Caroline Hosts Sam Henry; the creator and curator of Daily Wisdom Texts. Daily Wisdom Texts is a subscription service that sends you text messages from wisdom literature each day to provide a daily moment of meditative reflection. Announcing a partnership with great ally-guest Egyptian aphorism artist, Yahia Lababidi, whom we will quote with abandon this Fund Drive hour. Aspiring to Click & Clack, Statler & Waldorf, Caroline and Sam shall to and fro: aphorism poker (Much Yahia), sprinkled with snappy come-backs, Dorothy Parker, and liberating Zen…
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Yo team, I love that the Sun today, right on the guest’s ascendant 6+ Libra, “Witch protecting chickens from the hawk, although she likes the hawk too.”
The Kismet of guiding patterns be most reassuring…
And remember to gaze at Saturn, faint, followed by Jupiter, mega-bright, at closest in, perigee to earth, and opposite Sun— so bright- rising in the East after sunset…First dedication rises, then opportunity…
Jupiter in Aries, opposite Sun, Mercury, Venus (now in Underworld of invisibility, gathering woof, for Renaissance, and for this election, at the degree of “Can’t do what I’m ordered,”
that there may be a great awakening of sane reverent common sense, sweeping the populace, liberating from dementor delusion realm…
Everyone, snap out of it…
The re-telling of the wisdom phrase, the story, brings it alive like a romping animal ally…
Here’s some ancient words of mine, guiding principles, to be dusted off and brought alive by fresh telling…
I told Sam, backstage – this is a whole guest up-grade,
for the guest to proffer an outline!!!!!
Though we didn’t get to it all, here it be for us…
Beginning
Thank Caroline, Eryn and the production staff, the listeners, the donors, and Yahia
Sam introduce self & DWT
Daily Wisdom Texts
Daily text messages – daily meditation practice
Why texts
Peace, focus, prioritization
Other examples
Daily devotionals
Christian
Tolstoy
Eg daily prayers and meditations: Judaism (3), Christianity (7), Islam (5); Jain (Pratikraman morning/evening; householder Sāmāyika three times per day); Sikhism (Nitnem; three times per day)
Started for myself, sharing with others
Customer quotes
I love getting a ping at 3pm CDT every day from @dailywisdomtxts! From Tagore through Rumi and otherwise, it’s a helpful reminder for a self-reflective pause–guided by the wisdom of time immemorial. Check them out!
Added and adding more authors.
Examples:
Epicurus
Nothing is sufficient for one to whom the sufficient is not enough.
We must laugh and philosophize at the same time and do our household duties and employ our other faculties, and never cease proclaiming the sayings of the true philosophy.
Dhammapada of Gautama Buddha
One who seeking their own happiness punishes or kills beings who also long for happiness, will not find happiness after death
“All forms are unreal,” one who knows and sees this becomes passive in pain; this is the way that leads to purity.
Ecclesiastes
For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? as the fool.
And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity.
For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone?
But if a man live many years, and rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness; for they shall be many. All that cometh is vanity.
Heraclitus
To those who are awake, there is one world in common, but of those who are asleep, each is withdrawn to a private world of their own.
It is wise for those who hear, not me, but the universal Reason, to confess that all things are one.
Andrew Blackbird (Makade Binsei)
Look up to the skies often, by day and by night, and see the son, moon and stars which shineth in the firmament, and think that the Great Spirit is looking upon thee continually.
St. Benedict
Keep death daily before one’s eyes
Lao Tzu
Or fame or life,
Which do you hold more dear?
Or life or wealth,
To which would you adhere?
Keep life and lose those other things;
Keep them and lose your life:–which brings
Sorrow and pain more near?
Thus we may see,
Who cleaves to fame
Rejects what is more great;
Who loves large stores
Gives up the richer state.
Who is content
Needs fear no shame.
Who knows to stop
Incurs no blame.
From danger free
Long live shall they.
Yahia
https://dailywisdomtexts.com/yahia_lababidi
Bio
Yahia Lababidi is the author, most recently, of Desert Songs (Rowayat, 2022) & Learning to Pray: a Book of Longing (Kelsay Books, 2021). Prior to that, Lababidi published Revolutions of the Heart (Wipf & Stock, 2020) a genre-bending collection of essays & conversations. He is, also, the author of 2 critically-acclaimed books of aphorisms: Signposts to Elsewhere (2019) and Where Epics Fail (2018).
