Quotations

The soul fills the body,
as God fills the world.
The soul bears the body,
as God bears the world.
The soul outlasts the body,
as God outlasts the world.
The soul is one in the body,
as God is One in the world.
The soul sees and is not seen,
as God is seen and is not seen.
The sould is pure in the body,
as God is pure in the world.

When Magdalena entered the room the next time, Inigo asked her for paper and ink. He had found the formula and did not want it to slip from his mind.

"In those who proceed from good to better, the good spirit touches such a soul gently and softly as when water drops upon a sponge, and the evil spirit strikes it sharply and noisily, causing disquiet as when water drops upon a stone."

Like justness in a judge's decision, or beauty in a painting, soul is a quality of absoluteness in something relative. Understood profoundly, people are connected to the holiness of the world in such a way that they reveal a dimension of holiness in themselves, a dimension of depth that is absolute.

In 2000, while I was in the hospital for by-pass surgery, an old man called out for help each night. All the prayers for his comfort and quiet seemed to float away. One night I found myself saying,

"Old man, you are not going to be miserable this night. My soul is coming over and our souls are going out dancing!"

I don't have a rational explantion, I only know he was quiet that night, my soul uplifted. I believe our souls danced that night. The next day the old man died. Such is the power of Spirit in our lives.

Those who would be of great service, remain silent;
they simply pour themselves out in all they do
unreservedly, confidently, peacefully.

God is the silent Power behind all things,
always ready to pur int our experience that which we need.
God works for us by working through us as us.

I long to accomplish a great and noble task;
but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks
as if they were great and noble.

As we live, we are transmitters of life.
And when we fail to transmit life,
life fails to flow through us ...
And if, as we work, we can transmit
life into our work,
life, still more life, rushes into us
to compensate, to be ready
and we ripple with life through the days.

Give, and it shall be given unto you
is still the truth about life ...
It means kindling the life-quality
where it was not,
Even if it's only in the whiteness
of a washed pocket-handkerchief.

Fr. Joe's retort in answser to some enthusiastic piety of mine about the sanctity of community and its high purpose: "Good gracious -- we're not silly old monks mumbling prayers all day. We've got a job to do!" I realized how like him this was, how down-to-earth encapsulating his generous view of the ordinary. Every word he spoke was drawn from a deep well of generosity. He hade built it up over decades of contemplating people and loving them all without reserve. His gentle power spring from a straightforward assessment of the world and his job in it. That job was love.

Service is one of the two main levers of evolution: one is meditation, the other is service. Service, of whatever kind, gradually distances you from yourself. As your service grows, expands outwards from yourself, you do not lose touch with yourself but you become less and less concerned with your own ego, your personality expression. Service is the impulse of the soul, the carying out of soul purpose.

Wisdom is radiant and unfading, and she is easily discerned by those who love her, and is found by those who seek her.She hastens to make herself known to those who desire her.One who rises early to seek her will have no difficulty, for she will be found sitting at the gate.She goes about seeking those worthy of her, and she graciously appears to them in their paths, and meets them in every thought.

Wisdomhas no limitations and embraces the profound as well as the simple.She can be found in the huts of the poor and in the palaces, in workshops and in lecture halls.She deals with the most profound speculations on the creation of the world and the very nature of God and even with the inability of men and women to come up with adequate answers to these great mysteries.Wisdom tells us to be attentive to her and to incline our ears to her understanding.

There is a Wisdom that arises--sometimes gracefully, sometimes gently, sometimes awkwardly, sometimes fiercely, but it will arise to save us if we let it, and it rises from WITHIN us, like the force that drives green shoots to break the winter ground, it will arise and drive us into a great blossoming like a pear tree, into flowering, into fragrance, fruit and song ... in that part of ourselves that can never be defiled, defeated or destroyed, but that comes back to life, time and time again, that lives--always--that does not die.

There came upon me an overshadowing bright cloud, and in the midst of it a Figure of a Woman, most richly adorned with transparent gold, her hairhanging down, and her face as terrible as crystal for brightness, but her countenance was sweet and mild.At this sight I was somewhat amazed, but immediately a Voice came saying, "Behold, I am God's eternal Virgin, Wisdom, whom thou hast been enquiring after.I am to unseal the Treasures of God's deep wisdom unto thee."

What is my word, what is human wisdom
but a noise that reaches the outer ear?
But from that ear to the heart lies a road
that only God can travel.
Blessed are you who do not put your trust
in the noise of your own words,
even though they come wrapped in great
        human wisdom.

In the pouring forth of wisdom
 all things have their being;
 wisdom in my shining,
 wisdom beyond me shining.
All things are branches
of the Tree of wisdom
wisdom in me growing,
wisdom beyond me growing.
In the circle of being
all things share a blessing;
wisdom in me turning,
wisdom beyond me turning. 

Innocence is precious and powerful: not to be confused with ignorance, it is a Divine protection against the negative forces of life.We grow wise by stages and often a whole lifetime of experience is necessary to gain wisdom."Wisdom is glorious," said Solomon, "and never fadeth away."

Wisdom consists in doing the next thing you have to do, doing it with your whole heart and finding delight in doing it.And the DELIGHT is the sense of the sacred.

When we surround ourselves with sounds of nature, we are soothed and healed, comforted by the songs of our mother, the Earth.And who is there to sing back to the Earth?

Music is pleasing not only because of the sound but because of the silence that is in it: without the alternation of sound and silence, there would be no rhythm.If we strive to be happy by filling the silence of life with sound, productive by turning all life's leisure into work, and real by turning all our being into doing, we will only succeed in producing a hell on earth.If we have no silence, God is not heard in our music.If we have no rest, God does not bless our work.If we twist our lives out of shape in order to fill every corner of them with action and experience, God will seem silently to withdraw from our hearts and leave us empty.

"That's me singing," Charlie says."That's me playing the water drum, too.If you know my song, you know Charlie.Everyone has a song.God gives each a song.That's how we know who we are.Our song tells us who we are.

I'm coming to believe in the importance of silence in music.The power of silence after a phrase of music, for example: the dramatic silence after the first four notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, or the space between the notes of a Miles Davis solo.There is something very specific about a "rest" in music.You take your foot off the pedal and pay attention.I'm wondering as musicians whether the most important thing we do is merely to provide a frame for silence.I'm wondering if silence itself is perhaps the mystery at the heart of music.And is silence the most perfect form of music of all?Songwriting is the only form of meditation I know.And it is only in silence that the gifts of melody and metaphor are offered.

Harry Truman once said that listening to good music made him think of the way things ought to be, instead of the way they are.In the presence of music, we gain a taste of Heaven and Earth.Music is vitally important to our spiritual health: clearing the air, changing our mood, taking us to faraway places, revealing mysteries, calming the soul, allowing us true glimpses into the past.

Dear Seiji,

Music is the glue that connects many parallel universes that run through your life.I am amazed at how often you can find grace and simplicity in this complex world.Through your talent, perseverance, and faith in the power of music, you have blazed a path for aspiring musicians from all over the globe.

Yo-Yo Ma