ENLIGHTEN YOUR DAYS

with quotes from Realized Masters

If you have your sights set on attaining the highest goal humanly possible – Enlightenment – then daily, meditate, contemplate on the words of those who have been there and have returned with the knowledge that can set you free.

Previous Quotes 11/16/2018 – 11/15/2016

11/16/2018

“When we recognize that nothing has to go right for us to be happy, that people do not have to behave for us to love them, our walk home can be surprisingly simple. We have enormous power not to manipulate the world, but to be happy and to know peace.” – Hugh Prather

11/15/2018

“There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you — of kindness and consideration and respect — not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable. The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn’t know you had.” – John Steinbeck

11/14/2018

“I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather….In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or is dehumanized.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

11/13/2018

“The true profession of a man is to find his way to himself.” – Hermann Hesse

11/12/2018

“If you shut up the truth and bury it under the ground, it will but grow, and gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts through it will blow up everything in its way.” – Emile Zola

11/11/2018

“Christ was crucified because he would have nothing to do with the crowd (even though he addressed himself to all). He did not want to form a party, an interest group, a mass movement, but wanted to be what he was, the truth, which is related to the single individual. Therefore everyone who will genuinely serve the truth is by that very fact a martyr. To win a crowd is no art; for that only untruth is needed, nonsense, and a little knowledge of human passions. But no witness to the truth dares to get involved with the crowd.” – Soren Kierkegaard

11/10/2018

“A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others. When he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love, and, in order to divert himself, having no love in him, he yields to his impulses, indulges in the lowest forms of pleasure, and behaves in the end like an animal. And it all comes from lying – lying to others and to yourself.” – Fyodor Dostoevsky

“My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one’s country, not to its institutions or its officeholders.” – Mark Twain

11/08/2018

“The story of Little Blue Riding Hood is true. Only the color has been changed to prevent an investigation.” – Stan Freberg (Is this what happened today? The President changed the color in the Attorney General’s office to quash an investigation?)

“You must pursue this investigation of Watergate even if it leads to the president. I’m innocent. You’ve got to believe I’m innocent. If you don’t, take my job.” – Richard M. Nixon (Uh, guess what, folks?)

11/07/2018

“The bonds between ourselves and another person exists only in our minds. Memory as it grows fainter loosens them, and notwithstanding the illusion by which we want to be duped and which, out of love, friendship, politeness, deference, duty, we dupe other people, we exist alone. Man is the creature who cannot escape from himself, who knows other people only in himself, and when he asserts the contrary, he is lying.” – Marcel Proust

11/06/2018

“We are a nation of many nationalities, many races, many religions-bound together by a single unity, the unity of freedom and equality. Whoever seeks to set one nationality against another, seeks to degrade all nationalities” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending the best…they’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems. They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists and some, I assume, are good people, but I speak to border guards and they’re telling us what we’re getting.” – Donald Trump

“Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

“[Immigrants ] are going back where they came. If they came from a certain country, they are going to be brought back to their country. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.” – Donald Trump

“The value of love will always be stronger than the value of hate. Any nation or group of nations which employs hatred eventually is torn to pieces by hatred.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

“They are evil people, the press, the media, they are bad people, and nobody, nobody lies like they do.” – Donald Trump

(We have certainly come a long way from the days of FDR and the Allies’ victory over the hatred and cruelty of Hitler’s Nazis. When you vote today, remember what our nation stood for then and what it should stand for now.)

11/05/2018

“The best political weapon is the weapon of terror. Cruelty commands respect. Men may hate us. But, we don’t ask for their love; only for their fear.” – Heinrich Himmler, Head of the Nazi SS

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

(Take fear out of the equation. On November 6th, have the courage to vote your conscience, not your fears.)

11/04/2018

“You can fool most of the people most of the time.” – P. T. Barnum

“What luck, for governments, that the people are stupid!” – Adolf Hitler

(Voting is a privilege and a right. Make your voice heard on November 6th at your polling station! Vote your conscience, not your biases.)

“Once we open up to the flow of energy within our body, we can also open up to the flow of energy in the universe.” – Wilhelm Reich

11/02/2018

“How many undervalue the power of simplicity ! But it is the real key to the heart.” – William Wordsworth

11/01/2018

“If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.”- William Blake

10/31/2018

“Shallow ecology is anthropocentric, or human-centred. It views humans as above or outside nature, as the source of all value, and ascribes only instrumental, or ‘use’, value to nature. Deep ecology does not separate humans – or anything else – from the natural environment. It does see the world not as a collection of isolated objects but as a network of phenomena that are fundamentally interconnected and interdependent. Deep ecology recognizes the intrinsic value of all human beings and views humans as just one particular strand in the web of life.” – Fritjof Capra

10/30/2018

“Seek the Path, do not seek attainment, Seek for the Path within yourself. Do not expect to hear the truth from others, nor to see it, or read it in books. Look for the truth in yourself, not without yourself.” – P.D. Ouspensky

10/29/2018

“The crowd neither wants nor seeks knowledge, and the leaders of the crowd, in their own interests, try to strengthen its fear and dislike of everything new and unknown. The slavery in which mankind lives is based upon this fear.” – G. I. Gurdjieff

10/28/2018

“The little space within the heart is as great as the vast universe. The heavens and the earth are there, and the sun and the moon and the stars. Fire and lightening and winds are there, and all that now is and all that is not.” – Swami Prabhavananda

10/27/2018

“We are all linked by a fabric of unseen connections. This fabric is constantly changing and evolving. This field is directly structured and influenced by our behavior and by our understanding.” – David Bohm, Physicist

10/26/2018

“There is a close relationship between a house full of possessions and a heart full of desires, between a cluttered closet and a crowded schedule, between having no place to put possessions and having no priorities for our life. These are precious clues. They remind us to slow down, to live in the present, to reduce the desires that drain our vitality, to clarify priorities so we can give our time and attention to what matters most. Tragically, in the press of modern life, we have managed to get backwards one of life’s most vital truths: people are to be loved; things are to be used.” – Eknath Easwaran

10/25/2018

“Free yourself from all believes, all norms. See that you live completely with beliefs. Free yourself from second hand information. See in you clearly what is beautiful. All that is beautiful in you is right. Look at the situation with an open mind, free from hearsay. The solution is in the situation. So, see the situation clearly with an open mind. Then the choiceless decision comes.” – Jean Klein

10/24/2018

“If you see the illusion you are enlightened, but if you think that you are enlightened you are in the illusion!” – H. W. L. Poonja

10/23/2018

“Correcting oneself is correcting the whole world. The Sun is simply bright. It does not correct anyone. Because it shines, the whole world is full of light. Transforming yourself is a means of giving light to the whole world.” – Ramana Maharshi

10/19/2018

“There are few wild beasts more to be dreaded than a talking man having nothing to say.” – Jonathan Swift

10/18/2018

“Asking yourself deeper questions opens up new ways of being in the world. It brings in a breath of fresh air. It makes life more joyful. The real trick to life is not to be in the know, but to be in the mystery.” – Fred Alan Wolf

10/17/2018

“Consciousness does matter. Matter is secondary. Consciousness is primary. Brain does not do consciousness, consciousness does the brain.” – Amit Goswami

10/16/2018

The assumption that the laws of nature are eternal is a vestige of the Christian belief system that informed the early postulates of modern science in the seventeenth century. Perhaps the laws of nature have actually evolved along with nature itself, and perhaps they are still evolving. Or perhaps they are not laws at all, but more like habits.” – Rupert Sheldrake

10/15/2018

“Love one another and help others to rise to the higher levels, simply by pouring out love. Love is infectious and the greatest healing energy.” – Sai Baba

10/14/2018

“Love is the voice under all silences, the hope which has no opposite in fear; the strength so strong mere force is feebleness: the truth more first than sun, more last than star.” – e. e. cummings

10/13/2018

“That which you give to another will become your own sustenance; if you light a lamp for another, your own way will be lit.” – Nichiren

10/12/2018

“There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you — of kindness and consideration and respect — not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable. The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn’t know you had.” – John Steinbeck

10/11/2018

“There is so much to love and to admire in this life that it is an act of ingratitude not to be happy and content in this existence.” – Lin Yutang

10/10/2018

“What is essential to practice the Tao is to get rid of cravings and vexations. If these afflictions are not removed, it is impossible to attain stability. This is like the case of the fertile field, which cannot produce good crops as long as the weeds are not cleared away. Cravings and ruminations are the weeds of the mind; if you do not clear them away, concentration and wisdom do not develop.” – Zhang Sanfeng

10/09/2018

“In one of the Upanishads it says, when the glow of a sunset holds you and you say ‘Aha,’ that is the recognition of the divinity. And when you say ‘Aha’ to an art object, that is a recognition of divinity. And what divinity is it? It is your divinity, which is the only divinity there is. We are all phenomenal manifestations of a divine will to live, and that will and the consciousness of life is one in all of us, and that is what artwork expresses.” – Joseph Campbell

10/08/2018

“There is no kind of framework within which we can find consciousness in the plural; this is simply something we construct because of the temporal plurality of individuals, but it is a false construction… The only solution to this conflict insofar as any is available to us at all lies in the ancient wisdom of the Upanishad.” – Erwin Schrodinger

10/07/2018

“I go into the Upanishads to ask questions.” – Niels Bohr

10/06/2018

“When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.” – Tecumseh

10/05/2018

“We’re living in an acquisitive capitalist society that is fundamentally anti-family and fundamentally uncomfortable with just enjoying being human. We’d rather shop than live, acquire than love and stare into a screen than hold each other.” – Frank Schaeffer

10/04/2018

“I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.” – Max Planck

10/03/2018

“The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking.” – Martin Heidegger

10/02/2018

“Religion is based … mainly upon fear … fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand. My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race.” – Bertrand Russell

10/01/2018

“The real question of life after death isn’t whether or not it exists, but even if it does what problem this really solves.” – Ludwig Wittgenstein

09/30/2018

“Realise this: one day your soul
will depart from your body and you will
be drawn behind the curtain that floats between us
and the unknown. While you wait for that moment, be happy,
because you don’t know where you came from and
you don’t know where you will be going.”
– Omar Khayyam

09/29/2018

“Let go of what has passed. Let go of what may come. Let go of what is happening now. Don’t try to figure anything out. Don’t try to make anything happen. Relax, right now, and rest.” – Tilopa

09/28/2018

“When you run after your thoughts, you are like a dog chasing a stick: every time a stick is thrown, you run after it. Instead, be like a lion who, rather than chasing after the stick, turns to face the thrower. One only throws a stick at a lion once.” – Milarepa

09/27/2018

“My dear, In the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love. In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile. In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, an invincible calm. I realized, through it all, that… In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.
Truly yours, Albert Camus“

09/26/2918

“Beware of confining yourself to a particular belief and denying all else, for much good would elude you – indeed, the knowledge of reality would elude you. Be in yourself a matter for all forms of belief, for God is too vast and tremendous to be restricted to one belief rather than another.” – Ibn Arabi

09/25/2018

“To act without clear understanding, to form habits without investigation, to follow a path all one’s life without knowing where it really leads; such is the behavior of the multitude.” – Mencius

09/24/2018

“Tightly held by rocks Through winter, the ice today Begins to come undone: A way-seeker also is the water, Melting, murmuring from the moss.” – Saigyo

09/23/2018

There is no insurmountable solitude. All paths lead to the same goal: to convey to others what we are. And we must pass through solitude and difficulty, isolation and silence in order to reach forth to the enchanted place where we can dance our clumsy dance and sing our sorrowful song – but in this dance or in this song there are fulfilled the most ancient rites of our conscience in the awareness of being human and of believing in a common destiny.” – Pablo Neruda

09/22/2018

“Life and death are nothing but the mind. Years, months, days, and hours are nothing but the mind. Dreams, illusions, and mirages are nothing but the mind. The bubbles of water and the flames of fire are nothing but the mind. The flowers of the spring and the moon of the autumn are nothing but the mind. Confusions and dangers are nothing but the mind.” – Dogen

09/21/2018

“Happiness belongs to those who are sufficient unto themselves. For all external sources of happiness and pleasure are, by their very nature, highly uncertain, precarious, ephemeral and subject to chance.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

09/20/2018

“Make the universe your companion, always bearing in mind the true nature of things-mountains and rivers, trees and grasses, and humanity-and enjoy the falling blossoms and the scattering leaves.” – Matsuo Basho

09/19/2018

“When the heart speaks and the heart listens, harmony is produced. When the head talks and the head listens, argument is produced.” – Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

