Common Bread Is....


* A Still Point in your Turning World
* A Trusting Space to Share Your Journey
* Inclusive Interfaith Spirituality
* Good Food & Friendship
* Guest Speakers from the World's Wisdom Paths
* Chanting, Meditation, and sometimes...
* We Dance!

DANCES OF UNIVERSAL PEACE!

Thurs. Feb 11
Lecture Hall Rotunda
5:30 Potluck Snacks/Tea
6:00 Dances

Returning by popular demand! Sufi-inspired chants & dances led by Evie Fagergren & musicians. Come relax & experience these easy-to-learn meditations in motion to create inner peace & loving community! Bring a friend.


MEDITATION: Awakening to Now
 
Thurs. Feb 18
Longhouse
5:30 Potluck
6:30 Chant & Meditate


The most profound & deep meditation is the most simple: awakening to the gift of Presence, here and now. This practice unites East & West, modern psychology & the ancient wisdom of Yoga, in the center of Now. It not only relieves our own stress: it brings peace to the world.

CENTERING PRAYER

Thurs. Feb 25
Longhouse
5:30 Potluck Dinner
6:00 Centering Prayer:
Talk, Meditation, Chant



Mary Solberg of Contemplative Outreach shares a simple yet profound meditation practice rooted in the wisdom of Medieval Christian mystics. This graceful practice has been called 'Christian Zen,' yet it is universal: for all seekers.

SHARE YOUR PATH:
Hearing Spiritual Journeys

Thurs. March 4

Potluck 5:30

Song & Sharing 6:30

Longhouse

 
Common Bread invites students to share their diverse spiritual paths. This includes an invitation to Greeners for Christ and Jesus Folk to trusting open-hearted conversation & dialog with students who may have little contact with Christian experience except what they hear in the media. Likewise, we encourage you to share your path if you are not a Christian, or if your spirituality cannot be defined as any one faith tradition. Please feel free to share a song too!


SEAN JOHNSON'S WILD LOTUS BAND
FROM NEW ORLEANS!

Wednesday, March 10
6 PM
Longhouse
"Laugh, Sing, Dance & Meditate!" (Indian Proverb)



Sanskrit devotional chants inflected with New Orleans jazz & blues, by an Evergreen alum, yoga teacher, and kirtan band leader. Come celebrate!
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Common Bread meets in the Evergreen Longhouse on Thursdays at 5:30 for potluck dinner and spiritual inspiration. Occasionally we meet at other times and locations for a special guest speaker. And we encourage student speakers! We are a crossroad of wisdom paths: Eastern and Western, ancient and modern. The crossroad is a sacred space where we honor each person's unique journey. Here, there's a place for you.

Students remember Common Bread as a time when they were, as Emerson wrote, "caught up into the vision of first principles, with souls that made our souls wiser."

Photo Gallery

Click any picture to enlarge it!

On Nov. 20, Tibetan Lama, Anam Thubten Rinpoche spoke to over 100 in the Longhouse. Pictured here with student leaders Shon & Crystal, Rinpoche returns on Fri. April 9.


"The quintessential goal of our path is surrendering to reality each moment, then seeing & loving everything as divine."


Mystical cellist Christine Gunn returned on November 12 to perform her new composition on 'The Hero's Journey'.


Christine's compositions generate spiritual energy in mind & body.


Ms. Gunn with Common Bread's leaders, Shon, Chrystal and Ian.

On Nov 6. A trio of musicians performed Hindi devotional songs & explained the mythic stories behind them.


Shon with his teacher and fellow musicians after the concert. Thanks for bringing Indian classical music to Common Bread, Shon!


Common Bread celebrated Celtic New Year, Oct. 29, with a visit from the Wyrd Wizard, Son of Cerridwyn, who gave out snakes.


Ian O'Donnell & Crystal Marble (now engaged) at our Samhain-Halloween party. They came as Jesus & Mary Magdalene.


Common Bread hosted Sean Johnson's Wild Lotus band from New Orleans.


Sean is an Evergreen grad, Yoga teacher, and Kirtan singer, who inflects Sanskrit peace chants with a hip New Orleans rhythm. Sean's band returns to Common Bread on March 10!


On Oct. 15, Quaker outdoorsman Deric Young spoke on 'Nature as Sacred Book,' using the creatures of the earth as portals into prayer and meditation. 30 attended.


