Interlude: An Internet Retreat "Thought of the Day"

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

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.