“At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is, But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity, Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards, Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point, There would be no dance, and there is only the dance...”
— from 'Burnt Norton' by T.S. Eliot
“CENTERING: that act which precedes all others on the potter’s wheel. The bringing of the clay into a spinning, unwobbling pivot, which will then be free to take innumberable shapes as potter and clay press against each other. The firm, tender, sensitive pressure which yields as much as it asserts. It is like a handclasp between two living hands, receiving the greeting at the very moment that they give it...”
— from 'Centering - In Pottery, Poetry, and the Person' by M.C. Richards
“It is the consistent choice of the path with heart Which makes the warrior different from the average man. He knows that a path has heart when he is one with it, When he experiences a great peace and pleasure traversing its length... - don Juan”
— from 'A Separate Reality' by Carlos Castaneda
“So it is said if you know others and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know others but know yourself, you win one and lose one; if you do not know others and do not know yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle. ”
— from 'The Art of War' by Sun Tzu
“The wayfinder (Polynesian navigator) concentrates 100 percent of his attention on his place in the sea and sky. With his one-pointedness, he processes all of his data on his course, speed and current, etc. His point of concentration is his navel, called the piko in Hawaiian. This is considered the center of the one’s body and being, so that it - not the brain - is the point from which to live.”
— Harriet Witt-Miller 'The Soft, Warm, Wet Technology of Native Oceania'
“You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles, and everything tries to be round...”
— Black Elk, Oglala Sioux Holy Man
“It’s hard to teach what I’ve been talking about ... because the first thing you need to know is the last thing you’ll learn. But I can tell you this: when you get to square ten, all of square one will be in it.”
— Ray Hunt, Horse Whisperer
“... in China there had been simple fishermen who could catch enormous fish... using cane-poles and a single strand of silk. ‘A line breaks,’ Titus said, ‘at a stress point. But if the fisherman experiences no stress, and if he transmits this experience through his hands to his pole, to his line, to his hook, then there will be no stress point, therefore no point at which the strand can break.’”
— from 'The River Why' by David James Duncan
“The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them.”
— Albert Einstein
“Let me fall / Let me climb There’s a moment when fear / and dream must collide Someone I am / Is waiting for courage The one I want / The one I will become Will catch me... ”
— from 'Quidam' Cirque du Soleil
“Technique—bodily control—must be mastered only because the body must not stand in the way of the soul’s expression.”
— La Meri, American dancer, teacher, writer
“Now the navel is naturally the exact center of the body. For if man lies on his back with hands and feet outspread, and the center of a circle is placed on his navel, his fingers and toes will be touched by the circumference. Also a square will be found described within the figure... ”
— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, De Architectura, 1st century AD
“You get your power not so much from the wrists or the arms and shoulders, but from the rotation of the hips into the ball.”
— from 'The Science of Hitting' by Ted Williams
“Nanakorobi yaoki, jinsei wa kore kara da (To fall seven times, to rise eight times, life starts from now) ”
— Japanese saying
“Tug on anything at all and you’ll find it connected to everything else in the universe.”
— John Muir
“The day will come when, after harnessing space, the winds, the tides, and gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, we shall have discovered fire. ”
— Pierre Teilhard De Chardin
“The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells Wakan-Taka (the Great Spirit), and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us. ”
— Black Elk, Oglala Sioux Holy Man
“The confrontation of the two positions generates a tension charged with energy and creates a living, third thing ... a movement out of the suspension between opposites, a living birth that leads to a new level of being, a new situation. ”
— C. G. Jung, from 'The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche'
“Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.”
— Bruce Lee
“What are these bodies anyway, but shafts of light - I have to say sometimes the boundaries wear thin. And if electrons dance through air and if space is everywhere, where do I end and you begin? ”
— from 'True Light', Kirtana
“Technique without connection is conceit Technique with connection is art Connection without technique is Love”
— from an 'Essay' by Michael Smith
“…like the eagles I see from the window of my hermitage in the Himalayas. The crows often attack them, even though they are much smaller. They dive at the eagles from above trying to hit them with their beaks. However, instead of getting alarmed and moving around to avoid the crow, the eagle simply retracts one wing at the last moment, letting the diving crow pass by, and extends its wing back out. The whole thing requires minimal effort and is perfectly efficient.”
— Matthieu Ricard, Buddhist monk
“... there is no way to peace; peace itself is the way...”
