Felt with the Heart

 

The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.
- Oscar Wilde

Many men go fishing all of their lives
without knowing that it is not fish they are after.
- Henry David Thoreau

To know the whole world is nothing
when it is compared to knowing your own inner mystery of life.
- Osho

The best and most beautiful things in the world
cannot be seen or even touched.
They must be felt with the heart.
- Helen Keller

Further reading: Wonder and Mystery

The Mystery of Life

Beyond Answers

Experience Life with Reverence
      

We Can Never Understand Our World, But We Can Still Find Joy In It

 

As soon as man does not take his existence for granted,
but beholds it as something unfathomably mysterious,
thought begins.
- Albert Schweitzer

God is not what you imagine,
or what you think you understand.
If you understand you have failed.
- Saint Augustine

Be thankful that life is a mystery.
There is so much we can never know.
Breathe deeply and relax into the not-knowing.
There is much that we do not have to know in order to live joyfully.
We Can Never Understand Our World, But We Can Still Enjoy It.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The world is incomprehensible.
We won't ever understand it;
we won't ever unravel its secrets.
Thus we must treat the world as it is:
a sheer mystery.
- Carlos Castaneda

Uncertainty that comes from knowledge
(knowing what you don't know)
is different from uncertainty coming from ignorance.
- Isaac Asimov

Further reading: Wonder and Mystery

Pause to Wonder

Cherish Mystery

Life: Mystery and Riddle
    

Contemplate Existence...

 

I remind you, as I often do, that these daily emails are intended to inspire deep thinking about the subject matter, and not to dictate answers intended to satisfy everyone's individual needs and perspectives.

The world is perfect.
It's a mess. It has always been a mess.
We are not going to change it.
Our job is to straighten out our own lives.
- Joseph Campbell

The world is perfect.
As you question your mind, this becomes more and more obvious.
Mind changes, and as a result, the world changes.
A clear mind heals everything that needs to be healed.
It can never be fooled into believing that there is one speck out of order.
- Byron Katie

Your life within God's arms,
Your dance within God's arms,
Is already Perfect!
- Hafiz

If you want something to be different than it is,
you might as well teach a cat to bark.
Wanting something to be different than it is, is hopeless.
- Byron Katie

It is not our place to know the mind of God.
Spirit knows what is best in the long run -
best for each of us individually,
and best for humanity as a whole.
This is often very difficult to accept
when we see war and disease in the world
and experience physical and emotional suffering
in ourselves, our family, and our friends.
I consider this belief in God's infinite power
and ultimate wisdom to be the true test of faith.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

What does it mean to say "the world is perfect" when clearly the world is full of suffering?
For someone who believes that God is both omnipotent (infinitely powerful) and omnibenevolent (infinitely good), the world MUST be perfect because an omnipotent omnibenevolent God would by definition create a perfect world -- and if we mortals do not see this world as perfect, it must be our own failure of perception (for example, accomplishing God's longer term goal for the world). See the Wikipedia article on the "Problem of Evil" for more on this.

For those who don't believe there is a God (or believe in multiple gods), the world is "perfect" simply because this is the way it is. We can change the world over time, but at this exact instant, the world is as it is, and the "perfect" way for it to be right now. This viewpoint eliminates the suffering associated with demanding that the world be different than it is. Read more at Byron Katie - No one can give you freedom but you.
     

Our most basic common link ...

 

That sense of sacredness,
that thinking in generations,
must begin with reverence for this earth.
- Paul Tsongas

Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet.
We all breathe the same air.
We all cherish our children's future.
And we are all mortal.
- John F. Kennedy

We need to think of the future and the planet we are
going to leave to our children and their children.
- Kofi Annan

People must feel that the natural world is important
and valuable and beautiful and wonderful
and an amazement and a pleasure.
- David Attenborough

To cherish what remains of the Earth
and to foster its renewal
is our only legitimate hope of survival.
- Wendell Berry

Consider seven generations in the future when making decisions that affect the people.
- Wilma Mankiller

Image of our earth taken by the NASA Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite.

