Some Good Ones: Recent Episodes
Dharma Circle
Some Good Ones is the Dharma Circle's podcast space to share and reflect on the quotes that have inspired us most this week. We always find some good ones, which bring out our own experiences and curiosities on the path of spirituality. We hope that these conversations will spark the same in you. This podcast is recorded and produced by the Dharma Circle, a spiritual community incubator at Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa. The voices of the Dharma Circle’s podcast are Brian Glassett, Leslie Doyle, and Johan Svenson. You can find all of the quotes featured on this episode, and more on our Instagram: @miu_dharma_circle.
**On this final episode, the Dharma Circle team reflects on a quote from James Baldwin:
“Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.”**
Quotes of the week-
Monday
"Of all the definitions of love that abound in our universe, a special favorite of mine is “the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth.”
— bell hooks
Tuesday
"Never be limited by other people’s limited imaginations. If you adopt their attitudes, then the possibility won’t exist because you’ll have already shut it out…You can hear other people’s wisdom, but you’ve got to re-evaluate the world for yourself."
— Dr. Mae Jemison
Wednesday
“I’m a firm believer that language and how we use language determines how we act, and how we act then determines our lives and other people’s lives.”
— Ntozake Shange
Thursday
"A lot of people resist transition and therefore never allow themselves to enjoy who they are. Embrace the change, no matter what it is; once you do, you can learn about the new world you're in and take advantage of it."
— Nikki Giovanni
Friday"There is something in our culture that says your dream ...has to happen immediately and all at once, and that is destructive to the creative spirit. I just embraced the idea that this was going to be a gradual exploration… and gave myself permission to go slowly.”
— Ava DuVernay
Saturday
“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.”
—Langston Hughes
Sunday
“Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and
know we cannot live within.”
— James Baldwin
**On this episode, the Dharma Circle team reflects on a quote from Peter A. Levine:
“The body has been designed to renew itself through continuous self-correction. These same principles also apply to the healing of psyche, spirit, and soul."**
Share your take on our Instagram, or by emailing us at DharmaCircle@miu.edu.
Quotes of the week-
Monday
“The body has been designed to renew itself through continuous self-correction. These same principles also apply to the healing of psyche, spirit, and soul.” — Peter A. Levine
Tuesday
“The truth will not necessarily set you free, but truthfulness will.” — Ken Wilber
Wednesday
"The more you can be authentic, the happier you're going to be, and life will work itself around that." — Melinda French Gates
Thursday
“We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” — Joseph Campbell
Friday“Every time you don’t follow your inner guidance, you feel a loss of energy, loss of power, a sense of spiritual deadness...” — Shakti Gawain
Saturday
“First we make our habits, then our habits make us.”
— John Dryden
Sunday-
“There’s a place in the soul where you’ve never been wounded.” ― Meister Eckhart
**In this episode, the Dharma Circle team reflects on a quote from Robin Williams:
"Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always."**
Leslie poses a few questions to our listeners at the end of the episode. Let us know your responses on our Instagram, or by emailing us at DharmaCircle@miu.edu.
Quotes of the week-
Monday
“We need to accept that we don’t always make the right decisions, that we’ll screw up royally sometimes. Understand that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success.”
— Arianna Huffington
Tuesday
"Love the moment, and the energy of that moment will spread beyond all boundaries."
— Corita Kent
Wednesday
"Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always."
— Robin Williams
Thursday
"The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life."
— Confucius
Friday
"A piece of artwork is never finished. It simply
stops in interesting places."
— Paul Gardner
Saturday
"I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
— Michael Jordan
Sunday-
"It is not the end of the physical body that should worry us. Rather, our concern must be to live while we’re alive – to release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade designed to conform to external definitions of who and what we are."
— Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
**In this episode, the Dharma Circle team deep dives into quotes by Tupac Shakur and Frank Herbert
"Just because you lost me as a friend doesn't mean you gained me as an enemy. I'm bigger than that. I still wanna see you eat, just not at my table." Tupak Shakur**
"Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." Frank Herbert, Dune
Quotes of the week-
Monday-
"You can't think yourself into new ways of acting; you can only act yourself into new ways of thinking."
- Marsha Linehan
Tuesday-
"Just because you lost me as a friend doesn't mean you gained me as an enemy. I'm bigger than that. I still wanna see you eat, just not at my table."
- Tupac Shakur
Wednesday-
"If indeed you must be candid, be candid beautifully."
- Kahlil Gibran
Thursday-
"Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."
- Frank Herbert, Dune
Friday-
"To all appearances, the artist acts like a mediumistic being who, from the labyrinth beyond time and space, seeks his way out to a clearing. "
- Marcel Duchamp
Saturday-
"I could only achieve success in my life through self-discipline, and I applied it until my wish and my will became one.”
- Nikola Tesla
Sunday-
“Behold but the One in all things; it is the second that leads you astray.”
