We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.

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Marion Pitts
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1 Some Thought-Provoking Quotes We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin ( ) my variant: We are not human beings on a spiritual journey; we are spiritual beings on a human journey. *************** We must confront evil and agitate relentlessly for change; yet we must balance that attack with an equally relentless capacity for tolerance and love, compassion and understanding. These are two totally different and often contradictory approaches, yet both are absolutely necessary, each in their right time. We won t get there without both. - John Blackman Art is a lie which tells the truth. - Picasso All art aims to kill time. * -- John Blackman [* Not in the sense of passing the time, but in the sense of stabbing time in the heart with a knife and killing it.] 1

2 ********************* Not everything that can be counted counts; and not everything that counts can be counted. - William Bruce Cameron [In other words: Just because you can count something, or make a tote or render an accounting of some objective kind concerning it, doesn t mean that your count, or tote or accounting is necessarily going to be meaningful. Likewise, there are many things that matter or count quite a bit - but you can t always count, or make a tote or give an objective accounting of those things.] (Sometimes erroneously attributed to Albert Einstein.) ********************** The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place. - George Bernard Shaw [a paraphrase I often use: The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has occurred. ] ************* Sometimes it seems as if half of humanity s most pressing problems are a direct result of a simple failure to ask the right questions; and that the other half are a direct result of the failure to honestly answer the good questions that have been asked. 2

3 John Blackman July 21, 2009 ********************** Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Margaret Mead ****************** The world of the Gods is as real, bountiful and imperfect as that of Men. - Raimundo Panikkar The Vedic Experience, p. 283 ****************** We must become the change we want to see. Chinese Fortune Cookie, from Rickshaw Corner, Foster City CA ********************* Quis custodiet ipsos custodes. Who watches the Watchmen? 3

4 [or maybe it s Who will take care of the caretakers? ] Juvenal, The Satires, VI, 347 this quote is also the epigraph for the Tower Commission Report, 1987 (re Iran Contra) ********************* A circumspect defence until the enemy is committed, and then the rapid and audacious attack. Wilbur Smith, River God, p. 516, from Taita the slave. The whole art of war consists in a well-reasoned and extremely circumspect defensive, followed by rapid and audacious attack. Napoleon Bonaparte (but not sure where I got this) ***************** It is said that with every mitzvah, every good deed that he performs, a man creates an angel. In order to understand this, it is necessary to envisage each such act, or prayer, as being an operation on two levels. The first level is behavioral; it is the initiating or bringing about or completing of a transformation no matter how small in the physical world. The other level is spiritual and involves the thoughts, feelings, emotions, and mystical meditations that should accompany the performance of the external act. These spiritual actions coalesce and form a discrete spiritual entity, which possesses objective reality, and which, in turn, creates an angel in the World of Formation. Thus, by means of the mitzvot he performs, man extends the realm in which his activity is effective from the lower to the upper worlds. He creates angels, which are, in a manner of speaking, his messengers in the higher 4

5 worlds. Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz From Worlds, Angels and Men in The Strife of the Spirit by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz ********************* You can blow out a candle But you can t blow out a fire. Once the flame begins to catch the wind will blow it higher. - Peter Gabriel, Biko 1980 ********** Instead of lamenting your fate, create your world. - Hazrat Inayat Khan 5

6 Passion with equanimity is a potent combination. John Blackman **************** Re copyright issues and the music business -- We reaffirm the moral right of artists to rejoice in their work, and receive the fruit of their endeavour. - Robert Fripp, 1992 ( The Great Deceiver liner notes) The phonographic copyright in these performances is operated by Discipline Global Mobile on behalf of the artists, with whom it resides. Discipline Global Mobile accepts no reason for artists to give away such copyrights interests in their work by virtue of a common practice which is out of tune with the time, was always questionable and is now indefensible. - Robert Fripp, 1995 (Back jacket of B Boom CD) The phonographic copyright in these performances is operated by Discipline (GM) Records on behalf of the artists, with whom it resides. Discipline accepts no reason for artists to give away such copyright interests in their work by virtue of a common practice which is out of tune with the time, was always questionable and is now indefensible. The publishing copyright in these compositions belongs to the writers in accordance with natural justice (although quite unnatural in practice) and contrary to the business policy and standard operating procedure of most major publishing houses. - Robert Fripp, 1995 (Liner notes for B Boom CD) ******************** Religion is to spirituality as the Art Department is to art. - John Blackman 1/31/06 [or did someone else say that first?] 6

