The Cycles of Life
“The Book of the Heart: Embracing the Tao” (Loy Ching-Yuen)
“In moments of darkness and pain remember all is cyclical. Sit quietly behind your wooden door: Spring will come again.”
–Loy Ching Yuen (Chinese Taoist T’ai Chi Ch’uan Master, 1873-1960)
The Rhythm of Life
“The same stream of life that runs through the world runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures. It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers. It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and of death, in ebb and in flow. I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life. And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.”
–Rabindranath Tagore (Indian Poet, Playwright, Essayist, Painter and, in 1913, Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, 1861-1941)
“Gitanjali: Offerings of Song and Art” (Rabindranath Tagore)
The Stream of Life
“The same stream of life that runs through the world runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures. It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers. It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and of death, in ebb and in flow. I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life. And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.”
–Rabindranath Tagore (Indian Poet, Playwright, Essayist, Painter and, in 1913, Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, 1861-1941)
“Gitanjali: Offerings of Song and Art” (Rabindranath Tagore)
The Silent Pulse
“At the heart of each of us, whatever our imperfections, there exists a silent pulse of perfect rhythm, a complex of wave forms and resonances, which is absolutely individual and unique, and yet connects us to everything in the universe. The act of getting in touch with this pulse can transform our personal experience and in some way alter the world around us.”
–George Leonard (American Aikidoist, President Emeritus of the Esalen Institute and Writer, 1923-2010)
Everything In Its Time
“The Book of the Heart: Embracing the Tao” (Loy Ching-Yuen)
“We can hold back neither the coming of the flowers nor the downward rush of the stream; sooner or later, everything comes to its fruition.”
–Loy Ching-Yuen (Chinese Taoist T’ai Chi Ch’uan Master, 1873-1960)
Sacred Cycles
“Whosoever wishes to know about the world must learn about it in its particular details. Knowledge is not intelligence. In searching for the truth be ready for the unexpected. Change alone is unchanging. The same road goes both up and down. The beginning of a circle is also its end. Not I, but the world says it: all is one. And yet everything comes in season.”
–Heraclitus of Ephesus (Greek Philosopher, c.540-480 B.C.)
Seeing in Cycles
“What really matters are not fascinating details to be memorized by the curious mind, but the gaining of a whole view of cosmic, planetary, and human evolution. It is to be able to ‘see’ or even feel this evolution, with its interconnecting cycles and subcycles, microcosmic as well as macrocosmic.”
–Dane Rudhyar (a.k.a. Daniel Chenneviere, French-born American Composer, Theosophist and Astrologer, 1895-1985)
“Occult Preparations for a New Age (A Quest book)” (Dane Rudhyar)
On Fire With Sacredness
“All Creation is on fire with sacredness; the Buddha nature and the Cosmic Christ and the image of God reside in the very light photons present in every atom in the universe.”
–Matthew Fox (a.k.a. Timothy James, American Theologian and Priest, 1940-)
Discerning Cycles
“There is timing in the whole life of the warrior, in his thriving and declining, in his harmony and discord. Similarly, there is timing in the Way of the merchant, in the rise and fall of capital. All things entail rising and falling timing. You must be able to discern this.”
–Miyamoto Musashi (a.k.a. Shinmen Takezō, a.k.a. Miyamoto Bennosuke, a.k.a Niten Dōraku, Japanese Samurai, Swordsman and Founder of the Hyōhō Niten Ichi-ryū or Niten-ryū style of Swordsmanship and Author of The Book of Five Rings (五輪書 Go Rin No Sho), on Strategy, Tactics, and Philosophy, c.1584-1645)