“Iola Pond” - A place I once lived


Weekly Tao Te Ching

CHAPTER 51

Giving honor to the Tao is not a duty. Neither is it a test of loyalty nor a commandment from on high.

Every form in all the Cosmos delights in the Tao and gives it honor in the simple act of being.

The Tao does not demand or expect anything from us. It guides us without controlling. It nurtures us without owning us.

We are all expressions of this Formless Mystery, nurtured, sustained, and finally returned to our Origin.

🛎 William Martin’s Website / His Books📚

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Weekly - Mirabai Starr

Too mysterious to be defined

“The God of my parents repudiated is not my God.  My God is too vast to be contained by theology, too mysterious to be defined, too holy to be personified.  My God neither punishes nor rewards, but invites me into a living relationship that unfolds in the heart of all that is.  My God belongs to everyone, and this belonging connects me to the web of all life.”

🛎 Mirabai Starr’s Website

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Weekly - Anthony de Mello

“I lack the Lord’s own gentleness of heart, for I see deliberate malice where he sees ignorance and weakness.”

🛎 Anthony de Mello’s Website

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Weekly - Alan Watts

“But the transformation of consciousness undertaken in Taoism and Zen is more like the correction of faulty perception or the curing of a disease. It is not an acquisitive process of learning more and more facts or greater and greater skills, but rather an unlearning of wrong habits and opinions. As Lao-tzu said, "The scholar gains every day, but the Taoist loses every day.” 

🛎 Alan Watt’s Website

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Weekly - William Paul Young

“You need boundaries. But not the walls. The walls separate people and the boundaries do them honor.”

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Doodle of the Week (1)

🛎 Buddha Doodles Website

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Weekly - Deng Ming Dao

“The primary point of this existence is to live, and all living things move and grow. Therefore meditation should be integrated with the flow of life. It should not dominate above all else.” 

🛎 Deng Ming Dao’s Website

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Weekly - Peter Rollins

“The teacher here is the one who says, “You will do greater things than I.” This teacher stays only for a season so that the words, which act as bridge to truth, do not become a blockage to it, and so that their iconic presence does not morph into an idolatrous one. Thus, we can say that a total and complete fidelity to our teacher, an unthinking devotion to her words, will always end up being nothing but a betrayal.” 

🛎 Peter Rollin’s Website

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Weekly - Maya Angelou

I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people.

🛎 Maya Angelou’s Website

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Weekly - Thich Nhat Hanh

"To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is.”

🛎 Plum Village Website

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Doodle of the Week (2)

🛎 Buddha Doodles Website

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Weekly - Richard Rohr

“When we can see the image of God where we don't want to see the image of God, then we see with eyes not our own.” 

🛎 Richard Rohr’s Website

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Weekly - Brian D. McLaren

 “I have no doubt that Jesus would actually practice the neighborliness he preached rather than following our example of religious supremacy, hostility, fear, isolation, misinformation, exclusion, or demonization.”

🛎 Brian McLaren’s Website

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Keith’s Weekly Pick

"Your own being is your definitive master, the external teacher is simply a sign on the path, only your inner teacher will go with you to the goal, since he is the goal." ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

 
"Cranes, Pines, and Bamboo" by Ogata Kōrin (1658-1716)

"Cranes, Pines, and Bamboo" by Ogata Kōrin (1658-1716)