One of nine national leaders of the Baha'i faith, our May 21 guest speaker was Erica Toussaint.


Chelan Weiler, Common Bread's Baha'i representative brought Baha'i speakers and singers from Portland.



On April 8, Dr. Mohammad Ayub introduced Islam. Oct 6, Dr. Ayub's wife, Amy Aisha (below), spoke to Common Bread on 'Women In Islam." Over 30 attended.







Dr. Ayub is a Muslim peace activist, master gardener & member of the Jewish-Muslim Compassionate Listening Group. Dr. Ayub & wife, Amy, have been guest speakers at Common Bread, sharing Muslim evening prayers with us. We cherish our connection to Lacey Mosque through these dynamic friends!




November 13, Krishnammal Jagannathan, winner of the 2008 Opus Award, a disciple of Gandhi and Ramana Maharshi, addressed 90 seekers at Common Bread in the Recital Hall (Link to article).


Feb 5, Evie Fagergren led us in Dances of Universal Peace.


Evie (far left) is also the Treasurer of our ministry Board!


Chaplain Fred leads a discussion of the film, Avatar, and the vision of Earth-centered spirituality.


On Jan. 22 Olympia Quakers visited Common Bread to share Quaker Meeting.


Quakers bring great food to Common Bread too!


Jan. 29, Mary Solberg of Contemplative Outreach (2nd from right) taught Centering Prayer, an ancient Christian meditation practice.


April 23, Ian gave a talk on 'the Agnostic Way to Spirituality.'

Christine Wagner, Evergreen Career Counselor, helped us unite spiritual passions with career goalson October 16.

'Forget every touch or sound that did not teach you how to dance.' (Rumi) Common Bread hosts contra dancing!




Ani, of the Art of Living Program, teaches the healing power of breath. 25 students came to share these powerful practices (below)



"Having a heart quiet enough to trust and listen brings justice." - Adrien Nyongabo, child of the Rwanda-Borundi genocide, spoke last March, pictured with Angus Tierney '08.


Talcott Broadhead, Program Director for Evergreen's Sexual Assault Prevention Office, pictured with student activist Jenna Wes at her Common Bread workshop.


Common Bread loves Evergreen...

Feminine Spirit of Wisdom in the Hebrew Bible

Wisdom (Hochmah in Hebrew, Sophia in Greek) is personified as the feminine consort of the Lord in the Hebrew books, 'Proverbs' and 'Wisdom of Solomon.' 'Proverbs' is part of the Bible, 'Wisdom of Solomon' is considered a sacred text among Jews and many early Christians.

(VERSES FROM ‘THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON’ CHAPTER 7)

I called upon God, and the Spirit of Wisdom came to me.

I preferred her before sceptres and thrones, and esteemed riches nothing in comparison with her.

Neither did I liken her to any precious stone, because, in comparison to her, all gold is as a little sand...

I loved her above health and beauty, and chose to have her instead of light: for the light that comes from her never goes out...

All good things came to me with her, and innumerable riches in her hands.

And I rejoiced in them, because wisdom goes before them: yet I did not know she was the mother of them all….

For Wisdom moves beyond all motion. She penetrates and pervades all things by her purity.

She is an aura of the might of God and a pure effusion of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nothing sullied enters her.

She is the refulgence of eternal light, the spotless mirror of the power of God, the image of his goodness.

And she, who is one, can do all things, and renews all things...

And passing into holy souls from age to age, she produces friends of God and prophets...

For she is fairer than the sun and surpasses every constellation of the stars.

Compared to light, she takes precedence.

(VERSES FROM ‘PROVERBS’ CHAPTER 8)

Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?

She stands in the top of high places, and at the crossing of the paths.

She cries at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors…

“The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.

I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.

When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water.

Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:

While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.

When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the deep:

When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep:

When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment:

when he appointed the foundations of the earth:

Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.

Misinterpreting the Koran

“I have been commanded that I should fight these people till they bear witness that there is no god but Allah.”

Such passages from the Koran cause much confusion, especially in the hands of those who are hell-bent on portraying Islam as a threat. Such a verse can confuse us since the Koran also states, "Commit no aggression, for God does not love aggressors" (Sura 2:191). The Koran accepts Judaism and Christianity as living paths to God: "Those who are Jews and Christians, who believe in God, the Last Day, and do right, surely their reward is with their Lord, and no fear shall come upon them, neither shall they grieve" (Sura 2:62). The Koran also states: "In true religion there is no compulsion.” (Sura 2:256)

We are not the only ones confused. Islamic terrorists confuse their own religion. They justify killing the innocent by refusing to follow the rules that Islamic scholars have laid down for interpreting the Koran.

