Faith is the basis of the path, the mother of virtue; it nourishes all roots of goodness. — Wu-chien I’ve tried but I can find very little on the life of Wu-chien, but the above quote is famous. I used it once when a man asked me on the sidewalk, “Are you a man of…

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God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, Courage to change the things we can, And wisdom to know the difference. — TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 125 Most of us all have heard of AA’s serenity prayer, and understand that life is full of instances where life tests you to…

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Happiness consists not in having, but of being, not of possessing, but of enjoying. It is the warm glow of a heart at peace with itself. — Norman Vincent Peale One of the great benefits of my sabbatical was relearning that any happiness that is derived from a possession is temporary. Yes one of these days, I’d still…

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Eventually we will find that we can be very grateful to those people who have made life most difficult for us. — Ayya Khema In my youth, I would have had a hard time accepting this wisdom, but as I have become older and hopefully wiser, the more I know how very true Ayya Khema’s…

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Anger or hatred is like a fisherman’s hook. It is very important for us to ensure that we are not caught by it. –– His Holiness the Dalai Lama Suzy is the fisher-person in our family. She has caught a marlin, lots of crappie and bass, and a tarpon, among others. I on the other…

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