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Quotes and Poems

Session 5 - Sacred Activism 

Thich Nhat Hanh



I should not make any promises right now,

But I know if you


Somewhere in this world--

Something good will happen. 


"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing

and rightdoing there is a field.

I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass

the world is too full to talk about."                                                                                                                                                              

Barry Lopez - Arctic Dreams

“ There are simply no  answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out. making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.”

Andrew Harvey 

“Sacred Activism is about finding gratitude, forgiveness, and compassion; it is about opening yourself up to the kindness within you, letting go of pain, and making a conscious choice to help heal the world.”


Ken Wilber 


Frederick Buechner 


Francis of Assisi 

“Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love,

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

And where there is sadness, joy.


O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved, as to love.


For it is in giving that we receive,

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,


Mother Teresa 


Anthon St. Maarten


Martin Luther King Jr. 

  • “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”
  • “The choice is not between violence and nonviolence but between nonviolence and nonexistence.” 
  • “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy to a friend.”

Mary Oliver - The Messenger 

My work is loving the world.


Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.

Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?



which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.


Which is mostly rejoicing, since all ingredients are here,

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart



over and over, how it is that we live forever.

Please Call Me by My True Names

Thich Nhat Hanh

Don't say that I will depart tomorrow—

even today I am still arriving.

Look deeply: every second I am arriving

to be a bud on a Spring branch,

to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings,

learning to sing in my new nest,

to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,

to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,

to fear and to hope.

The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death

of all that is alive.

I am a mayfly metamorphosing

on the surface of the river.

And I am the bird

that swoops down to swallow the mayfly.

I am a frog swimming happily

in the clear water of a pond.

And I am the grass-snake

that silently feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,

my legs as thin a bamboo sticks.

And I am the arms merchant,

selling deadly weapons to Uganda.

I am the twelve-year-old girl,

refugee on a small boat,

who throws herself into the ocean

after being raped by a sea pirate.

And I am the pirate,

my heart not yet capable

of seeing and loving.

I am a member of the politburo,

with plenty of power in my hands.

And I am the man who has to pay

his "debt of blood" to, my people,

dying slowly in a forced labor camp.

My joy is like Spring, so warm

it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth.

My pain is like a river of tears,

so vast it fills the four oceans.

Please call me by my true names,

so I can hear all my cries and laughter at once,

so I can see that my joy and pain are one.

Please call me by my true names,

so I can wake up

and the door of my heart

could be left open,

the door of compassion.

Gene Sharp


Nonviolent action involves opposing the opponent's power, including his police & military capacity, not with the weapons chosen by him but by quite different means...Repression by the opponent is used against his own power position in a kind of political " ju-jitsu " and the very sources of his power thus reduced or removed, with the result that his political and military position is seriously weakened or destroyed.

Nonviolent struggle is the most powerful means available to those struggling for freedom.

Mahatma Gandhi

  • There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall.. think of it, always.
  • If you want to change the world, start with yourself.
  • The world is big enough to satisfy everyones needs, but will always be too small to satisfy everyones greed

Dalai Lama

“I consider human rights work or activism to be a kind of spiritual practice. By defending those people who persecuted for their race, religion, ethnicity, or ideology, you are actually contributing to guiding our human family to peace, justice, and dignity.”

“Human rights are of universal interest because it is the inherent nature of all human beings to yearn for freedom, equality, and dignity and they have the right to achieve it.”

“Rich or Poor, educated or uneducated, belonging to one nation or another, to one religion or another, adhering to this ideology or that, ultimately each of us is just a human being like everyone else. We all desire happiness and do not want suffering.”

“We need to address the issue of the gap between the rich and poor, both globally and nationally. This inequality, with some sections of the human community having abundance and others on the same planet going hungry or even dying of starvation, is not only morally wrong, but practically also a source of problems.”

“Even though they will lose money in the short term, large multi-national corporations must curtail their exploitations of poor nations. Tapping the few precious resources such countries possess simply to fuel consumerism in the developed world is disastrous; if it continues unchecked, eventually we shall all suffer. Strengthening weak, undiversified economies is a far wiser policy for promoting both political and economic stability.”


“Wherever it occurs, poverty is a significant contributor to social disharmony, ill health, suffering and armed conflict. If we continue along our present path, the situation could become irreparable. This constantly increasing gap between the haves and halve not’s, creates suffering for everyone.”

“It is not enough to be compassionate we must act.”

“Peace, in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone dying of hunger or cold. It will not remove the pain of torture inflicted on a prisoner of conscience. I t does not comfort those who have lost their homes in floods caused by senseless deforestation in neighboring countries. Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free.”


Nelson Mandela

“ There is a force in the universe, call it god or spirituality or whatever you like - that wants the victory of truth and justice- this force will help you if you are steady, humble, brave and patient. Never, ever give up, however bad things get.” 

Dalai Lama

“ The meaning of life is to embody compassion. Anyone can discover this. When you discover this and live it , you discover your truest nature and share its joy.” He also says “ In your heart and in the world work for peace, and I say again never give up no matter what is going on around you.  Never give up.” 

Barbara Marx Hubbard

  • Synergy does not mean giving up what we want. It means joining to co-create so each is able to receive ever more of what attracts us through joining rather than opposing.