Some Beautiful Words of Wisdom

What makes some written words beautiful words of wisdom while others are not? The "cleverness" of the use of words might make them interesting or entertaining, but not much more than that. The beauty we can see in some verses, quotations and other writings comes not from the way they draw attention to themselves, but in how they point to some truth beyond the words, how they show us something new, or suggest something we need to be reminded of. Some of my favorite examples follow.

To see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wildflower... hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour... - William Blake

Trying to change ourselves in order to please others - so that we can feel temporarily whole for having won their approval - is like cutting a flower into pieces so that it will fit into a vase. - Guy Finley

See the world as yourself ... Have faith in the way things are ... Love the world as yourself ... Then you can care for all things - Tao Te Ching # 13

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought. - Basho

You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions. - Naguib Mahfouz

We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us. - E. M. Forester

It is our very search for perfection outside ourselves that causes our suffering. - Buddha

Mastery of life is the opposite of control. You become aligned with the greater consciousness. It acts, speaks, does the works. - Eckhart Tolle

A great oak is only a little nut that held its ground. - Anonymous

Allow your heart to remind you what the mind so easily forgets: there is a peace. There is a shelter. There is a timeless place in each of us that no darkness can shatter or dispel. Make it your one intention to spend your time there. Prefer its ever-present company to that of any promise of peace to come, and watch how your life grows happy and whole in stillness beyond compare. - Guy Finley

Clear mind is like the full moon in the sky. Sometimes clouds come and cover it, but the moon is always behind them. Clouds go away, then the moon shines brightly. So don't worry about clear mind: it is always there. When thinking comes, behind it is clear mind. When thinking goes, there is only clear mind. Thinking comes and goes, comes and goes, You must not be attached to the coming or the going. - Zen Master Seung Sahn

Everything passes. There is great beauty in this, both in the passing of pain and in the passing of pleasure. When things present themselves to you as permanent, don't believe it. Exercise a reasonable doubt. Discover from your own experience that the negative event that seems so overwhelming is not the power it presents itself to be. - Guy Finley

What does it profit a man to have gained the whole world, and to have lost his soul? - Jesus Christ

Just as the great oceans have but one taste, the taste of salt, so too there is but one taste fundamental to all true teachings of the way, and this is the taste of freedom. - Buddha

The mind creates the abyss, and the heart crosses it. - Sri Nisargadatta

Beautiful words of wisdom point to that truth we wish to taste.