09/18/2018

“Everything is ecstasy inside. We just don’t know it because of our thinking-minds. But in our true blissful essence of mind [it] is known that everything is alright forever and forever and forever.” – Jack Kerouac

09/17/2018

“If you really want to be free, first and foremost, you should understand where your bondage is – what you are identified with. The moment you are identified, you are in confrontation with existence.” – Jaggi Vasudev, Sadhguru

09/16/2018

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou

09/15/2018

“Something has spoken to me in the night…and told me that I shall die, I know not where. Saying: “[Death is] to lose the earth you know for greater knowing; to lose the life you have, for greater life; to leave the friends you loved, for greater loving; to find a land more kind than home, more large than earth.” – Thomas Wolfe

09/14/2018

“In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost.” – Dante Alighieri

09/13/2018

“We must learn to endure what we cannot avoid. Our life is composed, like the harmony of the world, of contrary things, also of different tones, sweet and harsh, sharp and flat, soft and loud. If a musician liked only one kind, what would he have to say?” – Michel de Montaigne

09/12/2018

“It is never late to ask yourself “Am I ready to change my life, am I ready to change myself?”. However old we are, whatever we went through, it is always possible to reborn. If each day is a copy of the last one, what a pity! Every breath is a chance to reborn. But to reborn into a new life, you have to die before dying.” – Shams Tabrizi

09/11/2018

“Those that go searching for love only make manifest their own lovelessness, and the loveless never find love, only the loving find love, and they never have to seek for it.” – D. H. Lawrence

09/10.2018

“You only are free when you realize you belong no place — you belong every place,” – Maya Angelou

09/09/2018

Your Remedy is within you, but you do not sense it.
Your Sickness is from you, but you do not perceive it.
You Presume you are a small entity,
But within you is enfolded the entire universe.
You are indeed the evident book,
By whose alphabet the hidden becomes the manifest.
Therefore, you have no need to look beyond yourself,
What you seek is within you, if only you reflect.
– Ali ibn Abi Talib

09/08/2018

“Sometimes I feel I am everything, I call that Love.
Sometimes I feel I am nothing, I call that Wisdom.
Between Love and Wisdom
my life continuously flows.
– Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

09/07/2019

“Give fools their gold, and knaves their power; let fortune’s bubbles rise and fall; who sows a field, or trains a flower, or plants a tree, is more than all.’ – John Greenleaf Whittier

09/06/2018

“The day we stop resisting our instincts, we’ll have learned how to live.” – Federico Garcia Lorca

09/05/2018

“Sometimes I find myself thinking, rather wistfully, about Lao Tzu’s famous dictum: ‘Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish.’ All around me I see something very different, let us say – a number of angry dwarfs trying to grill a whale.” – William Carlos Williams

09/04/2018

“Understand your darkness and it will vanish; then you will know what light is. Understand your nightmare for what it is and it will stop; then you will wake up to reality. Understand your false beliefs and they will drop; then you will know the taste of happiness.” – Anthony de Mello

09/03/2018

“We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.” – e. e. cummings

09/02/2018

“Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” – T. S. Eliot

09/01/2018

“With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things.” – William Wordsworth

08/31/2018

“What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.” – Henry David Thoreau

08/30/2018

“Any single man must judge for himself whether circumstances warrant obedience or resistance to the commands of the civil magistrate; we are all qualified, entitled, and morally obliged to evaluate the conduct of our rulers. This political judgment, moreover, is not simply or primarily a right, but like self-preservation, a duty to God. As such it is a judgment that men cannot part with according to the God of Nature. It is the first and foremost of our inalienable rights without which we can preserve no other.” – John Locke

08/29/2018
“Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and happy to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

08/28/2018

“We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

08/27/2018

“We kill at every step, not only in wars, riots and executions. We kill when we close our eyes to poverty, suffering and shame.In the same way all disrespect for life, all hard-heartedness,all indifference, all contempt is nothing else than killing.” – Hermann Hesse

08/25-26/2018

“This is what you should do: love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men … re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss what insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem.” – Walt Whitman

08/24/2018

“If each day falls
inside each night,
there exists a well
where clarity is imprisoned.

We need to sit on the rim
of the well of darkness
and fish for fallen light
with patience.”
– Pablo Neruda

08/23/2018

“Forgive me my nonsense, as I also forgive the nonsense of those that think they talk sense.” – Robert Frost

08/22/2018

“Be still, sad heart! and cease repining; Behind the clouds is the sun still shining; Thy fate is the common fate of all, Into each life some rain must fall.”- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

08/21/2018

“Simplify your life. Don’t waste the years struggling for things that are unimportant. Don’t burden yourself with possessions. Keep your needs and wants simple and enjoy what you have. Don’t destroy your peace of mind by looking back, worrying about the past. Live in the present. Simplify!’ – Henry David Thoreau

08/20/2018

“The man who sat on the ground in his tipi meditating on life and its meaning, accepting the kinship of all creatures and acknowledging unity with the universe of things, was infusing into his being the true essence of civilization.” – Luther Standing Bear

08/19/2018

“The first peace, which is the most important,
is that which comes within the souls of people
when they realize their relationship,
their oneness with the universe and all its powers,
and when they realize that at the center of the universe
dwells the Great Spirit,
and that this center is really everywhere,
it is within each of us.”

– Black Elk (on the 68th anniversary of his passing)

08/18/2018

“Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, and own brother Jove? Surely all this is not without meaning. And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned. But that same image, we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans. It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the key to it all.” – Herman Melville

08/17/2018

“Man has no greater enemy than himself. I have acted contrary to my sentiments and inclination; throughout our whole lives we do what we never intended, and what we proposed to do, we leave undone.” –Petrarch

08/16/2018

“What do sad people have in common? It seems they have all built a shrine to the past and often go there and do a strange wail and worship. What is the beginning of Happiness? It is to stop being so religious like that.” – Hafez

08/15/2018

“When we contemplate the duration of the universe, we see it limited to the present moment, which is nothing more but the point which separates two infinities of time. The past and the future are as meaningless as if they did not exist. Is anyone more misguided than the man who barters an eternal future for a moment which passes quicker than the blink of an eye?”- Ibn Hazm

08/14/2018

“On him does death lie heavily, who, but too well known to all, dies to himself unknown.” – Seneca the Younger

08/13/2018

“Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the country, sea-shores, and mountains; and thou too art wont to desire such things very much. But this is altogether a mark of the most common sort of men, for it is in thy power whenever thou shalt choose to retire into thyself. For nowhere either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man retire than into his own soul.” – Marcus Aurelius

08/10-12/2018

***An All-Star Quote – One of My Top Favorites***

“It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

What is one of your favorites???  Comment, please!!!

08/09/2018

“Every time I hear a political speech or I read those of our leaders, I am horrified at having, for years, heard nothing which sounded human. It is always the same words telling the same lies. And the fact that men accept this, that the people’s anger has not destroyed these hollow clowns, strikes me as proof that men attribute no importance to the way they are governed; that they gamble – yes, gamble – with a whole part of their life and their so called ‘vital interests.” – Albert Camus

08/08/2018

“We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.” – Joseph Campbell

08/07/2018

“And men go about to wonder at the heights of the mountains, and the mighty waves of the sea, and the wide sweep of rivers, and the circuit of the ocean, and the revolution of the stars, but themselves they consider not.” – Petrarch

08/06/2018

“As for me, I know nothing else but miracles,
Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,
Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water,
Or stand under the trees in the woods,
Or talk by day with any one I love,
Or sleep in bed at night with any one I love,
Or watch honey bees busy around the hive of a summer forenoon…
Or the wonderfulness of the sundown,
Or of stars shining so quiet and bright,
Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring…
What stranger miracles are there?”
– Walt Whitman

08/05/2018

“The bitter pinecone may be eaten, The mist on high give nourishment. The whole world takes to go-and-getting; My way alone is difficult.” – Du Fu

08/04/2018

“As long as you cling to your self, you will wander right and left, day and night, for thousands of years; and when, after all that effort, you finally open your eyes, you will see your self, through inherent defects, wandering round itself like the ox in a mill; but, if, once freed of your self, you finally get down to work, this door will open to you within two minutes.” – Sanai

08/03/2018

“Touch the earth, love the earth, honour the earth, her plains, her valleys, her hills, and her seas; rest your spirit in her solitary places.” – Henry Beston

08/02/2018

“Stupid — well, there are so many kinds of stupidity, and cleverness is one of the worst.”- Thomas Mann

08/01/2018

“Whoever wants music instead of noise, joy instead of pleasure, soul instead of gold, creative work instead of business, passion instead of foolery, finds no home in this trivial world of ours.” – Hermann Hesse

07/31/2018

“Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well- warmed, and well-fed.” – Herman Melville

07/30/2018

“The autumn hill gathers the remaining light, A flying bird chases after its companion. The green color is bright And brings me into the moment, like a sunset mist that has no fixed place.” – Wang Wei

07/29/2018

“Bad religion is arrogant, self-righteous, dogmatic and intolerant. And so is bad science. But unlike religious fundamentalists, scientific fundamentalists do not realize that their opinions are based on faith. They think they know the truth.” – Rupert Sheldrake

07/28/2018

“You ask me why I dwell in the green mountain; I smile and make no reply for my heart is free of care. As the peach-blossom flows down stream and is gone into the unknown, I have a world apart that is not among men.” – Li Bai

07/27/2018

“A strip of water’s spread in the setting sun, Half the river’s emerald, half is red. I love the third night of the ninth month, The dew is like a pearl; the moon like a bow.” – Bai Juyi

07/26/2018

“Nietzsche was the one who did the job for me. At a certain moment in his life, the idea came to him of what he called “the love of your fate.” Whatever your fate is, whatever the hell happens, you say, “This is what I need.” It may look like a wreck, but go at it as though it were an opportunity, a challenge. If you bring love to that moment-not discouragement-you will find the strength is there. Any disaster you can survive is an improvement in your character, your stature, and your life. What a privilege! This is when the spontaneity of your own nature will have a chance to flow.” – Joseph Campbell

07/25/2018

“Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darkness’s of other people. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely. Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” – Carl Jung

07/24/18

“Its sad that governments are chiefed by the double tongues.” – Ten Bears

07/23/2018

” One thing to remember is to talk to the animals. If you do, they will talk back to you. But if you don’t talk to the animals, they won’t talk back to you, then you won’t understand, and when you don’t understand you will fear, and when you fear you will destroy the animals, and if you destroy the animals, you will destroy yourself.” – Chief Dan George (Happy Birthday, Chief)

07/22/2018

“We patronize the animals for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they are more finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other Nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the Earth.” – Henry Beston

07/21/2018

“I have observed that almost all those whose labour lies in the field, and who go down to their business in the green meadows, admit the animal world to a share in the faculty of reason. It is the cabinet makers who construct a universe of automatons.” – Richard Jefferies

07/20/2018

“Walking on willow tree roads by a river dappled with peach blossoms, I look for spring light, but am everywhere lost. Birds fly up and scatter floating catkins. A ponderous wave of flowers sags the branches.” – Wang Wei

07/19/2018

“As for me, I delight in the every day Way Among mist-wrapped vines and rocky caves Here in the wilderness I am completely free With my friends, the white clouds, idling forever There are roads, but they do not reach the world Since I am mindless, who can rouse my thoughts On a bed of stone I sit, alone in the night While a round moon climbs up Cold Mountain.” – Hanshan

07/18/2018
“Love is the crowning grace of humanity, the holiest right of the soul, the golden link which binds us to duty and truth, the redeeming principle that chiefly reconciles the heart to life, and is prophetic of eternal good.” – Petrarch

07/17/18

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” – Leonardo da Vinci

07/16/2018

“When the path ignites a soul, there’s no remaining in place. The foot touches ground, but not for long.” – Sanai

07/15/2018

“Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.” – Lin Yutang

07/14/2018

“My mother was taught the ch’an concept of happiness, which was to find satisfaction in small things. i was taught to appreciate the fresh air in the morning, the colour of leaves turning red in autumn and the water’s smoothness when i soaked my hands in the basin.” – Anchee Min

07/13/2018

The peace that we are looking for is not peace that crumbles as soon as there is difficulty or chaos. Whether we’re seeking inner peace or global peace or a combination of the two, the way to experience it is to build on the foundation of unconditional openness to all that arises. Peace isn’t an experience free of challenges, free of rough and smooth, it’s an experience that’s expansive enough to include all that arises without feeling threatened.” – Pema Chodron (Happy Birthday!)

