The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." (Albert Einstein)

Just found this and don't feel like pulling out my commonbook to write it down. Tomorrow, tomorrow--and possibly an update on things somewhat new.

give me your words, Saul Williams. give me your words for a new world.

I read the most amazing poembook of my life: , said the shotgun to the head by Saul Williams. I wish the world would read it. Here are my favorite quotes from it:

"Citizens
where is your allegiance?
why do you pledge
with a covered heart
when it needs to be opened?"
-p. 171

"intelligence is intuitive
you needn't learn to love
unless you've been taught
to fear and hate."
-p. 121

"only through my words
might new worlds
be called
into order."
-p. 96

"from now on
cities
will be built
on one side
of the street
so that soothsayers
will have wilderness to wander
and lovers
space enough
to contemplate
a kiss."
-p. 30

"she kissed
as if she, alone,
could forge
the signature
of the sun."
-p. 31

"rivers
like oceans
oceans
like answers
questions
in cloud forms
raindrops
in stanzas."
-p. 42

ta>"Life ain't what  it's meant to be.

We were meant to see

A new horizon 

every day.     - Steven Hutchison

Alex knows what's up

The line that divides the world does not run between communism and capitalism, or along the boundaries between nations, races, social classes, or genders. The line that splits the world apart runs straight through the middle of each human heart.
- Alexander Solzhenitsyn

discover.grow.share

(Thanks to Taleah for letting me steal this image of her blog. Speaking of Taleah, this would be great for the Rees Hall blog)

I want to live like this

Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi 

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I 
may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.

Marcel Proust

Lines I love from Andrea Gibson's "Yes"


"so this is for the day we'll quit or jobs and work for something real

we'll feel for sunshine in the shadows
look for sunrays in the shade
"

For her

A few lines taken from Andrea Gibson's Photograph.

"I hope the stars are kissing your cheeks tonight
I hope you finally found a way to quit smoking
I hope your lungs are open and breathing your life
I hope there's a kite in your hand
that's flying all the way up to orion
and you still got a thousand yards of string to let out
I hope you're smiling
like god is pulling at the corners of your mouth
cause I might be naked and lonely
shaking branches for bones
but I'm still time zones away
from who I was the day before we met."

More from World Prayers

There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way. You should be happy right in the here and now. There is no way to enlightenment. Enlightenment should be right here and right now. The moment when you come back to yourself, mind and body together, fully present, fully alive, that is already enlightenment. You are no longer a sleepwalker. You are no longer in a dream. You are fully alive. You are awake. Enlightenment is there. And if you continue each moment like that, enlightenment becomes deeper. More powerful. There is no way to enlightenment, enlightenment is the way.

vietnamese zen buddhist monk - thich nhat hanh - 2007

I need to stop messing around and do homework.

"It's not about what body you're in. It's about just souls trying to get by." Even though Lucy Lawless was talking about a new television show, it applies to life. As C.S. Lewis says, "You don't have a Soul. You are a Soul. You have a body."

And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Yesterday I was pretty down, blue, whatever word fits best. It may have been left over emotional residue from the night before. It probably had a lot to do with my energy level. I drank coffee for the first time in a long while, thinking it would give me both a boost in terms of energy and happiness. It didn't. I sort of gave up hopes of not feeling utterly cheerless.

Before I went to bed, I decided to pull out a small book of Zen quotes. I wrote these on my mirrors:

"The blue mountain bordering the sea does not move, but the mind of the bird over the waves breaks free and follows the course of the river." -Master Daishi
I love the reminder that it's not physical location, surroundings or circumstances that matters or creates freedom--it's mindset.

"What was your face before the birth of your parents?" -Koan

Then I meditated. Sitting there in the darkness, a series of thoughts flashed through my mind as I watched. "Listen to the stories of the universe." I wrote that on my mirror too. I'm not very good at listening. I'm good at talking, but not skilled. I just tend to interrupt, speak out, respond to questions not directed at me, etc quite a bit. I don't mean to, or think about it, but it just seems to flow out of me (particularly when I have energy). I wonder at times how other people can stand me at all. My goal today is to create love and touch existence by listening to it. Whether its classmates, playful squirrels, friends, weather patterns--I just want to pay attention. Marvel. Appreciate. Understand, not speak. That doesn't mean I'm going to be mute all day, or even remember to pay attention. It just means today I'll be putting in extra effort.

By the end of meditation last night, and after a cup of soothing tea, I felt amazing. At peace. Happy. Content. Different. I woke this morning ready to listen.

Encouragment

"Encountering sufferings will definitely contribute to the elevation of your spiritual practice, provided you are able to transform calamity and misfortune into the path." H.H. The 14th Dalai Lama

Look within. Be still.
Free from fear and attachment,
Know the sweet joy of living in the way.
Dhammapada, Words of the Buddha

If you live the sacred and despise the ordinary, you are still bobbing in the ocean of delusion. Zen Master Lin-Chi


Anything that is created must sooner or later die. Enlightenment is permanent because we have not produced it; we have merely discovered it.
Chogyam Trungpa

"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part." St. Augustine

“You can shed tears that she is gone,
or you can smile because she has lived.
You can close your eyes and pray that she'll come back,
or you can open your eyes and see all she's left.
Your heart can be empty because you can't see her,
or you can be full of the love you shared.
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday,
or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.
You can remember her only that she is gone,
or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.
You can cry and close your mind,
be empty and turn your back.
Or you can do what she'd want:
smile, open your eyes, love and go on.”
David Harkins

Okay, so maybe this would all be considered "emo" or whatever. Whatever. I just need to remind myself that it's okay if she doesn't come back next year. It's okay if I still care about her and let those feelings grow. I don't need to instantly recoil. Like I said in another post, I need to enjoy life instead of always think about longevity. I'll take things in stride. I will love, if it comes to it, without fear--because the ending never negates the validity and beauty of the experience.

