All things must die

Clearly the blue river chimes in its flowing
Under my eye;
Warmly and broadly the south winds are blowing
Over the sky.
One after another the white clouds are fleeting;
Every heart this May morning in joyance is beating
Full merrily;
Yet all things must die.
The stream will cease to flow;
The wind will cease to blow;
The clouds will cease to fleet;
The heart will cease to beat;
For all things must die.
All things must die.
Spring will come never more.
O, vanity!
Death waits at the door.
See! our friends are all forsaking
The wine and the merrymaking.
We are call’d–we must go.
Laid low, very low,
In the dark we must lie.
The merry glees are still;
The voice of the bird
Shall no more be heard,
Nor the wind on the hill.
O, misery!
Hark! death is calling
While I speak to ye,
The jaw is falling,
The red cheek paling,
The strong limbs failing;
Ice with the warm blood mixing;
The eyeballs fixing.
Nine times goes the passing bell:
Ye merry souls, farewell.
The old earth
Had a birth,
As all men know,
Long ago.
And the old earth must die.
So let the warm winds range,
And the blue wave beat the shore;
For even and morn
Ye will never see
Thro’ eternity.
All things were born.
Ye will come never more,
For all things must die.

The future peace or liberation is “hidden” behind the “seemingly unsatisfactory form" that the present moment takes, whereas we keep searching for liberation as something to be attained in the future. Allowing the moment creates spaciousness in our consciousness. Out of this spaciousness, words, actions or simply spaciousness will arise, which will have much greater impact.

Lord Macaulay's famous statement on India in The House of Commons

The following extract from the speech of Thomas Babington Macaulay in the House of Commons on February 2, 1835 - "I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such calibre, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native self-culture and they become what we want them, a truly dominated country."

Confusing activity with results

"It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about? Don't confuse activity with results. There is no reason to do a good job with something you shouldn't do in the first place.

-Henry David Thoreau

I have often said that the sole cause of man's unhappiness is that he does not know how to sit quietly in his room.

- Blaise Pascal