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ZEN PARABLES
The Fence Three Wondrous Answers Time To Learn Enlightenment The Gift of Insults PERSPECTIVE STRENGTH / WEAKNESS SUCCESS/FAILURE SUFFERING/HEALING SURVIVING TOLERANCE TRUTH WISDOM WORRY/ANXIETY |
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ACCEPTANCE/AWARENESS
~Peace. It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart. ~Real generosity to the future lies in giving all to the present. Albert Camus ~If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month. Theodore Roosevelt ~The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism. Norman Vincent Peale ~Better to eat bread with water, than cake with trouble. Russian Proverb ~Grief is not a sign of weakness, nor a lack of faith - it is the price of love. ~The first half of life is devoted to forming a healthy ego, the second half is going inward and letting go of it. Carl Jung ~Running away from fear is fear; fighting pain is pain; trying to be brave is being scared. If the mind is pain, the mind is in pain. The thinker has no other form than his thoughts. Alan Watts ~We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing. ANGER ~Hot words never resulted in cool judgment. ~He who has a sharp tongue soon cuts his own throat. ~The emptier the pot, the quicker the boil. ~Sharp words make more wounds than surgeons can heal. ~Instead of putting others in their place, try putting yourself in their place. ~People who fly into a rage usually make a bad landing. ~He who loses his temper should not look for it. ~Temper is what gets most of us in trouble. Pride keeps us there. ~There are things which must cause you to lose your reason or you have none to lose. Lessing CHANGE ~Something we were withholding made us weak until we found it was ourselves. Robert Frost ~Whatever is flexible and loving will tend to grow; whatever is rigid and blocked will wither and die. Lao-tzu ~Man’s mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimension. Oliver Wendell Holmes ~I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. ~The man who views the world at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life. Maya Angelou ~The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions. James R. Lowell ~It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. ~People who want to move mountains must start by carrying away small stones. ~Did is a word of achievement, Won’t is a word of retreat, Might is a word of bereavement, Can’t is a word of defeat, Ought is word of duty, Try is word each hour, Will is a word of beauty, Can is a word of power. ~A bend in the road is not the end of the road... unless you fail to make the turn. ~Growth is painful. Change is painful. But nothing is as painful as staying stuck somewhere you don't belong. ~People are like a rose bush. Some buds open right away, some take much longer, and some never open. CK ~Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. G. B. Shaw CHARACTER ~The surest way to happiness is to lose yourself in a cause greater than yourself. ~No person has ever been honored for what he has received; always, for what he has given. ~He who has a fight with his conscience and loses, wins. ~A negative mind will never give you a positive life. CK ~Always be yourself, because the people that matter don't mind, and the ones that mind don't matter. ~One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives. Euripides COMMUNICATION ~Nothing makes a person such a good listener as eaves-dropping. Franklin P. Jones ~It’s hard to listen while you’re planning something you think needs to be said. ~If you ever have something bad to say about anybody, be sure the answer to these three questions is yes before you say it. Is it true? Is it just? Will it do anybody any good to say it? ~Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, then to open your mouth and remove all doubt. Abraham Lincoln (origin debated) ~Tact is the ability to see other as they see themselves. ~It is not as much about who you used to be, as it is about who you choose to be. ~Be the type of person you want to meet. EMPATHY/COMPASSION ~To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart. ~The major difference between a broken heart and a broken spirit is that people break hearts and time mends them, but time breaks spirits and people mend them. Marilyn Vos Savant ENCOURAGEMENT ~Freedom lies in being bold. Robert Frost ~That which does not kill me, makes me stronger. Nietzsche ~It is not happy people who are thankful, it is thankful people who are happy. ~If you want to feel rich, just count the things you have that money can't buy. ~Having impulses is human. Fighting impulses is strength. CK ~Let your heart guide you. It whispers, so listen closely. Molly Goode FEAR ~Hatred is the coward’s revenge for being intimidated. G.B. Shaw GOOD JUDGMENT/DECISION MAKING ~Silence is the voice of complicity. ~It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable. Moliere ~If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. Abraham Maslow ~…The last of the human freedoms—the ability to choose one’s attitude in a given set of circumstances. Viktor E. Frankl, “Man’s Search for Meaning” ~He who insists on seeing with perfect clearness before he decides never decides. Henri Frederic Amiel ~Prepare and prevent instead of repair and repent. ~ No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it. Albert Einstein ~No matter how far you've gone on a wrong road, turn back. Turkish proverb ~The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. Winston Churchill HOPE ~Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try one more time. Thomas Edison ~Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of suffering. Helen Keller ~It must have been awful to fail 1000 times before you made a successful electric light bulb: “Well, I never considered them failures. I just figured I found 1000 ways how not to make a light bulb.” Thomas Edison ~Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. ~Hope is the feeling that you will succeed tomorrow in what you failed at today. ~Anyone can overcome depression. The first step is to simply realize that there is hope. ~Today is nature’s way of giving yesterday one more chance. ~Everything is okay in the end, it it's not ok, then it's not the end. Unknown ~Lincoln’s road to the White House: 1831 Failed in business 1832 Defeated for legislature 1833 Second failure in business 1836 Suffered a nervous breakdown 1838 Defeated for speaker 1840 Defeated for elector 1843 Defeated for Congress 1855 Defeated for Senate 1856 Defeated for vice president 1858 Defeated for Senate 1860 Elected president KINDNESS ~One kind word can warm three winter months. Japanese saying ~Kindness is the language in which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. Mark Twain LIVING LIFE Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. M. Gandhi ~There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way. Christopher Morley ~Five Simple Rules For Happiness: 1. Free your heart from hatred. 2. Free your mind from worries. 3. Live simply. 4. Give more. 5. Expect less. ~Finish each day and be done with it. you have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely. Ralph Waldo Emerson ~The minute you choose to do what you really want to do it's a different kind of life. R. Buckminster Fuller ~Live out of your imagination, not your history. Stephen R. Covey ~We make living by what we get, we make a life by what we give. ~Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none. Benjamin Franklin ~If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. The Dalai Lama ~The trouble with being in the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat. Lily Tomlin ~Our five senses are incomplete without the sixth — a sense of humor. ~You must learn to be still in the midst of activity, and to be vibrantly alive in repose. Indira Ghandi ~The geese have no intentions to cast their own reflections. The lake has no mind to receive their image. Fortune Cookie ~Old age takes away from us what we have inherited and gives us what we have earned. Gerald Brenan ~Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn't people feel as free to delight as to whatever remains to them. Rose Kennedy ~Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. Neile D. Walsch ~Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact. William James ~Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Helen Keller ~Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live. Norman Cousins ~Live your truth. |
MISTAKES
~Our greatest glory consists not in never failing, but rising every time we fall. Ralph Waldo Emerson ~He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. Martin Luther King, Jr. ~Consider the hammer: It keeps its head. It doesn’t fly off the handle. It keeps pounding away. It finds the point, then drives it home. It looks at the other side, too, and thus clinches the matter. It makes mistakes, but when it does, it starts all over. ~Better bread with water than cake with trouble. Russian Proverb ~Mistakes are lessons of wisdom. The past cannot be changed. The future is yet in your power. Hugh White PARENTING ~The cure for crime is not in the electric chair but in the high chair. ~I’d rather be from a broken home, then a home that's broken. PERSEVERANCE ~Perseverance has been defined as sticking to something you’re not stuck on. ~If you're going through hell, keep going. Winston Churchill ~The gem cannot be polished without friction nor man without trials. Confucius ~Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors. African Proverb ~To get what you want most, you sometimes have to do what you like least. CK ~A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Lao Tzu ~I may not be there yet, but I'm closer than I was yesterday. ~To get through the hardest journey we need take only one step at a time, but we must keep on stepping. Chinese Proverb ~If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it. If you don't ask, the answer is always no. If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place. Nora Roberts ~Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving. Albert Einstein PERSPECTIVE The pessimist sees difficulty in opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. Winston Churchill ~Always be yourself, because the people that don't mind, and the ones that mind don't matter. ~Don't worry about those who talk behind your back. They're behind you for a reason. ~Never waste your time trying to explain who you are to people who are committed to misunderstanding you. ~I've learned that loneliness has nothing to do with how many people are around you but how many of them understand you. ~Let us not look back in anger, or forward in fear, but around in awareness. James Thurber ~The past is a guidepost, not a hitching post. Thomas Holdcroft ~We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same. Anne Frank ~When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. ~The only thing you have control over is perspective. You don't have control over your situation. But you have a choice about how you view it. ~I'm too busy