Mystery

"Mystery is a way of seeing.  A moment when the mask of habit that makes things familiar falls away and we can catch a glimpse of life itself.  Mystery does not require us to do anything.  Mystery may simply require us to see familiar things in new ways and remember the wonder.  People who wonder rarely burn out.   Maybe we all need to know a little less and wonder a little more."  Rachel Naomi Remen

Six Mistakes of Man

• The illusion that personal gain is made up of crushing others
• The tendency to worry about things that cannot be changed or corrected
• Insisting that a thing is not possible because we cannot accomplish it
• Refusing to set aside trivial preferences
• Neglecting development and refinement of the mind and not acquiring the habit of reading and study
• Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.

Cireco (Roman orator)

Transition

"People in transition often disregard their appearance.  You may have to allow this kind of transition in others.   When you're going through a significant change of life, your good habits may fall apart.  You may do things that distance you from your family and community.   The insanity of a dark night makes some people less civil and controlled, and yet, at the same time, they may be more present."  Thomas Moore

Wholeness

"Most of us are dragged
toward wholeness
We do not understand
the breakdown of what has gone before.
We do not understand.
We cling to the familiar,
refuse to give up our habitual lives,
resist our growth.
We do not understand rebirth
do not accept the initiation rites.
Most of us are dragged toward wholeness."

Soulful Relationships

"Our problem in relationships is how to have an ongoing, intimate life with another person at the same time as we invite this completely unpredictable depth to have a place in our lives.   It isn't easy to live with the power and mystery of another's soulful personality.   For one thing, you can't depend on what the person promises, since the soul isn't willing to be chained to intentions or even to commitments.   If the individual doesn't understand everything going on in the soul, how can one who is close, who is seriously wrapped up in the other, have even the remotest understanding?

The only solution is for both parties to respect the soul, to acknowledge the mystery that is inescapably contained in a soulful life, and to treasure that very unpredictability.   This may entail a radical shift in values.   Ordinarily, we honor commitments, promises, fidelities, and reliable habits.   If, on the other hand,  we had a larger picture in mind and honored the tendency of the soul to move in mysterious ways, we might see that the unpredicted developments that come from the soul can have a positive effect on relationship.   They offer demand a great deal of adjustments and allowance, but they also offer continuous deepening of the connection and a grounding of the attachment in soul rather than in any one person's will.  Besides, individual willfulness is usually laced with fear and manipulation and is hardly solid ground for the building of intimacy."  Thomas Mooore

Perception

"Visualize the mind as a tower of windows.   Sadly many people remain trapped at one window, looking out every day at the same scene in the same way.   Real growth is experienced when you draw back from that one window, turn and walk around the inner tower of the soul and see all the different windows at await your gaze.   You will be able to see new vistas of possibility, presence and creativity.    Complacency, habit and blindness often prevent you from feeling your life.   So much depends on the frame of vision- the window through which you look."   John O' Donahue