The Inner Valley

"Whether this moment is happy or not depends on you. It's you that makes the moment happy. It's not the moment that makes you happy. With mindfulness, concentration and insight, any moment can become a happy moment. Happiness is an art." ******* ✍ Thích Nhất Hạnh ( Thừa Thiên–Huế, Vietnam, 11 October 1926). ◙ Joos de Momper ******* 

"In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order, in all caprice a fixed law, for everything that works is grounded on its opposite." ******* ✍ Carl Gustav Jung (Kesswil, Switzerland, 26 July 1875 ~ Küsnacht, Switzerland, 6 June 1961). ◙ Hendrick van Cleve ******* "En todo caos existe un cosmos, en todo desorden hay un orden secreto, en todo lo que parece antojadizo existe una ley inalterable, porque todo lo que funciona está sustentado por su opuesto." 

About suffering they were never wrong, The Old Masters; how well, they understood Its human position; how it takes place While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along; How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting For the miraculous birth, there always must be Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating On a pond at the edge of the wood: They never forgot That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse Scratches its innocent behind on a tree. In Brueghel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry, But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen Something amazing,

Remember always that you are just a visitor here, a traveller passing through. Your stay here is but short and the moment of your departure unknown. None can live without toil and a craft that provides your needs is a blessing indeed. But if you toil without rest, fatigue and weariness will overtake you and you will be denied the joy that comes from labour’s end. Speak quietly and kindly and be not forward with either opinions or advice. If you talk much this will make you deaf to what others say, and you should know that there are few so wise that they cannot learn from others. Be near when help is needed but far when praise and thanks are being offered. Take small account of might, wealth and fame for they soon pass and are forgotten. Instead, nurture love within you and strive to be a friend to all. Truly, compassion is a balm for many wounds. Treasure silence when you find it and while being mindful of your duties set time aside to be alone with yourself. Ca

And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so? I did. And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth.  *** "Late Fragment is the final poem in the poet and short story writer Raymond Carver's (1938-1988) last published work, A New Path to the Waterfall , a collection that was written while he was dying of cancer. I value the Carver poem for a number of reasons. Mostly, I admire its simplicity and its poignancy. There is no measure of irony or artifice in it. There is also an underlying sense of celebration - this, in the affirmative "I did" and in the realization that when all is said and done, to call oneself beloved and to feel oneself beloved (a kind of proof) is enough." *******  Excerpt from the article How Poems Work by Aislinn Hunter.

Oh, Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the wind, Whose breath gives life to all the world. Hear me; I need your strength and wisdom. Let me walk in beauty, and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset. Make my hands respect the things you have made and my ears sharp to hear your voice. Make me wise so that I may understand the things you have taught my people. Help me to remain calm and strong in the face of all that comes towards me. Let me learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock. Help me seek pure thoughts and act with the intention of helping others. Help me find compassion without empathy overwhelming me. I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother, but to fight my greatest enemy - Myself. Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes. So when life fades, as the fading sunset, my spirit may come to you without shame. ******* Sioux Chief Yellow Hawk. ◙ Frederic Edwin Church

"What is the true meditation? It is to make everything: coughing, swallowing, waving the arms, motion, stillness, words, actions, the evil and the good, prosperity and shame, gain and loss, right and wrong, into one single koan." ******* Hakuin Ekaku (1686 ~ 1769), Japanese Zen Master ◙  Pieter Brueghel the Elder

“Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence.” ******* ✍ Lin Yutang (Banzai, Pinghe County, Fujian, China, 10 October 1895 ~ Hong Kong, 26 March 1976). ◙ Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin

"One who is equal to both friends and enemies, equipoised in fame and infamy, heat and cold, pleasure and pain, who is detached, equal to insult and praise, of controlled speech, satisfied in all circumstances, who has no attachment to any residence and of steady mind – that person has devotion and is very dear to Me." ******* Bhagavad Gita ~ Chapter 12 / Verse 18-19 ◙ Nicholas Roerich (Special thanks to Natalia) ******* *******

"Esa obra era un escándalo, porque la confusión y la maravilla son operaciones propias de Dios y no de los hombres."   ******* ✍ Jorge Luis Borges (Buenos Aires, 24 de Agosto de 1899 - Ginebra, 14 de Junio de 1986).  "Los dos Reyes y los dos Laberintos". ◙ Hieronymus Bosch   ******* "That work was a scandal, because confusion and marvel are the prerogatives of God, not men." *******

