Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life"

Board Member (Harry): Yeah, I've had a team working on this over the past few weeks, and what we've come up with can be reduced to two fundamental concepts. One: People aren't wearing enough hats. Two: Matter is energy. In the universe there are many energy fields which we cannot normally perceive. Some energies have a spiritual source which act ... see more upon a person's soul. However, this "soul" does not exist ab initio as orthodox Christianity teaches; it has to be brought into existence by a process of guided self-observation. However, this is rarely achieved owing to man's unique ability to be distracted from spiritual matters by everyday trivia.
Board Member 2: What was that about hats again?
The deep parts of my life pour onward,
as if the river shores were opening out.
It seems that things are more like me now,
that I can see farther into paintings.
I feel closer to what language can’t reach.
With my sense, as with birds, I climb
into the windy heaven, out of the oak,
and in the ponds broken off from the sky
my feeling sinks, as if standing on fishes.
Rainer Maria Rilke [translated by Robert Bly] via paynehollow)
How many times have I told you:
the civilized world is a zoo,
not a jungle, stay in your cage!
And then the shouts
of blood, the rage as you threw yourself
against my ribs.
Margaret Atwood, from “The Woman Makes Peace With Her Faulty Heart” (via airwalker) (via rememo)
Claude Joseph Vernet, Entrance to the Port of Palermo in the Moonlight, 1769 (from theshipthatflew via: source)

Claude Joseph Vernet, Entrance to the Port of Palermo in the Moonlight, 1769 (from theshipthatflew via: source)

Frederick H. Evans A Sea of Steps - Stairs to Chapter House - Wells Cathedral, 1903 Platinum print [from: liquidnight via: Art Blart]

Frederick H. Evans

A Sea of Steps - Stairs to Chapter House - Wells Cathedral, 1903

Platinum print

[from: liquidnight via: Art Blart]

Edouard Boubat, 1985 (from killerbeesting)

Edouard Boubat, 1985 (from killerbeesting)

nevver: Who said we can’t?

nevver:

Who said we can’t?

The “practice” at the Zen Center of Syracuse is a lay practice. It is founded on the simple understanding that if Buddhist practice cannot help ordinary people live ordinary lives more completely, then it is not much good for anything. One should not have to become a special case or live in extraordinary circumstances in order to grasp the fundamentals. Zen emphasizes ordinary day-to-day things because when we grasp the essential emptiness in the least thing we simultaneously apprehend it in the universe.
Terrance Keenan’s “St. Nadie in Winter” (also from Slow Muse, more excerpts from that book here)

Tao Te Ching 65

The ancient Masters
didn’t try to educate the people,
but kindly taught them to not-know.

When they think that they know the answers,
people are difficult to guide.
When they know that they don’t know,
people can find their own way.

If you want to learn how to govern,
avoid being clever or rich.
The simplest pattern is the clearest.
Content with an ordinary life,
you can show all people the way
back to their own true nature.

— Stephen Mitchell’s translation

From the amazing Slow Muse

We die to each other daily.
What we know of other people
Is only our memory of the moments
During which we knew them. And they have changed since then.
T.S. Elliot  (via heartmindspirit) (via timetosoar) (via free-wilderness)