Discovering Yourself   Stray Birds   Excerpts from the book by Rabindranath Tagore   I cannot chose the best. The best chooses me.   Listen Up     By touching you may kill, by keeping away you may possess.   Ancient Taoist Meditation   We live in  this world when we love it. Tagore   Life finds its wealth by the claims of the world, and its worth by the claims of love. O Beauty, find thyself in love, not in the flattery of thy mirror. God finds himself by creating.  "How far are you from me, O Fruit?" –  "I am hidden in your heart, O Flower." The best does not come alone. It comes with the company of the all. The sun greets me with a smile. The rain, his sad sister, talks to my heart. What you are you do not see, what you see is your shadow.     If you shed tears when you miss the sun, you also miss the stars.   Optimistic Thinking     The mind sharp, but not broad, sticks at every point but does not move.   Barriers to Systems Thinking     The bird thinks it is an act of kindness to give the fish a lift in the air. "We, the rusting leaves, have a voice that answers the storms, but who are you, so silent?"  – "I am a mere flower." Life is given to us, we earn it by giving it.  I have scaled the peak and found no shelter in fame's bleak and barren height. Lead me, my Guide, before the light fades, into the valley of quiet where life's harvest mellows into golden wisdom.     He has made his weapons his gods. When his weapons win he is defeated himself.   Pearls of Wisdom   Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky. Tagore   They throw their shadows before them who carry their lantern on their back. Man is a born child, his power is the power of growth. Do not blame your food because you have no appetite. The stars are not afraid to appear like fireflies.  Your idol is shuttered in the dust to prove that God's dust is greater that your idol. Never be afraid of the moments – thus sings the voice of the everlasting. The hurricane seeks the shortest road by the no-road and suddenly ends its search in the Nowhere. Do not insult your friend by lending him merits from your own pocket. I cast my own shadow upon my path, because I have a lamp that has not been lighted. If you shut your door to all errors truth will be shut out. Silence will carry your voice like the nest that holds the sleeping birds. Put out the lamp when thou wishest. I shall know thy darkness and shall love it.   Men are cruel, but Man is kind. Tagore A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it. Tagore The canal loves to think that rivers exist solely to supply it with water. Tagore If I can't make it through one door, I'll go through another door ‒ or I'll make a door. Something terrific will come. Tagore   He who wants to do good knocks at the gate; he who loves finds the gate open. Kicks only raise dust and not crops from the earth. Let him only see the thorns who has eyes to see the rose. Set the bird's wings with gold and it will never again soar in the sky. The stream of truth flows through its channels of mistakes. Man is worse than an animal when he is an animal. The real with its meaning read wrong and emphasis misplaced is the unreal. Lead me in the centre of thy silence to fill my heart with songs. Lead me in the centre of thy silence to fill my heart with songs. Man's history is waiting in patience for the triumph of the insulted man. I have become my own version of an optimist. If I can't make it through one door, I'll go through another door ‒ or I'll make a door. Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present.   Let this be my last word, but I trust in thy love. Tagore