O Fortune, like the moon you are changeable, always waxing or waning; hateful life first oppresses and then soothes as fancy takes it; poverty and power it melts them like ice. Fate – monstrous and empty, you whirling wheel, stand malevolent, well-being is vain and always fades to nothing, shadowed and veiled you plague me too; now through trickery, I bring my bare back to your villainy. Fate, in health and in virtue, is against me, driven on and weighted down, always enslaved. So at this hour without delay pluck the vibrating string; since Fate strikes down the strong man, everyone weep with me!   ******* "O Fortuna" . Medieval Latin Goliardic poem (13th Century), part of the collection known as the Carmina Burana . ◙ Francis Danby

“A human being should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.” ******* ✍ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Frankfurt, 28 August 1749 ~ Weimar, 22 March 1832) . ◙ Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens.  *******

"Civilization is a very complex system in which we use symbols - words, numbers, figures, and concepts - to represent the real world of nature. We use money to represent wealth. We use the clock to represent time. We use yards and inches to represent space. These are very useful measures. But you can always have too much of a good thing. You can easily confuse the measurement with what you are measuring, such as confusing money with wealth. It is like confusing the menu with dinner. You can become so enchanted with the symbols that you entirely confuse them with reality. This is the disease from which almost all civilized people are suffering. We are, therefore, in the position of eating the menu instead of the dinner, of living in a world of words and symbols. This causes us to relate badly to our material surroundings." ******* Alan Watts (Chislehurst, Kent, January 6, 1915 ~ Mt. Tamalpais, California, November 16, 1973). ◙ Tanya Miller

"First of all you must use your ears to take some of the burden from your eyes. We have been using our eyes to judge the world since the time we were born. We talk to others and to ourselves mainly about what we see. A warrior is aware of that and listens to the world; he listens to the sounds of the world." I put my notes away. Don Juan laughed and said that he did not mean I should force the issue, that listening to the sounds of the world had to be done harmoniously and with great patience.  "A warrior is aware that the world will change as soon as he stops talking to himself", he said, "and he must be prepared for that monumental jolt". "What do you mean, don Juan?" "The world is such-and-such or so-and-so only because we tell ourselves that that is the way it is. If we stop telling ourselves that the world is so-and-so, the world will stop being so-and-so. At this moment I don't think you're ready for such a momentous blow

To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet. To make all your friends feel that there is something worthwhile in them. To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true. To think only the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best. To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own. To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile. To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others. To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble. To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud words but in great deeds. To live in faith that the w

Island where all becomes clear. Solid ground beneath your feet. The only roads are those that offer access. Bushes bend beneath the weight of proofs. The Tree of Valid Supposition grows here with branches disentangled since time immemorial. The Tree of Understanding, dazzling straight and simple. sprouts by the spring called Now I Get It. The thicker the woods, the vaster the vista: the Valley of Obviously. If any doubts arise, the wind dispels them instantly. Echoes stir unsummoned and eagerly explain all the secrets of the worlds. On the right a cave where Meaning lies. On the left the Lake of Deep Conviction. Truth breaks from the bottom and bobs to the surface. Unshakable Confidence towers over the valley. Its peak offers an excellent view of the Essence of Things. For all its charms, the island is uninhabited, and the faint footprints scattered on its beaches turn without exception to the sea. As if all you can do here is leave and plunge, never to return, into the dept

Since boredom advances and boredom is the root of all evil, no wonder, then, that the world goes backwards, that evil spreads. This can be traced back to the very beginning of the world. The gods were bored; therefore they created human beings. *******   ✍ Søren Aabye Kierkegaard ( Copenhagen, Denmark, 5 May 1813 ~ Copenhagen, 11 November 1855). ◙ Peter Nicolai Arbo

Gracias quiero dar al divino Laberinto de los efectos y de las causa s Por la diversidad de las criaturas Que forman este singular universo, Por la razón, que no cesará de soñar Con un plano del laberinto, Por el rostro de Elena y la perseverancia de Ulises, Por el amor, que nos deja ver a los otros Como los ve la divinidad, Por el firme diamante y el agua suelta, Por el álgebra, palacio de preciosos cristales, Por las místicas monedas de Ángel Silicio, Por Schopenhauer, Que acaso descifró el universo, Por el fulgor del fuego Que ningún ser humano puede mirar sin un asombro antiguo, Por la caoba, el cedro y el sándalo, Por el pan y la sal, Por el misterio de la rosa Que prodiga calor y que no lo ve, Por ciertas vísperas y días de 1955, Por los duros troperos que en la llanura Arrean los animales y el alba, Por la mañana en Montevideo, Por el arte de la amistad, Por el último día de Sócrates, Por las palabras que en un crepúsculo se d

I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contain’d, I stand and look at them long and long. They do not sweat and whine about their condition, They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago, Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.  *******   Excerpt from `Song of Myself´. ✍ Walt Whitman (West Hills, Hantington, Long Island [U.S.], May 31, 1819 ~ Camden, New Jersey [U.S.], March 26, 1892).    ◙ Jacopo Comin ~ "Tintoretto".