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Wayne Muller

Wayne Muller Biography

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“Adults who were hurt as children inevitably exhibit a peculiar strength, a profound inner wisdom, and a remarkable creativity and insight. Deep within them - just beneath the wound - lies a profound spiritual vitality, a quiet knowing, a way of perceiving what is beautiful, right, and true. Since their early experiences were so dark and painful, they have spent much of their lives in search of the gentleness, love, and peace they have only imagined in the privacy of their own hearts.”

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Book:Legacy of the Heart: The Spiritual Advantage of a Painful Childhood
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“A gift is like a seed; it is not an impressive thing. It is what can grow from the seed that is impressive. If we wait until our seed becomes a tree before we offer it, we will wait and wait, and the seed will die from lack of planting.... The miracle is not just the gift; the miracle is in the offering, for if we do not offer, who will?”

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Book:How Then, Shall We Live?: Four Simple Questions That Reveal the Beauty and Meaning of Our Lives
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“Many of us incorrectly assume that a spiritual life begins when we change what we normally do in our daily life. We feel we must change our job, our living situation, our relationship, our address, our diet, or our clothes before we can truly begin a spiritual practice. And yet it is not the act but the awareness, the vitality, and the kindness we bring to our work that allows it to become sacred.”

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Author:Wayne Muller
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“As Gandhi wisely points out, even as we serve others we are working on ourselves; every act, every word, every gesture of genuine compassion naturally nourishes our own hearts as well. It is not a question of who is healed first. When we attend to ourselves with compassion and mercy, more healing is made available for others. And when we serve others with an open and generous heart, great healing comes to us.”

FirstsWellsHeartMadeHealingCompassionMercyAvailableGenuineGenerousGesturesHealedGenerous Heart
Book:Legacy of the Heart: The Spiritual Advantage of a Painful Childhood
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“The greatest barrier to own own healing is not the pain, sorrow or violence inflicted upon us as children. Our greatest hindrance is our ongoing capacity to judge, to criticize, and to bring tremendous harm to ourselves. If we can harden our heart against ourselves and meet our most tender feelings with anger and condemnation, we simultaneously armor our heart against the possibility of gentleness, love and healing.”

IfsHeartChildrenFeelingsPainHealingViolencePossibilityJudgingSorrowCapacityHarmBarriersCriticizeGentlenessOngoingArmorCondemnationHindranceLove And HealingTender Feelings
Book:Legacy of the Heart: The Spiritual Advantage of a Painful Childhood
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“In that inevitable, excruciatingly human moment, we are offered a powerful choice. This choice is perhaps one of the most vitally important choices we will ever make, and it determines the course of our lives from that moment forward. The choice is this: Will we interpret this loss as so unjust, unfair, and devastating that we feel punished, angry, forever and fatally wounded-- or, as our heart, torn apart, bleeds its anguish of sheer, wordless grief, will we somehow feel this loss as an opportunity to become more tender, more open, more passionately alive, more grateful for what remains?”

FeelsHumansHeartImportantMomentsDeathChoicesCoursesOpportunityLossPowerfulGriefForeverOur LivesAliveBecomingRemainsAngryGratefulDetermineInevitableThat MomentTendernessMentorSheerUnfairWoundedUnjustTornAnguishInterpretingTorn ApartDefining MomentsWorst MomentsYour LossHis LossDealing With DeathBleeding HeartImportant ChoicesPivotal Moments
Author:Wayne Muller
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“Some of us have a hard time believing that we are actually able to face our own pain. We have convinced ourselves that our pain is too deep, too frightening, something to avoid at all costs. Yet if we finally allow ourselves to feel the depth of that sadness and gently let it break our hearts, we may come to feel a great freedom, a genuine sense of release and peace, because we have finally stopped running away from ourselves and from the pain that lives within us.”

IfsFeelsBelieveHeartMayHardRunningAblePainFacesBreakSadnessCostDepthConvincedGenuineReleaseHard TimesRunning AwayFrighteningToo DeepGreat Freedom
Book:Legacy of the Heart: The Spiritual Advantage of a Painful Childhood
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“When we live without listening to the timing of things, when we live and work in twenty-four-hour shifts without rest – we are on war time, mobilized for battle. Yes, we are strong and capable people, we can work without stopping, faster and faster, electric lights making artificial day so the whole machine can labor without ceasing. But remember: No living thing lives like this. There are greater rhythms, seasons and hormonal cycles and sunsets and moonrises and great movements of seas and stars. We are part of the creation story, subject to all its laws and rhythms.”

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Author:Wayne Muller
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“If busyness can become a kind of violence, we do not have to stretch our perception very far to see that Sabbath time – effortless, nourishing rest – can invite a healing of this violence. When we consecrate a time to listen to the still, small voices, we remember the root of inner wisdom that makes work fruitful. We remember from where we are most deeply nourished, and see more clearly the shape and texture of the people and things before us.”

PeopleIfsKindStillsRememberVoiceHealingViolenceShapesPerceptionRootsInvitesTextureSabbathEffortlessSmall Voice
Book:Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives
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“All life requires a rhythm of rest. . . There is a rhythm in the way day dissolves into night, and night into morning. There is a rhythm as the active growth of spring and summer is quieted by the necessary dormancy of fall and winter. There is a tidal rhythm, a deep, eternal conversation between the land and the great sea.”

WayNightFallGrowthMorningSeaLandConversationEternalSummerSpringWinterActiveRhythmFall And Winter
Book:Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives
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“As we explore the nature of our gift, our goal is to move toward this kind of giving: cheerful giving that flows gently and easily, kingly giving that flows surely from who we are. As we encounter the questions—Who are we ? What do we love ?—the gift we bring will be easy, because our gift naturally emerges from who we are. The offering we bring is ourselves, just as we are. Our gift is our true nature. There can be no greater gift than this.”

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Author:Wayne Muller
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“Every single choice we make, no matter how small, is the ground where who we are meets what is in the world. And the fruits of that essential relationship- the intimate, fertile conversation between our own heart's wisdom and the way the world has emerged before us- becomes a lifelong practice of deep and sacred listening for the next right thing we are required to do. We make the only choice that feels authentic and honest, necessary and true in that moment.”

WorldWayFeelsHeartMatterMomentsChoicesNextPracticeHonestListeningConversationEssentialsSacredFruitIntimateRight ThingWho We AreThat MomentLifelongFertile
Author:Wayne Muller
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“Even in the middle of a hurricane, the bottom of the sea is calm. As the storm rages and the winds howl, the deep waters sway in gentle rhythm, a light movement of fish and plant life. Below there is no storm.”

LightWaterSeaMiddleMovementWindPlantBottomCalmFishesStormRageRhythmGentleHurricanesHowlDeep WaterPlant Life
Book:How Then, Shall We Live?: Four Simple Questions That Reveal the Beauty and Meaning of Our Lives
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“The heart of most spiritual practices is simply this: Remember who you are. Remember what you love. Remember what is sacred. Remember what is true. Remember that you will die and that this day is a gift. Remember how you wish to live.”

HeartRememberSpiritualDiesWishPracticeSacredWho You AreThis DayWhat You LoveSpiritual PracticeRemember Who You Are
Book:How Then, Shall We Live?: Four Simple Questions That Reveal the Beauty and Meaning of Our Lives
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