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ethics and philosophy

my thoughts are sometimes better expressed by others.....

M Ljin

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Where induſtry and perſeverance are joined to an upright intention, I believe, it will ſeldom be found that we have much cauſe to be diſpleaſed with the world. Succeſs, in a great degree, depends upon ourſelves ; and honeſty and exertion will, I am convinced, generally lead us to all that we ought reaſonably to hope for.

-John Graham (1764-1841), Vermont lawyer

One can never be too kind to oneself or others.

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Judith Browning

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Gratitude is the confidence in life itself.
In it, we feel how the same force that pushes grass
through cracks in the sidewalk invigorates our own life.

Jack Kornfield

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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If you don’t know the guy
on the other side of the world,
love him anyway
because he’s just like you.
He has the same dreams,
the same hopes and fears.
It’s one world, pal.
We’re all neighbors.

Frank Sinatra
(1915-1998, singer, actor)

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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I'm done with great things and big things,
great intentions and big success,
and I am for those tiny invisible
molecular moral forces
that work from individual to individual,
creeping through the crannies of the world
like so many rootlets,
or like the capillary oozing of water.
Yet which, if you give them time,
will rend the hardest monuments of our pride.

William James
(1842-1910, philosopher and psychologist)

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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Nobody can discover the world for somebody else.
Only when we discover it for ourselves does it become common ground
and a common bond and we cease to be alone.

Wendell Berry,
A Place on Earth

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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“Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you.”

Wendell Berry

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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I am an irrepressible optimist,
but I always base my optimism on solid facts.

Mahatma Gandhi,
quoted in Mahatma: Life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi,

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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Forgiveness is twice blessed.
It frees the one forgiven from guilt
and you from bitterness.
Forgiveness sheds light on the subject.
It lets love, instead of judgment, shine in.
Judgment curdles the soul;
forgiveness invites your spirit
to burst into bloom.

Daphne Rose Kingma
(1942 to pres., Psychoanalyst and poet)

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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It’s really a spiritual power
that we all have as human beings,
as a spirit in this body suit;
it’s the loving strength of will
to confront injustice and violence without mirroring.
That is what we must reinvigorate within ourselves,
but also between ourselves.
That soul force, to see it with kindness and compassion
and when we divert from it,
to be able to call ourselves and others back on that path.

Anu Gupta
(lawyer, social scientist, neuroscientist)

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Deane Adams

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Those who will give up essential liberty to secure a little temporary safety;
deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamin Franklin

M Ljin

master gardener

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Deane Adams wrote:Those who will give up essential liberty to secure a little temporary safety;
deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamin Franklin

This is just something I was considering yesterday, but I phrased it differently. Whatever freedom isn't rooted in safety, and whatever safety isn't rooted in freedom--neither can be trusted to hold, because all unfreedom lies at the edge of danger, and all danger lies at the edge of unfreedom.

I once heard a podcast mentioning that the word "friend" was intimately connected with the word "free"--because when one is removed from their friends, their community, they become unfree, subject to the whims of others.

One can never be too kind to oneself or others.

Judith Browning

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There’s a human sense of dignity
that we can offer to another person
and that can only happen
when we have dignity within ourselves
when we have a sense of acceptance
of who we are.

Ram Appalaraju
(Chaplain and an Eco Chaplain,
faculty at Sati Center for Buddhist Studies
for the Eco Chaplaincy Training)

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Deane Adams

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We are done with Hope and Honor,
We are lost to Love and Truth,
We are dropping down the ladder rung by rung;
And the measure of our torment is the measure of our youth.
God help us, for we knew the worst too young !

Rudyard Kipling "Gentleman Rankers"

Judith Browning

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We are moving into a period of bewilderment, a curious moment in which people find light in the midst of despair, and vertigo at the summit of their hopes.
It is a religious moment also, and here is the danger.
People will want to obey the voice of Authority,
and many strange constructs of just what Authority is will arise in every mind…
The public yearning for Order will invite many stubborn uncompromising persons
to impose it.
The sadness of the zoo will fall upon society.

leonard cohen
from the book of longing
1995

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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Faith is intuitive,
it’s primordial,
it’s something that we’re born with.
It’s not something
that we can go and learn about.
We cultivate it
and we continue to fine-tune it
as we deepen in our spiritual practice.

Leslie Booker
(Buddhist meditation teacher, writer, engaged spiritual leader)

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Deane Adams

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What we anticipate seldom occurs; what
we least expected generally happens.

Benjamin Disraeli

Judith Browning

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Question Authority

attributed more recently to...
Timothy Francis Leary
(October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996)
American psychologist and author

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Deane Adams

Posts: 723

253

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Better one's own duty, though imperfect,
Than another's duty well performed.

The Bhagavad Gita

Judith Browning

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"You mustn’t wish for another life.
You mustn’t want to be somebody else.
What you must do is this:

“Rejoice evermore.
Pray without ceasing.
In everything give thanks.”

I am not all the way capable of so much,
but those are the right instructions.”

Wendell Berry

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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"Revolution doesn't have to do with smashing something;
it has to do with bringing something forth.
If you spend all your time thinking about that which you are attacking,
then you are negatively bound to it.
You have to find the zeal in yourself and bring that out."

Joseph Campbell
"Pathways to Bliss"

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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Some Questions You Might Ask

Is the soul solid, like iron?
Or is it tender and breakable, like
the wings of a moth
in the beak of the owl?
Who has it, and who doesn't?
I keep looking around me.
The face of the moose is as sad
as the face of Jesus.
The swan opens her white wings slowly.
In the fall, the black bear carries leaves into the darkness.
One question leads to another.
Does it have a shape? Like an iceberg?
Like the eye of a hummingbird?
Does it have one lung, like the snake and the scallop?
Why should I have it, and not the anteater who loves her children?
Why should I have it, and not the camel?
Come to think of it, what about the maple trees?
What about the blue iris?
What about all the little stones, sitting alone in the moonlight?
What about roses, and lemons, and their shining leaves?
What about the grass?