Further reading: Our Grandchildren's Planet

Natural Web of Life

One Great Dewdrop

All Life
    

Be Gentle with the Earth

 

A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him,
that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men,
and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help.
- Albert Schweitzer

This land, this water, this air, this planet -
this is our legacy to our young.
- Paul Tsongas

People must feel that the natural world is important
and valuable and beautiful and wonderful
and an amazement and a pleasure.
- David Attenborough

If future generations are to remember us more with gratitude than sorrow,
we must achieve more than just the miracles of technology.
We must also leave them a glimpse of the world as it was created,
not just as it looked when we got through with it.
- Lyndon B. Johnson

Be gentle with the earth.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Further reading: Our Future is the World's Children

One Planet, One People, One Destiny

Legacy to Future Generations

Reverence for Our Earth
      

Success is to leave the world a little bit better than you found it

 

Believe in yourself,
in your vision for your future,
and in your ability to take a small step
each day toward achieving your vision.

- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

To leave the world a bit better ... to know that one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
- Bessie A. Stanley (commonly attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Anyone who proposes to do good
must not expect people to roll stones out of his way,
but must accept his lot calmly,
even if they roll a few stones upon it.
- Albert Schweitzer

True success is bringing joy to yourself and to others.
Success is measured in lives bettered, not in money or power.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

We do not need to proselytize
either by our speech or by our writing.
We can only do so really with our lives.
Let our lives be open books for all to study.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Further reading: March On

Pay It Forward

Turn Crisis into Progress

Stand Together
    

Transcend Race, Tribe, Class, and Nation

 

Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe,
our class, and our nation;
and this means we must develop a world perspective.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Color of skin, languages, religions, and traditions
are all part of the magnificence of humanity.
Honor diversity.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Loyalty to the family must be merged into loyalty to the community,
loyalty to the community into loyalty to the nation,
and loyalty to the nation into loyalty to mankind.
The citizen of the future must be a citizen of the world.
- Thomas Cochrane

Few are the giants of the soul who actually feel
that the human race is their family circle.
- Freya Stark

Further reading: We are All Brothers and Sisters

All things share the same breath

War

Unity with Spirit and All Creation

Natural Web
     

Our Responsibility to Future Generations

 

Let us be protectors of creation,
protectors of God’s plan inscribed in nature,
protectors of one another, and of the environment.
- Pope Francis

The true meaning of life is to plant trees,
under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
- Nelson Henderson

We need to think of the future and the planet we are
going to leave to our children and their children.
- Kofi Annan

Consider seven generations in the future when making decisions that affect the people.
- Wilma Mankiller

To cherish what remains of the Earth
and to foster its renewal
is our only legitimate hope of survival.
- Wendell Berry

Further reading: Our Grandchildren's Planet

For Future Generations

Your Legacy - Making a Difference

Reverence

For Our Children
     

Your Own Inner Mystery

The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.
- Oscar Wilde

Many men go fishing all of their lives
without knowing that it is not fish they are after.
- Henry David Thoreau

To know the whole world is nothing
when it is compared to knowing your own inner mystery of life.
- Osho

The best and most beautiful things in the world
cannot be seen or even touched.
They must be felt with the heart.
- Helen Keller

Further reading: Wonder and Mystery

The Mystery of Life

Beyond Answers

Experience Life with Reverence
      

The World is Incomprehensible

As soon as man does not take his existence for granted,
but beholds it as something unfathomably mysterious,
thought begins.
- Albert Schweitzer

God is not what you imagine,
or what you think you understand.
If you understand you have failed.
- Saint Augustine

Be thankful that life is a mystery.
There is so much we can never know.
Breathe deeply and relax into the not-knowing.
There is much that we do not have to know in order to live joyfully.
We Can Never Understand Our World, But We Can Still Enjoy It.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The world is incomprehensible.
We won't ever understand it;
we won't ever unravel its secrets.
Thus we must treat the world as it is:
a sheer mystery.
- Carlos Castaneda

Uncertainty that comes from knowledge
(knowing what you don't know)
is different from uncertainty coming from ignorance.
- Isaac Asimov

Further reading: Wonder and Mystery

Pause to Wonder

Cherish Mystery

Life: Mystery and Riddle
    

The Nature and the Meaning of Life...

I remind you, as I often do, that these daily emails are intended to inspire deep thinking about the subject matter, and not to dictate answers intended to satisfy everyone's individual needs and perspectives.

