The Inner Valley

"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