Path o' Zen

Trail berries of our journey.

[highplainsdrifter777]

"Music is probably the only real magic I have encountered in my life. There's not some trick involved with it. It's pure and it's real. It moves, it heals, it communicates and does all these incredible things."

~ Tom Petty

[highplainsdrifter777]

"The Master’s power is like this. He lets all things come and go effortlessly, without desire. He never expects results; thus he is never disappointed. He is never disappointed; thus his spirit never grows old." ~ Lao Tzu

[highplainsdrifter777]

“Ordinary men hate solitude. But the Master makes use of it, embracing his aloneness, realizing he is one with the whole universe.” ~ Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

[highplainsdrifter777]

"And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell, and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being."

~ Black Elk, Black Elk Speaks

[highplainsdrifter777]

“It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen.”

~ Aristotle, Selected Writings From The Nicomachean Ethics And Politics

[highplainsdrifter777]

“To understand the limitation of things, desire them.” ~ Lao Tzu

[highplainsdrifter777]

“No one is more dangerously insane than one who is sane all the time: he is like a steel bridge without flexibility, and the order of his life is rigid and brittle.” ~ Alan Watts

[highplainsdrifter777]

“Everybody should do in their lifetime, sometime, two things. One is to consider death…to observe skulls and skeletons and to wonder what it will be like to go to sleep and never wake up-never. That is a most gloomy thing for contemplation; it's like manure. Just as manure fertilizes the plants and so on, so the contemplation of death and the acceptance of death is very highly generative of creating life. You'll get wonderful things out of that.” ~ Alan Watts

[highplainsdrifter777]

"Hold on to what is good, Even if it's a handful of earth. Hold on to what you believe, Even if it's a tree that stands by itself. Hold on to what you must do, Even if it's a long way from here. Hold on to your life, Even if it's easier to let go. Hold on to my hand, Even if someday I'll be gone away from you."

~ Crowfoot, Blackfoot warrior and orator 1830 - 1890

[highplainsdrifter777]

"It is not in the nature of politics that the best men should be elected. The best men do not want to govern their fellowmen."

~ George MacDonald

[highplainsdrifter777]

“It perhaps might be said--if any one dared--that the most worthless literature of the world has been that which has been written by the men of one nation concerning the men of another.” ~ Stephen Crane, The Portable Stephen Crane

[highplainsdrifter777]

“Pain expanded my heart.”

~ Terese Marie Mailhot, Heart Berries

[highplainsdrifter777]

"It's one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody." ~ Maya Angelou

[highplainsdrifter777]

"I have heard you intend to settle us on a reservation near the mountains. I don't want to settle. I love to roam over the prairies. There I feel free and happy, but when we settle down we grow pale and die."

~ Chief Satanta, Kiowa

[highplainsdrifter777]

"He (the sage) is good to those who are good. He is also good to those who are not good. That is the virtue of good.

The Master gives himself up to whatever the moment brings. He knows that he is going to die, and he has nothing left to hold on to: no illusions in his mind, no resistances in his body. He doesn’t think about his actions; they flow from the core of his being. He holds nothing back from life; therefore he is ready for death, as a man is ready for sleep after a good day’s work." ~ Lao Tzu

[highplainsdrifter777]

"It's hard for me… If I don't have a project going, I don't feel like I'm connected to anything. I don't even think it's that healthy for me. I like to get out of bed and have a purpose."

~ Tom Petty

[highplainsdrifter777]

"TV does not care about you or what happens to you. It's downright bad for your health now, and that's not a far-out concept. I think watching the TV news is bad for you. It is bad for your physical health and your mental health."

~ Tom Petty