How terribly the rice suffers under the pestle!

Lady Borton

How terribly the rice suffers under the pestle!
But it emerges polished, as white as cotton.
The same process tempers the human spirit:
Hard trials shape us into polished diamonds.

~ from A PRISON DIARY by Ho Chi Minh in AFTER SORROW by Lady Borton

After Sorrow

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Quote of the Day

It is significant that the Latin word "templum" originally meant a vast space, open on all sides, from which one could survey the whole surrounding landscape as far as the horizon. This is what is meant to CONTEMPLATE: to "set one's sights on" Heaven from the temple that defines the field of vision... The temple is the place, the organ of vision.

~ from TEMPLE AND CONTEMPLATION by Henry Corbin

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