07/12/2018

“In everything that moves through the universe, I see my own body, and in everything that governs the universe, my own soul. All men are my brethren, and all things my companions.” – Zhang Zai

07/11/2018

“To lament that we shall not be alive a hundred years hence, is the same folly as to be sorry we were not alive a hundred years ago.” – Montaigne

07/10/2018

“If you really want to find out something about immortality, you have to live in the mountain forests for 30 years. If you succeed in perfecting your eyes and ears there, if you harmonize the heart and the will so that your mind becomes clear and pure and free of all that is evil, you will be able to discuss the matter.” – Wang Yangming

07/09/2018

“Charity is in the heart of man, and righteousness in the path of men. Pity the man who has lost his path and does not follow it and who has lost his heart and does not know how to recover it. When people’s dogs and chicks are lost they go out and look for them and yet the people who have lost their hearts do not go out and look for them. The principle of self-cultivation consists in nothing but trying to look for the lost heart.” – Mencius

07/08/2018

“A falcon hovers at the edge of the sky.Two gulls drift slowly up the river.Vulnerable while they ride the wind,they coast and glide with ease.Dew is heavy on the grass below,the spider’s web is ready.Heaven’s ways include the human:among a thousand sorrows, I stand alone.” – Du Fu

07/07/2018

“No benefit is more constant than simplicity; no happiness more constant than peace.” – Han Fei

07/06/2018

“Autumn clouds, vague and obscure; The evening, lonely and chill. I felt the dampness on my garments, But saw no spot, and heard no sound of rain.” – Bai Juyi

07/05/2018

“Do not seek fame. Do not make plans. Do not be absorbed by activities. Do not think that you know. Be aware of all that is and dwell in the infinite. Wander where there is no path. Be all that heaven gave you, but act as though you have received nothing. Be empty, that is all.” – Zhuangzi

07/04/2018

“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high, where knowledge is free. Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls. Where words come out from the depth of truth, where tireless striving stretches its arms toward perfection. Where the clear stream of reason has not lost it’s way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit. Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever widening thought and action. In to that heaven of freedom, my father, LET MY COUNTRY AWAKE!” – Rabindranath Tagore

04/13/2018

Nimen hao! Hello, All! I have been in Wudang, China for several weeks. I will be here a few more weeks. Will update the site when I return. Be well. Love and blessings, Paul.

03/16/2018

“An aimless life is always a troubled life. Every individual should have an aim. But do not forget that the quality of your aim will depend the quality of your life. Your aim should be high and wide, generous and disinterested; this will make your life precious to yourself and to others. Whatever your ideal, it cannot be perfectly realized unless you have realized perfection in yourself.” – Sri Aurobindo

03/15/18

“I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first. I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark” – Stephen Hawking (1/8/1942 – 3/14/2018 RIP)

03/14/18

“I have known good and evil, sin and virtue, right and wrong; I have judged and been judged; I have passed through birth and death, Joy and sorrow, heaven and hell; And in the end I realized that I AM in everything and everything is in me.” – Hazrat Inayat Khan

03/13/18

“I do not accept any absolute formulas for living. No preconceived code can see ahead to everything that can happen in a man’s life. As we live, we grow and our beliefs change. They must change. So I think we should live with this constant discovery. We should be open to this adventure in heightened awareness of living. We should stake our whole existence on our willingness to explore and experience.” – Martin Buber

03/12/18

“Do not clutter up your mind with hard and fast notions, for this would be running opposite to Tao. What is much and what is little? Be grateful (to Heaven) for what you have. Do not follow stubbornly one course of movement, for this would be to deviate from Tao. Be strict with yourself, impartial like the ruler of a country, and at ease, like the sacrifice at the God of Earth, where prayers are offered for the common good. Flow everywhere, in the vast and limitless expanse, abolishing all boundaries. Love all creation equally.” – Zhuangzi (4:13)

03/11/18

“No Buddhist, no Christian, no Hindu. Deeply religious people have no religion. They belong to no seat, theirs is the religion of the heart!” – Yogaswami

03/10/11

“We need to bring the spiritual dimension back into yoga and encourage students to look for teachings and practices that will take them to the next level.” – Rajmani Tigunait

03/09/18

“Do not allow yourself to suppress your thoughts. Instead, let the thoughts come before you and become a sort of observer. Start observing your own mind. Do not try to escape; do not be afraid of your thinking.” – Rama Swami

03/08/18

“The Sufis advise us to speak only after our words have managed to pass through three gates. At the first gate, we ask ourselves, ‘Are these words true?’ If so, we let them pass on; if not, back they go. At the second gate, we ask, ‘Are the necessary?’ At the last gate, we ask, ‘Are they kind?'” – Eknath Easwaran

03/07/18

“Ordinary love is selfish, darkly rooted in desires and satisfactions. Divine love is without condition, without boundary, without change. The flux of the human heart is gone forever at the transfixing touch of pure love.” – Sri Yukteswar Giri

“Ordinary love is selfish, da

03/06/18

“Do not seek fame. Do not make plans. Do not be absorbed by activities. Do not think that you know. Be aware of all that is and dwell in the infinite. Wander where there is no path. Be all that heaven gave you, but act as though you have received nothing. Be empty, that is all.” – Zhuangzi

03/05/18

“Before the Heaven and Earth existed,
there was something nebulous.
Still, serene, isolated.
Standing alone, unchanged.
Eteranlly revolving without fail.
It is the mother of all things.
I do not know its name.
I address it as Tao.”
– Laozi, Chapter 25

03/04/18

“The moon glows on the river, wind rustles the pines.
Long night clear evening–what are they for?” – Ueda Akinari

03/03/18

“I have learned so much from God that I can no longer call myself a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew. The Truth has shared so much of Itself with me that I can no longer call myself a man, a woman, an angel, or even a pure Soul. Love has befriended me so completely it has turned to ash and freed me of every concept and image my mind has ever known.” – Hafez

02/28/18

“Here in this body are the sacred rivers, here are the sun and moon, as well as the pilgrimage places. I have not encountered another temple as blissful as my own body.” – Saraha

02/27/18

“If I take death into my life, acknowledge it, and face it squarely, I will free myself from the anxiety of death and the pettiness of life – and only then will I be free to become myself.” – Martin Heidegger

02/24/18

“It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them. So throw away your baggage and go forward. There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet, trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That’s why you must walk so lightly. Lightly my darling…” – Aldous Huxley

08/23/18

“Tightly held by rocks Through winter, the ice today Begins to come undone: A way-seeker also is the water, Melting, murmuring from the moss.” – Saigyō

02/22/18
“Realise this: one day your soul will depart from your body and you will be drawn behind the curtain that floats between us
and the unknown. While you wait for that moment, be happy, because you don’t know where you came from and you don’t know where you will be going.” – Omar Khayyam

02/21/18

“Love sometimes gets tired of speaking sweetly and wants to rip to shreds all your erroneous notions of the truth that make you fight within yourself, dear one, and with others, causing the world to weep on too many fine days… The Beloved sometimes wants to do us a great favor: Hold us upside down and shake all the nonsense out.” – Hafez

02/20/18

“The little space within the heart is as great as the vast universe. The heavens and the earth are there, and the sun and the moon and the stars. Fire and lightening and winds are there, and all that now is and all that is not.” – Swami Prabhavananda

02/19/18

“Only to the white man was nature a “wilderness” and only to him was the land “infested” with “wild” animals and “savage” people. To us it was tame. Earth was bountiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery. Not until the hairy man from the east came and with brutal frenzy heaped injustices upon us and the families that we loved was it “wild” for us. When the very animals of the forest began fleeing from his approach, then it was that for us the “Wild West” began.” – Luther Standing Bear

02/18/18

“There is a close relationship between a house full of possessions and a heart full of desires, between a cluttered closet and a crowded schedule, between having no place to put possessions and having no priorities for our life. These are precious clues. They remind us to slow down, to live in the present, to reduce the desires that drain our vitality, to clarify priorities so we can give our time and attention to what matters most. Tragically, in the press of modern life, we have managed to get backwards one of life’s most vital truths: people are to be loved; things are to be used.” – Eknath Easwaran

02/17/18

“Only two kinds of people can attain self-knowledge: those who are not encumbered at all with learning, that is to say, whose minds are not over-crowded with thoughts borrowed from others; and those who, after studying all the scriptures and sciences, have come to realise that they know nothing.” – Ramakrishna

02/16/18

“Treat all things as if they were loaned to you without any ownership – whether body or soul, sense or strength, external goods or honors, house or hall . . . everything.” – Meister Eckhart

02/15/18

“Consciousness will always be present, though a particular consciousness may cease. For example, the particular tactile consciousness that is present within this human body will cease when the body comes to an end. Likewise, consciousnesses that are influenced by ignorance, by anger or by attachment, these too will cease. But the basic, ultimate, innermost subtle consciousness will always remain. It has no beginning, and it will have not an end.” – Dalai Lama

0

2/14/18

“The garden of love is green without limit and yields many fruits other than sorrow or joy. Love is beyond either condition: without spring, without autumn, it is always fresh.” – Rumi

02/13/18

“Though I cannot flee from the world of corruption, I can prepare tea with water from a mountain stream and put my heart to rest.” – Ueda Akinari

02/12/18

“But a lie is a lie, and in itself intrinsically evil, whether it be told with good or bad intents.” – Immanuel Kant

02/11/18

“Limitations gone: Since my mind fixed on the moon, Clarity and serenity Make something for which There’s no end in sight.” – Saigyō

02/10/18

“Even in warmest glow how cold my shadow” – Kobayashi Issa

02/09/18

“The victim of mind-manipulation does not know that he is a victim. To him, the walls of his prison are invisible, and he believes himself to be free.” – Aldous Huxley

02/08/18

“Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought.” – Matsuo Basho

02/07/18

“Do not struggle. Go with the flow of things, and you will find yourself at one with the mysterious unity of the Universe.” – Zhuangzi

02/06/18

“There was a Door to which I found no Key:
There was a Veil through which I could not see:
Some little Talk awhile of Me and Thee
There seemed — and then no more of Thee and Me.”
– Omar Khayyam

02/05/18

“I have learned so much from God that I can no longer call myself a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew. The Truth has shared so much of Itself with me that I can no longer call myself a man, a woman, an angel, or even a pure Soul. Love has befriended me so completely it has turned to ash and freed me of every concept and image my mind has ever known.” – Hafez

02/04/18

“There are more fake guides, teachers in the world than stars. The real guide is the one who makes you see your inner beauty, not the one who wants to be admired and followed.” – Shams Tabrizi

02/03/18

“Whenever a great physician treats diseases, he has to be mentally calm and his disposition firm. He should not give way to wishes and desires, but has to develop first a marked attitude of compassion. He should commit himself firmly to the willingness to take the effort to save every living creature.” – Sun Simiao, China’s King of Medicine

02/02/18

“Therefore if we realize that our nature and destiny are what they should be, we will have no anxiety and will be at ease with ourselves in the face of life or death, prominence or obscurity, or an infinite amount of changes and variations, and will be in accord with principle.” – Guo Xiang

02/01/18

“Why are there beings at all instead of nothing? That is the question. Presumably it is not an arbitrary question, “Why are there beings at all instead of nothing”- this is obviously the first of all questions. Of course it is not the first question in the chronological sense […] And yet, we are each touched once, maybe even every now and then, by the concealed power of this question, without properly grasping what is happening to us. In great despair, for example, when all weight tends to dwindle away from things and the sense of things grows dark, the question looms.” – Martin Heidegger

01/31/18

“The first peace, which is the most important,
is that which comes within the souls of people
when they realize their relationship,
their oneness with the universe and all its powers,
and when they realize that at the center of the universe
dwells the Great Spirit,
and that this center is really everywhere,
it is within each of us.”
– Black Elk

01/30/18

“Consciousness poses the most baffling problems in the science of the mind. There is nothing that we know more intimately than conscious experience, but there is nothing that is harder to explain.” – David Chalmers

01/29/18

“The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.’ – Alan Watts

01/28/18

“The student of knowledge aims at accumulating day by day;
The student of Dao aims at losing day by day.
By continual losing,
One reaches Wu-wei”
– Laozi

01/27/18

“I salute the light within your eyes where the whole universe dwells. For when you are at that center within you and I am at that place within me, we shall be one.” – Crazy Horse

01/26/18

“A wee child toddling in a wonder world, I prefer to their dogma my excursions into the natural gardens where the voice of the Great Spirit is heard in the twittering of birds, the rippling of mighty waters, and the sweet breathing of flowers. If this is Paganism, then at present, at least, I am a Pagan.” – Zitkala-Sa

01/25/18

“There’s no reality except the one contained within us. That’s why so many people live an unreal life. They take images outside them for reality and never allow the world within them to assert itself.” – Hermann Hesse

01/24/18

“The real question of life after death isn’t whether or not it exists, but even if it does what problem this really solves.” – Ludwig Wittgenstein

01/23/18

“Nay, do not grieve tho’ life be full of sadness,
Dawn will not veil her splendor for your grief,
Nor spring deny their bright, appointed beauty
To lotus blossom and ashoka leaf.

