Inspiring Words

A place to discuss casual topics amongst spiritual friends.
Lombardi4
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Re: Inspiring Words

Post by Lombardi4 »

Will wrote:
Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the beings you can,
As long as ever you can,
To the absolute 100% utmost that you possibly can,
In the most immaculate way that you can,
And then teach others the same, because you not only can, but you actually ought to, because they, too, can;
And then the peace the world would become I'm not even sure imagine you can.
John Wesley (+a bit of me)
From today on, I vow to live my life by this quote.

Just googled and wikipediaed him briefly. Seems like a wise and good man, doesn't bother me for being Christian...

...after a brief Google search it seems it may be a misquote... so I can't say who said it, and it doesn't really matter.
https://vitalpiety.com/2013/04/29/wesle ... s-you-can/


And so, I go off social media and some other preoccupations (they're good, but I've got to work on things) in order to do what I can.

I will be back some time next year.

Yes, we [all] can. ~ Barack O.
Just do it. ~ Nike Inc.
[And then] Keep walking. ~ Johnnie W.


"atha kho bhagavā bhikkhū āmantesi — “handa dāni, bhikkhave, āmantayāmi vo, vayadhammā saṅkhārā appamādena sampādethā”ti. ayaṃ tathāgatassa pacchimā vācā."
"All conditioned things are of a nature to decay — strive for your own liberation with diligence."
~The Buddha

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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: Inspiring Words

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Forgot exactly where I found that quote, but the source was supposed to be one of Wesley's Letters. There are eight volumes of them online, and I did find many times he would write "do all the good you can", but I was too lazy to look through them all.

Here are his letters, for a more diligent searcher:

http://wesley.nnu.edu/john-wesley/the-l ... sley/#vol1
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
Lombardi4
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Re: Inspiring Words

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Will wrote:Forgot exactly where I found that quote, but the source was supposed to be one of Wesley's Letters. There are eight volumes of them online, and I did find many times he would write "do all the good you can", but I was too lazy to look through them all.

Here are his letters, for a more diligent searcher:

http://wesley.nnu.edu/john-wesley/the-l ... sley/#vol1
Thanks. As I said, it's not really important whether Wesley said them or the Buddha said them or I said them or my neighbour said them -- they are good words that are worth living by. Thank you for sharing them as they are making a huge difference and if one puts them into practice, they will lead to great benefit for their doer and for the people affected by her or him.

:anjali:
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: Inspiring Words

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If the words are found to be inspiring and admired, then it is only natural to bow to the one who brought them forth. Without the mind and persona of some few individuals, there would be no inspiration to notice, value and practice.
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: Inspiring Words

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There is a wonderful French proverb which runs thus: Tout com-prendre, c'est tout pardonner: To understand everything is to forgive all. To understand all the hid causes, the results, the past destiny, the present strength, the temptation, the virtue, whatever it may be — to understand all this is to have divine knowledge, and it means to forgive. It is a wonderful proverb and must have been uttered, I venture to say, first by some human being who had a touch of illumination.
G. de Purucker "The Heritage of Man is Man Himself."
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: Inspiring Words

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“I saw in my mind’s eye,” adds Santayana, “the ideal of the monopolist. All nations must consume the same things, in proportion to their population. All mankind will then form a perfect democracy, supplied with rations from a single centre of administration, as is for their benefit; since they will then secure everything assigned to them at the lowest possible price.” This utilitarian utopia, prophesied by Henry and Brooks Adams as the triumph of the cheapest, starves the realm of spirit and the realm of art as no other domination can. The culmination of liberalism, the fulfillment of the aspirations of Bentham and Mill, and of the French and American democratic spokesmen, it is also the completion of capitalism. It is communism. Rockefeller and Marx were merely two agents of the same social force—an appetite cruelly inimical to human individuation, by which man has struggled up to reason and art.
Excerpt From: George A. Panichas. Essential Russell Kirk.
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: Inspiring Words

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Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established,
that unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.
Pascal
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: Inspiring Words

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Do your eyes expect a reward for seeing, or your feet for walking? That is what they were made for. By doing what they were designed to do, they are performing their function.
Whereas humans were made to help others. And when we do help others we are doing what we were designed for. We perform our function.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, end of book nine
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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mikenz66
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Re: Inspiring Words

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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: Inspiring Words

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The Vision of the Lord Buddha

When I was a boy of twelve I came upon a Buddhist quotation which fascinated imagination, mind, and heart. I think it was one of the things which in this life awoke me more than any other thing that I can recollect; at any rate it was one of the first. It is pure Theosophy and genuine Buddhist doctrine. It is this: the Lord Buddha is speaking, and I am paraphrasing somewhat his words in order to make them clearer:

"O disciples, never let discouragement enter into your souls. See you suffering in the world, see you unhappiness and pain and ignorance, misery and distress which wring the heart? Disciples, all things are destined to pass into Buddhahood: the stones, the plants, the beasts, all the component atoms of these, each and every one, aye, and sun and moon and stars and planets — all in future ages will become Buddha. Each one will become a Buddha."

What a marvelous picture! How it quiets the heart and stills the mind; for if one atom, one man, become a Buddha, everything will, for this universe is one, broken into multitudes during Manvantara or manifestation; rooted in that One, living from it, and by it. In it we live and we move and have all our being. Therefore some day, somewhere in the incalculable aeons of what we call the future, all now of the multitudes, suns and stars, planets, comets, gods, men, animals, plants, stones, atoms, elements, worlds, everything, each as individual, is destined for Buddhahood.

When I read that -- I have given you the expanded gist of what I heard -- for nearly three months I went around in a daze of spiritual delight and inner reawakening. To this day I could not tell you whether I ate or drank or slept. I know I must have done so, but I have no recollection of anything except light; and the raising of the eyes inner and outer, upward and inward. Just that thought broke open the doors closed when I drank of the waters of Lethe, of forgetfulness, when last I died. The doors opened and the light came in, began to come in.
G. de Purucker, Wind of the Spirit
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: Inspiring Words

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The tongue may vow, but the heart will not.
Euripides
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: Ten ages of man

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Solon, the Athenian lawgiver, described these different ages in the following elegiac verses:

In seven years from th'’ earliest breath,
The child puts forth his hedge of teeth;

When strengthened by a similar span,
He first displays some signs of man.

As in a third, his limbs increase,
A beard buds o'’er his changing face.

When he has passed a fourth such time,
His strength and vigour’s in its prime.

When five times seven years o'’er his head
Have passed, the man should think to wed;

At forty two, the wisdom'’s clear
To shun vile deed of folly or fear:

While seven times seven years to sense
Add ready wit and eloquence.

And seven years further skill admit
To raise them to their perfect height.

When nine such periods have passed,
His powers, though milder grown, still last;

When God has granted ten times seven,
The aged man prepares for heaven.
Quoted by Philo
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: Inspiring Words

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Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.
Pascal
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: Inspiring Words

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We are unknown to ourselves, we men of knowledge—and with good reason. We have never sought ourselves—how could it happen that we should ever find ourselves? It has rightly been said: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” [Matthew 6:21]; our treasure is where the beehives of our knowledge are. We are constantly making for them, being by nature winged creatures and honey-gatherers of the spirit...
Nietzsche
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Aloka
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Re: Inspiring Words

Post by Aloka »

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"Quotes from the Internet" - a beautiful vase made by talented UK artist, TV personality, and transvestite, Grayson Perry.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/or ... 8e6410.jpg


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