"Devotion Is the Source of Success"

"There is a difference between doing something with great devotion and doing something without rest. Without great devotion, you cannot become immersed in the here and now; your mind wanders off to the past and the future, and you cannot achieve what you desire."

--Ilchi Lee

"The bee emerges..."

How reluctantly

the bee emerges from deep

within the peony

--Basho

"Summer Grasses"

Summer grasses:

all that remains of great soldiers'

imperial dreams

--Basho

"On the Road"

Long conversations

beside blooming irises--

joys of life on the road

--Basho

"With flowers You write..."

With flowers You write,
O Giver of Life;
With songs You give color,
with songs You shade
those who live here on the earth.
Later You will erase eagles and tigers,
we live only in Your book of paintings,
here, on the earth.

Poem from Miguel Leon-Portilla, ed. and trans., Native Mesoamerican Spirituality: Ancient Myths, Discourses, Stories, Doctrines, Hymns, Poems from the Aztec, Yucatec, Quiche-Maya and Other Sacred Traditions (New York: Paulist Press, 1980).