CHAPTER 1
Nature
The Divine Springtime is come.
Bestir thyself and magnify before the entire creation the name of God and celebrate His praise, in such wise that all created things may be regenerated and made new.
This is the Day whereon the unseen world crieth out "Great is thy blessedness O earth, for thou hast been made the foot-stool of thy God.
Baha'u'llah
Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away, for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.
Song of Solomon
Blessed is the spot, and the house and the place, and the city, and the heart, and the mountain, and the refuge, and the cave, and the valley, and the land, and the sea, and the island, and the meadow where mention of God hath been made, and His praise glorified.
Bahai Prayer
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils:
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
I wandered lonely as a cloud
William Wordsworth
Fair daffodils, we weep to see
You haste away so soon;
As yet the early rising sun
Has not attained his noon.
Stay stay,
Until the hasting day
Has run.
Robert Herrick
When we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow Park we saw a few daffodils close to the waterside. But as we went along there were more and yet more and at last under the boughs of the trees, we saw that there was a long belt of them along the shore, about the breadth of a county turnpike road. I never saw daffodils so beautiful. They grew among the mossy stones about them. Some rested their heads upon these stones as a pillow for weariness and the rest tossed and reeled and danced and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the lake.
Dorothy Wordsworth
Slowly, silently, now the moon,
Walks the night in her silver shoon.
Walter de la Mare
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health and quiet breathing.
John Keats
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you.
Corinthians 3
O Son of Man
The temple of being is my throne;
Cleanse it of all things, that I may be
established and there I may abide.
Baha'u'llah
Every man of discernment, while walking upon the earth, feeleth indeed abashed inasmuch as he is fully aware that the thing which is the source of his prosperity, his wealth, his might, his exaltation, his advancement and power as ordained by God, is the very earth which is trodden beneath the feet of all men.
The whole universe reflecteth His glory.
This is what is meant by divine unity.
Baha'u'llah
He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul
Psalm 23
Neath the shade of Thy protecting wings let me nestle and cast upon me the glance of Thine all protecting eye.
Abdu'l-Baha
Nature is painting for us day after day pictures of infinite beauty
John Ruskin
The wonders of His bounty can never cease, and the stream of
His merciful grace can never be arrested.
Baha'u'llah
The sound of the wind in the trees speaks to me as an inner voice.
The breath of life fills me.
Juliet
I expand and live in the warm day like corn and melons.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Consider the flowers of a garden: though differing in kind, colour, form and shape, yet inasmuch as they are refreshed by the waters of one spring, revived by the breath of one wind, invigorated by the rays of one sun, this diversity increaseth their charm and addeth unto their beauty.
Abdu'l-Baha
There is one mind common to all individual men. Every man is an inlet to the same and to all of the same. Who hath access to this universal mind is a party to all that is or can be done, for this is the only sovereign agent.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Each sees in the other the Beauty of God reflected in the soul, and finding this point of similarity, they are attracted to one another in love. This love will make all men the waves of one sea, this love will make them all the stars of one heaven and the fruits of one tree.
Abdu'l-Baha
And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh in all.
Corinthians 12
Breathing in, I calm my body
Breathing out I smile.
Dwelling in the present moment.
I know this is the only moment.
Thich Nhat Hanh
The beauty of the deer with that long lingering look, the mew of the buzzard, the hum of the bee and the turquoise dart of the dragonfly, fill my soul with the perfection of our creation and the wonder of being alive.
Juliet
God is speaking through his creation.
In the wildlife garden of Glastonbury Abbey
If it be Thy pleasure make me to grow as a tender herb in the meadows of Thy grace, that the gentle winds of Thy will may stir me up and bend me into conformity with Thy pleasure, in such wise that my movement and my stillness may be wholly directed by Thee.
Baha'u'llah
To bear fruit,
the branch must stay united with the vine.
John 15.4
Every created thing in the whole universe is but a door leading into His Knowledge, a sign of His sovereignty, a revelation of His names, a symbol of His majesty, a token of His power, a means of admittance into His straight path.
Baha'u'llah
Nobody sees a flower – really – it is so small
It takes time - we haven't time – and to see takes time,
like to have a friend takes time. If you take a flower in
your hand and really look at it it's your world, for the moment.
Georgia O' Keefe
The portals of Thy grace have throughout eternity been open, and the means of access unto Thy presence made available unto all created things.
Baha'u'llah
The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God's heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.
Dorothy Frances Gurney
Every blade of grass has an Angel that bends over it and whispers, "Grow, grow."
The Talmud
All the atoms of the earth bear witness, O my Lord to the greatness of Thy power and of Thy Sovereignty and all the signs of the universe attest the glory of Thy majesty and of Thy might.
Baha'u'llah
A sprinkling from the unfathomed deep of His sovereign and allpervasive Will hath, out of utter nothingness, called into being a creation which is infinite in its range and deathless in its duration.
Baha'u'llah
I am Alpha and Omega –
The First and the Last.
Revelation 22.13
What life can compare to this?