"The only place you'll want to be..."

I joked with my friend Michael that I should write a book about how awesome I think he is. Then I realized I wasn't joking, and wanted to blog about it.

There's that oft-quoted saying by Aristotle that friendship is one soul dwelling in two bodies. I don't believe that. I believe friendship, like what I have with Michael, is two souls colliding and connecting in a sublime display of warm yet electric golden sunlight. Comfort and excitement.

"Run your fingers through my soul. For once, just once, feel exactly what I feel, believe what I believe, perceive as I perceive, look, experience, examine, and for once; just once, understand.” (author unknown)

Michael and I, we do run fingers through each others soul. It's not just once we are understood, nor does the experience become less amazing or surprising because of the frequency. It reminds me of multiple orgasms, actually--not that there's anything sexual between us.

I wonder what my life at Union would be like if I'd never met Michael. I don't think I'd be at the place I am now, which in turn would mean I wouldn't see or interact with the world in the same way. Usually I refrain from making any sort of definitive statement about how things would be if something were different, but I know that my quality of life (and I don't mean creature comforts) would have been drastically diminished.

I look at the spectacular ties I have with friends like Michael, ties that do not restrain nor suppress but lift and beckon; helping me walk more bravely toward sunrises I may have previously regarded with suspicion. I wonder how many more exquisite people, capable of touching cool fingers to my soul, are floating out in the world. Or across the classroom.

Tomorrow never looked so beautiful.

Buddhist quote

In fact, everything we encounter in this world with our six senses is an inkblot test. You see what you are thinking and feeling, seldom what you are looking at.
Shiqin

Best ever:

"Today, I wore a red shirt to class. My history professor, in the middle of his lecture, stopped and pretended to shoot me. Playing along, I fell out of my chair and played dead. He then, with a completely expressionless face, told the class that if Star Trek taught us anything, it was to never wear red. He then went back to his lecture as if nothing happened. It was then that I knew I had picked the right college. MLIA"

Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros

"The soul never ages, the soul, ball of light tethered to that nuisance the body." (149)

"[A] life contains a multitude of stories and not a single strand explains precisely the who of who one is." (115)

"She and Soledad rolled homemade cigarettes, because cigarettes are what people need most when they are afraid." (134) What is America afraid of, we with our smokes and swagger?

"[Soledad] understood Eleuterio because she was as mute as he was, perhaps more so because she had no piano." (151)

"Wasn't a kiss the tug of a string, a ribbon, a dance, a thread looped and interlocked that began with the lips...?" (153)

"In that kiss, they swallowed one another, swallowed the room, the sky, darkness, fear, and it was beautiful to feel so much a part of everything and bigger than everything." (154)

How average is your life?

I just saw this on MLIA.

"Today, I was looking through the bumper stickers application on Facebook and I came across this sticker that said "if Pinocchio said his nose was about to grow, what would happen?" This was by far the most fascinating thing I've read all year. MLIA."

I would have to agree with the poster. And what would happen?

EDIT:

"The other day I learned that if you say 'beer can' with an English accent, you're saying 'bacon' with a Jamaican accent. Mind blown. MLIA."

My day just keeps getting better.

Tell me, what are you afraid of?

For years I've had a very...strong aversion to wrists (the inner part). I hate even typing the word. It wasn't until last year in Intro to Psych that I realized it was an actual phobia--I just thought I was a bit off (although I suppose that means I am). I completely freak out if anyone touches mine (although I've gotten a lot better at controlling my reaction). I don't touch other people's. I don't look at them. I can't handle references (visible, audible) to them.

People always ask for explanations if they notice (and so I try very hard not to let them). How can I give an explanation when just thinking of the topic--the word--causes me too hyperventilate, clutch the vulnerable bits safely against my body and throw me in a wave of silly anxiety? If people keep trying to explore the topic after I've firmly (or a bit crazily) said that I most certainly don't want to talk about it, sometimes I even cry. STUPID.

I always thought I was the only one. I mean, who else could possibly have such a random, ridiculous phobia?

Apparently, a whole horde of people. I could barely get through their stories--it was as though they crawled into my mind and emotions, spitting out everything for the world to see.

As far as I could gather from internet sources, the phobia name is carpophobia (sometimes spelled karpophobia).

I hear there's a shrink on campus. I sort of want to see if she has any experience dealing with phobias. On the other hand, dealing with it means thinking about it--and thinking about it means the reaction I'm having right now (if only you could see me).

"Fear is that little darkroom where negatives are developed."
Michael Pritchard


"What are fears but voices airy?
Whispering harm where harm is not.
And deluding the unwary
Till the fatal bolt is shot!"
Wordsworth

Astronomy test tomorrow

"It's never too late - in fiction or in life - to revise." Nancy Thayer

"I tried to stop smoking cigarettes by telling myself I just didn’t want to smoke, but I didn’t believe myself." Barbara Kelly

"Whenever I think to quit smoking, I need a cigarette to think." P.K.

"Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain." Unknown