Nay, do not pine, tho’ life be dark with trouble,
Time will not pause or tarry on his way;
To-day that seems so long, so strange, so bitter,
Will soon be some forgotten yesterday.

Nay, do not weep; new hopes, new dreams, new faces,
The unspent joy of all the unborn years,
Will prove your heart a traitor to its sorrow,
And make your eyes unfaithful to their tears.”
– Sarojini Naidu

01/22/18

“The ordinary people will consider it lack of simplicity to harmonize all the changes throughout ten thousand years. With a tired body and a frightened mind, they toil to avoid this and to take that. The sage alone has no prejudice. He therefore proceeds with utter simplicity and becomes one with transformation and always roams in the realm of unity.” – Guo Xiang

01/21/18

“Freedom will cost you the mask you have on, the mask that feels so comfortable and is so hard to shed off, not because it fits so well but because you have been wearing it so long.” – Florinda Donner

91/20/18

“For most of us, there is only the unattended
Moment, the moment in and out of time,
The distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight,
The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightning
Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all, but you are the music
While the music lasts.” – T. S. Eliot

01/19/18

“Only if one loves this earth with unbending passion can one relieve one’s sadness,” don Juan said. “Warriors are always joyful because their love is unalterable and their beloved, the earth, embraces them and bestows upon them inconceivable gifts. The sadness belongs only to those who hate the very thing that gives shelter to their beings.” Don Juan again caressed the ground with tenderness. “This lovely being, which is alive to its last recesses and understands every feeling, soothed me, it cured me of my pains, and finally when I had fully understood my love for it, it taught me freedom.” – Carlos Castaneda

01/18/18

“My body is in accord with my mind, my mind with my energies, my energies with my spirit, my spirit with Nothing.” – Lie Yukou (Lietse)

01/17/18

“A Great Physician should not pay attention to status, wealth or age; neither should he question whether the particular person is attractive or unattractive, whether he is an enemy or friend, whether he is a Chinese or a foreigner, or finally, whether he is uneducated or educated. He should meet everyone on equal grounds. He should always act as if he were thinking of his close relatives.” – Sun Simiao, China’s King of Medicine, from Beiji Qian Jin Yao Fang (“Essential Formulas for Emergencies [Worth] a Thousand Pieces of Gold”) 

01/16/18

“Therefore if we realize that our nature and destiny are what they should be, we will have no anxiety and will be at ease with ourselves in the face of life or death, prominence or obscurity, or an infinite amount of changes and variations, and will be in accord with principle.” – Guo Xiang

01/15/18

“I have no right to call myself one who knows. I was one who seeks, and I still am, but I no longer seek in the stars or in books; I’m beginning to hear the teachings of my blood pulsing within me. My story isn’t pleasant, it’s not sweet and harmonious like the invented stories; it tastes of folly and bewilderment, of madness and dream, like the life of all people who no longer want to lie to themselves.” – Hermann Hesse

01/14/18

“How does one chip off the marble that doesn’t belong? … That comes about through five things: humility, reverence, inspiration, deep purpose, and joy. No great man has ever wise-cracked his way to greatness. Until one learns to lose one’s self he cannot find himself. No one can multiply himself by himself. He must first divide himself and give himself to the service of all, thus placing himself within all others through acts of thoughtfulness and service.” – Walter Russell

01/13/18

“Nothing is more heart-breaking than the demise of decency.” – Guo Moruo

01/12/18

“Authenticity is fundamental, more fundamental than spiritual enlightenment. Without authenticity, no genuine spiritual enlightenment is possible. Authenticity is the state of being committed to truth. Truth is simple. And no matter how simply a truth is stated, only those who have walked the path of understanding and evolution on their own can know and understand it authentically. The path of truth is the path least traveled. Authenticity is the clarity of being in which there is no self-deceit.” – Yasuhiko Kimura

01/11/18

“It’s a matter of seeing the original meaning of all things. The world is full of all kinds of meanings. But our minds are so fettered by the lies and falsehoods they make for themselves, that they cannot see the beauty, goodness, or truth of those meanings. Only a mind that has become free can see such things…” – Yi Mun-yol

01/10/18

“Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” – T. S. Eliot

01/09/18

“Those that go searching for love only make manifest their own lovelessness, and the loveless never find love, only the loving find love, and they never have to seek for it.” – D. H. Lawrence

01/08/18

“I splash my head with ice-cold water and turn to face the mirror. When my image appears I instinctively look away. Is there a truth on the other side that we do not want to see?” – Shan Sa

01/07/18

“Most people are not really free. They are confined by the niche in the world that they carve out for themselves. They limit themselves to fewer possibilities by the narrowness of their vision.” – V. S. Naipaul

01/06/18

“We kill at every step, not only in wars, riots and executions. We kill when we close our eyes to poverty, suffering and shame. In the same way all disrespect for life, all hard-heartedness,all indifference, all contempt is nothing else than killing.” – Hermann Hesse

01/05/18

“When one is true to oneself, when one is authentic, one becomes true to the evolutionary thrust for self-optimization that exists within oneself and within the universe. And that evolutionary thrust is a continuous unfolding process.” – Yasuhiko Kimura

01/04/18

“Your body is merely a machine made to express the thoughts that flow through you and nothing more. It is but an instrument for you to express your imagings just as a piano is an instrument for a musician to express his imagings. Just as the piano is not the musician, so, likewise, your body is not you.” – Walter Russell

1/03/18

“True fighters dare face the sorrows of humanity, and look unflinchingly at bloodshed. What sorrow and joy are theirs! But the Creator’s common device for ordinary people is to let the passage of time wash away old traces leaving only pale-red bloodstains and a vague pain; and he lets men live on ignobly and amid these, to keep this quasi-human world going.” – Lu Xun

1/02/18

“By peace we mean the capacity to transform conflicts with empathy, without violence, and creatively- a never-ending process.” – Johan Galtung

1/01/18

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

12/31/17

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language And next year’s words await another voice.” – T. S. Eliot

12/29/17

“We all have inner demons to fight, we call these demons, fear and hatred and anger. If you do not conquer them then a life of one hundred years is a tragedy. If you do, then a life of a single day can be a triumph.” – Yip Man

12/28/17

“With passions stilled and one’s nature firm, all destinies are in harmony; When the full moon of contemplation is reached you will be pure.” – Wu Cheng’en, author of “Journey to the West,” one of the four great classics of Chinese Literature.

12/27/17
“Pity! The southerly trees have shed their leaves. Nobody comes to appreciate the mountain’s beauty. Tomorrow I too will float away. My reflection gone from cool streams.” – Cheng Man-ch’ing

12/26/17

“The Way of the Warrior has been misunderstood. It is not a means to kill and destroy others. Those who seek to compete and better one another are making a terrible mistake. To smash, injure, or destroy is the worst thing a human being can do. The real Way of a Warrior is to prevent such slaughter – it is the Art of Peace, the power of love.” – Morihei Ueshiba

12/25/17 – Today’s Quote: 

“Christmas is a time in which, of all times in the year, the memory of every remediable sorrow, wrong, and trouble in the world around us, should be active with us, not less than our own experiences, for all good.” – Charles Dickens

12/24/17

“The only real blind person at Christmas time is he who has not Christmas in his heart.” – Helen Keller

12/22/17

“Any kind of expectation creates a problem. We should accept, but not expect. Whatever comes, accept it. Whatever goes, accept it. The immediate benefit is that your mind is always peaceful.” – Swami Satchidananda

12/21/17

“The bitter pinecone may be eaten, The mist on high give nourishment. The whole world takes to go-and-getting; My way alone is difficult.” – Du Fu

 

12/20/17

“Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, whose philosopher is a juggler, and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking. Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpetings, and farewells him with hootings, only to welcome another ruler with trumpetings again. Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with years and whose strong men are yet in the cradle. Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation.” – Khalil Gibran

12/19/17

“It’s not about the number of hours you practice, it’s about the number of hours your mind is present during the practice” – Kobe Bryant

12/18/17

“Desire nothing except desirelessness.
Hope for nothing except to rise above all hopes.
Want nothing and you will have everything.”
– Meher Baba

12/17/17

I asked for strength,
and God gave me difficulties to make me strong.
I asked for wisdom,
and God gave me problems to learn to solve.
I asked for prosperity,
and God gave me a brain and brawn to work.
I asked for courage,
and God gave me dangers to overcome.
I asked for love,
and God gave me people to help.
I asked for favors,
and God gave me opportunities.
I received nothing I wanted.
I received everything I needed.
– Hazrat Inayat Khan

12/16/17

“Ghosts and demons harm the complacent and raise up the humble.” – I Ching: Hexagram 15 – Humility

11/15/17

“Our nature, and the nature of the universe, is the same: impermanence, change, arriving and passing, continual movement. When we understand this and don’t try to resist it, we realize we are safe, as safe as the whole universe is safe.” – Pir Elias Amidon

12/14/17

“Retain a calm heart, sit like a turtle, walk swiftly like a pigeon, and sleep like a dog” – Li Ching-Yuen (the 256 year-old Taoist)

12/12/17

“The great Way is not difficult;
yet people prefer the side paths.
Be aware when things are out of balance.
Stay centered within the Tao.”
– Lao Tse Ch. 53

12/11/17

“Being open and receptive is called Yin, the Feminine, or the valley. Imagine there’s a pond in this valley. When no fears or desires stir the surface of the pond, the water forms a perfect mirror. In this mirror you can see the reflection of the Tao. You can see God, and you see Creation. Go into the valley, be still and watch the pond. Go as often as you wish. Your silence will grow. The pond will never run dry.” – John Heider, “The Tao of Leadership”

12/10/17

“A petty thief is put in jail. A great brigand becomes a ruler of a Nation.” – Zhuangzi

12/09/17

“To the Taoist mentality, the aimless, empty life does not suggest anything depressing. On the contrary, it suggests the freedom of clouds and mountain streams, wandering nowhere, of flowers in impenetrable canyons, beautiful for no one to see, and of the ocean surf forever washing the sand, to no end.” – Alan Watts

12/08/17

“Can another help bring about a transformation in you? If he can, you are not transformed; you are merely dominated, influenced.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti

11/10/17

Off to China for a couple of weeks. Won’t be posting much until I return.

