Friday Inspiration

Red Pythos Plant

"If a man speaks or acts with an impure mind, suffering follows him as the wheel of the cart follows the beast that draws the cart.

If a man speaks or acts with a pure mind, joy follows him as his own shadow."

_____ The Dhammapada

Thursday Inspiration

"The deepest waters make the least noise."

_____ Guatemalan proverb

Wednesday Inspiration

"Misfortune and experience are lost upon mankind when they produce neither reflection nor reformation."

_____ Thomas Paine

Weekend Inspiration

"Listen or thy tongue will keep thee deaf."

_____ Native American Indian proverb

Friday Inspiration

"How could drops of water know themselves to be a river? Yet the river flows on."

_____ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Thursday Inspiration

"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else;

you are the one who gets burned."

_____ Buddha

Wednesday Inspiration

"The mind remains wide, so my place is naturally remote."

_____ Tao Yuan Ming

Tuesday Inspiration

"Nothing is more simple than greatness;

Indeed, to be simple is to be great."

_____ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Monday Inspiration

"Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened, but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm."

_____ Robert Louis Stevenson

Weekend Inspiration

"It is a puzzling thing. The truth knocks on the door and you say, 'Go away, I am looking for the truth', and so it goes away. Puzzling."

_____ Robert M. Pirsig

Friday Inspiration

"My mind is my own church."

_____ Thomas Paine

Thursday Inspiration

"From the passions arise worry, and from worry arises fear.

Away with the passions, and no fear, no worry."

_____ Sutra of Forty-two Chapters

Wednesday Inspiration

"Many lifetimes of misunderstanding come from distrust, hindrance, and screens of confusion that we create in a scenario of isolation."

_____ Hongzhi Zhengjue

Tuesday Inspiration

"Nature teaches more than she preaches. There are no sermons in stones.

It is easier to get a spark out of a stone than a moral."

_____ John Burroughs

Weekend Inspiration

Sago Palm

"Vow to achieve the perfect understanding that the illusory body is like dew and lightning."

_____ Hsu Yun

Friday Inspiration

"There seems no plan because it is all plan;

There seems no center because it is all center."

_____ C. S. Lewis

Thursday Inspiration

"You should draw inwardly and search for the ground upon which you stand; thereby you will find out what truth is."

_____ Yun-men Wen-yen

Wednesday Inspiration

"For a deed to be totally pure, it must be done without any thought of reward, whether worldly or devine."

_____ Thich Thien-An

Tuesday Inspiration

"Careful! Even moonlit dewdrops,

If you're lured to watch,

Are a wall before the truth."

_____ Sogyo

Monday Inspiration

"My hours are peaceful centuries."

_____ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Weekend Inspiration

"When we are not bored with here and longing to be there, when the life of things is breathed in and breathed out with every breath we take, when we live with the past of our world and into the unborn future without desiring to undo what is done, or avoid what must be, then we live in a timeless life now, a placeless life here."

_____ R. H. Blyth

Friday Inspiration

"When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you."

_____ Lao-tzu

Thursday Inspiration

"Relaxation and concentration go hand in hand. But too much concentration defeats itself. If you are truly relaxed, and allow the body and the unconscious to do there share, instead of working the conscious mind overtime, concentration can become effortless effort."

_____ Joe Hyams

Wednesday's Inspiration

"Life is not meaningful......unless it is serving an end beyond itself;
unless it is of value to someone else."
_____ Abraham Joshua Heschel

Tuesday's Inspiration

"If you choose a job that you like,
You will never have to work a day in your life."
_____ Confucius

Monday's Message

"The wise man knows that it is better to sit on the banks of a remote mountain stream than to be emperor of the whole world."
_____ Zhuang Tzi

Weekend Inspiration

"Live in love
And do your work;
Make amends of your sorrows;
For just as the jasmine
Releases and lets fall its withered flowers,
Let fall willfulness and hatred."
_____ The Dhammapada

Friday's Inspiration

"To the right, books; to the left, a teacup. In front of me, the fireplace....
There is no greater happiness than this."
_____ Teiga

Thursday's Inspiration

"The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world."
_____ Marianne Williamson

Wednesday's Inspiration

"Friend, hope for the truth while you are alive. Jump into experience while you are alive. What you call salvation belongs to the time before death. If you don't break your ropes while you are alive, do you think ghosts will do lt after."
_____ Kabir

