centered thoughts
August 1996
There are two paths which one can choose between to tread in life. The eastern traditions teach a difference between the Pratyeka Buddhas and the Buddhas of Compassion. The former seek enlightenment for themselves, and by attaining it they help humanity. The Buddhas of Compassion renounce personal enlightenment and refuse to rest until each one has been supported on the climb. Both noble paths in the individual search for wisdom, but one is definitely greater. -- PNT
Mankind is at the crossroads. It has to make its choice between the law of the jungle and the law of humanity. -- Mahatma Gandhi
"My feet are cold," one says, and the legless man replies: "So are mine. So are mine." -- Kentucky Folklore
Lead me from the unreal to the real.
Lead me from darkness to light.
Lead me from death to immortality. -- The Upanishads
The Road Not Taken -- Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Unerring in discrimination. . . -- Bhagavad-Gita
Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought. -- Basho
The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness. -- John Muir
A little girl was late getting home from school and her mother began to scold her, but then she stopped and asked, "Why are you so late?" "I had to help another girl. She was in trouble." Explained the daughter. "What did you do?" "Oh, I sat down and helped her cry."
Never will I seek nor receive private, individual salvation; never will I enter into final peace alone; but forever, and everywhere, will I live and strive for the redemption of every creature throughout the world. -- Kwan-Yin