The world is perfect.
It's a mess. It has always been a mess.
We are not going to change it.
Our job is to straighten out our own lives.
- Joseph Campbell

The world is perfect.
As you question your mind, this becomes more and more obvious.
Mind changes, and as a result, the world changes.
A clear mind heals everything that needs to be healed.
It can never be fooled into believing that there is one speck out of order.
- Byron Katie

Your life within God's arms,
Your dance within God's arms,
Is already Perfect!
- Hafiz

If you want something to be different than it is,
you might as well teach a cat to bark.
Wanting something to be different than it is, is hopeless.
- Byron Katie

It is not our place to know the mind of God.
Spirit knows what is best in the long run -
best for each of us individually,
and best for humanity as a whole.
This is often very difficult to accept
when we see war and disease in the world
and experience physical and emotional suffering
in ourselves, our family, and our friends.
I consider this belief in God's infinite power
and ultimate wisdom to be the true test of faith.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

What does it mean to say "the world is perfect" when clearly the world is full of suffering?
For someone who believes that God is both omnipotent (infinitely powerful) and omnibenevolent (infinitely good), the world MUST be perfect because an omnipotent omnibenevolent God would by definition create a perfect world -- and if we mortals do not see this world as perfect, it must be our own failure of perception (for example, accomplishing God's longer term goal for the world). See the Wikipedia article on the "Problem of Evil" for more on this.

For those who don't believe there is a God (or believe in multiple gods), the world is "perfect" simply because this is the way it is. We can change the world over time, but at this exact instant, the world is as it is, and the "perfect" way for it to be right now. This viewpoint eliminates the suffering associated with demanding that the world be different than it is. Read more at Byron Katie - No one can give you freedom but you.
     

All Who Inhabit This Planet

That sense of sacredness,
that thinking in generations,
must begin with reverence for this earth.
- Paul Tsongas

Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet.
We all breathe the same air.
We all cherish our children's future.
And we are all mortal.
- John F. Kennedy

We need to think of the future and the planet we are
going to leave to our children and their children.
- Kofi Annan

People must feel that the natural world is important
and valuable and beautiful and wonderful
and an amazement and a pleasure.
- David Attenborough

To cherish what remains of the Earth
and to foster its renewal
is our only legitimate hope of survival.
- Wendell Berry

Consider seven generations in the future when making decisions that affect the people.
- Wilma Mankiller

Image of our earth taken by the NASA Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite.

Further reading: Our Grandchildren's Planet

Natural Web of Life

One Great Dewdrop

All Life
    

Let All Life be Sacred to You

A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him,
that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men,
and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help.
- Albert Schweitzer

This land, this water, this air, this planet -
this is our legacy to our young.
- Paul Tsongas

People must feel that the natural world is important
and valuable and beautiful and wonderful
and an amazement and a pleasure.
- David Attenborough

If future generations are to remember us more with gratitude than sorrow,
we must achieve more than just the miracles of technology.
We must also leave them a glimpse of the world as it was created,
not just as it looked when we got through with it.
- Lyndon B. Johnson

Be gentle with the earth.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Further reading: Our Future is the World's Children

One Planet, One People, One Destiny

Legacy to Future Generations

Reverence for Our Earth
      

To have Succeeded is to have Helped Others

Believe in yourself,
in your vision for your future,
and in your ability to take a small step
each day toward achieving your vision.

- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

To leave the world a bit better ... to know that one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
- Bessie A. Stanley (commonly attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Anyone who proposes to do good
must not expect people to roll stones out of his way,
but must accept his lot calmly,
even if they roll a few stones upon it.
- Albert Schweitzer

True success is bringing joy to yourself and to others.
Success is measured in lives bettered, not in money or power.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

We do not need to proselytize
either by our speech or by our writing.
We can only do so really with our lives.
Let our lives be open books for all to study.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Further reading: March On

Pay It Forward

Turn Crisis into Progress

Stand Together
    

A Person's Religion

A person's religion is what they do and say all day, seven days a week -
not what they say and do at 10 am on Sunday.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

You hold onto religion, you know,
rules, regulations, traditions.
I think what God is interested in
is people's hearts, and that's hard enough.
- Bono

We can never be the better for our religion
if our neighbor is the worse for it.
- Anonymous

I reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal
to reason and is in conflict with morality.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

The world is my country,
all mankind are my brethren,
and to do good is my religion.
- Thomas Paine

We must be ready to learn from one another,
not claiming that we alone possess all truth
and that somehow we have a corner on God.
- Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Further reading: Everything is God

How To Know What To Do

Perspectives on the Nature of God
    

A World Perspective

Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe,
our class, and our nation;
and this means we must develop a world perspective.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Color of skin, languages, religions, and traditions
are all part of the magnificence of humanity.
Honor diversity.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Loyalty to the family must be merged into loyalty to the community,
loyalty to the community into loyalty to the nation,
and loyalty to the nation into loyalty to mankind.
The citizen of the future must be a citizen of the world.
- Thomas Cochrane