11/09/17

“When people look for the road in the clouds
The cloud road disappears
The mountains are tall and steep
The streams are wide and still
Green mountains ahead and behind
White clouds to east and west
If you want to find the cloud road
Seek it within.”
– Hanshan

11/08/17

“Man seeks to change the foods available in nature to suit his tastes, thereby putting an end to the very essence of life contained in them.” – Sai Baba

11/07/17

“One who has never known the turbulence of life, in whom the petals of the mysterious flower within have never opened; such a one may seem happy, may seem a saint, his single track mind may impress the multitude with its power – but he is ill equipped for life’s true adventure into the infinite.” – Rabindranath Tagore

11/06/17

“Worship of The Lotus Feet of The Spiritual Master: There is no work as auspicious as serving the spiritual master. Of all worship, the worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the greatest but the worship of the lotus feet of the spiritual master is even greater than the worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Unless this is firmly realized we cannot understand what saintly association means, we cannot understand what the shelter of a spiritual master means, we cannot understand that we are dependent and he is our maintainer.” – Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati

11/05/17

“Real psychology is the understanding of a law working behind the scenes. It is the understanding of cause and effect in everything, in every action, in every aspect. It is also a stepping-stone towards esotericism, for it is the psychological attitude which leads one to esoteric knowledge.” – Hazrat Inayat Khan

11/04/17
“Do not restrict the senses in their contacts with varied objects of the world. Allow them their wont, making sure that the mind fosters no desire for any object. Accept whatever comes by chance, at the behest of Providence. Make no special effort for anything. Without seeking or struggling, let the objects come by themselves. This is the holy way in vogue within the ken of Nature, to be harmonious with everything around.
“Vasisthadeva says, to be able to do so, you must have your spiritual anchor within yourself. Dwell in the inner seat or cave safely, shedding all anxiety. Foster no fascination for anything in particular. When no specifics are sought, the right and harmonious choice will gallop to greet you.” – Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha

11/03/17

“When nothing upsets you, you are at the beginning of the path. When you desire nothing, you are halfway on the path; when nothing becomes everything, you are perfected.” – Meher Baba

11/02/17

“When the world pushes you to your knees, you’re in the perfect position to pray.” – Rumi

11/01/17

“Let us no more contend, nor blame each other, blamed enough elsewhere, but strive, In offices of love, how we may lighten each other’s burden.” – John Milton

10/31/17

“The world of imagination is the world of eternity. It is the divine bosom into which we shall all go after the death of the vegetated [i.e. mortal] body. This world of imagination is infinite and eternal, whereas the world of generation is finite and temporal. There exist in that eternal world the eternal realities of everything which we see reflected in this vegetable glass of nature.” – William Blake

10/30/17

“In reality matter comes from spirit, matter in its true nature is spirit. Matter is an action of spirit which has materialized and has become intelligible to our senses of perception, and has thus become a reality to our senses, hiding the spirit under it. It has covered the existence of spirit from those who look at life from the outside.” – Hazrat Inayat Khan

10/29/17

“Beneath the blossoms with a pot of wine, No friends at hand, so I poured alone; I raised my cup to invite the moon, Turned to my shadow, and we became three.” Li Po (Li Bai)

10/28/17

“A falcon hovers at the edge of the sky.Two gulls drift slowly up the river.Vulnerable while they ride the wind,they coast and glide with ease.Dew is heavy on the grass below,the spider’s web is ready.Heaven’s ways include the human:among a thousand sorrows, I stand alone.” – Du Fu

10/27/17

“If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished?” – Rumi

10/26/17

“To be simple means to make a choice about what’s important, and let go of all the rest. When we are able to do this, our vision expands, our heads clear, and we can better see the details of our lives in all their incredible wonder and beauty.” – John Daido Loori

10/25/17

“Consider the sunlight. You may say that it is near, yet if you pursue it from world to world you will never catch it. You may say it is far, yet it is right before your eyes. Chase it and it always eludes you; run from it and it is always there. From this example you can understand how it is with the true nature of things.” – Huangbo Xiyun

10/24/17

“Disciples and devotees…what are most of them doing? Worshipping the teapot instead of drinking the tea!” – Wei Wu Wei

10/23/17

“How wide are the horizons of the spinning earth! The moonlight leads the tides and the sun’s light will not be confined within the net of heaven. But in the end all things return to the One. The deaf and the dumb, the crippled and deformed are all restored to One’s perfection.” – Hsu Yun

10/22/17

“My daily affairs are quite ordinary; but I’m in total harmony with them. I don’t hold on to anything, don’t reject anything; nowhere an obstacle or conflict. Who cares about wealth and honor? Even the poorest thing shines. How miraculous and wondrous: drawing water and carrying firewood.” – Layman Pang

10/21/17

“As for me, I delight in the every day Way Among mist-wrapped vines and rocky caves. Here in the wilderness I am completely free With my friends, the white clouds, idling forever. There are roads, but they do not reach the world. Since I am mindless, who can rouse my thoughts. On a bed of stone I sit, alone in the night While a round moon climbs up Cold Mountain” – Hanshan

10/20/17

“With the exception of indigenous spiritual traditions, most of the world’s religions have not prepared us well for the ethical challenges of determining right relations between the human family and the earth. There may be no more pressing issue facing us. In our search for authentic revelation and guidance, shall we choose to refer only to scripture written many centuries ago, or do we have other choices?” – Pir Elias Amidon

10/19/17

“What is this ego; what is this little ‘I’? Is it your foot or flesh or hand or blood ­ or any part of your body? Reflect well. You will know that there is no such thing as ‘I’. The ‘I’ will vanish into nothingness. What is left is the pure, infinite Atman. When the ego perishes, the Supreme Soul reveals itself in all its pristine glory and splendour.” – Swami Sivananda

09/18/17

“To every one of us there must come a time when the whole universe will be found to have been a dream, when we find the soul is infinitely better than its surroundings. It is only a question of time, and time is nothing in the infinite.” – Sai Baba

10/17/17
“In the spiritual life it is not necessary to have a complete map of the path in order to begin traveling. On the contrary, having such complete knowledge may actually hinder rather than help the onward march. The deeper secrets of spiritual life are unraveled to those who take risks and who make bold experiments with it. They are not meant for the idler who seeks guarantees at every step. Those who speculate from the shore about the ocean shall know only its surface, but those who would know the depths of the ocean must be willing to plunge into it.” – Meher Baba

10/16/17
“Before making peace, war is necessary, and that war must be made with our self. Our worst enemy is our self: our faults, our weaknesses, our limitations. And our mind is such a traitor! What does it? It covers our faults even from our own eyes, and points out to us the reason for all our difficulties: others! So it constantly deludes us, keeping us unaware of the real enemy, and pushes us towards those others to fight them, showing them to us as our enemies.” – Hazrat Inayat Khan

10/15/17

“Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots, so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow. Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart, far better things will take their place.” – Rumi

10/14/17

“… let us unite, not in spite of our differences, but through them. For differences can never be wiped away, and life would be so much the poorer without them. Let all human races keep their own personalities, and yet come together, not in a uniformity that is dead, but in a unity that is living.” – Rabindranath Tagore

10/13/17

“I see shining fish struggling within tight nets, while I hear orioles singing carefree tunes. Even trivial creatures know the difference between freedom and bondage. Sympathy and compassion should be but natural to the human heart.” – Du Fu

10/12/17

“You ask why I make my home in the mountain forest,
and I smile, and am silent,
and even my soul remains quiet:
it lives in the other world which no one owns.
The peach trees blossom,
The water flows.”
– Li Po (Li Bai)

“The birds have vanished into the sky.
Now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together, the mountain and I,
until only the mountain remains.”
– Li Po (Li Bai)

10/11;/17

“Deep at the bottom of the well no warmth has yet returned,
The rain which sighs and feels so cold has dampened withered roots.
What sort of man at such a time would come to visit the teacher?
As this is not a time for flowers, I find I’ve come alone.” – Su Shi

10/10/17
“Instead of holding on to the Biblical view that we are made in the image of God, we come to realize that we are made in the image of the monkey.” – Lin Yutang

10/09/17
“When one, established in non-becoming, contemplates that which has not changed into becoming and when one thus perceives what is as it is, then the mind becomes no-mind. When the psychological conditioning or limitation is not dense, when it has become transparent, one becomes a liberated sage who apparently lives and functions by past momentum (even as a potter’s wheel rotates after the initial impulse has been withdrawn), but he will not be born again. In his case, the seed has been fried, as it were, and will not germinate into world-illusion. When the body falls, he is absorbed into the infinite.” – Yoga Vasistha (V.91)

10/08/17
“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

10/07/17
“Thanks to words, we have been able to rise above the brutes; and thanks to words, we have often sunk to the level of the demons.” – Aldous Huxley

10/06/17
“The more one studies the harmony of music, and then studies human nature, how people agree and how they disagree, how there is attraction and repulsion, the more one will see that it is all music.” – Hazrat Inayat Khan

10/05/17
“Be like the sun for grace and mercy. Be like the night to cover others’ faults. Be like running water for generosity. Be like death for rage and anger. Be like the Earth for modesty. Appear as you are. Be as you appear.” – Rumi

10/04/17

“Striving or still,
The fool never finds peace.
But the master finds it
Just by knowing how things are.”
– Ashtavakra Gita (18.34)

10/03/17
“So long as the bee is outside the petals of the lily, and has not tasted the sweetness of its honey, it hovers around the flower emitting the buzzing sound; but when it is inside the flower, it noiselessly drinks the nectar. So long as a man quarrels and disputes about doctrines and dogmas, he has not tasted the nectar of true faith; when he has tasted it, he becomes quiet and full of peace.” – Ramakrishna

10/02/17
“Through intense deep meditation you reach a state that is beyond thought, beyond change, beyond imagination, beyond differences and duality. Once you can stay in that state for a while and come out of it without losing any of it, then the inner divine love will begin to pour through you. You will not see people as different, separate individuals. You will see your own Self in everyone around you. Then the flow of love from within you will be constant and unbroken.” – Swami Muktananda

10/01/17
“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” – Laozi

09/30/17
“Dwell not on the faults and shortcomings of others; instead, seek clarity about your own.” – Gautama Buddha

09/29/17
“Change the focus of the eye. When you have done that, then the end of the world as you formerly knew it will have occurred, and you will experience the radiance of the divine presence everywhere, here and now.” – Joseph Campbell

09/28/17
“The heart is like a mirror. When we dust it off, we are able to see ourselves. The dust is all our stuff – guilt, anger – this stuff is reflected back to us. Practice removes the dust from the mirror of our hearts.” – Krishna Das

09/27/17
“The yoga we practice is not for ourselves alone, but for the Divine; its aim is to work out the will of the Divine in the world, to effect a spiritual transformation and to bring down a divine nature and a divine life into the mental, vital and physical nature and life of humanity. Its object is not personal Mukti, although Mukti is a necessary condition of the yoga, but the liberation and transformation of the human being. It is not personal Ananda, but the bringing down of the divine Ananda – Christ’s kingdom of heaven, our Satyayuga – upon the earth.” – Sri Aurobindo

09/26/17
“What good does it do to have all the riches of the world and all the world’s pleasures? They will all disappear in the flash we call a human lifetime. Focusing on the pleasures of the world keeps the mind too distracted to search for the inner Self.” – Rama Swami

09/25/17
“In truth, he who is not content with what he has would not be content with whatever he acquires.” – Swami Parthasarathy

09/24/17
“Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.” – Alan Watts

09/23/17
“Energy is wasted in useless idle talk and gossiping, planning and unnecessary worrying. Conserve energy by getting rid of these three defects and utilise it in meditation. Then you can do wonderful meditation. He who says and imagines that he practises deep meditation daily, when he has not removed the evil traits of the mind, deceives himself first and then others. He is a first class hypocrite.” – Swami Sivananda

09/22/17
“Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.” – John Milton


09/21/17
“In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors.” – William Blake

09/20/17
“All negativity is caused by an accumulation of psychological time and denial of the present. Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry – all forms of fear – are caused by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of nonforgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence.” – Eckhart Tolle

09/19/17

“When a fool hears the truth,
He is muddled.
When a wise man hears it,
He goes within.”
– Ashtavakra Gita (18.32)

09/18/17
“We cannot separate ourselves from those whom we call the ‘lower’ animals. They are lower in the scale of evolution, but they, like us, are members of the One Family. We must not take away the life of any creature. Indeed, we must never take away that which we cannot give. And as we cannot restore a dead creature to life, we have no right to take away its’ life.” – Dada Vaswani (Congratulations on your 100th year)

09/17/17
“Each of us embodies, in a particular tale and clothed in the garments of time & place, universal truth and everlasting life.” – J. R. R. Tolkien

09/16/17
“Delusion will vanish as the light becomes more and more effulgent, load after load of ignorance will vanish, and then will come a time when all else has disappeared and the sun alone shines.” – Swami Vivekananda

09/15/17
“Love is preserved by wisdom. Destroyed by demand, tested by doubt, nourished by longing. It blossoms with faith and grows with gratitude.” – Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

09/14/17
“Death is not the end Death can never be the end. Death is the road. Life is the traveller. The Soul is the Guide … Our mind thinks of death. Our heart thinks of life Our soul thinks of Immortality” – Sri Chinmoy

09/13/17
“Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served. But all other pleasures and possessions pale into nothingness before service which is rendered in a spirit of joy.” – Mahatma Gandhi

09/12/17
“Straight away, remove yourself from the field of spiritual progression , stay away from contemplation and skillful discourse, do not do research or meditate on the divinities, and stop concentrating and reciting textbooks! Tell me, what is the absolute nature of reality which allows no room for doubt? Listen carefully! Stop holding on to this or that, inhabit your true absolute nature, and peacefully enjoy the essence of what it is to be alive!” – Abhinavagupta

09/11/17
“The little space within the heart is as great as the vast universe. The heavens and the earth are there, and the sun and the moon and the stars. Fire and lightening and winds are there, and all that now is and all that is not.” – Swami Prabhavananda

09/10/17

“Even when he is still,
The selfish man is busy.
Even when he is busy,
The selfless man is still.”
– Ashtavakra Gita (18.29)