Islamic scholars embrace a systematic method of interpretation based on a very simple principle: CONTEXT. One can only interpret a verse of the Koran in the context of verses that take precedent. This is comparable to our legal system, where we adjudicate by showing precedent to earlier case-law, following the thread of precedent back to the Constitution. In the rules of Islamic contextual analysis, there are specific Suras of the Koran - usually the longer ones - that establish context for all others.

According to this rule, any statement about war is contextualized by Sura 2, which establishes that war is legitimate only when fought in self-defense. Sura 2 can only be contextualized and subsumed by one other verse, the first line of the Koran: 'B'ishmillah' hi rahman i'raheem' (‘In the name of God, who is pure Love and Compassion.’)

In the 7th Century, Arab tribal leaders sought to kill Mohammad and his followers. Had Mohammad remained pacifist, he and his small community would have been slaughtered. Mohammad chose to defend his people.

This brings us back to the verse we started with. Out of context, this verse seems to say that a Muslim should attack non-Muslims and fight them until they convert. But this verse is only valid in the context of self-defense. Such warlike verses apply only when an enemy attacks Muslims, to persecute them and destroy their religion.

When Mohammad mustered his soldiers for self-defense, the only historical precedent for treatment of captive enemy warriors was death or enslavement. Previous Roman and Christian armies treated their captive enemies brutally. Genocide or slavery were the only alternatives that the Hebrew army, under Joshua, offered the tribes of Canaan in 1100 BCE (cf. Deuteronomy, chapter 20). The Koran established an entirely new rule for the treatment of captured enemy soldiers, a kind of 'Geneva Convention' for the ancient Near East.

When Mohammad went into his meditation cave and asked Divine Source how to treat defeated enemy soldiers, Allah replied that he should spare the captives, allowing them to live as Muslims. The Koran gives no commandment to "convert them by the sword." On the contrary, the Koran prohibits compulsory conversion. (2:256)

Captives who chose not to convert had to pay a special tax (Jizya) to the Mosque. This seemed only fair since Muslims pay quite large tithes to the Mosque. Paying the Jizya, non-Muslims were welcome to live under Muslim rule. In fact, when Christians expelled the Jews from Europe, the Muslim caliphate of Baghdad welcomed the Jewish exiles. There, Jewish and Muslim scholars worked side by side to preserve the classics of the ancient world and develop the sciences of astronomy and mathematics. Our decimal system, algebra, and the concept of zero all came from Middle Eastern Muslim scholars. Algebra and zero are both Muslim words. Today we still use “Arabic” numerals.

What this all means is that terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda are no more Muslim than the Ku Klux Klan is Christian. These fringe groups distort their religious heritage into heresy. The Islamic mainstream has repeatedly condemned terrorism. Yet the Western media ignore these condemnations, preferring to emphasize conflict over reconciliation. Conflict boosts their ratings.

'Jihad' does not mean 'holy war.' It means 'struggle to follow a godly path.' Though Jihad can refer to physical warfare in self-defense, it more commonly refers to an individual’s inner struggle against the lower impulses, the struggle to achieve pure surrender to God’s will.

‘Islam’ is the infinitive of the verb, SaLaM, 'to surrender, to achieve peace, to be at-one.' Islam derives from the same Semitic root as the Biblical word, 'Shalom'. Islam means, 'to find peace through surrender to God.'

- Fred LaMotte

The Taste of God

Still Life by Tor Egil Hansen

Forget holiness. Remember wholeness. The primal spiritual practice is not to strive upward but to center down: Om-coming.

Surrender to what Is: this is the heart of practice. Such non-doing sounds like passivity, inertia, but it actually deepens our life-force, our creative awareness. After just a few minutes of this non-practice, we rise with great energy to encounter both joy and sorrow as faces of one God.

Surrender to what Is acknowledges Grace as the fundamental ground of creation. Surrender stimulates the divine presence to release waves of joyful, healing, luminous energy, which vibrate through every atom and cell of the body-soul. This radical practice means letting go of every effort to attain or improve, so that we can experience the One who is always already here.

