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Pepper - my little whippet

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Louis Douzette

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"If the Buddha and the Christ were to meet today what do they have to tell each other? Not only do they meet today but they met yesterday, they met last night, they are always in me and they are very peaceful and united with each other. There is no conflict at all between the Buddha and the Christ in me. They are real brothers, they are real sisters within me. This is part of the answer."

Thich Nhat Hanh

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"The cosmos is filled with precious gems. I want to offer a handful of them to you this morning. Each moment you are alive is a gem, shining through and containing earth and sky, water and clouds. It needs you to breathe gently for the miracles to be displayed.

Suddenly you hear the birds singing, the pines chanting, see the flowers blooming, the blue sky, the white clouds, the smile and the marvelous look of your beloved.

You, the richest person on Earth, who have been going around begging for a living, stop being the destitute child. Come back and claim your heritage. We should enjoy our happiness and offer it to everyone. Cherish this very moment. Let go of the stream of distress and embrace life fully in your arms."

Thich Nhat Hanh

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"Cynicism is not a neutral position — and although it asks almost nothing of us, it is highly infectious and unbelievably destructive. In my view, it is the most common and easy of evils.

I know this because much of my early life was spent holding the world and the people in it in contempt. It was a position both seductive and indulgent. The truth is, I was young and had no idea what was coming down the line. I lacked the knowledge, the foresight, the self-awareness. I just didn’t know. It took a devastation to teach me the preciousness of life and the essential goodness of people. It took a devastation to reveal the precariousness of the world, of its very soul, to understand that it was crying out for help. ...

Each redemptive or loving act, as small as you like, Valerio, such as reading to your little boy, or showing him a thing you love, or singing him a song, or putting on his shoes, keeps the devil down in the hole. It says the world and its inhabitants have value and are worth defending. It says the world is worth believing in. In time, we come to find that it is so."

Nick Cave, from his "Red Hand Files" newsletter, which you should sign up for right away

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When you don’t know yourself, you think others can know you, but when you know what you are, you realise no one can know you. No one can grasp the magnificence of that which you truly are.

Mooji

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Silence allows for deep listening and mindful response, the keys to full and honest communication.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

Art: Alla Tsank

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"When an ordinary man gains knowledge, he is a sage; when a sage gains understanding, he is an ordinary man."

-Zen proverb

Portrait of 'Hotto Enmyo Kokushi', a Zen Buddhist monk whose name was Shinchi Kakushin (1203–1298)

The title means “perfectly awakened national teacher of the Dharma lamp.”

Hinoki cypress wood with lacquer, metal staples & fittings, Japan Kamakura period (1185-1333)

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by Joel-Peter Witkin (born 1939) Death is Like Lunch, it’s Coming

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©yama-bato  

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