— Kabir
In this episode, the Dharma Circle team deep dives into a quote by Ram Dass
“All you can do for another person is be an environment in which if they wanted to come up for air, they could.”
Quotes of the week-
Monday-
“Action is the antidote to despair.”
– Joan Baez
Tuesday-
"I do know one thing about me: I don't measure myself by others' expectations or let others define my worth."
- Justice Sonia Sotomayor
Wednesday-
“All you can do for another person is be an environment in which if they wanted to come up for air, they could.”
- Ram Dass
Thursday-
"Like the bee gathering honey from many blossoms, those who aspire to sages must take something of wisdom from all the scriptures -- both the great and the small.”
- Uddhava Gita 3.10 translation by Swami Ambikananda Saraswati
Friday-
"I am my own muse. I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to better."
- Oroma Elewa
Saturday-
“Habit is the intersection of knowledge (what to do), skill (how to do), and desire (want to do).”
- Stephen R. Covey
Sunday-
"I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is."
- Alan Watts
In this episode, the Dharma Circle team deep dives into a quote by Don Miguel Ruiz
“Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama.”Quotes of the week-
Monday- "Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light. Tragedy is the most ridiculous thing."
- Frida Kahlo
Tuesday-
“One of the greatest things you have in life is that no one has the authority to tell you what you want to be. You’re the one who’ll decide what you want to be. Respect yourself and respect the integrity of others as well.”
– Jaime Escalante
Wednesday-
“Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama.”
- Don Miguel Ruiz
Thursday-
“As a disciple of this earth, I learned from its upright trees that my life should be spent in sweet dedication to the welfare of others.”
- Uddhava Gita 2.38 translation by Swami Ambikananda Saraswati
Friday-
“There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.”
- Edward de Bono
Saturday-
“Though we tremble before uncertain futures, may we meet... adversity with strength, may we dance in the face of our fears.”
– Gloria Anzaldúa
Sunday-
"Know That, by knowing which everything is known."
- Chandogya Upanishad (misprinted as Mundaka Upanishad 1.1.3)
In celebration of World Peace Day, the Dharma Circle team gathered to reflect together on two questions- What is peace? What is my part in it?
As life would have it, the team wasn't feeling particularly peaceful on that day, which ended up sparking some interesting reflections on authenticity, agency, and balance. We also invited in the perspectives of members of the MIU community to add their thoughts into the dialogue, which we dive into in the back half of the episode.
In this episode, the Dharma Circle team deep dives into a quote by Ansari of Herat
“Know that when you learn to lose yourself, you will reach the Beloved. There is no other secret to be learned, and more than this is not known to me.” Ansari of Herat
Quotes of the week-
Monday-
“Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence.”
- Lin Yutang
Tuesday-
“Self love is not opposed to the love of other people. You cannot really love yourself and do yourself a favor without doing other people a favor, and vice versa.”
- Karl Menninger
Wednesday-
“There are tones of voices that mean more than words.”
- Robert Frost
Thursday-
“Know that when you learn to lose yourself, you will reach the beloved. There is no other secret to be learned, and more than this is not known to me.”
- Ansari of Herat
Friday-
“The wise learn from the experience of others, and the creative know how to make a crumb of experience go a long way.”
- Eric Hoffer
Saturday-
"The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.”
- Emerson
Sunday-
"As oil in sesame seeds, as butter in milk, as water in rivers, as fire in wood, so the Self is found within oneself…”
- Shvetashvatara Upanishad 1.15
In this episode, the Dharma Circle team deep dives into quotes by Rumi, Thomas Merton, and Carl Jung
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” Rumi
“Life is this simple: we are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and the divine is shining through it all the time. This is not just a nice story or a fable, it is true.” Thomas Merton
“The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.”- Carl Jung
Quotes of the week-
Monday-
“The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.”
- Julia Margaret Cameron
Tuesday-
"Simply pushing harder within the old boundaries will not do.”
- Karl Weick
Wednesday-
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
- Rumi
Thursday-
"In the field of activity, it is not desirable to create stress and strain by attempting control either from within or from without. Let everyone proceed naturally, complementing [transcendental consciousness] with the activity of daily routine, and so be sure to win fulfillment.”
- Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Friday-
“The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.”
- Carl Jung
Saturday-
“Develop a train of thought on which to ride. The nobility of your life, as well as your happiness, depends upon the direction in which that train of thought is going.”
- Laurence J. Peter
Sunday-
“Life is this simple: we are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and the divine is shining through it all the time. This is not just a nice story or a fable, it is true. ”
- Thomas Merton
**In this episode, the Dharma Circle team deep dives into a quote by Mary Jo Weaver-
"Spirituality is rooted in desire. We long for something we can neither name nor describe, but which is no less real because of our inability to capture it with words."**
The quotes of the week-
Monday-
" What is food to one, is to others bitter poison.”
