The best poems take long journeys. I like poetry best that journeys--while remaining in the human scale--to the other world, which may be a place as easily overlooked as a bee's wing
Robert BlyRead
Don't go outside your house to see flowers. My friend, don't bother with that excursion. Inside your body there are flowers. One flower has a thousand petals. That will do for a place to sit. Sitting there you will have a glimpse of beauty inside the body and out of it, before gardens and after gardens.
Interpretation
True beauty and wonder exist within ourselves, not just in the external world.
This quote by Robert Bly emphasizes the idea that we often overlook the richness of our own inner experience when seeking beauty and joy in the external world. Instead of searching for fulfillment outside, he suggests that we explore the depths of our own being, where we can find a multitude of layers, much like flowers with many petals, revealing profound beauty both internally and as we interact with the world around us.
In practice
This quote could be used in a mindfulness workshop to encourage participants to look within themselves for happiness.
The best poems take long journeys. I like poetry best that journeys--while remaining in the human scale--to the other world, which may be a place as easily overlooked as a bee's wing
As I've gotten older, I find I am able to be nourished more by sorrow and to distinguish it from depression.
I am proud only of those days that pass in undivided tenderness.
My feeling is that poetry is also a healing process, and then when a person tries to write poetry with depth or beauty, he will find himself guided along paths which will heal him, and this is more important, actually, than any of the poetry he writes.
Every part of you that you do not love will regress and become hostile towards you.
The door to the soul is unlocked; you do not need to please the doorkeeper, the door in front of you is yours, intended for you, and the doorkeeper obeys when spoken to.
Wars are fought for the benefit of oligarchs, triumphs bought with the blood of peons.
Government power must be dispersed. If government is to exercise power, better in the county than in the state, better in the state than in Washington. If I do not like what my local community does, be it in sewage disposal, or zoning, or schools, I can move to another local community, and though few may take this step, the mere possibility acts as a check. If I do not like what Washington imposes, I have few alternatives in this world of jealous nations.
How beggarly appear arguments before a defiant deed!
It seems important to find ways of reminding ourselves that most 'familiarity' is meditated and delusive.
Thinking is no more than a tiny aspect of the totality of consciousness, the totality of who you are.
Those who came to the United States didn't realize they were white until they got here. They were told they were white. They had to learn they were white. An Irish peasant coming from British imperial abuse in Ireland during the potato famine in the 1840s, arrives in the United States. You ask him or her what they are. They say, "I am Irish." No, you're white. "What do you mean, I am white?" And they point me out. "Oh, I see what you mean. This is a strange land."
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.