No spiritual effort can produce more liberation and enlightenment than allowing ourselves to fully become who we already are. It happens now, in whatever situation we may be thrown. We cannot practice at any other time or place.

Our suffering is caused by preferring to be elsewhere.

When we attempt to return to a pleasure or escape from a pain, we suffer. But when we allow creation's waves of pain and pleasure to flow through us, breathing with their rhythm, we taste them as a single primordial energy.

Therefor the practice of surrender is not, like so many spiritual practices, the avoidance of pain. Sri Ramakrishna was asked to describe the hardest lesson he ever learned. 'When I learned that pain is but a furiously condensed form of bliss,' he replied, 'that was the hardest lesson.'

The greatest suffering of all, however, is not in the avoidance of pain, but in the striving for moral perfection. The quest for perfection has polluted our historic religions. This quest still wreaks havoc in the lives of New Age seekers. We are as obsessed with purity rules about food, sex, and money as our ancient forbears, the Jewish Pharisees, Christian monks and Colonial Puritans. Obsessions with purity and perfection lead to religious extremism and, eventually, to war. Fueled by self-denial and repression, those who strive for perfection unleash the world's most ruthless violence in the name of purity.

There is a terribly mis-translated verse in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount: 'Be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.' But the word 'teleos' does not mean 'perfect.' It means 'whole,' 'complete.' The Greek 'teleos' expresses the Hebrew, 'shelamim' (from the root, 'shalom'.) Originally, this Hebrew word described peace offerings of fruit and grain to restore harmony in creation: offerings not made in craven fear of punishment, but in joyful surrender. Yes, these offerings dissolved Sin. But the Hebrew word for Sin, 'hatah,' meant 'missing the mark.' To be in the state of Sin was to be off center, out of balance, resisting the harmonic flow of creation.

Therefor, Biblical spirituality was not a path of self-judging, striving for higher worlds, or seeking moral perfection. Such a quest would have struck the Hebrews as arrogant. Their prophets were humbled by the PRESENCE of the living God. Their spirituality was a path of centering, returning, Shalom-coming, to the One Who Is.

The constant refrain of the Bible's creation story is: 'God saw that it was good... God saw that it was very good!' (Genesis 1) So the Psalmist cries, 'Taste and see that the Lord is good!' The Hebrew word for 'good' is 'Tovah.' This goodness is not the moral abstraction of those who seek to be holier than thou. Tovah means good to eat, the sweetness of fruit, the warmth of fresh bread. Tovah is divine sensuality: the absolute goodness that permeates creation as God's flavor, the sparkle of the Spirit's breath in every atom of the world. Goodness is not what SHOULD be, but what IS.

When we eat a piece of fresh-baked Om-made bread, we say, 'Mmmmm, good.' This does not mean that our bread is morally perfect, but that it gives bliss. We taste the goodness, the bliss of Tovah. And we taste this bliss whenever we relax and let go of imbalance, whenever we relinquish judgment and division, whenever we allow ourselves to return to our center.

Our center is the good taste of God.

Poet's Corner

Submit writings about your spiritual journey.

shovel the world into my eyes

(by Chelan Weiler)

i am preparing myself
for the worms
with lipstick and a red dress

the dust is my suitor
and i am making of myself
his perfect bride

he knocks on the holes to which i've given my eyes--
the sockets sunk 6 feet under light
he wants to come in, and shovel them
full of the world

the stubble that grows
on the lazy chin of his shadow
are the unkempt weeds
that invade the purer plots of my heart

i flirt
with this unruly torment
twirling my hair into its tangle

and in the search for a soft, loving bed
the dirt will pull me down
into its chest
with thick permanent fingers

and kiss me
and decompose me
and tell me i'm beautiful
and eat my face
as we grow roots in each others darkness
layers underneath
the pulsing call of life.

If I Were a Pear
(by Chelan Weiler)

If i were a pear
on a plate
i'd spend my hours
looking at you

your curves
your strange movements
the way your head
perks up so slightly at suggestion
the way you are so intent
on drawing me
on finding me interesting
and then eating from my sweet
belly.

if i had a paintbrush, though
i'd also paint your stillness
when your palms
feel the supple texture of a moment
and hold its cheek

those times you become
a window
and life looks through you
so clearly
those times when your hands
don't fumble for meaning
and we just look at each other
quietly
and understand.


