Swami

Yesterday I had tea with Swami Yogeshananda. I have met Swami a couple of times at different interfaith meetings here in Atlanta. He is a very interesting guy. He was raised Presbyterian, worked for the American Friends Service Committee during World War II and then became a Hindu. He told me about the Vedanta Center where he lives and works, giving me a couple of books to read about Hinduism. He asked me what I wanted to do in life. I started to answer and then just explained that I use to know what I wanted to do, but now I am just honestly not very sure. He said that not knowing what you want to do is a very good thing, because it makes you dig deep within yourself to get to know yourself better. It was such a relief to admit that I don't really know where I am headed from here. And it was wonderful to get assurance from him that taking the time to get to know myself was exactly what I need to be doing.

Today's quotations are in honor of Swami

Chhandogya Upanishad (pronouns modified)
"The Self is below, Self is above, the Self is behind, in front, to the right and to the left. The Self has become all this. She who understands this and thinks this way has her pleasure in the Self, her delight in the Self, her bliss in the Self, She is independent and has freedom of movement in all the worlds. But those who think otherwise are ruled by other and have no freedom.

give courage

First of all I want to give due props to Sara, Dorothy, and Amanda. They had a fabulous quotation board that we took over after they graduated (thanks Luke). I hope they will play along with this new electronic form.

Garrison Keilor said,
"The meaning of poetry is to give courage."

Since I need a little umph in my day here is my current favorite poem.

A Ritual To Read to Each Other
—William Stafford
If you don't know the kind of person I am
and I don't know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.

For there is many a small betrayal in the mind,
a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break
sending with shouts the horrible errors of childhood
storming out to play through the broken dyke.

And as elephants parade holding each elephant's tail,
but if one wanders the circus won't find the park,
I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty
to know what occurs but not recognize the fact.

And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy,
a remote important region in all who talk:
though we could fool each other, we should consider
—lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark.

For it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give—yes or no, or maybe—
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.

State and Main

"Everybody makes their own fun. If you don't make it yourself, it isn't fun. It's entertainment."

"Nothing is worth more than this day" - Goethe

When I was an earnest college student we use to keep a quotation board (yes - quotation and not quote just ask Dr. Skinner at Presbyterian College). This plain piece of poster board was a place for us to remember interesting things that we read, or keep up with great lines that came out of our friends mouths. Recently I have been working on slowing down and paying more attention to what is around me. I have decided to reawaken the quotation board in blog format and I invite you all to play along.