working on my own grass to know if yours is green. ~You cannot drive straight on a twisting lane. Russian Proverb ~Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. Confucius ~Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. ~Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow. Helen Keller STRENGTH/WEAKNESS ~Courage isn’t having the strength to go on — it’s going on when you don’t have the strength. ~The bamboo which bends is stronger than the oak which resists. Japanese Proverb ~The wishbone never replaces the backbone. Will Henry ~ I’m a little wounded, but I am not slain; I will lay me down to bleed a while, then rise and fight again. John Dryden ~When life gives you a hundred reasons to cry, show that you have a thousand to smile. ~One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity. Albert Schweitzer ~I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. Nelson Mandella ~We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear. MLK, Jr. SUCCESS/FAILURE ~Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. Thomas Edison ~I am a slow walker, but I never walk back. ~Success is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get. ~Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts. Winston Churchill ~It always seems impossible until it's done. Nelson Mandela ~The road to success is always under construction. ~Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. Albert Einstein ~In order to succeed, you desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure. SUFFERING/HEALING ~And the time came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. Anais Nin ~Happiness is the inner joy that can be sought or caught, but never taught or bought. ~Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. M. Kathleen Casey ~The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears. John Vance Cheney ~Anxiety is interest paid on trouble before it is due. William R. Inge ~For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out and everything changes. To someone who doesn't understand growth, it would look like complete destruction. Cynthia Occelli ~Whatever we plant in the subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become a reality. SURVIVING ~It is only when we the to face things exactly as they are, without self-deception or illusion, that a light will develop out of events, by which the path to success may be recognized. I Ching ~If you stop struggling, then you stop life. Huey Newton ~Death is not the enemy, living in constant fear of it is. N. Cousins ~You are not responsible for being down, but you are responsible for getting up. Jessie Jackson ~Turn your wounds into wisdom. Oprah Winfrey ~The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief. William Shakespeare (Othello) ~When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. ~You can't have a better tomorrow if you are thinking about yesterday all the time. Charles Kettering ~Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. Viktor E. Frankl ~Human diversity makes tolerance more than a virtue; it makes it a requirement of survival. TOLERANCE ~The highest result of education is tolerance. Helen Keller ~Human diversity makes tolerance more than a virtue; it makes it a requirement of survival. ~Tolerance is giving to every other human being every right you claim for yourself. TRUTH ~Truth is stubborn. It doesn’t apologize to anyone. ~A hypocrite never intends to be what he pretends to be. ~Truth resembles a statue of marble which stands in the desert and is continuously threatened with burial by the shifting sand. Albert Einstein ~Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. Aldous Huxley ~I am afraid we must make the world honest before we can honestly say to our children that honesty is the best policy. George Bernard Shaw ~Maybe you have to know the darkness before you can appreciate the light. Madeleine L' Engle ~When you shoot an arrow of truth, dip its point in honey. ~All emotion is involuntary when genuine. Mark Twain ~Emotion is messy, contradictory... and true. WISDOM ~Wise men learn more from fools than fools from wise men. Cato ~Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens. Jimi Hendrix ~Wisdom is knowing less but understanding more. ~Knowing others is wisdom. Knowing yourself is Enlightenment. Lao-tzu ~The man who wastes today lamenting yesterday will waste tomorrow lamenting today. Philip Baskin ~The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. Marcel Proust ~It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell. ~The secret of health for both the mind and the body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, nor to anticipate troubles, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly Buddha ~Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny. Frank Outlaw ~Enlightenment for a wave in the ocean - is the moment the wave realizes it is water. Thich Nhat Hanh ~Wisdom comes by disillusionment. George Santayana ~May you live every day of your life. Jonathan Swift ~Better to be from a broken home, than a home that's broken. ~A healthy attitude is contagious but don't wait to catch it from others. Be a carrier. ~Pain is not a punishment; pleasure is not a reward. Pema Chodron WORRY/ANXIETY ~Anxiety is the interest paid on trouble before it is due. Dean Wm. R. Inge ~We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same. Carlos Castaneda ~If there is no solution to a problem, why worry about it? If there is a solution to a problem, why worry about it? Chinese Proverb ~If you could you would, so why bother with should. CK |