Citadel and Cathedral Poetry
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Let us ask God to help us self-control
for one who lacks it, lacks His Grace
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the Undisciplined man doesn’t wrong himself alone
het sets fire to the whole world.
Discipline enabled Heaven to be filled with light,
Discipline enabled the angels to be immaculate and holy.
The spiritual path wrecks the body
And afterwards restores it to health.
It destroys the house to unearth the treasure,
And with that the treasure builds it better than before.
Rumi
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Our body is precious. It is our vehicle for awakening.
Treat it with care.
Buddha
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Discipline
Don’t avoid discipline.
You have learned ways to make a living
For your body. Now learn to support
Your soul. You were fine clothing.
How do you dress your spirit?
This world is a playground
Where children pretend to have shops.
Sometimes when they wrestle.
It may look like sex,
But none of it is real.
They exchange imaginary money.
Night comes and they go home tired
With nothing in their hands
Rumi
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The inner working of a human being is a jungle.
Sometimes wolves dominate.
Sometimes wild hogs.
Be wary when you breathe.
At one moment gentle, generous qualities,
Like Joseph’s, pass from one nature to another.
The next moment vicious qualities move in hidden ways.
In every instant a new species rises in the chest-
Now a demon, now an angel. Now a wild animal, now a human friend.
There are also those in this amazing jungle
Who can absorb you into their own surrender.
If you have to stalk and steal something,
Steal from them.
Rumi
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Explaining many profound dharmas is easy;
living them yourself is hard.
Adept Godrakpa
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Never give up.
No matter what is going on,
Never give up.
Develop the heart.
Too much energy in your country
is spent developing the mind instead of the heart.
Be compassionate,
Not just to your friends
But to everyone.
Be compassionate
Work for peace,
In your heart and in the world.
And I say again:
Never give up.
No mater what is happening.
No mater what is going on around you
Never give up.
H.H. The XIV Dalai Lama
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If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished?
Rumi
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Commitment creates freedom.
When you commit to a movement, you make it with your whole body.
When you commit to a feeling, your passion will give power to your message.
When you commit to a dance, your feeling reaches beyond your limitations.
When you commit to your path, give yourself over to your way of growth,
Magic happens... obstacles get out of your way, mountains lay down before you,
and you will find yourself transformed
Aziza Sa'id
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Your old grandmother says,
“Maybe you shouldn’t go to school.
You look a little pale.”
Run when you hear that.
A father’s stern slaps are better.
Your bodily soul wants comforting.
The severe father wants spiritual clarity.
He scolds, but eventually
leads you into the open.
Pray for a tough instructor
to hear and act and stay within you.
We have been busy accumulating solace.
Make us ashamed of how we were.
Rumi
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Its your road, and yours alone.
others may walk it with you,
but no one can walk it for you.
Rumi
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The Ass, your fleshly soul,
Has wandered off,
Tie it down.
How long will it run away from work?
Let it bear the burden of patience and gratitude
Whether for a hundred years, or for thirty or twenty.
Rumi
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If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.
Maya Angelou
When you go through a hard period,
When everything seems to oppose you,
When you feel you cannot bear even one minute,
Never give up.
Because it is the time and place that the course will divert.
Rumi
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I have come to drag you out of your self
And take you in my heart.
I have come to bring out the beauty
You never know you had
And lift you like a prayer to the sky.
If no one can recognise you, I do
Because you are my life and soul.
Don't run away, accept your wounds and
Let bravery be you shield.
It takes a thousand stages for
For the perfect being to evolve.
Every step of the way I will walk with you
And never leave you stranded.
Be patient, do not open the lid too soon
Simmer away until you are ready.
In this game I make the rules.
I roll you like a ball and chase you
When I choose.
Rumi
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When someone beats a rug,
the blows are not against the rug,
but against the dust in it.
Rumi
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Everything can be taken from a man but one thing:
the last of the human freedoms--
to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances,
to choose one’s own way.
Viktor Frankl
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Forget who you were or what you may have done in the past.
Focus on what you would like to be, and then,
while you are doing whatever is necessary to attain the goal,
let go of the future as well.
Amma
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Beware; your actions in the present determine your future.
Amma
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I am not afraid of storms,
for I have learned how to sail my ship.
Louisa May Alcott
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This magnificent refuge is inside you.
Enter. Shatter the darkness that shrouds the doorway…
Be bold. Be humble.
Put away the incense and forget
the incantations they taught you.
Ask no permission from the authorities.
Close your eyes and follow your breath
to the still place that leads to the
invisible path that leads you home.
St. Theresa of Avila
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Cathedral - Conscience
A deep sense of dignity and humility allows us to seek to make things right
rather than prove others wrong.
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Humility will open more doors than arrogance ever will.
Zig Ziglar
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Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real.
Thomas Merton
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Mastery begins with humility.
Robin Sharma
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We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility.
Rabindranath Tagore
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The biggest challenge after success is shutting up about it.
Criss Jami
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To lead the people, walk behind them.
Lao Tzu
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Humility, that low, sweet root, from which all heavenly virtues shoot.
Thomas Moore
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The only wisdom we can hope to acquire is the wisdom of humility.
T.S. Eliot
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Religion is to do right.
It is to love, it is to serve, it is to think, it is to be humble.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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One who does what the Friend wants done
will never need a friend.
There is a bankruptcy that is pure gain.
The moon stays bright
when it does not avoid the night.
A rose’s rarest essence
lives in the thorn.
Rumi
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Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become your character.
Watch your character; for it becomes your destiny.
Upanishads
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Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.
Albert Einstein
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The best way of preparing for the future is to take good care of the present.
Thich Nhat Hanh
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When the world pushes you to your knees,
you are in the perfect position to pray.
Rumi
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The breeze of Grace is always blowing; set your sail to catch that breeze.
Sri Ramakrishna
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Happiness is not something ready made.
It comes from our own actions.
H.H. The Dalai Lama
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When people live in accordance with Nature,
the song of life becomes sweet.
Amma
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In the game of chess
With the Lord
Pray to loose!
So, practice
With anyone.
We never know
Under what guise
He comes!
Hafiz
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The Nirvana is possible in the here and now.
When you make a mindful step, you are free from the past and future.
That is Nirvana.
Thich Nhat Hanh
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Beware; your actions in the present determine your future."
Amma
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Move Within
Keep walking, though there is no place to get to.
Don’t try to see through the distances.
That is not for human beings. Move within,
Bout don’t move the way fear makes you move.
Rumi
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