Mary Oliver

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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One of the qualities that you can develop, particularly in your older years, is a sense of great compassion for yourself.
When you visit the wounds within the temple of memory, you should not blame yourself for making bad mistakes that you greatly regret.
Sometimes you have grown unexpectedly through these mistakes.
Frequently, in a journey of the soul, the most precious moments are the mistakes.
They have brought you to a place that you would otherwise have always avoided.
You should bring a compassionate mindfulness to your mistakes and wounds.

John O'Donohue

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Deane Adams

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"when you have eliminated the impossible,
whatever remains,
how improbable,
must be the truth."

Sherlock Holmes Sign of the Four

M Ljin

master gardener

Posts: 2505

Location: Zone 5

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Judith Browning wrote:One of the qualities that you can develop, particularly in your older years, is a sense of great compassion for yourself.
When you visit the wounds within the temple of memory, you should not blame yourself for making bad mistakes that you greatly regret.
Sometimes you have grown unexpectedly through these mistakes.
Frequently, in a journey of the soul, the most precious moments are the mistakes.
They have brought you to a place that you would otherwise have always avoided.
You should bring a compassionate mindfulness to your mistakes and wounds.

John O'Donohue

That's true--but maybe it's even better to start on self compassion as soon as possible?

One can never be too kind to oneself or others.

Judith Browning

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“In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter and sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.”

Khalil Gibran
The Prophet, 1923.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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There can be no vulnerability
without risk;
there can be no community
without vulnerability;
there can be no peace,
and ultimately no life,
without community.

M. Scott Peck
(1936 -2005, Psychologist)

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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Let yourself be silently drawn
by the strange pull
of what you really love.
It will not lead you astray.

Mevlana Jalaladin Rumi
(1207-1273 Persian Poet and Mystic)

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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In the morning when you wake up,
you reflect on the day ahead
and aspire to use it
to keep a wide-open heart and mind.
At the end of the day,
before going to sleep,
you think over what you have done.
If you fulfilled your aspiration,
even once, rejoice in that.
If you went against your aspiration,
rejoice that you are able to see
what you did and are no longer living in ignorance.
This way you will be inspired
to go forward with increasing clarity,
confidence, and compassion
in the days that follow.

Pema Chodron

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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Don’t ask what the world needs.
Ask what makes you come alive and go do it.
Because what the world needs
is people who have come alive.

Howard Thurman
(1899 to 1981, philosopher, theologian,
educator, and civil rights leader)

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Deane Adams

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Suspicion is the companion of mean souls,
and the bane of all good society.

Thomas Paine, Common Sense

Judith Browning

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Love isn't one frequency—it's an octave.
Compassion. Forgiveness.
Appreciation. Gratitude. Patience.
Each has subtle but measurable differences
in the electromagnetic field we radiate.

Rollin McCraty
(director of research at HeartMath Institute Research Center)

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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The principle of renunciation
is not to encourage a state of lack
but to establish as complete a state of simplicity as possible.
In that simplicity you can more clearly see
those patterns of wanting, not wanting, fearing, hoping,
as they take shape.

Ajahn Amaro
(1956 to pres., abbot of the Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, England)

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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"When we are young, it’s the illusion of perfection
that we fall in love with. As we age, it’s the humanness
that we fall in love with- the poignant stories of
overcoming, the depthful vulnerability of aging, the
struggles that grew us in karmic stature, the way a
soul shaped itself to accommodate its circumstances.
With less energy to hold up our armor, we are revealed
and, in the revealing, we call out to each other’s
hearts....Where we once saw imperfect scars,
we now see evidence of a life fully lived."

Jeff Brown

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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"To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight,”

E.E. Cummings

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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Slowly slowly O mind...
Everything in own pace happens,
Gardner may water a hundred buckets...
Fruit arrives only in it's season.

Kabir

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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The drive to play freely
is a basic biological drive.
Lack of free play
may not kill the physical body
as with lack of air, food, or water,
but it kills the spirit
and stunts mental growth.

Peter Gray
(psychology researcher and scholar)

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

Posts: 10392

Location: a temperate, clay/loam spot on planet earth, the universe

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Our ability
to reach unity in diversity
will be the beauty and the test
of our civilization.

Mahatma Gandhi
(1869-1948, Spiritual Teacher and Political Leader)

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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Hold fast to dreams
for if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

Langston Hughes
(1901-1967, American poet,
social activist, novelist, playwright)

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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Life is short
and we have never too much time
for gladdening the hearts
of those who are traveling
the dark journey with us.
Oh, be swift to love,
make haste to be kind.

Henri Frederic Amiel
(1821-1881, Swiss philosopher and poet)

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

Posts: 10392

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Culture has a way of giving us ladders when we need trees,
reason when we need myth,
and separateness when we need unity.
In the music of the universe, there is harmony.
The discord, the non-harmonious,
is slowly drifting back in to the misty domains of our lost games.
Ritual is being restored to rite.
With a higher sense of the rhythms of the planet,
we can recognize the emerging vision of grace.
A grace to honor, not befowl, our Mother.
A grace to honor each other as end products
of diverse cultural journeys.
A grace to become the kind of human
that can embody the spiritual.
A grace to blend into all that is, was, and shall be.

Bob Samples
(humanistic psychologist, artist, author, filmmaker, poet)

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

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