Tuesday's Inspiration

Blue Hosta Leaf

"From the pine tree learn of the pine tree,
And from the bamboo learn of the bamboo."
_____ Basho

Monday's Message

Blue Hosta

"Walking is Zen.
Sitting, to, is Zen.
If I speak or am silent,
Tarry or hasten:
Everything, in its true nature,
Is stillness."
_____ Shodoka

Weekend Inspiration

Hosta
"Waking up this morning, I smile. Twenty-four new hours are before me. I vow to live fully in each moment
And to look at all beings with eyes of compassion."
_____ Thich Nhat Nanh

Friday's Inspiration

Twisted Lady Fern

"When we meet real tragedy in life, we can react in two ways- either by losing hope and falling into
Self destructive habits, or by using the challenge to find our inner strength."
_____ Dalai Lama

Thursday's Inspiration

Bottle Palm

"The fundimental delusion of humanity is to
Suppose that I am here and you are out there."
_____ Yasutani Roshi

Wednesday's Inspiration

Red Dracena's

"Most people think that we live in the actual world while we are alive, and that after we take the last breath we somehow wander into the vague realm of the spirit. It is a great mistake to see two separate realms."
_____ Soen Nakagawa

Tuesday's Inspiration

European Fantail Palm

"I have learned silence from the talkative, tolerance from the intolerant, and kindness
From the unkind. I should not be ungrateful to those teachers."
_____ Kahlil Gibran

Monday's Message

Witches Broom Spruce

"Manifest plainness,
Embrace simplicity,
Reduce selfishness,
Have few desires."
_____ Loa-tzu

Holiday

Hi everyone I just wanted to let you know that I am on holidays for the week.The blog will return next Monday.

Weekend Inspiration

"Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. But unfortunately, although it is true,
It is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transcience, we suffer."
_____ D. T. Suzuki

Friday's Inspiration

"Root out the violence in your life, and lesarn to live compassionately and mindfully. Seek peace.
When you have peace within, real peace with others will be possible."
_____ Thich Nhat Hanh

And the Winners Are

I would like to thank everyone who entered my giveaway and for the nice comments that where posted.

The winners are,

The green doily goes to Lace Lovin Librarian, Diane

The Middle Earth HDT goes to Ladytats

The Peace HDT goes to Sharon D

Thursday's Inspiration

"...to look life in the face, always to look life in the face, and to know what it is, to love it for what it is.
At last to know it. To love it for what it is. And then to put it away."
_____ Virginia Woolf

Wednesday's Inspiration

"If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete."
_____ Buddha

Tuesday's Inspiration

"The esscence of man is not what he is,
But in what he is able to be."
_____ Abraham Joshua Heschel

Remember there are still 2 days to enter the giveaway. See Mondays post to enter.

Some Tatting and a Giveaway

This is a doily I just finished making using Lady Shuttlemakers Silk Hand Dyed Thread size 60 colour Middle Earth. The pattern is just one I made up as I went along.
Below is a picture of the doily that I am giving away along with 50 yards of Middle Earth HDT, size 60. All you have to do to be entered is to leave a comment with your name. Good luck. Deadline is thursday noon.

Due to the overwhelming response to my giveaway I have decided to change it a little to give more people a chance to win. There will now be 3 prizes.
1. The green doily
2. 50 yard skein of Middle Earth HDT size 60 by Lady Shuttlemaker
3. A small skein of Peace HDT size 80 by Yarnplayer

Friday's Inspiration and My 50th Birthday

Today I celebrate my 50th birthday and while that may not be a big milestone for some it is a huge one for me as I am the first male in 4 generations of my family to NOT have a heart attack or die of one before turning 50. So today I celebrate life.

"Life is like music for its own sake. We are living in an eternal now, and when we listen to music we are not listening to the past;
We are not listening to the future, we are listening to an expanded present."
_____ Alan Watts

Wednesday's Inspiration

"Enthusiasm is a supernatural serenity."
_____ Henry David Thoreau

Tuesday's Inspiration

"To live for some future goal is shallow.
It is the sides of mountains that sustain life, not the top."
_____ Robert M. Pirsig

Monday's Message

"Why do you so earnestly seek the truth in distant places?
Look for delusion and truth in the bottom of your own heart."
_____Ryokan