09/09/17

“The sorrows of duty,
Like the heat of the sun,
Have scorched your heart.
But let stillness fall on you
With its sweet and cooling showers,
And you will find happiness.”
– Ashtavakra Gita (18.3)

09/08/17
“He who binds to himself a joy Does the winged life destroy; But he who kisses the joy as it flies Lives in eternity’s sun rise.” – William Blake

09/07/17
“Ashtavakra’s words begin after almost everything else has been said. They barely touch the page. They are often on the point of vanishing. They are the first melting of the snow, high in the mountains, a clear stream flowing over smooth and shining pebbles. Theirs is the radiance of the winter sky above Trishul, Kailash, Annapurna. My satguru, Neem Karoli
Baba, called the Ashtavakra Gita ‘the purest of scriptures’. All its beauty is in the transparency, its enraptured and flawless purity.” – Thomas Byron, “The Heart of Awareness”

09/06/17

“You seek too much information and not enough transformation.” – Sai Baba

09/05/17

“Empty yourself of everything.
Let the mind become still.
The ten thousand things rise and fall while the Self watches their return.
They grow and flourish and then return to the source.
Returning to the source is stillness, which is the way of nature.
– Laozi

09/04/17
“Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark. In effect, the people who change our lives the most begin to sing to us while we are still in darkness. If we listen to their song, we will see the dawning of a new part of ourselves.” – Rabindranath Tagore

09/03/17
“No man is great enough or wise enough for any of us to surrender our destiny to. The only way in which anyone can lead us is to restore to us the belief in our own guidance.” – Henry Miller

09/02/17
“By replacing fear of the unknown with curiosity we open ourselves up to an infinite stream of possibility. We can let fear rule our lives or we can become childlike with curiosity, pushing our boundaries, leaping out of our comfort zones, and accepting what life puts before us.” – Alan Watts

09/01/17
“Yoga is anything which reveals or reflects the wholeness that we truly are, and the world is anything that makes us feel that we are fragmented, dissected, cut into pieces and out of tune with ourselves.” – Krishnananda Saraswati

08/31/17
“Goods and possessions are no gain in his eyes. He stays far from wealth and honor. Long life is no ground for joy, nor early death for sorrow. Success is not for him to be proud of, failure is no shame. Had he all the world’s power he would not hold it as his own. If he conquered everything he would not take it to himself. His glory is in knowing that all things come together in One and life and death are equal.”- Zhuangzi

08/30/17
“Any kind of expectation creates a problem. We should accept, but not expect. Whatever comes, accept it. Whatever goes, accept it. The immediate benefit is that your mind is always peaceful.” – Swami Satchidananda

08/29/17
“All beings exist in an invisible state and then come to a state of visibility. Change occurs only on the surface, for the self-existent glory remains unchanged; changing form does not affect the self-existent Reality. Atman, Soul or the Self, dwells in all that is perishable, yet it remains imperishable.” – Rama Swami

08/28/17
“The yoga we practice is not for ourselves alone, but for the Divine; its aim is to work out the will of the Divine in the world, to effect a spiritual transformation and to bring down a divine nature and a divine life into the mental, vital and physical nature and life of humanity. Its object is not personal Mukti, although Mukti is a necessary condition of the yoga, but the liberation and transformation of the human being. It is not personal Ananda, but the bringing down of the divine Ananda – Christ’s kingdom of heaven, our Satyayuga – upon the earth.” – Sri Aurobindo

08/27/17
“Your soul has a special mission. Your soul is supremely conscious of it. Maya, illusion or forgetfulness, makes you feel that you are finite, weak and helpless. This is not true. You are not the body. You are not the senses. You are not the mind. These are all limited. You are the soul, which is unlimited. Your soul is infinitely powerful. Your soul defies all time and space.” – Sri Chinmoy

08/26/17
“Spirituality does not mean going away from life. Spirituality means becoming alive in the fullest possible way so you are not just alive on the surface, you are alive to the core.” – Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev

08/25/17
“Meditate regularly and you will progress. Even a little meditation protects us from infinite fears. Slowly fold up the mind and unfold the Self. Always remember that we are performing a very delicate operation. The mind is very sensitive, more sensitive and softer than a flower. Do not exert any force upon it. Persuasion and knowledge are the safest methods.” – Swami Chinmayananda from “Read Daily – Live Fully”

08/24/17
“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” – Carl Jung

08/23/17
“Correcting oneself is correcting the whole world. The Sun is simply bright. It does not correct anyone. Because it shines, the whole world is full of light. Transforming yourself is a means of giving light to the whole world.” – Ramana Maharshi

08’22’17
“There’s only one effectively redemptive sacrifice, the sacrifice of self-will to make room for the knowledge of God.” – Aldous Huxley

08/21/17
“Remember that your perception of the world is a reflection of your state of consciousness. You are not separate from it, and there is no objective world out there. Every moment, your consciousness creates the world that you inhabit.” – Eckhart Tolle

08/20/17
“As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter.” – Max Planck

08/19/17
“You never identify yourself with the shadows cast by your body, or with its reflection, or with the body you see in a dream or in your imagination. Therefore you should not identify yourself with this living body either.” – Adi Shankara

08/18/17
“As regards the quietude of the sage, he is not quiet because quietness is said to be good. He is quiet because the multitude of things cannot disturb his quietude. When water is still, one’s beard and eyelashes are reflected in it. A skilled carpenter uses it in a level to obtain a measurement. If still water is so clear, how much more are the mental faculties! The mind of the sage is the mirror of heaven and earth in which all things are reflected.” – Zhuangzi

08/17/17
“Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one.” – John Lennon

08/16/17
“It is from the numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” – Robert Kennedy

(AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

08/15/17
“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” – Marcus Aurelius

 
08/14/17
“For, though the self is transcendental and though it is omnipresent, the self alone is the light in all things in the world, though they are in fact false.” – Yoga Vasistha (V-73)

08/13/17

“As long as a human being worries about when he will die, and what he has that is his,
all of his works are zero.
When affection for the I-creature and what it owns is dead,
then the work of the Teacher is over.”
– Kabir

08/12/17
“Of the five vices, the vice of the mind is the worst. What is the vice of the mind? The vice of the mind is self-satisfaction.” – Zhuangzi

08/11/17
“Devotion is a place where you do not exist; life just flows through you as a certain sweetness and beauty.” – Jaggi Vasudev (Sadguru)

08/10/17
“He that has light within his own clear breast May sit in the centre, and enjoy bright day: But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts Benighted walks under the mid-day sun; Himself his own dungeon.” – John Milton

08/09/17
“Sometimes I come across a tree which seems like Buddha or Jesus: loving, compassionate, still, unambitious, enlightened, in eternal meditation, giving pleasure to a pilgrim, shade to a cow, berries to a bird, beauty to its surroundings, health to its neighbors, branches for the fire, leaves for the soil, asking nothing in return, in total harmony with the wind and the rain. How much can I learn from a tree? The tree is my church, the tree is my temple, the tree is my mantra, the tree is my poem and my prayer.” – Satish Kumar

08/08/17
“If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries. These libraries should be open to all—except the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty.” – John F. Kennedy

08/07/17
“Go not to the temple to put flowers upon the feet of God, first fill your own house with the fragrance of love. Go not to the temple to light candles before the altar of God, first remove the darkness of sin from your heart. Go not to the temple to bow down your head in prayer, first learn to bow in humility before your fellow men. Go not to the temple to pray on bended knees, first bend down to lift someone who is down trodden. Go not to the temple to ask for forgiveness for your sins, first forgive from your heart those who have sinned against you.” – Rabindranath Tagore

08/06/17
“Your thoughts are a veil on the face of the Moon. That Moon is your heart, and those thoughts cover your heart. So let them go, just let them fall into the water.” – Rumi

08/05/17
“The sun shines and warms and lights us and we have no curiosity to know why this is so; but we ask the reason of all evil, of pain, and hunger, and mosquitoes and silly people.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

08/04/17
“Love is preserved by wisdom, destroyed by demand, tested by doubt, nourished by longing. It blossoms with faith and grows with gratitude.” – Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

08/03/17
“The only thing that burns in hell is the part of you that won’t let go of your life: your memories, your attachments.
They burn them all away, but they’re not punishing you, they’re freeing your soul.
If you’re frightened of dying and you’re holding on, you’ll see devils tearing your life away.
If you’ve made your peace, then the devils are really angels freeing you from the earth.” – Meister Eckhart

08/02/17
“For the Sage does not contrive, and therefore has no use for knowledge; he does not cut up the world, and therefore requires no cementing of relationships; he has no loss, and therefore has no need to acquire; he sells nothing, and therefore has no use for commerce. These four qualifications are bestowed upon him by God, that is to say, he is fed by God. And he who is thus fed by God has little need to be fed by man. 
“He wears the human form without human passions. Because he wears the human form he associates with men. Because he has not human passions the questions of right and wrong do not touch him. Infinitesimal indeed is that which belongs to the human; infinitely great is that which is completed in God.” – Zhuangzi

08/01/17
“All beings exist in an invisible state and then come to a state of visibility. Change occurs only on the surface, for the self-existent glory remains unchanged; changing form does not affect the self-existent Reality. Atman, Soul or the Self, dwells in all that is perishable, yet it remains imperishable.” – Rama Swami

07/31/17
“Do not try to fix whatever comes in your life. Fix yourself in such a way that whatever comes, you will be fine.” – Jaggi Vasudev (Sadguru)

07/30/17
“By introducing you to yourself it enables you to discover for yourself the true meaning of life and thus enrich every moment of it. Such self-discovery can lead to greater understanding of fellow-beings and therefore to true love.” – Venkatesananda Saraswati

07/29/17
“He is the real Guru Who can reveal the form of the formless before your eyes; who teaches the simple path, without rites or ceremonies; Who does not make you close your doors, and hold your breath, and renounce the world; Who makes you perceive the Supreme Spirit whenever the mind attaches itself; Who teaches you to be still in the midst of all your activities. Fearless, always immersed in bliss, he keeps the spirit of yoga in the midst of enjoyments.” – Kabir

07/28/17
“Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn! Look to this Day! For it is Life, the very Life of Life. In its brief course lie all the Verities and Realities of your Existence. The Bliss of Growth, The Glory of Action, The Splendor of Beauty; For Yesterday is but a Dream, And To-morrow is only a Vision; But To-day well lived makes Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness, And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope. Look well therefore to this Day! Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!” – Kalidasa

07/27/17
“When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.” – Khalil Gibran

07/25/17
“In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life, it will be the solace of my death.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

07/25/17
“One may say that evil does not exist for subjective man at all, that there exist only different conceptions of good. Nobody ever does anything deliberately in the interests of evil, for the sake of evil. Everybody acts in the interests of good, as he understands it. But everybody understands it in a different way. Consequently men drown, slay, and kill one another in the interests of good.” – G. I. Gurdjieff

07/24/17
“The yoga we practice is not for ourselves alone, but for the Divine; its aim is to work out the will of the Divine in the world, to effect a spiritual transformation and to bring down a divine nature and a divine life into the mental, vital and physical nature and life of humanity. Its object is not personal Mukti, although Mukti is a necessary condition of the yoga, but the liberation and transformation of the human being. It is not personal Ananda, but the bringing down of the divine Ananda – Christ’s kingdom of heaven, our Satyayuga – upon the earth.” – Sri Aurobindo

07/23/17
“The very moment one looks upon the body as an inert substance, one attains self-knowledge.
When the darkness of ignorance or ego-sense is dispelled, the light of self-knowledge shines.
That state of self-knowledge or perfect enlightenment is beyond description.” – Yoga Vasistha (V.64)

07/22/17
“Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.” – Rabindranath Tagore

07/21/17
“When you walk through a mango garden, the will and doubt are done by the mind – it thinks whether the mango is good or not. The intellect comes to its aid; it determines that the mango is ‘good’. Then the chitta (mind stuff) finds out how to get hold of some of the mangoes from the gardener. Ahankara (ego) self-arrogates. It demands the mango at any price. The mind executes this order by passing it to the feet (karma indriya) to take the man to the gardener. Ahankara buys the mango and eats it. The impressions of the mango remain in the mind and the vasana (tendency) is formed in the mind. The thought of enjoyment comes to the mind later on. And this, through memory (in the form of a subtle vasana) produces thought (sankalpa) and troubles the man again and again, to enjoy the mango.
“This cycle: desire, thought, action, goes on from eternity to eternity. This brings bondage to man. When the vasana is repeated several times it becomes a strong passion. Then the man is a slave of the passion and indriyas (senses).” – Swami Sivananda

