Mindfulbalance

When power is concentrated in the hands of a few, it tends to become opaque and evade public oversight, increasing the risk of distorted forms of development that give rise to new dependencies, exclusions, manipulations and inequalities

Pope Leo, Magnifica Humanitas

We will be known as a culture that feared death and adored power, that tried to vanquish insecurity for the few and cared little for the penury of the
many.

We will be known as a culture that taught and rewarded the amassing of things, that spoke little if at all about the quality of life for
people (other people), for dogs, for rivers.

All the world, in our eyes, they will say, was a commodity.

And they will say that this structure
was held together politically, which it was, and they will say also that our politics was no more than an apparatus to accommodate the feelings of the heart, and that the heart, in those days, was small, and hard, and full of meanness.

Mary Oliver, Of the Empire in Red Bird, 2008

Caring for other people, for the earth, for rivers, for dogs, is the essence of holiness.

The Torah does not command us to be angels — it says be people of holiness …

first be a person, then be holy.

God has plenty of angels in the heavens

Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, 1787 – 1859.

There are two kinds of thoughts that dominate almost all humans: thoughts revolving around our own history and thoughts revolving around our own future. These thoughts are mesmerising, and they all have the same fingerprints: my life.

It’s as though you’re walking through life lugging these two big, heavy, important bags with you – one containing all your thoughts about your history, the other all your thoughts about your future. They’re wonderful, valuable bags. But try putting them down, just for a bit. See if you can greet some part of life more immediately, here and now. And if you’re successful, you can pick the bags back up later. If you want to.

 Björn Natthiko Lindeblad, I May be wrong: and Other Wisdoms from Life as a Forest Monk