Interlude: An Internet Retreat "Thought of the Day"

Nirvana is not the blowing out of the candle. It is the extinguishing of the flame because day is come.
Rabindranath Tagore

I am an old man and have known a great many troubles but most of them never happened.
Mark Twain

The happiest excitement in life is to be convinced that one is fighting for all one is worth on behalf of some clearly seen and deeply felt good.
Ruth Benedict

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow that talent to the dark place where it leads.
Erica Jong

Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now–always.
Albert Schweitzer

The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.
Marcus Aurelius

Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.
Margaret Mead

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.
Bertrand Russell

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

If you judge people you have no time to love them.
Mother Teresa

I destroy my enemy when I make him my friend.
Abraham Lincoln

Wise sayings often fall on barren ground; but a kind word is never thrown away.
Sir Arthur Helps

Take someone who doesn't keep score, who's not looking to be richer, or afraid of losing, who has not the slightest interest even in his own personality: he's free.
Rumi

To be tolerant in any situation is to make room for goodness to shine–other people's and your own as well. When people are tolerant, there is time for the splendor of trust to shine forth.
Gurumayi Chidvilasananda

Make your space as beautiful as you can, because the Great Spirit chooses where it will dwell, and it always chooses beauty over chaos.
Native American saying

One who is slow to anger is better than a warrior, and one who rules his spirit is better than one who takes a city.
King Solomon, Proverbs 16:32

For everything you have missed, you have gained something else.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Cowardice asks the question - is it safe?
Expediency asks the question - is it politic?
Vanity asks the question - is it popular?
But conscience asks the question - is it right?
And there comes a time when one must take a position
that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular;
but one must take it because it is right.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Effort of attention is thus the essential phenomenon of will.
William James

The defining characteristic of guarding alertness in brief is only this: To examine again and again the condition of my body and mind.
Shantideva

Meditating, walking slowly, calming the mind by centering on the breath—these painstaking, deliberate practices increase the odds for acting intelligently in the midst of crisis.
Stephanie Kaza

Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.
Sir Winston Churchill

Whenever there is attachment in my mind
And whenever there is the desire to be angry,
I should not do anything nor say anything,
But remain like a piece of wood.
Shantideva

Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, 1964

Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.
Eleanor Roosevelt

I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.
Khalil Gibran

My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
Thomas Paine

The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose.
J. Martin Kohe

Let a man (or woman) strive to purify his thoughts. What a man thinketh, that is he; this is the eternal mystery. Dwelling within himself with thoughts serene, he will obtain imperishable happiness.
Upanishads

Only the weak are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong.
Leo Buscaglia

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Wendell Berry

For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time: hatred ceases by love–this is an old rule.
The Dhammapada

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

You cannot direct which way the winds of adversity will blow, but you can adust your sails.
Shantidasa

In meditation go deep in the heart. In dealing with others be gentle and kind.
Lao Tsu

The family is one of nature's masterpieces.
George Santayana

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of men of old; seek what they sought.
Basho

Worry is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.
Arthur Somers Roche

In order to arrive at possessing everything, desire to possess nothing.
St. John of the Cross

The greatest gift we can give one another is rapt attention to one another's existence.
Sue Atchley Ebaugh

Resolve to be thyself; and know, that he who finds himself, loses his misery.
Matthew Arnold

A great many people think they are thinking–when they are really rearranging their prejudices and superstitions.
Edward R. Morrow

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead

Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.
William James

At any given moment, life is completely senseless. But viewed over a period, it seems to reveal itself as an organism existing in time, having a purpose, trending in a certain direction.
Aldous Huxley

Your duty is to be; and not to be this or that.
Sri Ramana Maharishi

A good deal of what passes for religion is often designed to prop up and endorse the ego that the founders of the faith told us to abandon.
Karen Armstrong in Buddha

Learning is not compulsory…neither is survival.
W. Edwards Deming

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
Albert Einstein

Love all. Trust a few. Do wrong to none.
William Shakespeare

The best way to predict the future is to create it.
Abraham Lincoln

Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.
Hal Borland

The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

The pursuit of truth shall set you free–even if you never catch up with it.
Clarence Darrow