07/20/17
“After every happiness comes misery; they may be far apart or near. The more advanced the soul, the more quickly does one follow the other. What we want is neither happiness nor misery. Both make us forget our true nature; both are chains-one iron, one gold; behind both is the Atman, who knows neither happiness nor misery. These are states, and states must ever change; but the nature of the Atman is bliss, peace, unchanging. We have not to get it, we have it; only wash away the dross and see it.” – Swami Vivekananda

07/19/17
“Whether one is rich or poor, educated or illiterate, religious or nonbelieving, man or woman, black, white, or brown, we are all the same. Physically, emotionally, and mentally, we are all equal. We all share basic needs for food, shelter, safety, and love. We all aspire to happiness and we all shun suffering. Each of us has hopes, worries, fears, and dreams. Each of us wants the best for our family and loved ones. We all experience pain when we suffer loss and joy when we achieve what we seek. On this fundamental level, religion, ethnicity, culture, and language make no difference.” – Dalai Lama

07/18/17
“The greatest misfortune that can come to a human being is to lose his inner peace. No outer force can rob him of it. It is his own thoughts, his own actions, that rob him of it.” – Sri Chinmoy

07/17/17
“The enlightened ones are forever in samadhi, even though they engage themselves in the affairs of the world. On the other hand, one whose mind is not at peace does not enjoy samadhi by merely sitting in the lotus posture.
Knowledge of truth is the fire that burns up all hopes and desires as if they are dried blades of grass: and that is known by the word samadhi – not simply remaining silent!
That is known as the state of samadhi in which there is eternal satisfaction, clear perception of what is, egolessness, not being subject to the pairs of opposites, freedom from anxiety and from the wish to acquire or to reject.” – Yoga Vasistha (V.62,63)

07/16/17
“The Vedanta teaches men to have faith in themselves first. As certain religions of the world say that a man who does not believe in a Personal God outside of himself is an atheist, so the Vedanta says, a man who does not believe in himself is an atheist. Not believing in the glory of our own soul is what the Vedanta calls atheism.” – Swami Vivekananda

07/15/17
“Steal a hook and you hang as a crook; steal a kingdom and you are made a duke. (The teachings of) charity and duty remain in the duke’s domain. Is it not true, then, that they are thieves of charity and duty and of the wisdom of the Sages? So it is that those who follow the way of brigandage are promoted into princes and dukes.” – Zhuangzi, from “Opening Trunks, or A Protest Against Civilization”

07/14/17
“The soul loves to meditate, for in contact with the Spirit lies its greatest joy. If, then you experience mental resistance during meditation, remember that reluctance to meditate comes from the ego; it doesn’t belong to the soul.” – Paramahansa Yogananda

07/13/17
“I call the light and high aspects of my being spirit and the dark and heavy aspects soul. Soul is at home in the deep, shaded valleys. Heavy torpid flowers saturated with black grow there. The rivers flow like warm syrup. They empty into huge oceans of soul. Spirit is a land of high white peaks and glittering jewel-like lakes and flowers. Life is sparse and sounds travel great distances. There is soul music, soul food, and soul love… People need to climb the mountain not simply because it is there but because the soulful divinity needs to be mated with the spirit.” – Dalai Lama

07/12/17
“The word enlightenment conjures up the idea of some superhuman accomplishment, and the ego likes to keep it that way, but it is simply your natural state of felt oneness with Being.” – Eckhart Tolle

07/11/17
“The effect of life in society is to complicate and confuse our existence, making us forget who we really are by causing us to become obsessed with what we are not.” – Zhuangzi

07/10/17
“O Rama, all that I have said is but a play of words to help your comprehension: there is no such thing as ‘I’ or ‘the world’ (the combination of atomic particles, etc.).
There is neither mind nor an object of knowledge nor the world-illusion.
Just as water acquires the appearance of a whirlpool with a personality of its own, consciousness seems to give the appearance of ‘I’ etc., within itself.
But consciousness is consciousness only, whether it thinks of itself as lord Siva or as a little jiva!
All this diversity of ‘I’, ‘you’ etc., and of the material substances, arises for the satisfaction of the ignorant: whatever the ignorant person imagines in the infinite consciousness that alone he sees.
In the light of awareness, life is seen as consciousness; when it is regarded as life, life appears to be no more than life!
There is in reality no essential distinction between life and consciousness.” – Yoga Vasistha (V.57)

07/09/17
“An aimless life is always a troubled life. Every individual should have an aim. But do not forget that the quality of your aim will depend the quality of your life. Your aim should be high and wide, generous and disinterested; this will make your life precious to yourself and to others. Whatever your ideal, it cannot be perfectly realized unless you have realized perfection in yourself.” – Sri Aurobindo

07/08/17
“Life is a song-sing it. Life is a game-play it. Life is a challenge-meet it. Life is a dream-realize it. Life is a sacrifice-offer it. Life is love-enjoy it.” – Sai Baba

07/07/17
“Many do not know that the body itself is designed and shaped by the mind, meaning Consciousness, which animates and activates the body right from the beginning. It animates every cell, which is otherwise inert, insentient. In fact the mind is ‘the maker and ruler’ of the body. That is how we have a complex variety of involuntary functions in the body, all of which ceaselessly go on, without our knowledge or interference from us.” – Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha

07/06/17
“The crystal of this infinite consciousness reflects its own light of consciousness which is present in all these combinations of atomic particles: and they then gain an apparent self-consciousness and think ‘I am’ etc.
In reality, because the inner awareness in all these combinations is non-different from the infinite consciousness, there is no subject-object relationship between them: hence one does not experience the other, gain the other, or change or modify the other.” – Yoga Vasistha (V.57)

07/05/17
“The natural combination of atomic particles and molecules (which is indwelt by consciousness) apparently acts as a dividing wall, thus giving rise to the divisions of ‘I’, ‘you’ etc., and these then appear to be outside of consciousness as its object.
In fact, all these are but reflections in the consciousness which, becoming aware of them within itself, bestows upon them their apparent individuality.
Consciousness tastes itself, the awareness being non-different from consciousness: and that appears to give rise to the ego-sense, etc., naught else.” – Yoga Vasistha (V.57 cont’d.)

07/04/17
“O Rama, the infinite consciousness becomes aware of the pungency of the chilli: and this gives rise to the ego-sense, with all its differentiation in time and space.
The infinite consciousness becomes aware of the savour in salt; and that gives rise to the ego-sense with all the differentiation which seems to exist in time and space.
The infinite consciousness becomes aware of the sweetness in sugarcane; and thereby arises the awareness of its particular characteristic.
Similarly, the infinite consciousness, being the indwelling omnipresence, becomes aware of the nature of a rock, a mountain, a tree, of water, of space and thus self-consciousness or individuality arises.” – Yoga Vasistha (V.57)

07/03/17
“The enlightened sage stands to gain nothing by either doing anything or by not doing anything. Even as a tree does not spring from a stone, desires do not appear in the life of a sage. Should they arise at times, they instantly vanish like writings on water. The sage and the entire universe are non-different from each other.” – Yoga Vasistha (V.56)

07/02/17

“What matters is to live in the present, live now, for every moment is now. It is your thoughts and acts of the moment that create your future. The outline of your future path already exists, for you created its pattern by your past.: – Sai Baba

07/01/17
“When we transcend ourselves, we do not compete with others. We do not compete with the rest of the world, but at every moment we compete with ourselves.” – Sri Chinmoy

06/30/17
“We can smile, breathe, walk, and eat our meals in a way that allows us to be in touch with the abundance of happiness that is available. We are very good at preparing to live, but not very good at living. We know how to sacrifice ten years for a diploma, and we are willing to work very hard to get a job, a car, a house, and so on. But we have difficulty remembering that we are alive in the present moment, the only moment there is for us to be alive. Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity. We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment.” – Nhat Hanh

06/29/17
“Understand the mind; know how to manage it. Mind abhors a vacuum. Aversion and desire, both are binding – two monkeys sitting on the tree of the heart. While they continue to shake and agitate it there can be no peace.
Man falls into the cycle of births and deaths through his own thoughts, his own ignorance. Liberation means nothing but the destruction of the impurities of the mind. If your mind is free and pure, you will not again enter into birth.
Control of the mind is not done in a day but by constant practice and sustained dispassion.” – Swami Sivananda

06/28/17
“Karma yoga (TAPAH) is for purity of mind and after that to be absorbed in the transcendental truth without the least sense of ‘I & mine’ is necessary. When the ‘I & mine’ completely goes, Brahman flashes and this is called the grace of God. The idea is that he does not realize the truth by his I, but when his I goes, God comes in automatically and that is called grace. For this, several lives of sadhana and tapasya (austerities) have been generally observed to be necessary.” – Swami Bhaskareshwarananda’s Elucidation of Shankaracharya’s Commentary on the Svetasvatara Upanishad

06/27/17
“Not by mere eloquence, nor by handsome appearance, does a man become good-natured, should he be jealous, selfish and deceitful.” – Gautama Buddha

06/26/17
“The problems we face today, violent conflicts, destruction of nature, poverty, hunger and so on, are human-created problems which can be resolved through human effort, understanding and the development of a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood. We need to cultivate a universal responsibility for one another and the planet we share.” – Dalai Lama

06/25/17
“I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.” – Aristotle

06/24/17
“Lord Shiva is seated deep in everyone’s heart. He is Nirguna (One who is without form or its attributes). He is Nirakaar (Has no shape or form), and He is the Para-Brahman (Supreme transcendental Consciousness) that is all pervading. Believe in this. This is Rudra Puja” – Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

06/23/17
“When I run after what I think I want, my days are a furnace of stress and anxiety; if I sit in my own place of patience, what I need flows to me, and without pain. From this I understand that what I want also wants me, is looking for me and attracting me. There is a great secret here for anyone who can grasp it.” – Rumi

06/22/17
“Old as I am in age, I have no feeling that I have ceased to grow inwardly or that my growth will stop at the dissolution of the flesh. What I am concerned with is my readiness to obey the call of Truth, my God, from moment to moment, no matter how inconsistent it may appear. My commitment is to Truth, not to consistency.” – Mahatma Gandhi

06/21/17
“We are in the world, within its orbit in every way. As the earth, sun, moon and other celestial bodies are held by Nature, we the denizens of earth are equally held by her. Where is the question of disregarding, denying or conflicting anything? So seek to live in harmony with Nature and world, and yet strive your way to the Supreme, which is just within yourself, in the very depths of the mind.” – Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha

06/20/17
“There is One unchanging indivisible Reality which, though unmanifest, reveals Itself in infinite multiplicity and diversity.’ – Anandamayi Ma

06/19/17
“What we call our destiny is truly our character and that character can be altered. The knowledge that we are responsible for our actions and attitudes does not need to be discouraging, because it also means that we are free to change this destiny. One is not in bondage to the past, which has shaped our feelings, to race, inheritance, background. All this can be altered if we have the courage to examine how it formed us. We can alter the chemistry provided we have the courage to dissect the elements.” – Anais Nin

06/18/17
“Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.” – Alan Watts

06/17/17
“Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.” – Albert Einstein

06/16/17
“There comes a time in the seeker’s life when he discovers that he is at once the lover and the beloved. The aspiring soul which he embodies is the lover in him. And the transcendental Self which he reveals from within is his Beloved.” – Sri Chinmoy

06/15/17
“The misconception which has haunted philosophic literature throughout the centuries is the notion of ‘independent existence.’ There is no such mode of existence; every entity is to be understood in terms of the way it is interwoven with the rest of the universe.” – Alfred North Whitehead

06/14/17
“The whole world yearns after freedom, yet each creature is in love with his chains; this is the first paradox and inextricable knot of our nature.” – Sri Aurobindo

06/13/17
“Your soul has a special mission. Your soul is supremely conscious of it. Maya, illusion or forgetfulness, makes you feel that you are finite, weak and helpless. This is not true. You are not the body. You are not the senses. You are not the mind. These are all limited. You are the soul, which is unlimited. Your soul is infinitely powerful. Your soul defies all time and space.” – Sri Chinmoy

06/12/17
“To remain as victims of desires is to be some horrid machines of activity, vomiting out into the world our inner poison of ego and egocentric passions.To sustain life only for the satisfaction of desires is unintelligent; for they have a knack of multiplying themselves as we go on satisfying them one after another. They are ‘hard to appease.’ Filled with insatiable desires, when a man uses his intelligence, abilities and knowledge, he naturally brings about an endless stream of disturbances in and around him.” – from Swami Chinmayananda’s commentary on the Gita (16.10)

