Do not underestimate your ability.
-Geshe Chekawa, in Advice From a Spiritual Friend
Plunge boldly into the Beyond, then be free wherever you are. –Shoitsu
Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free; Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate. -Chuang Tsu
“When you realise it's a dream you can afford to play. The same thing happens when you realise that ordinary life is a dream, just a movie, just a play. You don't become more cautious, more timid, more reserved. You start jumping up and down and doing flips, precisely because it's all a dream, it's all pure Emptiness. You don't feel less, you feel more - because you can afford to. You are no longer afraid of dying, and therefore you are not afraid of living. You become radical and wild, intense and vivid, shocking and silly. You let it all come pouring through, because it's all your dream. Life then assumes its true intensity, its vivid luminosity, its radical effervescence." — Ken Wilber
“People cannot change who you are and what you were born to be. They can create obstacles in your path. They can do things that make you believe you are other than what you are, but people cannot change, alter, or in any way hinder the truth of your being. The truth is you are Divine.”
“The only requirement for you to become a living example of faith is to work on yourself. Work on expanding your knowledge of and ability to embrace truth. Work on your acknowledgement and acceptance of your true identity as a child of the Divine. Work on eliminating every thought, idea, belief, and judgment that supports the belief that you are separate from God and unworthy of God’s good.”
“Think yourself to be free, the eternal unlimited consciousness Bliss and you will be free and happy. Constantly think of yourself as the eternally free Self. Realize! You are ever free. Do not be discouraged that you do not have the ability. As you feel, so you become. Feel you are DIVINE. Feel nothing is impossible for you, that you are Good & Godly. Wake UP my children! Wake up to the Dawn of knowledge, to your divine duties, to your divine rights, to you divine reality. You are not lumps of flesh, you are embodiments of the eternal. Your hearts are shrines of the Divine. The whole of nature is your playground. Regard yourselves as masters of the universe and not it’s bond-slaves.”
“This is the essence of what I learned from Dr. Jung: listen to your interior intelligence, take it seriously, stay true to it and most important—approach it with a spiritual attitude.”
“The possibility of slender threads (God’s will) operating at all times is so staggering that most of us can’t bear it. It’s our ability to accept this that varies. If we did, it would mean our seeing meaning & purpose everywhere in all things—this is the perspective of a saint but for most of us it is unbearable.”
“Life is not meaningless; it is overflowing with meaning, pattern, and connections.”
“To survive the daily trials of life, each of us must find at least an occasional thread of the Divine, some ray of meaning to moisten the soul (for me it is music). If life is not touched by at least some experience of the Divine world, then our existence grows so small & gnarled that it is unendurable. It’s a dry desolate existence where there is nothing but the small empire of ego.”
“Enlightenment is simply being — the act of being a human with the consciousness that you are following the will of God.”
“Being in love puts us in contact with heaven. Loving and seeing the beauty in the simple things can do so too.”
“Self transformation is a spiritual affair of cosmic significance, for we are all inseparably connected—whatever happens to one strand of the web affects the whole.”
“Stay where you are. Be who you are. You become a Buddha by actualizing your innate nature which is primordially pure. This nature doesn’t achieve enlightenment since it’s already perfect. We only have to awaken to it. There’s nothing more to seek.”
“The sacred & mundane are inseparable. Your life is your path, everyday life. What matters is how you attend to the present moment, how you apply your heart and soul.”
“The problem is we are elsewhere while what we want is right here.”
“Become miracle literate. See the world as miraculous. This is a paradigm shift and affects all around you.”
“We are like flies crawling across the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel—we cannot see what angels and Gods lie underneath the threshold of our perceptions.”
“Within the realms of our minds we contain different personas, skills that we never thought to have, audacious inventions & even the beloved of the soul. We are such stuff as consciousness is made of & our little world is larger than we think.”
If we can reach the understanding of what we actually are, there is no better remedy for eliminating all suffering. This is the heart of all spiritual practices. -Kalu Rinpoche, "Luminous Mind"
Don't strain. Don't force anything or make grand, exaggerated efforts. Meditation is not aggressive. There is no place or need for violent striving. Just let your effort be relaxed and steady.
-Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, "Mindfulness in Plain English"
"If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you." St. Thomas from the "Gospel of Thomas"
There is really nothing you must be and there is nothing you must do. There is really nothing you must have and there is nothing you must know. There is really nothing you must become. However, it helps to understand that fire burns, and when it rains, the earth gets wet. --Zen saying
You should know that so far as Buddha-nature is concerned, there is no difference between an enlightened man and an ignorant one. What makes the difference is that one realizes it, while the other is ignorant of it.-The Sutra of Hui Neng
Your search among books, word upon word, may lead you to the depths of knowledge, but it is not the way to receive the reflection of your true self. When you have thrown off your ideas as to mind and body, the original truth will fully appear. Zen is simply the expression of truth; therefore longing and striving are not the true attitudes of Zen. — Dogen, "The Practice of Meditation"
..The purpose of the Holy Life does not consist in acquiring alms, honor, or fame, nor in gaining morality, concentration, or the eye of knowledge. That unshakable deliverance of the heart: that, indeed, is the object of Holy Life, that is its essence, that is its goal.
-Samyutta Nikaya, translated by Nyanatiloka
“Seeing ourselves plainly, we can change, and as we do so, it brings a feeling of great relief, as if we had dropped a heavy load.”
-Ayya Khema, "Who is My Self?"
“Instead of acting and reacting impulsively and following your thoughts and feelings here and there, watch your mind carefully, be aware, and try to deal skillfully with problems as they arise. If you can do this each day, your meditation will have been successful.”
-Kathleen McDonald, "How to Meditate"
“I like to walk alone on country paths, rice plants and wild grasses on both sides, putting each foot down on the earth in mindfulness, knowing that I walk on the wondrous earth. In such moments, existence is a miraculous and mysterious reality. People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child--our own two eyes. All is a miracle.”
-Thich Nhat Hanh, "Miracle of Mindfulness"
A man was rowing his boat upstream on a very misty morning. Suddenly, he saw another boat coming downstream, not trying to avoid him. It was coming straight at him. He shouted, "Be careful! Be careful!" but the boat came right into him, and his boat was almost sunk. The man became very angry, and began to shout at the other person, to give him a piece of his mind. But when he looked closely, he saw that there was no one in the other boat. It turned out that the boat just got loose and went downstream. All his anger vanished, and he laughed and he laughed.
-Thich Nhat Nanh, "Being Peace"
“To travel with the unawakened makes the journey long and hard and is as painful as traveling with an enemy. But the company of the wise is as pleasant as meeting with friends. Follow the wise, the intelligent, and the awakened. Follow them as the moon follows the path of the stars. Everywhere, truly, those of integrity stand apart. They, the good, don't chatter in hopes of favor or gains. When touched now by pleasure, now pain, the wise give no sign of high or low.” — Dhammapada, 6, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
"Sukha" is a way of being that underlies & suffuses all experiences and embraces all joys and sorrows; it is a happiness so deep that nothing can change it like the vast calm waters beneath a stormy surface sea. A state of lasting well-being with the wisdom to see the world as it truly is without any viels or personal distortions. It contains the joy of inner freedom and loving kindness that radiates towards others. -- Matthieu Ricard
(re: Swami Satchidananda) “A well loved teacher, known for his combination of practical wisdom and spiritual insight, he was also clever to infuse his teachings with puns and humor. Here are a few examples: He and His art make the heart (he+art=heart). He and His ad make the head (he+ad=head). "The head, says Gurudev, is only an advertisement: it is the ego looking for recognition." If we want to get well then let's start by looking at illness, and we will find that if we take the "I" out of illness, and replace it with a "we", we will get wellness. So, if we can stop being so self-obsessed and instead do our best to make others happy and well, we will also benefit. Peace will come to the earth when each one of us begins to live peacefully.” --Sharon Gannon
"Gods live not in the crevices of mortar and stone, nor in the jeweled eyes of a ram but in the hands of men and hearts of women and in the land of wonder. Dip your cup in the river and you drink in gods. Breathe the air and gods fly up your nose. The god in the wind puffs the sail and speeds the traveler home. Nodding and crowing, the crows are gods clinging to sycamore branches. Daily gods rise in blades of wheat. Daily they walk cities by the river. Covered with blood and mucus of women, gods enter the world and we call them children.... ~ Awakening of Osiris - The Egyptian Book of the Dead. Transl. by Normandi Ellis
...What god wants, god shall have, and so say I, make it easy on yourself. If we struggle against the divine will, a lesser power comes to pass. If I give myself to it, it passes through me and I nourish it as it nourishes me. The difference is in the knowing of it. If there is confusion, I have not allowed life and the will of god to change me. If I know it, then I am changed. I have ferried myself across the churning waters of emotion, I go with the current, I rock to and fro in the tide, I come to a place I never knew I was bound for. There is a reason for accidents." ~ Awakening of Osiris - The Egyptian Book of the Dead. Transl. by Normandi Ellis
