38 Quotes by Wayne Muller

Be not afraid. A kind life, a life of spirit, is fundamentally a life of courage-the courage simply to bring what you have, to bring who you are.

To pray is no small thing. It is nothing less than a sacred pilgrimage into the heart of the whole world.

Adults who were hurt as children inevitably exhibit a peculiar strength, a profound inner wisdom, and a remarkable creativity and insight. Deep within them – just beneath the wound – lies a profound spiritual vitality, a quiet knowing, a way of perceiving what is beautiful, right, and true. Since their early experiences were so dark and painful, they have spent much of their lives in search of the gentleness, love, and peace they have only imagined in the privacy of their own hearts.

Some of us have a hard time believing that we are actually able to face our own pain. We have convinced ourselves that our pain is too deep, too frightening, something to avoid at all costs. Yet if we finally allow ourselves to feel the depth of that sadness and gently let it break our hearts, we may come to feel a great freedom, a genuine sense of release and peace, because we have finally stopped running away from ourselves and from the pain that lives within us.

With every breath, the possibility of a new aspect of self arises.

When we do what we love, again and again, our life comes to hold the fragrance of that thing.

Mark Nepo calls “experience greed” – namely, an insidious grasping not so much for material possessions but rather for a seemingly benign cacophony of socially active networks, service opportunities, ecological adventures, community activities, helpful organizations, sacred gatherings, and spiritual experiences.

Can it then be that what we call the ‘self’ is fluid and elastic? It evolves, strikes a different balance with every new breath.

Our culture confuses the pain of isolation with some impossible ideal of “self-sufficiency,” and then celebrates it.