Few are the giants of the soul who actually feel
that the human race is their family circle.
- Freya Stark

Further reading: We are All Brothers and Sisters

All things share the same breath

War

Unity with Spirit and All Creation

Natural Web
     

Protectors of Nature, Protectors of Future Generations

 

Let us be protectors of creation,
protectors of God’s plan inscribed in nature,
protectors of one another, and of the environment.
- Pope Francis

The true meaning of life is to plant trees,
under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
- Nelson Henderson

We need to think of the future and the planet we are
going to leave to our children and their children.
- Kofi Annan

Consider seven generations in the future when making decisions that affect the people.
- Wilma Mankiller

To cherish what remains of the Earth
and to foster its renewal
is our only legitimate hope of survival.
- Wendell Berry

Further reading: Our Grandchildren's Planet

For Future Generations

Your Legacy - Making a Difference

Reverence

For Our Children
     

True Mysteries

 

The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.
- Oscar Wilde

Many men go fishing all of their lives
without knowing that it is not fish they are after.
- Henry David Thoreau

To know the whole world is nothing
when it is compared to knowing your own inner mystery of life.
- Osho

The best and most beautiful things in the world
cannot be seen or even touched.
They must be felt with the heart.
- Helen Keller

Further reading: Wonder and Mystery

The Mystery of Life

Beyond Answers

Experience Life with Reverence
      

The World will Always be a Mystery

 

As soon as man does not take his existence for granted,
but beholds it as something unfathomably mysterious,
thought begins.
- Albert Schweitzer

God is not what you imagine,
or what you think you understand.
If you understand you have failed.
- Saint Augustine

Be thankful that life is a mystery.
There is so much we can never know.
Breathe deeply and relax into the not-knowing.
There is much that we do not have to know in order to live joyfully.
We Can Never Understand Our World, But We Can Still Enjoy It.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The world is incomprehensible.
We won't ever understand it;
we won't ever unravel its secrets.
Thus we must treat the world as it is:
a sheer mystery.
- Carlos Castaneda

Uncertainty that comes from knowledge
(knowing what you don't know)
is different from uncertainty coming from ignorance.
- Isaac Asimov

Further reading: Wonder and Mystery

Pause to Wonder

Cherish Mystery

Life: Mystery and Riddle
    

What does it mean to say "The World is Perfect?"

 

I remind you, as I often do, that these daily emails are intended to inspire deep thinking about the subject matter, and not to dictate answers intended to satisfy everyone's individual needs and perspectives.

The world is perfect.
It's a mess. It has always been a mess.
We are not going to change it.
Our job is to straighten out our own lives.
- Joseph Campbell

The world is perfect.
As you question your mind, this becomes more and more obvious.
Mind changes, and as a result, the world changes.
A clear mind heals everything that needs to be healed.
It can never be fooled into believing that there is one speck out of order.
- Byron Katie

Your life within God's arms,
Your dance within God's arms,
Is already Perfect!
- Hafiz

If you want something to be different than it is,
you might as well teach a cat to bark.
Wanting something to be different than it is, is hopeless.
- Byron Katie

It is not our place to know the mind of God.
Spirit knows what is best in the long run -
best for each of us individually,
and best for humanity as a whole.
This is often very difficult to accept
when we see war and disease in the world
and experience physical and emotional suffering
in ourselves, our family, and our friends.
I consider this belief in God's infinite power
and ultimate wisdom to be the true test of faith.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

What does it mean to say "the world is perfect" when clearly the world is full of suffering?
For someone who believes that God is both omnipotent (infinitely powerful) and omnibenevolent (infinitely good), the world MUST be perfect because an omnipotent omnibenevolent God would by definition create a perfect world -- and if we mortals do not see this world as perfect, it must be our own failure of perception (for example, accomplishing God's longer term goal for the world). See the Wikipedia article on the "Problem of Evil" for more on this.

For those who don't believe there is a God (or believe in multiple gods), the world is "perfect" simply because this is the way it is. We can change the world over time, but at this exact instant, the world is as it is, and the "perfect" way for it to be right now. This viewpoint eliminates the suffering associated with demanding that the world be different than it is. Read more at Byron Katie - No one can give you freedom but you.