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Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall
be filled.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven.
Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a
tooth:
But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee
on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have
thy cloke also.
And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not
thou away.
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate
thine enemy.
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to
them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute
you;
That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh
his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and
on the unjust.
Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise
ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as
the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory
of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:
That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself
shall reward thee openly.
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love
to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they
may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut
thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth
in secret shall reward thee openly.
But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think
that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have
need of, before ye ask him.
After this manner therefore pray ye:
Our Father
Which art in Heaven
Hallowed be thy name
Thy Kingdom come
Thy Will be done
On Earth as it is in Heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who tresspass against us
Lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil
For thine is the Kingdom
The power and the glory
For ever and ever
Amen.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt,
and where thieves break through and steal:
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth
corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole
body shall be full of light.
But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore
the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall
be opened unto you:
For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him
that knocketh it shall be opened.
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way,
that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life,
and few there be that find it.
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly
they are ravening wolves.
Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs
of thistles?
Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth
forth evil fruit.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring
forth good fruit.
Plain Truth Magazine Online One particular Christian perspective on issues of the day.
The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism
1. The Truth of Suffering: life is suffering.
2. The Truth of Arising: suffering is caused by craving.
3. The Truth of Cessation: suffering can have an end.
4. The Truth of the Path: there is a path which leads to the end of suffering.
The Middle Way is the way of moderation. Neither total abstinence nor complete indulgence can lead to enlightenment. We must seek balance.
Right Understanding
Right Thought
Right Speech
Right Activity
Right Livelihood
Right Effort
Right Mindfulness
Right Meditation
I am standing upon that foreshore.
A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze
and starts for the blue ocean.
She is an object of beauty and strength
and I stand and watch her until at length
she hangs like a speck of white cloud
just where the sea and the sky come down to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says
“ there, She’s gone”
“Gone where”
“Gone from my sight, that’s all”.
She is just as large in mast and spar and hull
as ever she was when she left my side;
just as able to bear her load of living freight
to the place of her destination.
The diminished size is in me, not in her.
“There, she’s gone”
there are other eyes watching her coming
and other voices ready to take up the glad shout.
“Here she comes”
That is dying.
Victor Hugo
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting
Or being lied about don't deal in lies
Or being hated don't give way to hating
And yet don't look too good nor talk too wise.
If you can dream and not make dreams your master
If you can think and not make thoughts your aim
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken
And stoop and build 'em up with worn out tools.
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch and toss
And lose and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the will which says to you hold on.
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue
Or walk with kings nor lose the common touch
If neither foes nor loving friends may hurt you
If all men count with you but none too much
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds worth of distance run
Yours is the earth and everything that's in it
And which is more - you'll be a man my son.
Rudyard Kipling
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date;
Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance of nature's changing course untrimm'd:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st;
So long as men can breath or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts'
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Muling and puking in the nurses arms.
Then the whining school-boy, with his satchel,
And shining morning face, creeping like snail,
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace with a woful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then, a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly, with good capon lin'd,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side;
His youthful hose well sav'd, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness, and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
To be, or not to be, that is the question:-
Whether 't is nobler to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune;
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? - to die, - to sleep,
No more; - and by a sleep, to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, - 't is a consumation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, - to sleep:-
To sleep! perchance to dream:-
Ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause.
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Move him into the sun -
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields unsown.
Always it woke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow.
If anything might rouse him now
The kind old sun will know.
Think how it wakes the seeds, -
Woke, once, the clays of a cold star.
Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides,
Full-nerved, - still warm, - too hard to stir?
Was it for this the clay grew tall?
- O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
To break earth's sleep at all?
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! - An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime...
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, -
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
inspiration compiled by abracad