In the center of Love's embrace is the circle of the soul and the body. For just as the Word of God penetrates all creation, so does the soul penetrate the whole body like wind flowing through a house or like a sower seeding fertile ground or like a mother soothing her crying babe. Yet all these wonder are held in the arms of Love an are linked in a delicate balance in a universe creted to be of service to humanity so men and women can work with it.
~ from SCARLET MUSIC: A Life of Hildegard of Bingen by Joan Ohanneson
Wisdom replaces ignorance in our minds when we realize that happiness does not lie in the accumulation of more and more pleasant feelings, that gratifying craving does not bring us a feeling of wholeness or completion. It simply leads to more craving and more aversion. When we realize in our own experience that happiness comes not from reaching out but from letting go, not from seeking pleasurable experience but from opening up in the moment to what is true, this transformation of understanding then frees the energy of compassion within us. Our minds are no longer bound up in pushing away pain or holding on to pleasure. Compassion becomes the natural response of an open heart.
~ SEEKING THE HEART OF WISDOM by Joseph Goldstein & Jack Kornfield
