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...

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".

Then a woman said, "Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow."       And he answered:       Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.       And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.       And how else can it be?       The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.       Is not the cup that hold your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?       And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?       When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.       When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.       Some of you say, "Joy is greater than so...

That is no country for old men. The young In one another's arms, birds in the trees – Those dying generations – at their song, The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas, Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long Whatever is begotten, born, and dies. Caught in that sensual music all neglect Monuments of unageing intellect. An aged man is but a paltry thing, A tattered coat upon a stick, unless Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing For every tatter in its mortal dress, Nor is there singing school but studying Monuments of its own magnificence; And therefore I have sailed the seas and come To the holy city of Byzantium. O sages standing in God's holy fire As in the gold mosaic of a wall, Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre, And be the singing-masters of my soul. Consume my heart away; sick with desire And fastened to a dying animal It knows not what it is; and gather me Into the artifice of eternity. Once out of nature I...

Lin Hui of Kia took to flight, Pursued by enemies. He threw away the precious jade, Symbol of his rank, And took his infant child on his back. Why did he take the child And leave the jade, Which was worth a small fortune, Whereas the child, if sold, Would bring him only a paltry sum? Lin Hui said: “My bond with the jade symbol and with my office Was the bond of egoism. My bond with the child was the bond of Tao.” “Where egoism is the bond, Friendship is dissolved When calamity comes. Where Tao is the bond, Friendship is made perfect By calamity.” “The friendship of wise men Is tasteless as water. The friendship of fools Is sweet as wine. But the tastelessness of the wise Brings true affection. The savor of fools’ company Ends in hatred.” ✍ Thomas Merton (Prades, France,  January 31, 1915 ~ Bangkok, Thailand, December 10, 1968). ' The Way of Chuang Tzu ' . ◙ Gustave Doré  ******* La Hu...