Here and Now

.......photo by: Phil Miller

"Do not pursue the past. Do not lose yourself in the future. The past no longer is. The future has not yet come. Look deeply at life as it is. In the very here and now, the practitioner dwells in stability and freedom. We must be diligent today. To wait until tomorrow is too late. Death comes unexpectedly. How can we bargain with it? The sage calls a person who knows how to dwell in mindfulness night and day 'one who knows the better way to live alone.'"

- "Bhaddekaratta Sutta," translated by Thich Nhat Hanh ( In memory of Ruthie, a faithful reader )

Help Yourself

"You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that, my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it "

Adrian Rogers, 1931-2005 .........................Contributed by: Ella D.