EnviroLink Forum

This thread is for inspirational quotations, poems and short stories.

If there is something that has touched your soul, led you to a higher path or given you strength in a time of adversity, then please add it here.

If it has helped you, the chances are it will help others too - and to help each other along is the calling of every soul.

Into the light...

_________________
It is our deeds, the accumulated acts of goodness and kindness, that define us and ultimately are the true measure of our worth. Service is the coin of the spirit.

http://holy-lance.blogspot.com

All this talk of religion, but it's how you live your life that is the all-important thing.

If you set out each day to do all the goodness and kindness that you can, and to do no harm to man or beast, then you are walking the highest path.

And when your time is up, if you can leave the earth a better place than you found it, then yours will have been a life well lived.

_________________
It is our deeds, the accumulated acts of goodness and kindness, that define us and ultimately are the true measure of our worth. Service is the coin of the spirit.

http://holy-lance.blogspot.com

INVICTUS

by

William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.

_________________
It is our deeds, the accumulated acts of goodness and kindness, that define us and ultimately are the true measure of our worth. Service is the coin of the spirit.

http://holy-lance.blogspot.com

Is there anyone upon the earth who is glad that you have lived?

(From 'The Shining Paths' by Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki)

_________________
It is our deeds, the accumulated acts of goodness and kindness, that define us and ultimately are the true measure of our worth. Service is the coin of the spirit.

http://holy-lance.blogspot.com

"Why are you unhappy?
Because 99.9% of everything you think,
And everything you do,
Is for your self,
And there isn't one."

Wei Wu Wei

"Do you realise that when you give a schilling to a beggar you are giving it to yourself?
Do you realise that when you help a dog over a stile you yourself are being helped?
Do you realise when you kick a man when he is down, you are kicking yourslef?
Give him another kick, you deserve it!"

Wei Wu Wei

"Never forget, what your looking for is what is looking."

Wei Wu Wei


Okay, I'm done with Wei .... for now. Such a delightful figure, so much understanding on non - dulaity ... so much wisdom.

Just one more to come, but not from Wei ....

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."

~ Jiddu krishnamurti

(PS: would be interesting if we simply quoted ourselves .... ) All the seeming "authority" which we depend and invest in keeps us from discovering our own innate wisdom .... however much we love the intelligence of Wei and Krihnamurti and many others. Ultimately, we must arrive at the same place ourselves.

"You can lead a horse to water ....... "

And thanks for the suggestion. I love the post/invitation .... a bit of a breath of fresh air around these parts!

Except, unless you perhaps go off and become a hermit completely without any kind of technology, and eat only wild fruits, nuts, etc., it is impossible to live "doing no harm to a beast". It is nothing more than a spiritual/moral self-delusion and a platitude. Reality is a stubborn thing.

_________________
Vegetarian: Old Native American word meaning really bad hunter.

"Tastes like chicken!"

Author unknown

_________________
I can have oodles of charm....... when I want to.

The hermit could very well step on insects in his search for nuts and fruit. He would also be breathing in microorganisms from the air.


Which of the 6.5 billion realities were you referring to?

Very true indeed. So why the need for deluded spiritual platitudes like "harm no beast"? Why the need for pretentious, hypocritical dogmas like veganism? To simply make people feel good about themselves?

_________________
Vegetarian: Old Native American word meaning really bad hunter.

Except, unless you perhaps go off and become a hermit completely without any kind of technology, and eat only wild fruits, nuts, etc., it is impossible to live "doing no harm to a beast". It is nothing more than a spiritual/moral self-delusion and a platitude. Reality is a stubborn thing.[/quote]

The hermit could very well step on insects in his search for nuts and fruit. He would also be breathing in microorganisms from the air.


Which of the 6.5 billion realities were you referring to?[/quote]





Very true indeed. So why the need for deluded spiritual platitudes like "harm no beast"? Why the need for pretentious, hypocritical dogmas like veganism? To simply make people feel good about themselves?[/quote]

Dogma can come of anything at all if one simply becomes dogmatic about it. Veganism in itself isn't necessarily dogmatic. Likewise people espousing a dogmatic version of veganism may be pretentious and hypocritical, but I don't find veganism to be so in and of itself. Veganism is simply the placing of boundaries around food and in this case, abstenism from meat and dairy. There's no pretense or hypocrisy in that simple food boundary anymore than in the Jewish cultures encouragement of eating only foods that are kosher. There is reason and logic in the history of kosher foods as there is in veganism. I think most people choose vegetarian and/or vegan diets because they feel it is a good thing to do - it makes sense to them, so they do it. Kind of like throwing a pop can in the garbage vs. the recycling box. Why would anyone choose the recycling box, especially as it may not be as quick and convenient? Probably because they think it is reasonable to do so.

"Harm no beast" is a bit too broad of a stroke, but to answer your question and in keeping with knight's invitation for this thread, I offer Mahatma Ghandi's "Live simply so that others may simply live."

We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor never the tormented - Elie Wiesel

_________________
It is our deeds, the accumulated acts of goodness and kindness, that define us and ultimately are the true measure of our worth. Service is the coin of the spirit.

http://holy-lance.blogspot.com

So many gods, so many creeds
So many paths that wind and wind
While just the art of being kind
Is all the sad world needs
- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

_________________
It is our deeds, the accumulated acts of goodness and kindness, that define us and ultimately are the true measure of our worth. Service is the coin of the spirit.

http://holy-lance.blogspot.com