Simplicity

Our task is to strike a balance,

to find a middle way,

to learn not to overstretch ourselves with extraneous activities and preoccupations,

but to simplify our lives more and more.

The key to finding a happy balance in modern lives is simplicity.

(Sogyal Rinpoche)

What A Fine Broad Kingdom....

In the world there are invisible ladders,leading step by step to the summit of heaven.There is a different ladder for every group, a different heaven for every path. Each one is ignorant of the other's condition in this wide kingdom which has no end or beginning.

This one is amazed at that one and wonders why he is happy,while that one is astonished at this one and asks why he is amazed.

God's earth is spacious.Every tree springs up from a certain soil.The leaves and boughs sing thanks to God:"What a fine, broad kingdom."

The nightingales hover around the fruiting blossom,calling, "Give us some of what you drink."

This discourse has no end.

(Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance)

The Window Through Which We Look

A young couple moves into a new neighborhood. The next morning,while eating their breakfast, the young woman sees her neighbor hanging washed clothes outside.
The laundry is not clean, she said.Perhaps she doesn't know how
to wash correctly. Her husband looked on but remained silent.

Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, she would make the same comments.

About one month later,she was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband....Look she has learned how to wash correctly....I wonder who taught her this?

Her husband said...I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows.

And so it is with life... What we see when watching others depends on the purity of the window through which we look.

(source:intenet)