Tradition Religious and otherwise?

Religious Traditions-They each have the common familiar thread expressed in the first quotation: they hold G-d and man in one thought, a religious man suffers harm done to the community vicariously,his strength is love and compassion, and such a man or woman defies despair.

" A religious man is a person who holds God and man in one thought at
one time, at all times, who suffers
harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest
strength is love and defiance of despair. "
- Abraham Joshua Heschel
One day Ananda, who had been thinking deeply about things for a while,
turned to the Buddha and exclaimed:"Lord, I've been thinking- spiritual
friendship is at least half of the spiritual life!"The Buddha replied: "Say not
so, Ananda, say not so. Spiritual friendship is the whole of the spiritual
life!"
Samyutta Nikaya, Verse 2
In what is seen, there should be just the
seen;In what is heard, there should be just the heard;In what is sensed, there
should be just the sensed;In what is thought, there should be just the
thought.
He should not kill a living being, nor cause it to be killed, nor
should he incite another to kill.Do not injure any being, either strong or weak
in the world.
Sutta Nipata II,14
The greatest achievement is
selflessness.The greatest worth is self-mastery.The greatest quality is seeking
to serve others.The greatest precept is continual awareness.The greatest
medicine is the emptiness of everything.The greatest action is not conforming
with the worlds ways.The greatest magic is transmuting the passions.The greatest
generosity is non-attachment.The greatest goodness is a peaceful mind.The
greatest patience is humility.The greatest effort is not concerned with
results.The greatest meditation is a mind that lets go.The greatest wisdom is
seeing through appearances.
Atisha
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like
unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.On these two commandments hang
all the law and the prophets. "
- Matthew 22:35
Where I wander
- You!Where I ponder - You!Only You everywhere, You, always, You.You, You,
You.When I am gladdened - You!And when I am saddened - You!Only You, everywhere
You!You, You, You.Sky is You!Earth is You!You above! You below!In every trend,
at every end,Only You, everywhere You!

Levi Yitzchak of
BerditchovTranslated by: Harry Rabinowicz
http://http://www.poetseers.org/spiritual_and_devotional_poets/india

"Death's
grip can break our bodies, not our souls; If death take him, I too know how to
die. Let Fate do with me what she will or can; I am stronger than death and
greater than my fate; My love shall outlast the world, doom falls from me
Helpless against my immortality."
- From SavitriBook VI: The Book of
Fate Canto I Sri Aurobindo

Krishna

At last I find a meaning of soul's
birth Into this universe terrible
and sweet,I who have felt the hungry heart of
earth Aspiring beyond heaven to
Krishna's feet.I have seen the beauty of immortal
eyes, And heard the passion of
the Lover's flute,And known a deathless ecstasy's
surprise And sorrow in my heart
for ever mute.Nearer and nearer now the music
draws, Life shudders with a
strange felicity;All Nature is a wide enamoured
pause Hoping her lord to touch,
to clasp, to be. For this one moment lived the ages past;The world now throbs
fulfilled in me at last. SRI AUROBINDO


Evening Prayer for the Sabbath

In this moment of silent
communion with Thee,
O Lord, a still small silent voice speaks in the depth of
my spirit.
It speaks to me of the things I must do to attain holy kinship with
Thee and to grow in the likeness of Thee.
I must do my allotted task with
unflagging faithfulness even though the eye of no taskmaster is on me.
I must
be gentle in the face of ingratitude or when slander distorts my noblest
motives.
I must come to the end of each day with a feeling that I have used
its gifts gratefully and faced its trials bravely.
O Lord, help me to be ever
more like Thee,holy for Thou art holy,
Loving for Thou art love.
Speak to
me, then, Lord, as I seek Thee again and again in the stillness of meditation,
until Thy bidding shall at last become for me a hallowed discipline,a familiar
way of life.

- Jewish Prayer
Jewish
Mystic Poets