I like the silence in the empty church, before the sermon has begun, better than any preaching.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

We take ourselves and our world so seriously. Things seem so real, so intense and colorful, even overwhelming, but at the same time, everything we try to hold onto slips away. Nothing is all that substantial. It is amazing that there is anything at all! At the same time, nothing seems to be there in the way we would want.

Judy Lief, on Slogan #2 of the lojong slogans, "REGARD ALL DHARMAS [=phenomena] AS DREAMS"

Dew evaporates,
And all this world is dew.
So dear, so fresh, so fleeting.

Zen poet Issa (1763-1828), on the death of his son

Death is certain.
The hour of death is uncertain.
How then shall I live?

-- Tibetan mantra helpful to Stephen Batchelor, author of Secular Buddhism

"You can actually practice.  You can just follow the book and do as it says, which is extraordinarily powerful and such a relief."

Chogyam Trungpa, Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving-Kindness, 1981

....[W]e have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Romans 5: 2-5

I am a little world made cunningly

Of elements and an angelic sprite,

And burn me O Lord, with a fiery zeal

Of thee and thy house, which doth in eating heal.

John Donne, 1572-1631

Every minute of every hour of every day you are making the world, just as you are making yourself, and you might as well do it with generosity and kindness and style.

Rebecca Solnit

As for my own part I care not for death, for all men are mortal; and though I be a woman yet I have as good a courage answerable to my place as ever my father had. I am your anointed Queen. I will never be by violence constrained to do anything. I thank God I am indeed endowed with such qualities that if I were turned out of the realm in my petticoat I were able to live in any place in Christendom.

Queen Elizabeth I, 1533-1603

See how these names are feted by the waving grass
And by the streamers of white cloud
And whispers of wind in the listening sky.
The names of those who in their lives fought for life.
Who wore at their hearts the fire's centre.
Born of the sun, they traveled a short while toward the sun
And left the vivid air signed with their honour.

Stephen Spender, "I think continually of those who were truly great."

To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of enlightenment remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly.

Eihei Dogen, 1200-1253

A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of

light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc.

--Wikipedia [my emphasis]

zip, nada,
zilch, nothin',
bupkis, diddly squat,
zippo, the big Oh.

Listen, my heart!

— R. M. Rilke

What is prayer?

We asked the captain what course
of action he proposed to take toward
a beast so large, terrifying, and
unpredictable. He hesitated to
answer, and then said judiciously:
“I think I shall praise it."

Robert Hass

An aged man is but a paltry thing,

A tattered coat upon a stick, unless

Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing

For every tatter in its mortal dress.

W B Yeats

How can I accept,
then honor,
and finally love
growing old?

And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.

Mark 9:24