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Life is a treasure-chest of opportunities, choices, and time. 

Unfortunately, the choice many people make is to argue 

about the details of the chest instead of seizing the treasure within it. 

- Steve Maraboli

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The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind,

but the goodness of a person spreads in all directions.

- Chanakya

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This is a photo of the famous Bahá'í House of Worship in New Delhi, India, which has become known as the Lotus Temple. Built in 1986, it’s constructed in the shape of a nine-sided lotus flower with 27 marble "petals." It has nine doors leading in to a central hall capable of housing up to 2,500 people. The Temple has nine surrounding ponds and with the gardens covers 26 acres.

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12th century silk painting

Every night the farmer had lain in bed listening to the nightingale’s beautiful song and thinking how he would love to possess the bird for himself. He laid a trap and the nightingale was caught and caged.

“Now you shall always sing for me,” he told the bird.

“But nightingales never sing in cages,” the bird replied, “However, if you let me go free, I promise that I’ll tell you three things that are very much better than my singing.”

The farmer opened the door of the cage and the nightingale flew out and alighted on a nearby tree.

The bird told him, “Never believe a captive's promise, keep what you have and don’t sorrow what is lost forever," and flew away, never to return.

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After a break of three months

NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL ART

returns on Sunday 22nd March

http://nowthatswhaticallart.blogspot.com

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Can you coax your mind from its wandering 

and keep to the original oneness?

Can you let your body become

supple as a newborn child’s?

Can you cleanse your inner vision 

until you see nothing but the light?

Can you love people and lead them

without imposing your will?

Can you deal with the most vital matters

by letting events take their course? 

Can you step back from your own mind

and thus understand all things?

Giving birth and nourishing, 

having without possessing,

acting with no expectations,

leading and not trying to control:

this is the supreme virtue.

- Tao Te Ching (Chinese text written c.6th century BC)

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From "Summoned by Bells"
John Betjeman 1906-84

Walking from school is a consummate art:
Which route to follow to avoid the gangs,
Which paths to find that lead, circuitous,
To leafy squirrel haunts and plopping ponds,
For dreams of Archibald and Tiger Tim;
Which hiding place is safe, and when it is;
What time to leave to dodge the enemy.
I only once was trapped. I knew the trap -
I heard it in their tones: “Walk back with us.”
I knew they weren’t my friends; but that soft voice
Wheedled me from my route to cold Swain’s Lane.
There in a holly bush they threw me down,
Pulled off my shorts, and laughed and ran away;
And, as I struggled up, I saw grey brick,
The cemetery railings and the tomb.

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Going with the Flow

A Taoist story tells of an old man who accidentally fell into the river rapids leading to a high and dangerous waterfall. Onlookers feared for his life. Miraculously, he came out alive and unharmed downstream at the bottom of the falls. People asked him how he managed to survive. "I accommodated myself to the water, not the water to me. Without thinking, I allowed myself to be shaped by it. Plunging into the swirl, I came out with the swirl. This is how I survived."

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The music is "Serenata" by Enrico Toselli

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The greatest gift to others
is to freely relinquish yourself.
- Bodhidharma  5th or 6th cent AD

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TAKING THE ONE LESS TRAVELLED BY
will be updated
Every Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday

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One ought every day at least to hear a little song, read a good poem, 

see a fine picture and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749-1832

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You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body 

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the 

wild geese, harsh and exciting –

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

- Mary Oliver b.1935

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A Zen Story

The wife of a man became very sick. On her deathbed, she said to him, "I love you so much! I don't want to leave you, and I don't want you to betray me. Promise that you will not take another woman after I'm gone, or I will come back to haunt you."

For several months after her death, the husband did avoid other women, but then he met someone and fell in love. On the night that they were engaged to be married, the ghost of his former wife appeared to him. She blamed him for not keeping the promise, and every night afterwards she returned to taunt him. The ghost would remind him of everything that had happened between him and his fiancee that day, even to the point of repeating, word for word, their conversations. It upset him so badly that he couldn't sleep at all.