The ultimate security is your understanding of reality.
H. Stanley Judd

I will be truthful.
I will suffer no injustice.
I will be free from fear.
I will not use force.
I will be of good will to all men.
Mahatma Gandhi

Doing the right thing is our best gift
That is what brings us bliss and happiness.
Happy and blissful is the person who does what is right,
Because it is the right thing to do.
The Ashem Vohu Prayer - Zoroastrian

Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it's Christmas.
Dale Evans

Each and every master, regardless of the era or place, heard the call and attained harmony with heaven and earth. There are many paths leading to the top of Mount Fuji, but there is only one summit–love.
Morihei Ueshiba

The Way of the sage is to act but not to compete.
Lao Tzu

If you're riding ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it's still there.
Will Rogers

The cost of a thing is the amount of what I call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.
Henry David Thoreau

Do not think of your faults; still less of others' faults; look for what is good and strong; and try to imitate it. Your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes.
John Ruskin

No one can predict the future now. No one can make long range plans. The best we can hope for, to quote Robert Bridges, is 'the masterful administration of the unforeseen.' Ride the whirlwind. That's the most we can do.
Arthur C. Clarke

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about.
Charles Kingsley

Samadhi means concentration. In order to be concentrated, we should be mindful, fully present and aware of what is going on. Mindfulness brings about concentration. When you are deeply concentrated, you are absorbed in the moment. You become the moment.
Thich Nhat Hanh

Knowing is not enough; we must act. Willing is not enough; we must do.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

No matter how full a reservoir of maxims one may possess, and no matter how good one's sentiments may be, if one has not taken advantage of every concrete opportunity to act, one's character may remain entirely unaffected for the better. With mere good intentions, hell is proverbially paved.
William James

The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.
Tacitus

If you get to thinking you're a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else's dog around.
Will Rogers

…what thwarts us and demands of us the greatest effort is also what can teach us most.
Andre' Gide

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.
Hans Hoffman

Men are punished by their sins, not for them.
Elbert Hubbard

Resentment or grudrson against whom you hold these feelings but every day and every night of your life, they are eating at you.
Norman Vincent Peale

I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table

All of life is like a mirror. Smile at it and it smiles back at you. I just put a big smile on my face and everyone smiles back.
Peace Pilgrim

We can never know what strengths and revelations might be on the other side of our fears until we face them and feel them all the way through. True positive thinking is the mental stance of surrender, simply trusting the process. We learn to accept what is.
Jacquelyn Small

Out of the abysses, unpredictable life emerges, with a never-ending procession of miracles, crises, healing, and growth. When I realize this once again, I see the absurdity of my belief that I can understand, predict, and control life. All I can really do is go along for the ride, with as much consciousness and love as I can muster in the moment.
Molly Young Brown

You are a product of your environment. So choose the environment that will best develop you toward your objective. Analyze your life in terms of its environment. Are the things around you helping you toward success–or are they holding you back?
W. Clement Stone

The result is not the point it is the effort to improve ourselves that is valuable. There is no end to this practice.
Shunryu Suzuki in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

Past Thoughts of the Day from Interlude: An Internet Retreat

Nirvana is not the blowing out of the candle. It is the extinguishing of the flame because day is come.

I am an old man and have known a great many troubles but most of them never happened.

The happiest excitement in life is to be convinced that one is fighting for all one is worth on behalf of some clearly seen and deeply felt good.

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow that talent to the dark place where it leads.

Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now–always.

The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.

Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

If you judge people you have no time to love them.

I destroy my enemy when I make him my friend.

Wise sayings often fall on barren ground; but a kind word is never thrown away.

Take someone who doesn't keep score, who's not looking to be richer, or afraid of losing, who has not the slightest interest even in his own personality: he's free.

To be tolerant in any situation is to make room for goodness to shine–other people's and your own as well. When people are tolerant, there is time for the splendor of trust to shine forth.

Make your space as beautiful as you can, because the Great Spirit chooses where it will dwell, and it always chooses beauty over chaos.

One who is slow to anger is better than a warrior, and one who rules his spirit is better than one who takes a city.

For everything you have missed, you have gained something else.

Effort of attention is thus the essential phenomenon of will.

The defining characteristic of guarding alertness in brief is only this: To examine again and again the condition of my body and mind.