Sitting quietly by the window, I watch the leaves fall, and the flowers
bloom, as the seasons come and go.
Hsueh-Tou
Verily I say the creation of God embraceth worlds besides this world, and creatures apart from these creatures.
Baha'u'llah
. ... it is only the finite that has wrought and suffered,
The infinite lies stretched in smiling repose.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The process of His creation hath no beginning and no end.
Baha'u'llah
CHAPTER 2
Calm
There is a silence into which the world cannot intrude.
There is an ancient peace you carry in your heart and have not lost.
A Course in Miracles
There are so few empty hours in the day or empty rooms in
my life in which to stand alone and find myself. Too many
activities, and people and things, and interesting people.
For it is not merely the trivial which clutters our lives but the
important as well.
We can have a surfeit of treasures ...
Ann Morrow Lindbergh
If material anxiety envelops you in a dark cloud, spiritual radiance lightens your path.
Abdu'l-Baha
Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night.
Christian Book of Common Prayer
When a thought of war comes, oppose it by a stronger thought of peace. A thought of hatred must be destroyed by a more powerful thought of love.
Abdu'l-Baha
May peace and peace and peace be everywhere.
The Upanishads.
If you desire with all your heart friendship with every
race on earth, your thought, spiritual and positive, will spread;
it will become the desire of others, growing stronger and stronger.
Abdu'l-Baha
The purest and most thoughtful minds are those that
love colour the most.
John Ruskin
You do not need to leave your room ...
Remain sitting at your table and listen,
Do not even listen, simply wait.
Do not even wait, be quite still and solitary.
The world will freely offer itself to be unmasked.
It has no choice.
It will roll in ecstasy at your feet.
Franz Kafka
To see a World in a Grain of Sand,
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
William Blake
As a man thinks in his heart so he is.
Proverbs 23
Thou my babe! Shalt wander like a breeze. By lakes and sandy shores, beneath the crags of ancient mountains and beneath the clouds ... So shall thou see and hear the lovely shapes and sounds intelligible of that eternal language which thy God utters.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul.
Psalm 23. 2-3
Refresh and gladden my spirit. Purify my heart.
Illumine my powers.
I lay all my affairs in Thy hand,
Thou art my guide and my refuge.
I will no longer be sorrowful and grieved;
I will be a happy and joyful being.
Abdu'l-Baha
Listen in deep silence;
Be very still and open your mind ...
Sink deep into peace
That waits for you beyond the frantic, riotous thoughts
And sights
And sounds of this insane world.
A Course in Miracles
Come away from the din.
Come away to the quiet fields over which the great sky stretches and
where, between us and the stars,
There lies but silence,
And there in the stillness, let us listen to the voice that is speaking
within us.
Jerome K. Jerome
The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your
hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God.
Book of Common Prayer
Arranging a bowl of flowers in the morning can give a sense of quiet in a crowded day – Like writing a poem or saying a prayer.
Ann Morrow Lindburgh
Not for a moment hath His grace been withheld nor have the showers of His loving-kindness ceased to rain upon mankind.
Baha'u'llah
Let my doing nothing when I have nothing to do become untroubled to its depth of peace like the evening on the seashore when the water is silent.
Rabindrath Tagore
Better than a thousand useless words
is a single word that gives peace,
The Dhammapada
Trust in him at all times. ... Pour out your heart to him, hold nothing back.
Psalm 62.8
Naps are the adult version of a child's fort. A love of privacy and a place for make-believe. Rest adds strength to our souls.
Sark
Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.
Lao-tzu
Rely upon God, trust in Him, praise Him and call Him continually to mind. He verily turneth trouble into ease and sorrow into solace and toil into utter peace.
Abdu'l-Baha
Over all the mountaintops is peace.
In all the treetops you perceive
scarcely a breath. The little birds in the forest are silent.
Wait then; soon you, too, will have peace.
Johan Wolfgang von Goethe.
If I keep a green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come.
Anon
We don't need to go to China to enjoy the blue sky. We don't have to travel into the future to enjoy our breathing. We can be in touch with these things right now.
Thich – Nhat Hanh
I dream'd in a dream I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth, I dream'd that was the new city of Friends.
Walt Whitman
And join with thee
calm
peace
and quiet.
John Milton
He who smiles rather than rages is always the stronger.
Japanese Wisdom
Speak ye to Him with gentle speech.
Abdu'l-Baha
Turn your face away from the contemplation of your own finite selves and fix your eye upon the Everlasting Radiance; then will your souls receive in full measure the Divine Power of the Spirit and Blessings of the Infinite Bounty.
Abdu'l-Baha
The process of His creation hath no beginning and no end.
Psalm 46.10
Rest thou assured that in this era of the spirit, the Kingdom of Peace will raise up its tabernacle on the summits of the world, and the commandments of the Prince of Peace will so dominate the arteries and nerves of every people as to draw into its sheltering shade all the nations on earth. From springs of love and truth and unity will the true Shepherd give His sheep to drink.
Abdu'l-Baha
