remembering that Right Action becomes easier to see when Love directs us. And yes, even moving your money from a big bank into your local community credit union, is an example of Right Action, unless you find big faceless banks easier to Love. Social justice is one area of Right Action that takes others into account as well as ourselves.  

For the next ten days, make Right Action your watch word. See what happens when you practice asking yourself before making your decisions, 'Is this the Right Action for me?' Listen for internal and external voices, old tapes, and excuses. Bring up the subject of Right Action every chance you get; with friends, co-workers and family members. See who else has wisdom to share about this Universal Law. Right Action comes from right thoughts, right 

feelings, right health and being right with spirit.

       

Here are some nuggets of wisdom about Right Action from others. 

Now this Law or Rule about Right and Wrong used to be called the Law of Nature.  Nowadays, when we talk of the 'laws of nature' we usually mean things like gravitation, or heredity, or the laws of chemistry.  But when the older thinkers called the Law of Right and Wrong the 'Law of Nature', they really meant the Law of Human Nature. The idea was that, just as all bodies are governed by the law of gravitation, and organisms by biological laws, so the creature called man also had his law--with this great difference, that a body could not choose whether it obeyed the law of gravitation or not, but a man could choose either to obey the Law of Human Nature or to disobey it.

C. S. Lewis

So act that your principle of action might safely be made law for the whole world. 
Immanuel Kant

However a man works to right his world, it will never be righted until he has put himself right.

James Allen

Imagine if all the energy that goes into trying to prove the other side wrong were channeled into actually thinking about what was best for whatever the dispute is about. Having to be right becomes a barrier to learning and understanding. It keeps you away from growing, for there is no growth without changing, correcting, and questioning yourself. … once you experience the power of not having to be right, you will feel like you are walking across open fields, the perspective wide and your feet free to take any turn.

John Naisbitt

 The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart. 

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Sometimes you can fight evil and beat it, and sometimes you can only keep it in check. I learned never to feed evil with evil, nor hatred with hatred, nor to fight fear with fear. I learned to fight with love for even those things that I despised.

Tom Brown, Jr.

It is a feeling that no matter what the ideas or conduct of others, there is a unique rightness and beauty to life which can be shared in openness, in wind and sunlight, with a fellow human being who believes in the same basic principles.

Sylvia Plath

Hate is an unfaithful weapon. Be neither brave nor afraid, but at peace.

Master Kan

There is no easy formula for determining right and wrong livelihood, but it is essential to keep the question alive. To return the sense of dignity and honor to manhood, we have to stop pretending that we can make a living at something that is trivial or destructive and still have sense of legitimate self-worth. A society in which vocation and job are separated for most people gradually creates an economy that is often devoid of spirit, one that frequently fills our pocketbooks at the cost of emptying our souls.

 Sam Keen

Any economic system that does not benefit the natural communities on which it is based is unsustainable, immoral and really stupid.

Derrick Jensen

I have found some of the best reasons I ever had for remaining at the bottom simply by looking at the men at the top. 

Frank Moore Colby

Like our indigenous ancestors, we can be willing to engage in the struggle to liberate our bodies and souls from external and internal colonization and discover more fully our own deeper story and what it is that we came here to do.

Carolyn Baker

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. 

Howard Thurman

One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. … It's not the failure that holds us back but the reluctance to begin over again that causes us to stagnate.

Clarissa Pinkola Estés

For thirty years I used to say, ‘Do this’ and ‘Give that; but when I reached the first stage of wisdom, I said, ‘O God, be mine and do whatever You want.’ 

Abu Yazid Al Bistami, Muslim mystic 

How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one finds darkness not only in one's culture but within oneself?  There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions.  You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.  

Barry Lopez

There is a crisis point in activism, and because of the complexities, our efforts may seem to fail. We need to expect this and be ready to cope with it in a spiritual context…The solution to our discouragement is to become more communal in focus…trusting others enough to submit our cause to a larger purpose. We cannot do it alone, when we are ego-bound, we have the least hope…You are in charge of your level of openness to the Universe. Take in and transmit only the amount of energy you are comfortable with and is appropriate to your situation.

Christina Baldwin

There are really only two things to do:

-Be still and listen

-Take spiritually based action.

Everything else is bogus activity which only gets in the way of our real understanding.

Joy Houghton

 In another ten days, we'll take up the Trust Law #10. Stay tuned & experiment with do only what is right.