- Lucretius
Tuesday- "You best teach others about healthy boundaries by enforcing yours...”
- Bryant McGill
Wednesday-
“Only if we understand, will we care. Only if we care, will we help. Only if we help shall all be saved.”
-Jane Goodall
Thursday-
“I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our own particular path than we have yet got ourselves.”
- E. M. Forster
Friday-
“The rhythm of relations of color and size makes the absolute appear in the relativity of time and space.”
- Piet Mondrian
Saturday-
“Out of our beliefs are born deeds; out of our deeds we form habits; out of our habits grows our character; and on our character, we build our destiny.”
- Henry Hancock
Sunday-
“Spirituality is rooted in desire. We long for something we can neither name nor describe, but which is no less real because of our inability to capture it with words.”
- Mary Jo Weaver
Special podcast extra quote-
Untitled poem by Rabindranath Tagore
Incense yearns to disappear in scent
Scent to cling to incense
Melody seeks to fetter herself in rhythm
While the rhythm flows back to melody
Idea seeks its body in form
Form its freedom in the idea
The infinite seeks the touch of the finite
The finite its release in the infinite
What drama is this between creation and destruction?
The ceaseless to and frow between idea and form
Bondage is forever striving after freedom
And freedom seeking rest in bondage
In this episode, the Dharma Circle team deep dives into a quote by Henry David Thoreau
“The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling. Yet we do not treat ourselves nor one another thus tenderly.”
Quotes of the week-
Monday-
“After years of being taught that the way to deal with painful emotions is to get rid of them, it can take a lot of reschooling to learn to sit with them instead, finding out from those who feel them what they have learned by sleeping in the wilderness...”
- Barbara Brown Taylor
Tuesday-
“When we fail to set boundaries and hold people accountable, we feel used and mistreated. This is why we sometimes attack who they are, which is far more hurtful than addressing a behavior or a choice.”
- Brené Brown
Wednesday-
“Every message, regardless of form or content, is an expression of a need.”
- Marshall Rosenberg
Thursday-
“The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.”
- Joseph Campbell
Friday-
“Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you’ve got to go deeper. Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure. They’re huge and abstract. And they’re very beautiful.”
- David Lynch
Saturday-
“Rest and activity are the steps of progress.”
- Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Sunday-
“Out of bliss these beings are born, in bliss they are sustained, and to bliss they go and merge again.”
- Taittiriya Upanishad 3.6.1
In this episode, the Dharma Circle team deep dives into a quote by Robert Louis Stevenson
“Every heart that has beat strongly and cheerfully has left a hopeful impulse behind it in the world, and bettered the tradition of mankind.”
Quotes of the week-
Monday-
“Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary.”
- Fred Rogers
Tuesday-
“Compassionate people ask for what they need. They say no when they need to, and when they say yes, they mean it. They’re compassionate because their boundaries keep them out of resentment.”
- Brené Brown
Wednesday-
“The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling. Yet we do not treat ourselves nor one another thus tenderly.”
- Henry David Thoreau
Thursday-
“Each person must discover [their] own philosophy of life, and it is not fair or right to impose our codes upon others. It is also our responsibility, however, to share one with another such experiences as may have common value."
- Manly Palmer Hall
Friday-
“The heart of creativity is an experience of the mystical union, the heart of the mystical union is an experience of creativity.”
- Julia Cameron
Saturday-
"The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community.”
- Albert Einstein
Sunday-
“When you get your 'Who am I?' question right, all of your, 'What should I do?' questions tend to take care of themselves”
- Richard Rohr
In this episode, the Dharma Circle team deep dives into a quote by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
“Repression is not the way to virtue. When people restrain themselves out of fear, their lives are by necessity diminished. Only through freely chosen discipline can life be enjoyed and still kept within the bounds of reason.”
Quotes of the week-
Monday-
"Bravery is about a willingness to show emotional need”
- Richard Gere
Tuesday-
“Respect yourself and others will respect you.”
– Confucius
Wednesday-
“Practice really hearing what people say. Do your best to get inside their mind.”
- Marcus Aurelius
Thursday-
“I believe that if we really want human brotherhood to spread and increase until it makes life safe and sane, we must also be certain that there is no one true faith or path by which it may spread”
- Adlai E. Stevenson Jr.
Friday-
"For me, the creative process, first of all, requires a good nine hours of sleep a night. Second, it must not be pushed by the need to produce practical applications."
- William N Lipscomb Jr
Saturday-
"Repression is not the way to virtue. When people restrain themselves out of fear, their lives are by necessity diminished. Only through freely chosen discipline can life be enjoyed and still kept within the bounds of reason.”
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Sunday-
"...even as from the waking state experience, there is no materiality in the objects seen in a dream (though while dreaming the objects appear to be solid) this world appears to be material yet, in reality, it is pure consciousness.”
- Yoga Vasistha 3.15