The Word
(by Sayre Herrick)

the word is not dead

it is sleeping in the pauper
and
in the tongue’s pirouette,
dancing over a plane of newspapers—
in the drunken fashion of a nearsighted sleeper

the word is not dead

it is not grand,
—it does not have to be,
to be worthwhile speech of kings…
if a king would wish to speak
and to step down from the grandiosity of silence.

time demands the word.
it is a shadow of what we know
a currency of communication
exchanged and absorbed
but we have lost the gold
and so there is an empty promise in words

and so what we speak is a shadow of what is true
and so the audience listens in suspended disbelief

the word, in essence
is the truth of our own minds
and what is truth if we have not named it?
what is truth but a word that we have created?
and so it is no different from what is false

yet the word is a reflection
and without it, the boundless Unformed overwhelms meaning
the untrue becomes true
and the shadows of words cease

the point of view, from where our light consciousness radiates,
is not the sun—
its light does not come from a singular source

when there is no Where from which the Light came,
and when there is no object from which a shadow can be formed,
and so no direction for a shadow to fall,
so there, is the Beyond of our minds
and the realm of Truth.

Imbolc
(by Fred LaMotte)

When this season arrives, a dark forgotten well

starts gushing again, the creek bed in my spine,

marrowed with moss and babbled with pebble song,

more local to the bone than basil or thyme.

Lower than roots, my juice still in its breathless stone,

I fall for wanderers with uncombed maidenhair:

a shepherdess reclining on her elbow,

dangling fern fingers, sapling hips of pine

splayed from a nurse log. Slow as evening,

gestures of mushroom and cedar frond conceal

last summer's light. Her feet are rain on huddled wolves.

She's a thistle in the apple's roots, a plum twig

twisting in her dream of seeds, secret fragrance

I’d fast and starve for, thirsty lips all Winter

groping for the milk of her name. Now friend,

abandon words and wander into the ground.

Sacred Sound
Bathe yourself in the cleansing vi-
brational energies of sonic Love.
What is the sound of Love? Let's
find out. What is the healing
potential of sound?
Experiment explore express sing move
dance massage heal grow and change
integrate disintegrate commune rest listen
meditate.....
We're swimming in a sea of energy that we
are co-creating. What do you wish
your Sacred Sound to be?
Let us hold this sacred space for one other
to be authentic.

- Michael Mercker
(Mike holds Sacred Sound meetings on Sunday Evenings. This is your invitation. For more info, contact Common Bread at commonbread@gmail.com)

Rain
(This scene is from a novel about Jesus in India by Amanda Weatherford, class of '08, Common Bread student co-leader.)

Storm clouds emerged and thickened in the obsidian sky. Moon’s magnetic pull and the humid wind coaxed ocean waves into a frenzy. Yeshua continued to pray- receiving and giving energy into the abyss of night. The warm electricity he received made his heart flutter. Wind began to blow fierce and lightning like the bolts from Indra’s bow surged into the sky with a trembling crack and rumble to follow. Clouds darkened by the minute with drops of rain to follow- first big and slow, and then faster until the entire visibility of Jugganatha’s skyline was written with endless strings of rain.

Yeshua arose, a deep elation bubbling within. He looked into the firmament, felt the cool water from Heaven beating on his body and began to chuckle. His chuckle turned into laughter, and his laughter turned into deep bellowing joy. He raised his hands to the sky and closed his eyes, allowing every element to feel this jubilation. He spun around and around, arms outstretched and laughing all the while. His bare feet smooshed deep into the sand and water.

Soon Yeshua heard a horde of people in excited tones approaching him. Half the town of Jugganatha had come to witness this miracle. Avani spotted Yeshua and ran to him. Her arms rose in celebration as well, joining Yeshua in deep laughter. Her hands moved to touch his- flat palm to flat palm. Immediately, she felt the intensity of energy surging from his palms. Her head bowed to prop against his as she looked into his countenance.

“Oh Yesh, do you do this?”

“No, my dear. I became entranced and felt the presence of the Great Spirit. I asked for rain and my intent and prayer was so loud that I almost thought I could hear them audibly though I wasn’t speaking. I felt myself become part of the moisture, the clouds, all the elements of the sky. Then I felt myself cry for the sadness this draught has caused your people, and when I began to weep, so did the skyThe way I felt everything, and then once I wept…it was like Nature and I as one found the best way to express our sadness, through rain! - Amanda Weatherford, '08

Way of Unknowing

Pictured is the 'enso' or empty circle, most potent symbol of Zen art. This very famous enso was painted by one of the great founders of Zen, Hakuin, who first made the famous sound of one hand clapping that resonates throughout the universe as the background noise of the big bang.