Desperate, he sought the advice of a Zen master who lived in the village. "This is a very clever ghost," the master said upon hearing the man's story. "It is!" replied the man. "She remembers every detail of what I say and do. She knows everything!" The master then told him what he should do the next time the ghost appeared.

That night the ghost returned. The man responded just as the master had advised. "You are such a wise ghost," the man said, "You know that I can hide nothing from you. If you can answer me one question, I will break off the engagement and remain single for the rest of my life." "Ask your question," the ghost replied. The man scooped up a handful of beans from a large bag on the floor, "Tell me exactly how many beans I have in my hand."

At that moment the ghost disappeared and never returned.

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The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say.

- J.R.R. Tolkien 1892-1973

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"Elegy for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami" 

composed and played by Nobuyuki Tsujii, the Japanese pianist who has been blind from birth.

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TAKING THE ONE LESS TRAVELLED BY
 updated every Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday

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ANYWAY
- Kent M. Keith from "The Silent Revolution: Dynamic Leadership in the Student Council"

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centred.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favour underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

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To a Butterfly

William Wordsworth 1770-1850

Stay near me - do not take thy flight!

A little longer stay in sight!

Much converse do I find in thee,

Historian of my infancy!

Float near me; do not yet depart!

Dead times revive in thee:

Thou bring’st, gay creature as thou art!

A solemn image to my heart,

My father’s family!

Oh! pleasant, pleasant were the days,

The time, when, in our childish plays,

My sister Emmeline and I

Together chased the butterfly!

A very hunter did I rush

Upon the prey - with leaps and springs

I followed on from brake to bush;

But she, God love her, feared to brush

The dust from off its wings.

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Two monks were washing their bowls in the river when they saw a scorpion that was drowning. One monk immediately scooped it up and set it upon the bank. In the process he was stung. He went back to washing his bowl and again the scorpion fell in. Again the monk saved it and  again he was stung. The other monk asked him, "Friend, why do you continue to save the scorpion when you know it's in its nature is to sting?"

"Because," the monk replied, "it's in my nature to save it!"

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Please enlarge this YouTube video

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TAKING THE ONE LESS TRAVELLED BY
is updated every Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday

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True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not. - Seneca

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I Love You

Sara Teasedale 1884-1933

When April bends above me

And finds me fast asleep,

Dust need not keep the secret

A live heart died to keep.

When April tells the thrushes,

The meadow-larks will know,

And pipe the three words lightly

To all the winds that blow.

Above his roof the swallows,

In notes like far-blown rain,

Will tell the little sparrow

Beside his window-pane.

O sparrow, little sparrow,

When I am fast asleep,

Then tell my love the secret

That I have died to keep.

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We did not think of the great open plains, the beautiful rolling hills, and winding streams with tangled growth as "wild." Only to the white man was nature a "wilderness" and only to him was the land "infested" with "wild" animals and "savage people."

To us it was tame. Earth was bountiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery. Not until the hairy man from the east came and with brutal frenzy heaped injustices upon us and the families we loved was it "wild" for us.

When the very animals of the forest began fleeing from his approach, then it was that for us the "Wild West" began. - Luther Standing Bear

Luther Standing Bear 1868-1939, chief of the Oglala Sioux

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A priest was in charge of the garden within a famous Zen temple. Next to the temple there was another, smaller temple where there lived a very old Zen master. One day, when the priest was expecting some special guests, he took extra care in tending to the garden. He pulled up the weeds and spent a long time raking up the fallen leaves. As he worked, the old Zen master watched him with interest from across the wall. 

When he had finished, the priest stood back to admire his work. "Isn't it beautiful," he called out to the old man. "Yes," was the reply, "but there is something missing. Help me over this wall and I'll put it right for you." 

After hesitating, the priest lifted the old fellow over and set him down. Slowly, the master walked to the tree near the centre of the garden, grabbed it by the trunk and shook it. Leaves showered down all over the garden. "There," said the old man, "you can put me back now."

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"Plaisir d'Amour"

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TAKING THE ONE LESS TRAVELLED BY

will be updated every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday

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A new series of this blog begins

on

Saturday 7th March

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ANYONE FOR HAIKU?

http://anyoneforhaiku.blogspot.com

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