Meditating, walking slowly, calming the mind by centering on the breath—these painstaking, deliberate practices increase the odds for acting intelligently in the midst of crisis.

Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.

Whenever there is attachment in my mind And whenever there is the desire to be angry, I should not do anything nor say anything, But remain like a piece of wood.

Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.

I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.

My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.

The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose.

Let a man (or woman) strive to purify his thoughts. What a man thinketh, that is he; this is the eternal mystery. Dwelling within himself with thoughts serene, he will obtain imperishable happiness.

Only the weak are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong.

For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time: hatred ceases by love–this is an old rule.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

You cannot direct which way the winds of adversity will blow, but you can adust your sails.

In meditation go deep in the heart. In dealing with others be gentle and kind.

The family is one of nature's masterpieces.

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of men of old; seek what they sought.

Worry is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.

In order to arrive at possessing everything, desire to possess nothing.

The greatest gift we can give one another is rapt attention to one another's existence.

Resolve to be thyself; and know, that he who finds himself, loses his misery.

A great many people think they are thinking–when they are really rearranging their prejudices and superstitions.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.

At any given moment, life is completely senseless. But viewed over a period, it seems to reveal itself as an organism existing in time, having a purpose, trending in a certain direction.

Your duty is to be; and not to be this or that.

A good deal of what passes for religion is often designed to prop up and endorse the ego that the founders of the faith told us to abandon.

Learning is not compulsory…neither is survival.

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

Love all. Trust a few. Do wrong to none.

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.

The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.

The pursuit of truth shall set you free–even if you never catch up with it.

The ultimate security is your understanding of reality.

I will be truthful. I will suffer no injustice. I will be free from fear. I will not use force. I will be of good will to all men.

Doing the right thing is our best gift That is what brings us bliss and happiness. Happy and blissful is the person who does what is right, Because it is the right thing to do.

Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it's Christmas.

Each and every master, regardless of the era or place, heard the call and attained harmony with heaven and earth. There are many paths leading to the top of Mount Fuji, but there is only one summit–love.

The Way of the sage is to act but not to compete.

If you're riding ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it's still there.

The cost of a thing is the amount of what I call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.

Do not think of your faults; still less of others' faults; look for what is good and strong; and try to imitate it. Your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes.

No one can predict the future now. No one can make long range plans. The best we can hope for, to quote Robert Bridges, is 'the masterful administration of the unforeseen.' Ride the whirlwind. That's the most we can do.

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about.

Samadhi means concentration. In order to be concentrated, we should be mindful, fully present and aware of what is going on. Mindfulness brings about concentration. When you are deeply concentrated, you are absorbed in the moment. You become the moment.

Knowing is not enough; we must act. Willing is not enough; we must do.

No matter how full a reservoir of maxims one may possess, and no matter how good one's sentiments may be, if one has not taken advantage of every concrete opportunity to act, one's character may remain entirely unaffected for the better. With mere good intentions, hell is proverbially paved.

The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.

If you get to thinking you're a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else's dog around.

…what thwarts us and demands of us the greatest effort is also what can teach us most.

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.

Men are punished by their sins, not for them.

Resentment or grudrson against whom you hold these feelings but every day and every night of your life, they are eating at you.

I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.

All of life is like a mirror. Smile at it and it smiles back at you. I just put a big smile on my face and everyone smiles back.

We can never know what strengths and revelations might be on the other side of our fears until we face them and feel them all the way through. True positive thinking is the mental stance of surrender, simply trusting the process. We learn to accept what is.

You are a product of your environment. So choose the environment that will best develop you toward your objective. Analyze your life in terms of its environment. Are the things around you helping you toward success–or are they holding you back?

The result is not the point it is the effort to improve ourselves that is valuable. There is no end to this practice.

Whenever there is attachment in my mind
And whenever there is the desire to be angry,
I should not do anything nor say anything,
But remain like a piece of wood.

I will be truthful.
I will suffer no injustice.
I will be free from fear.
I will not use force.
I will be of good will to all men.

Doing the right thing is our best gift
That is what brings us bliss and happiness.
Happy and blissful is the person who does what is right,
Because it is the right thing to do.