7 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Lawyering is the last refuge of the wizard. John Blackman May 24, 2011 Nothing says it all. John Blackman September 9, 2011 (Dedicated to Riley McDaniel) ************** The noblest art is that of making others happy. - P.T. Barnum ********************* The question of how many angels could dance on the point of a pin no longer is absurd in molecular physics, with its discovery of how broad that point actually is, and what part invisible electronic 'messengers' play in the dance of life. Lewis Mumford 7

8 ********************** Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu - chapter 68 A good soldier is not violent. A good fighter is not angry. A good winner is not vengeful. A good employer is humble. This is known as the Virtue of not striving. This is known as ability to deal with others. This since ancient times has been known as the ultimate unity with heaven. ***** 69 The generals have a saying: "Rather than make the first move it is better to wait and see. Rather than advance an inch it is better to retreat a yard." 8

9 This is called going forward without advancing, pushing back without using weapons. There is no greater misfortune than underestimating your enemy. Underestimating your enemy means thinking that he is evil. Thus you destroy your three treasures and become an enemy yourself. When two great forces oppose each other, the victory will go to the one that knows how to yield. TAO TE CHING - Chapter 68. Compassion (Peter Merel trans.) Compassion is the finest weapon and best defence. If you would establish harmony, Compassion must surround you like a fortress. 9

10 Therefore, A good soldier does not inspire fear; A good fighter does not display aggression; A good conqueror does not engage in battle; A good leader does not exercise authority. This is the value of unimportance; This is how to win the cooperation of others; This to how to build the same harmony that is in nature. ************************** Chapter 81 Tao Te Ching, excerpt: So the sage does not serve himself; The more he does for others, the more he is satisfied; The more he gives, the more he receives. Nature flourishes at the expense of no one; So the sage benefits all men and contends with none. * * * Writing is creating belief. Ken Kesey 10

11 ****** Give me some bitchen shit, rather than fucked up nothingness. - Reverend Gary Motherfucker Jones The future is a mean bitch, because no matter how hard you try, or how much you tickle her, she never comes. - John Blackman Beware the fury of a patient man. fortune cookie October 2012 ************ God made yeast, as well as dough, and loves fermentation just as dearly as he loves vegetation. Ralph Waldo Emerson *************** Sometimes the hardest thing to do is nothing. Gil Grissom, Final Episode, Season One, CSI: Las Vegas 11

12 ************************** Nothing is ever enough. But we live, and we try. - Weeds, TV Drama, Season 4 ***************** Trust those who seek the truth; but never trust those who say they ve found it. - Dexter episode, Season 7 Love will find its way through all languages on its own. Rumi, Iranian poet [According to tradition, Rumi was himself a notable musician who played the rebāb (a stringed instrument played with a bow, although sometimes plucked like a lyre), although his favorite instrument was the ney, or reed flute.] *** Sometimes the process is beyond analysis. Roger Dean, prog rock album artist 12

13 It seems in troubled times, the man most willing to invent the worst extremes will always find a wider following than one who tries for moderation. William Kinsolving, in his book, Mr. Christian The only protection we have against the sheer naked terror of the universe is our minds. And each other. - John Blackman ***** On 17/04/2010, at 9:40 AM, John S. Blackman wrote: Scott, check out this article on Albert Hoffman -- I love his line about LSD: It is just a tool to turn us into what we are supposed to be. *************************** If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. Antoine de Saint-Exupery 13

14 ************************************ Everything is related to everything, but without monistic identity and dualistic separation. - R. Panikkar the last line of The Rhythm of Being, p. 404 [my comment: interesting that Scott and RP chose an and there instead of an or, which would be the more typical formulation. Using and gives it a slightly different meaning; it suggests that monistic identity and dualistic separation exist together, coterminously, or simultaneously, if you will. They are not opposing theories or opposing viewpoints. They are dimensions of the Real, although they do not exhaust it.] Imagination and fantasy are useful and powerful human faculties, but they may easily mislead us if left on their own. These faculties, combined with logical thinking, have made of the Divine Mystery a separate and Supreme Being, a substance in the crudest sense of the word. This is precisely the mythos that is deteriorating and collapsing all around us. R. Panikkar, The Rhythm of Being, p ************** preaching. It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our - St. Francis of Assisi ************* 14

15 The expectations that others have for us shape the people we get the opportunity to become. Sports Illustrated, February 8, 2016; L. Jon Wertheim and Sam Sommers 15

The Tao of Trust -- From the Ancient Chinese Perspective

The Tao of Trust -- From the Ancient Chinese Perspective Edited by Robert Porter Lynch Trust According to Ancient Chinese Wisdom 1 In the Ancient Chinese tradition, three writers addressed the issue of trust and its importance in maintaining a healthy society.