Yahia’s aphorisms
Meditate on each. Chew on it. Disagree with it. Depart with it. Return to it.
Impulses we attempt to strangle only develop stronger muscles.
There is only one way to live against one’s own nature: unhappily.
History does not repeat itself; human nature does.
The small spirit is quick to misperceive an insult; the large spirit is slow to
receive a compliment.
However jeweled the mind, we also think through its defects.
Time heals old wounds only because there are new wounds to attend to.
A good listener helps us overhear ourselves.
Marrying for looks is like buying books for their pictures—a good idea, if one cannot read.
Opposites attract; similarities last.
Secretly the complex covet the lot of the simple, which is why they can be cruel.
To oscillate between feeling subhuman and superhuman is to be human.
Morality: permitting others to behave only as we behave, when we behave.
Envious of natural disasters, men create their own.
There is no such thing as other people, only our unrealized possibilities.
Respect for our elders is another form of respect for life.
The regrettable thing about insecurity is how dearly everyone else must pay for it.
The personal made universal is art’s truth.
Two good reasons to read: to better understand oneself or to forget oneself altogether.
Different faiths are different dialects of the same Language.
Spirituality occurs at the boiling point of religion, where dogma evaporates.
Miracles are proud creatures; they will only reveal themselves to those who believe.
Intuition: generous deposits made to our account by an unknown benefactor.
To speak of spiritual intimations is a kind of kiss-and-tell.
For the inconsolable, there is Nature.
What is considered eccentric in this world is commonplace in another.
Hope: the refusal to accept things as they are.
War: the side effect of nationalism.
Every person is an example for someone else; only a few are examples for all.
Moral indignation is for Ideal Beings, not human beings.
Without the generosity of the poor, the rich would surely perish.
To give birth to God, the self must die in the delivery room.
Pleasure, not joy, may be snatched from life’s hands.
In life, as in love, graceful leave-taking is the epitome of gratitude.
To be self-taught is not to have taught oneself but to have learned from oneself.
The application of wisdom is no less difficult than its acquisition.
An affinity exists between extremes; they are closer to one another than to moderation.
The over-examined life is no more worth living than the unexamined.
Ideals: maps that omit practical details—like mountain ranges.
The power of ideals is such that they may be transmitted even by those who do not live by them.
The idealist misses Life as she confesses in plain view.
The shoreline is where opinions should be etched.
Time cannot be trusted to keep a secret.
Self-image: self-deception.
Whoever speaks definitively speaks prematurely.
Things are at their most comfortable before they collapse—be they armchairs or relationships.
Eye contact: how souls catch fire.
Desert Songs (2022)
Desert Songs ― A love letter to the deserts of Egypt (Rowayat, 2022
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayIvtcaZJRU&ab_channel=YAHIALABABIDI
Yahia Lababidi Aphorisms collected by Caroline & team
(The) “Language of love is the language of tolerance.”
“Salvation lies on the other side of danger.”
“In the deep end – every stroke counts.”
“Where there be demons is wherethere is something worth fighting for,”
Which Caroline, of course, has changed to
“Where there be demons is wherethere is something worth protecting.”
Signposts to Elsewhere (2008)
Excerpts (aphorisms):
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A good listener is one who helps us overhear ourselves.
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With enigmatic clarity, Life gives us a different answer each time we ask her the same question.
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The thoughts we choose to act upon define us to others, the ones we do not define us to ourselves.
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Miracles are proud creatures; they will not reveal themselves to those who do not Believe.
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To hurry pain is to leave a classroom still in session.
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To prolong pain is to miss the next lesson.
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The personal made universal is art’s truth.
“Where Epics Fail: Aphorisms on Art, Morality & Spirit” (2018)
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Aphorisms respect the wisdom of silence by disturbing it, but briefly.
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One definition of success might be refining our appetites, while deepening our hunger.
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Hope is more patient than despair and so outlasts it.
—— And not Yahia’s, but also good…
Reminding us that small things have a large effect…
“When the world is at risk –just move one small stone..” (“Initiate Brother”)
“Move ten things- change your life.” (Feng shui)
