There was a certain merchant who was deeply impressed by the lofty virtue of the Zen monk Hakuin. He used to present the monk with gifts of money and goods from time to time.
As it happened, the daughter of the merchant had a love affair with a family servant, resulting in the birth of a child. When the irate merchant demanded an explanation, his daughter said she had been impregnated by the monk Hakuin.
The merchant was furious: “To think that I gave alms to an evil shavepate like that for ten years!” Picking the baby up in his arms, the merchant took it right over to Hakuin. Laying it in the Zen
master’s lap, the merchant gave him a tongue-lashing and left in a huff.
Hakuin didn’t argue. He began to take care of the baby as if it were his own. People who saw him also believed he had fathered the child.
One winter day, when Hakuin was out begging for alms from house to house in the falling snow, carrying the infant with him as he went, the merchant’s daughter saw them and was filled with remorse. In tears, she went to her father and confessed the truth.
Mortified, the merchant was totally at a loss. He rushed over to throw himself to the ground at the feet of Zen master Hakuin, begging his forgiveness.
Hakuin simply smiled and said, “The child has another father?”
A flower that has perfume is not concerned
who comes to smell it or who turns his back on it.
So is love. Love is not a thing of the mind or the intellect.
It comes into being naturally as compassion,
when this whole problem of existence
— as fear, greed, envy, despair, hope —
has been understood and resolved.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Julie Shaw Lutts – Family Matters This was included in the Artists’ Book Cornucopia II exhibition at Abecedarian Gallery in Denver Colorado in 2011.
“Understanding and Love are not two separate things, but only one. To develop understanding, you have to practice looking at all living beings with the eyes of compassion.”
~Thich Nhat Hanh
You have two gardens: your own garden and that of your beloved. First, you have to take care of your own garden and master the art of gardening. In each one of us there are flowers and garbage. The garbage is the anger, fear, discrimination, and jealousy within us. If you water the garbage, you will strengthen the negative seeds. If you water the flowers of compassion, understanding, and love, you will strengthen the positive seeds. What you grow is up to you.
If you don’t know how to practice selective watering in your own garden, then you won’t have enough wisdom to help water the flowers in the garden of your beloved. In cultivating your own garden well, you also help to cultivate their garden.
– Thich Nhat Hanh
“When we see and understand the pain and the suffering in ourselves and in [another] person, understanding and compassion in us begin to grow. These are the energies that have the power to heal and transform us. This is the secret to nourishing our love…
Only when we know how to look deeply at each other, and how to look deeply at ourselves, can we generate these two precious energies.
When we know how to nourish our love, we can heal ourselves and heal those around us. When love grows, it naturally embraces more and more.
If your love is true love, then it will continue to grow until it includes all people and all species. Your love will become a river, wide enough to nourish not only you and your beloved, but the whole world.
This is love without limits , a heart without boundaries, and without discrimination. It is unlimited compassion, unlimited loving kindness. It brings joy to everyone.
Nothing and no one is excluded from this love— that is why it is called the love of limitless inclusiveness…”
~Thich Nhat Hanh
Inside the Now
In this world hate never yet dispelled hate. Only love dispels hate. This is the law, ancient and inexhaustible.
~ Buddha ~
The Dhammapada
“In this world, hate never dispelled hate. Only love dispels hate. This is the law, ancient and inexhaustible.” ~The Buddha
“Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as One.” ~John Lennon
“It is love alone that leads to right action. What brings order in the world is to love and let love do what it will.” ~Jiddu Krishnamurti
“When we see God in each other we will be able to live in peace.” ~Mother Teresa
“Peace is not merely a distant goal we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.” -Martin Luther King Jr
“If you want peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.” -Archbishop Tutu
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is.” ~Albert Einstein
“Courageous people do not fear forgiving for the sake of peace.” -Nelson Mandela
“You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.”
~Mahatma Gandhi
“The more we sweat in peace, the less we bleed in war.” ~Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit
“The day will come when, after harnessing space, the winds, the tides and gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, we shall have discovered fire.” ~Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
“Peace is the only battle worth waging.”
~Albert Camus
“Peace cannot be kept by force, it can only be achieved by understanding.”
– Albert Einstein
“Peace, like war, must be waged.”
– George Clooney
“Hatred ever kills, love never dies. Such is the vast difference between the two… The duty of a human being is to diminish hatred and to promote love.” ~Mahatma Gandhi
“It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt
“If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliché that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that’s his problem. Love and peace are eternal.”
– John Lennon
“You have heard that it was said, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also… Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” ~Jesus
“Love courses through everything. No, love is everything. How can you say, there is no love, when nothing but love exists? All that you see has appeared because of love. All shines from love, All pulses from love, All flows from love– No, once again, All is love!” ~Fakhruddin ‘Iraqi
“Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whispers, ‘Grow, grow.’ ” ~The Talmud
“See simplicity in the complicated, seek greatness in small things. In the Universe, the difficult things are done ss if they were easy.” ~Lao Tsu
“Peace is always beautiful.”
– Walt Whitman
SPIRITUAL WISDOM: Recognizing the Sacred in Our World
https://creativesystemsthinking.wordpress.com/2014/04/29/spiritual-wisdom-recognizing-the-sacred-in-our-world/
Source: As You Are | Great Middle Way
greatmiddleway.wordpress.com
May 21, 2017
As you are, so are others.
As others are, so are you.
Having thus identified self and others,
never harm anyone, nor abuse any being.
…
Train yourself in doing good
that lasts and brings happiness.
Cultivate generosity, the life of peace,
and a mind of infinite universal love.
―Buddha Shakyamuni
Source: You & Others | Great Middle Way
greatmiddleway.wordpress.com
As you are, so are others.
As others are, so are you.
Having thus identified self and others,
never harm anyone, nor abuse any being.
…
Train yourself in doing good
that lasts and brings happiness.
Cultivate generosity, the life of peace,
and a mind of infinite universal love.
―Buddha Shakyamuni
Zen Flash 
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