Below are jewels from the wisdom of Unknowing, East and West. This wisdom-way spans all great religions. I also offer a glimpse of this truth from a modern physicist. Not to imply that anyone should 'believe' any of this: it's not about belief or intellectual argument. I only share so that this Way can be among your spiritual options. If the following quotes from the masters don't help you understand your own experience, providing relief and confirmation, don't worry about it. Just drop it and move on. If you argue about it, you will be arguing about nothing. Literally.

In the Vedic tradition, this way is called 'Neti, Neti': 'not this, not this.' In Christian mysticism, it is called the 'Via Negativa'; in Buddhism, the doctrine of 'No Mind'; in Jewish mysticism, the 'Ayin Soph Aur' or 'infinite light of no-thing'; in Islamic Sufism, 'al-fanā fi al-tawhīd': annihilation (fanaa) of the individual mind in the absolute unity (tawhid) of God (al).
______________

* 'Zero is where the real fun starts. There's too much counting everywhere else.'
(Hafiz, Islamic Sufi)
______________

* 'One infinite No creates a whole universe of finite Yes's.' (Maharshi Mahesh Yogi)
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* 'He who seeks his life will lose it; he who loses his life will find it.' (Jesus of Nazareth)
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* 'We begin with the "I don't know" of ignorance and end with the "I don't know" of wisdom.' (Sri Sri Ravi Shankar)
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* 'O God above all essence, knowledge and goodness, Guide of Christians to Divine Sophia-Wisdom, direct our path to the summit of your mystical knowledge, most incomprehensibly luminous, where pure, absolute, immutable mysteries are veiled in the dazzling obscurity of secret Silence, outshining all brilliance with the intensity of Divine Darkness, and surcharging our blinded intellects with glories surpassing all beauty....

'In the diligence of this mystical contemplation, may you leave behind both senses and  intellect, and arise by the practice of unknowing towards union with That which transcends all being and all knowledge. By the unceasing and absolute renunciation of yourself and all things, may you be borne on high, through pure self-transcendence, into the super-essential Radiance of the Divine Darkness.'

(Dionysius the Aereopogyte, 'Mystical Theology,' 6th C.; a Christian mystic who influenced all later mystics, but has been largely forgotten today.)
_____________

* 'No one can think of God. Therefore leave everything that you may think of & choose for your love the thing that you cannot think. For God may be taken and held by love, but not by thought. Take just a little word of one syllable, with only a blind beholding unto the naked being of God.'

('Cloud of Unknowing,' 14th C.: deeply influenced by Dionysius, this anonymous author is now being revived in the 'Centering Prayer' movement)
_____________

* 'Gradually, one's mastery in meditation extends from the primal atom to the greatest  magnitude. ("Ano ranyan mahato mahiyan") Then, just as the naturally pure crystal assumes shapes and colors of objects placed near it, so the Yogi's mind becomes clear and attains the state devoid of differentiation between knower, known and knowing. This culmination of meditation is samadhi.' (Patanjali, "Yoga Sutras")
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* 'The physical vacuum carries within itself the possibilities of everything that can exist in the physical world. Once we attain true knowledge of the vacuum, we will have a comprehensive knowledge of everything, including the laws of nature. It is as in the thinking of the ancient philosophers. The knowledge of the void, the "nothing," is intimately connected with the knowledge of the "something."... We take it as a matter of course that empty space is not really empty.'

(Henning Genz, "Nothingness: The Science of Empty Space," Perseus Publishing, Cambridge, Mass. 1998. Genz is professor of theoretical physics at University of Karlsruhe, Germany)
_____________

* The origin of Zen as 'no-mind' in Chinese Ch'an Buddhism was Emperor Wu's dialog with Bodhidharma (Daruma), who brought Buddhism to China from India:

"Emperor Wu proclaimed: 'You have heard the list of my merits: what are your merits?'
'Don't Know,' Daruma replied.
'Then what is it you teach?' asked the emperor.
'Don't Know.'
'Well then, who are you?'
'Don't Know.' "
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* "Thinking is the biggest mistake a Dancer could make." (Michael Jackson)