The Dhammapada is a text that is over two thousand years old and is rooted in the Buddhist tradition. It speaks of a fundamental power that we all have to use in our everyday experiences: to grow more happiness, more love, and more wisdom inside ourselves. This is truly important these days when people feel pushed around and are often running on empty.”

Think not lightly of good
saying, “It will not come to me.
Drop by drop is
the water pot filled. 

Likewise, the wise one,
gathering it little by little
Fills oneself with good.

Dhammapada: a collection of sayings
of the Buddha in verse form

“When I was growing up, I felt different, like most creative people do. I love books, poetry, and baseball in no particular order. And you think you’re alone, you think you’re crazy. I grew up in a household of books, books, newspapers, magazines, radio, a little bit of television, but it was mostly the writing. We took a lot of car trips in the old Ford station wagon when I was young, so I think I identified with Odysseus going on a long, long trip to find something exciting, and then the effort to get home again. Then I found Albert Camus, I found Emily Dickinson, I found Homer, and there is nothing that I have gone through that someone else hasn’t gone through before. Goethe once said, when you find the book you have been looking for, the one that gives meaning to your very existence, it’s like a lost sailor at sea clutching at last to a raft. You never forget those books. This is a way for us to find our way to our true north. We read, absorb, travel, study, but in the end we have to make all this work our own, which means our personal stamp on it reveals our own hurts, our own pains, but then our exaltation as well. It’s a combination.”

You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.

James Baldwin(1924-1987) to Life magazine, 1962.
James Baldwin was a writer and civil rights activist
who is best known for his semi-autobiographical novels
and plays that center on race, politics, and sexuality.

“This quote inspires me because we’re in a time in which we need a profound whole systems change. What we need now is so big that I don’t think any single individual can lead the revolution. We’ve been inspired by such leaders as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, and Mahatma Gandhi. What is needed for such a big social change is a deep community of practice, a sangha around which that transformation can turn.”

The next Buddha may very well be a Sangha, a community of practice.

Thich Nhat Hanh

“What I love about this quote is that it’s very much about presence, and the instant, and the equalizing power of the moment.”

There is no first or last in forever. It is Center there all the time.

-Emily Dickinson

“I like this quote because in our Buddhist tradition we have what we call the Bodhisattva. The greatest fear of the Bodhisattva is to find peace for oneself and be separate from the suffering of others. To me it would be a really horrible existence to live in a peaceful world knowing that others are suffering. For myself I always want to be a part of serving, caring, and loving others. Actually I think if you’re separated from the suffering of others you can’t really find true peace, you can’t lead a meaningful life. We need others to wake up. So, I love this idea that the greatest fear is to be separate from others’ suffering.”

If I ever become a saint, I will surely be one of darkness. I will continue to be absent from heaven to light the light of those in darkness on earth.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta

“As someone who works with transforming our negative and fear-based thoughts, this quote is very inspiring to me. I believe that transformational thinking is the only way that we can change, not only our own personal problems but the problems that we face out in the world today.”

We can’t solve our problems with the same thinking that created it.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Theoretical physicist

“I have this quote hanging in my office and I read and reread it every day because I acknowledge life is hard and not picture perfect and beautiful. There are horrible, heavy, terrible things. But there are also beautiful things. The only way to get through it is to be present in it. As a physician, what I understand from that quote is that I can’t pretend everyone’s healthy and smiling all the time. There are tragic things that happen. It’s not pretending you’re going to have a good day today. It’s saying just be present for it, embrace it, be grateful for it, you’re here right now. I tie that to grounding because that’s what grounding does for me. It grounds my body physically. It also grounds me emotionally and spiritually and allows me to be present in this moment. But it doesn’t pretend everything’s wonderful, and easy, and instantly fixed. It’s saying, it can be hard, and it can be beautiful, and it can be heavy, and it can be overwhelming, and can you just be here with me right now? I just love that.”

Here is the world, terrible and beautiful things will happen. Don’t be afraid.

Frederick Buechner, American writer and theologian

“This poem reminds me to be startled, enthralled, amazed, and curious about the planet on which we live and the life forms that have evolved to inhabit this planet.”

There are moments in moist love where heaven is jealous of what we on earth can do.

Hafiz (1315-1390) Persian poet translated by Daniel Ladinsky

“One of my favorite quotes is by Herman Hesse from his book Wandering. It inspires me because one of my passions is helping people connect to nature, to the spiritual teachings of trees. Trees are deep spiritual teachers. When we connect to them and listen to them through our intuition, then we ourselves can grow as people.”

Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.

Herman Hess (1877-1962) author of Siddhartha and Wandering

This 14^th century mystic, has been called the first woman of English letters and is one of the first women to write in English. She developed a theology not of despair and of self-pity, or pessimism, or of saying God is punishing us for our sins. No, she developed a creation spirituality that is built around goodness. I just love this teaching and especially for our time because Julian was living through the Black Death as we’re living through Coronavirus and climate change. I think she has a tremendous amount to say to our times, keep the goodness in our hearts, keep the goodness in our minds. I think Julian is a courageous genius, leading us that way as she draws on the wisdom of Thomas Aquinas, Meister Eckert, and Francis of Assisi who came before her. Julian is reminding us that we can move from being dangerous to being friendly with the rest of creation.

God is everything which is good, as I see it, and the goodness which everything has is God. God’s goodness fills all creatures and all blessed works full and endlessly overflows in them.

Julian of Norwich 14^th century mystic