This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
The first paradox of our lives is that nothing is fixed; and yet nothing is random or accidental, either. We co-create with our spiritual source. We have free will, and yet we are not in control. The second paradox is that when we set our intention for what we desire, we achieve it usually only after we have released our need to have it. This is the paradox of intention (personal desire and will) and surrender (letting God or the universe provide what is best for our highest good). You are both a finite earthly being, and an infinite soul of greater spiritual dimension. Your are both/and. You are the drop of water and the wave. You direct yourself, and you are directed.
Control | Desire | Free will | God | Good | Intention | Need | Nothing | Paradox | Soul | Surrender | Universe | Will | God |
To stand held only by the invisible chains of higher duty, and so standing, to let the fire creep up to the heart - that is the truer heroism.
Even if the water falls drop by drop, it will fill the pot; and the fool will become full of evil, even though he gather it little by little.
Dōgen, aka Dōgen Kigen, Eihei Dōgen, titled as Dōgen Zenji NULL
Life and death are nothing but the mind. Years, months, days, and hours are nothing but the mind. Dreams, illusions, and mirages are nothing but the mind. The bubbles of water and the flames of fire are nothing but the mind. The flowers of the spring and the moon of the autumn are nothing but the mind. Confusions and dangers are nothing but the mind.
There is no fire like passion, no shark like hatred, no snare like folly, and no torrent like greed.
Mahatma Gandhi, fully Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, aka Bapu
The test of friendship is assistance in adversity – and that, too, unconditional assistance. Cooperation which needs consideration is a commercial contract, and not friendship. Conditional cooperation is like adulterated cement which does not bind.
Adversity | Consideration | Cooperation | Friendship |
Mahatma Gandhi, fully Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, aka Bapu
Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.
Cooperation | Duty | Evil | Good |
Mahatma Gandhi, fully Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, aka Bapu
In my humble opinion, non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.
Cooperation | Duty | Evil | Good | Opinion |
Mahatma Gandhi, fully Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, aka Bapu
We may not be God, but we are of God even as a little drop of water is of the ocean. Imagine it torn away from the ocean and flung millions of miles away; it becomes helpless, torn from its surroundings, and cannot feel the might and majesty of the great ocean. But if someone could point out to it that it was of the ocean, its faith would revive, it would dance with joy and the whole might and majesty of the ocean would be reflected in it.
Yesterday is ashes; tomorrow is wood. Only today does the fire burn brightly.
Tomorrow |
Ko Hung, aka Ge Hong, courtesy name Zhichuan
If one is moderate in developing one’s justifiable inclinations, and succeeds in freeing oneself of one’s inhibitions, this will not shorten one’s life span, but increase it. All of these things can be compared to fire and water: only their excessive use is harmful.
Enough of us praying often enough could make everybody in the world look up and listen to God. We could transform the world... Prayer is powerful, but it is not the power of a sledge hammer that crushes with one blow. It is the power of sunrays and raindrops which bless, because there are so many of them... When you fill a swamp with stones, a hundred loads may disappear under water before a stone appears on the surface, but all of them are necessary.
Anarchism is [not] synonymous with chaos. Translated from the Greek, anarchism means the absence of rulers, or orders – not of rules or order. Order emanates naturally from the free cooperation of persons in a community.
Absence | Cooperation | Means | Order |
Lao Tzu, ne Li Urh, also Laotse, Lao Tse, Lao Tse, Lao Zi, Laozi, Lao Zi, La-tsze
The highest good is like that of the water. The goodness of water is that it benefits the ten thousand creatures, yet itself does not scramble, but is content with the places that all men disdain.
To accept passively an unjust system is to cooperate with that system; thereby the oppressed become as evil as the oppressor. Non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.
Cooperation | Evil | Good | Obligation | System |
Keep yourselves away from envy; because it eateth up and taketh away good actions, like as fire eateth up and burneth wood.
Robert M. Linder, fully Robert Mitchell Linder
Supported by the authority of all institutions, parenthood has come to amount to little more than a campaign against individuality. Every father and every mother trembles lest an offspring, in act or thought, should be different from his fellows; and the smallest display of uniqueness in a child becomes the signal for the application of drastic measures aimed at stamping out that small fire of noncompliance by which personal distinctness is expressed. In an atmosphere of anxiety, in a climate of apprehension, the parental conspiracy against children is planned.
Anxiety | Anxiety | Authority | Children | Conspiracy | Display | Father | Individuality | Little | Mother | Thought | Child |
Abu’l Fadl al-Suqqari al-Marwazi
When the water surges over the drowning man, then one javelin’s length or a thousand are alike.
Man |