“A gift is pure when it is given from the heart to the right person at the right time and at the right place, and when we expect nothing in return.”
The Bhagavad Gita

“I do not agree or disagree in everything with either one party or the other. Because all seem to me to have some truth and some error, but everyone recognizes the other’s error and nobody discerns his own.”
Michael Servetus, Spanish theologian and physician, author of On the Errors of the Trinity, born on this day in 1511 (burned at the stake for heresy in 1553)

“By three methods we may learn wisdom:
First, by reflection, which is noblest;
Second, by imitation, which is easiest;
and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”
Confucius, Chinese philosopher, born on this day in 551 BCE

A double-header from theoretical physicist Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955) to start our week. On this day in 1905, the physics journal Annalen der Physik published Albert Einstein’s paper “Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?”, introducing the equation E=mc².
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvellous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day..”
“When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That’s relativity.”

“To be silent with another person is a deep expression of trust and confidence, and it is only when we are unconfident that we feel compelled to talk. To be silent with another person is truly to be with that other person… We do not have to create silence. The silence is there within us. What we have to do is to become silent, to become the silence. The purpose of meditation is to allow ourselves to become silent enough to allow this interior silence to emerge. Silence is the language of the spirit.”
Benedictine monk John Main (1926 – 1982), quoted in Fragments of Holiness for Daily Reflection

From The Two Winged Soul by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi,
“There is a basic notion that every soul has two ‘wings.’ These’ wings of the soul ‘ are Love and Awe. When the soul is free, fresh and open, and available for inspiration, it flies on these two wings. With one wing it is hard to fly; you must have two.”

I found it by Palestinian poet Fadwa Tuqan (1917 – 2003), translated by Charlie Huntington,

“I found it on a beautiful, sunny day.
I found it after great loss:
Fresh verdant soil,
Wet and flourishing.
I found it as the sun passed over palm trees
Scattering over the grassy gardens
Its golden bouquets.
It was an April generous and fertile
In seeds, warmth, and the spring sun.

I found it after great loss:
An evergreen-fresh bough
In which birds seek refuge,
So it lodges them in its protective shade.
If a violent wind crosses it someday,
Thunderous and trembling,
It bends slightly,
Twists before the wind lightly.
As the thunderstorm dies down
The limb levels out,
Its water-heavy leaves quenched of thirst;
Its pliant body did not shatter
Under the wind’s hand:
The branch remains as it was.
As if its trials did not break it
It laughs, with the beauty in all that it
Sees, in the radiance of a star,
In the lightness of a breeze,
In the sun, the dew, and the clouds.

I found it on a beautiful, sunny day,
After loss, after a long search:
A lake, clear and tranquil.
If at times its pure heart
Was lapped at by the wolves of mankind,
Or the winds of fate played in the lake
And muddied it briefly,
It cleared with the clarity of a crystal
And became the moon’s face:
A pool of blueness and light
Where the guiding stars bathe.

I found it! Oh you tempest, blow
And mask the sun’s face with clouds
As you like, and you days, turn my fate
From sunny and cheerful
To sullen and gloomy;
Even then my lights do not fade
And all the darkness that has been
Extending blackly through my life,
Enfolding it night after night,
Is gone, buried in the grave of the past,
Since the day my soul found itself.”

From Fragments of Holiness for Daily Reflection, based on the Buddhist Metta Bhavana (Loving Kindness) meditation,
“May I be at peace.
May my loved ones be at peace.
May those I have never met be at peace.
May those I have hurt, knowingly or unknowingly, be at peace.
May those who have hurt me, knowingly or unknowingly, be at peace.
May everybody be at peace.”

From Earth Wisdom by Glennie Kindred,
“Now day and night are equal in both hemispheres.
We too experience balance and integration as we reconnect to our inner selves. We become aware of the changing season, which gives us the chance to start again. This is a good time to release the past and move forward with clarity as we begin to prepare for the coming Winter and to incubate new seeds within.
This is time of ripening fruits, nuts, berries, mushrooms and seeds. Trees and plants are letting their energy fall back down into their roots. Leaves are dropping to Earth to make compost, rich in nutrition and goodness, providing the best conditions for future new growth.
This is the time for long-term planning and nurturing. The seeds of ideas and the seeds of hope that we plant now will re-emerge in the Spring, strengthened and consolidated by their time in the dark and stabilised by their strong roots.
It is time to celebrate the power of balance, to move beyond our old habits of polarity, the ‘us and them’ mentality which has led to war, misery and poverty. Now we seek inspiring new ways to bring harmony and equality into our lives and the world.”

“In India we always pronounce the word peace three times: shanti shanti shanti – peace, peace, peace. Why three times? Because peace has at least three dimensions: inner peace, social peace and ecological peace – making peace with yourself, making peace with the world and making peace with nature.”
Satish Kumar