06/11/17
“One who reads and speaks on sastras, but for gaining benefits leading to sensory gratification, like a worldly professional, but makes no effort to practise it, is a jnana-bandhu, spiritual imposter.
He whose knowledge is not reflected clearly in his activities, but is used just as worldly professionals do to gain a livelihood, is regarded as a jnana-bandhu.
Those who feel quite satisfied with the fruits of scriptural practices, because they fulfil the bodily needs, namely food and dress, are regarded as jnana-bandhus, spiritual professionals.” – Yoga Vasistha 6u.21.3-5

06/10/17
“A boat may stay in water, but water should not stay in boat. A spiritual aspirant may live in the world, but the world should not live within him.” – Ramakrishna

06/09/17
“A man cannot see his image in flowing water but sees it in water which is at rest. Only that which remains at rest can become the resting-place for all those who wish to seek rest.” – Chuang Tzu

06/08/17
“The will is not free – it is a phenomenon bound by cause and effect – but there is something behind the will which is free.” – Swami Vivekananda

06/07/17
“What men call knowledge, is the reasoned acceptance of false appearances. Wisdom looks behind the veil and sees.” – Sri Aurobindo

06/06/17
“The Self after bringing about the combination with the principles of Nature remains identical with the phenomenon that appears (the snake). The idea is, the snake (creation) appears, because the rope is behind and identical with it. For this reason the snake is called the Vivarta of the rope. They are not two, since creation (appearance) has no separate existence from Brahman, the rope. So the Self and the phenomenon (the Biological, psychological personalities, men, women and their karma etc.) are constantly identical; this is the idea conveyed. Thus the biological and psychological personalities being the outcome (appearances) of the rapid combination of Self with the principles of Prakriti appear to be real, but in truth they are the Vivarta of the Self. The Self alone is real and is constantly identical with the physical, biological and psychological personalities that appear as the snake. This idea is echoed in the Buddhist example of a lighted firebrand moved rapidly producing the impression of a circle or other figures, which do not really exist. The rapid movement of the firebrand is similar here to the rapid combination of the principles of Prakriti and the Self. The point of illumination (from the Buddhist example) is the unreality of unit perceptions, like a man, woman, a biological personality etc. which are comprised basically of the elements of Prakriti and their rapid combination with the Self. Thus by meditating on this aspect of the Truth of Vivarta, absorption in Brahman, the unchangeable, is possible by knowing the phenomenal as not something separate from It, but as identical with It.” – from Swami Bhaskareshwarananda’s Elucidation of Shankaracharya’s Commentary on the Svetasvatara Upanishad, 6.3 by Swami Vedananda

06/05/17
“Meditation is not an escape. Meditation is the acceptance of life in its totality, with a view to transforming it for the highest manifestation of the divine Truth here on earth.” – Sri Chinmoy

06/04/17
“Our history will be what we make of it. If we go on as we are, then history will take its revenge and retribution will not limp in catching up with us. So, just once in a while let us exhault the importance of ideas and information.” – Edward R. Murrow

06/03/17

“I am open to the guidance of synchronicity, and do not let expectations hinder my path.” – Dalai Lama

06/02/17
“When I run after what I think I want, my days are a furnace of stress and anxiety; if I sit in my own place of patience, what I need flows to me, and without pain. From this I understand that what I want also wants me, is looking for me and attracting me. There is a great secret here for anyone who can grasp it.” – Rumi

06/01/17
“A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.” – Aristotle

05/31/17
“How much greater joy beyond our conception to know that that which is now in human form may undergo countless transitions, with only the infinite to look forward to? Therefore it is that the Sage rejoices in that which can never be lost, but endures always.” –  Chuang Tzu

05/30/17
“Do not be misled by what you see around you, or be influenced by what you see. You live in a world which is a playground of illusion, full of false paths, false values and false ideals. But you are not part of that world.” – Sai Baba of Shridi

05/29/17
“When everything is in abundance, dispassion happens. And when dispassion is there, everything comes in abundance.” – Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

05/28/17
“The story of the redemption will not stand examination. That man should redeem himself from the sin of eating an apple by committing a murder on Jesus Christ, is the strangest system of religion ever set up.” – Thomas Paine


“Whatever a man has in superabundance is owed, of natural right, to the poor for their sustenance. So Ambrosius says, and it is also to be found in the Decretum Gratiani: The bread which you withhold belongs to the hungry: the clothing you shut away, to the naked: and the money you bury in the earth is the redemption and freedom of the penniless.” – Thomas Aquinas

05/27/17
“To lead the mind to quietude is the first step. Thereupon, it should be led to nirvana, redemption. At no time does the true content of the mind undergo any change. None of the mind’s functions has any power to change its essence. The mind will have to realize its real character, essence and potential. Then that knowledge will bring full redemption.” – Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha

05/26/17

“Nirvano bhava! Be nirvana embodied! Tranquil at heart,
taking to whatever comes to you from time to time.
Let existence and its extinction be equal to you,
O gentle soul, like whatever is made of crystal or
appears in quartz.” Sage Vasistha (Yoga Vasistha 6u.27.1)

05/25/17
“You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.” – Swami Vivekananda

05/24/17

“The efforts which we make to escape from our destiny only serve to lead us into it.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

05/23/17
“Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn! Look to this Day! For it is Life, the very Life of Life. In its brief course lie all the Verities and Realities of your Existence. The Bliss of Growth, The Glory of Action, The Splendor of Beauty; For Yesterday is but a Dream, And To-morrow is only a Vision; But To-day well lived makes Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness, And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope. Look well therefore to this Day! Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!” – Kalidasa

05/22/17
“The gunas of prakriti perform all karma. With the understanding clouded by egotism, man thinks ‘I am the doer’.” The Bhagavad Gita (III.27)

05/21/17
“Men believe themselves to be free, because they are conscious of their own actions and are ignorant of the causes by which they are determined.” (Spinoza. Ethics III)

05/20/17
“There is only one cause of unhappiness: the false beliefs you have in your head, beliefs so widespread, so commonly held, that it never occurs to you to question them.” – Anthony de Mello, S.J.

05/19/17
“Through intense deep meditation you reach a state that is beyond thought, beyond change, beyond imagination, beyond differences and duality. Once you can stay in that state for a while and come out of it without losing any of it, then the inner divine love will begin to pour through you. You will not see people as different, separate individuals. You will see your own Self in everyone around you. Then the flow of love from within you will be constant and unbroken.” – Swami Muktananda

05/18/17
“No knowledge comes from outside; it is all inside. What we say a man “knows”, should, in strict psychological language, be what he “discovers” or “unveils”; what a man “learns” is really what he “discovers”, by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge.” – Swami Vivekananda

05/18/17

In Chapter 2 of the Tao de Ching, Lao Tse writes:
“The Sage acts, but does not appropriate;
Accomplishes, but claims no credit.
It is because he lays claim to no credit
That the credit cannot be taken away from him.”

05/16/17
“Unawareness of one’s feet is the mark of a pair of shoes that fit; unawareness of the waist is the sign of a belt that fits; unawareness of right and wrong is the mark of a mind that is at ease. It does not change inside and is not affected by external events, and one feels at ease in all circumstances and situations. Once at ease, it is never again not at ease. That is to be at ease through unawareness of being at ease.” – Chuang tzu

05/15/17
“He (Brahman) who rules VIDYA (correct knowledge or clarity) and AVIDYA (ignorance) is different from them. Why again is Vidya or intuition to be transcended? Because that which rules Vidya and Avidya is different (ANYAH) from them. It is the witness beyond both, but in lila appears as Vidya and Avidya. One has to first feel Vidya and Avidya as distinct from Brahman, and then illumine them as the lila of that very Brahman. Otherwise the tremendous joy or Ananda in Vidya, will not allow the sadhaka to proceed to truth which is different from it. Vidya, Avidya and Brahman are not three different things, it is all the lila of the one reality, Brahman.” – Swami Bhaskareshwarananda’s Elucidation of Shankaracharya’s Commentary on the Svetasvatara Upanishad (5.1)

05/14/17
“As long as you think that the cause of your problem is “out there”—as long as you think that anyone or anything is responsible for your suffering—the situation is hopeless. It means that you are forever in the role of victim, that you’re suffering in paradise.” – Byron Katie

05/13/17
“Willpower should be understood to be the strength of the mind, which makes it capable of meeting success or failure with equanimity. It is not synonymous with certain success. Why should one’s attempts always be attended by success? Success breeds arrogance and man’s spiritual progress is thus arrested. Failure, on the other hand, is beneficial, inasmuch as it opens his eyes to his limitations and prepares him to surrender himself. Self surrender is synonymous with eternal happiness.” – Ramana Maharshi

05/12/17
“Now you see what Karma-Yoga means; even at the point of death to help any one, without asking questions. Be cheated millions of times and never ask a question, and never think of what you are doing. Never vaunt of your gifts to the poor or expect their gratitude, but rather be grateful to them for giving you the occasion of practicing charity to them. Thus it is plain that to be an ideal householder is a much more difficult task than to be an ideal Sannyasin; the true life of work is indeed as hard as, if not harder than, the equally true life of renunciation.” – Swami Vivekananda
Photo courtesy of FoodRelief.org

05/11/17
“Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” – Thomas Jefferson

05/10/17
“Those of us who have the privilege to serve this country have an obligation to do our job as best we can. We come from different parties, but we are Americans first. And that’s why disagreement cannot mean dysfunction. It can’t degenerate into hatred. The American people’s hopes and dreams are what matters, not ours. Our obligations are to them. Our regard for them compels us all, Democrats and Republicans, to cooperate, and compromise, and act in the best interests of our nation –- one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.” – Barack Obama

05/09/17
“As soon as you look at the world through an ideology you are finished. No reality fits an ideology. Life is beyond that. … That is why people are always searching for a meaning to life… Meaning is only found when you go beyond meaning. Life only makes sense when you perceive it as mystery and it makes no sense to the conceptualizing mind.” – Anthony de Mello, S.J.

05/08/17
“This world is nothing. It is at best only a hideous caricature, a shadow of the Real. We must go to the Real. Renunciation will take us to It. Renunciation is the very basis of our true life; every moment of goodness and real life that we enjoy is when we do not think of ourselves.” – Swami Vivekananda

05/07/17
“Life is called Samsara – it is the result of the conflicting forces acting upon us. Materialism says, “The voice of freedom is a delusion.” Idealism says, “The voice that tells of bondage is but a dream.” Vedanta says, “We are free and not free at the same time.” That means that we are never free on the earthly plane, but ever free on the spiritual side. The Self is beyond both freedom and bondage. We are Brahman, we are immortal knowledge beyond the senses, we are Bliss Absolute.” – Swami Vivekananda

05/06/17
“The greed of gain has no time or limit to its capaciousness. Its one object is to produce and consume. It has pity neither for beautiful nature nor for living human beings. It is ruthlessly ready without a moment’s hesitation to crush beauty and life.” – Rabindranath Tagore

05/05/17
“Yada yada dharmasaya glinirbhavati bharata
Abhyutthanam-adharmasya tadatmanam srjamyaham” – Gita 4.7
Lord Krishna (an avatar of Vishnu) says: “Whenever there is a decline in dharma and an increase in adharma, He incarnates to protect the world.” (Bhaja Govinda!)

05/04/17
“The same thing can be both good and bad. Whenever you speak of good, bad is also present. The world is a mixture of both. There is not good without bad. They are both sides of the same coin. Both are necessary. We have been given free will and discriminating capacity to select what is beneficial to us and to avoid what is detrimental to us. Even Cobra poison can be used as medicine.” – Swami Satchidananda

05/03/17

“Oftentimes, one strips oneself of passion (desire)
In order to see the Secret of Life:
Oftentimes, one regards life with passion,
In order to see its manifest forms.
These two, the Secret and its manifestations
Are (in their nature) the same;
They are given different names
When they become manifest”
– Lao Tzu

05/02/17
“All the manifested world of things and beings are projected by imagination upon the substratum which is the Eternal All pervading Vishnu , whose nature is Existence- Intelligence ; just as the different ornaments are all made out of the same gold.” ~ Adi Shankara

05/01/17
“Bear in mind, my children, that only cowards and those who are weak commit sin and tell lies. The brave are always moral. Try to be moral, try to be brave, try to be sympathising.” – Swami Vivekananda

04/30/17
“A genuine smile distributes the cosmic current, Prana to every body cell.The happy man is less subject to disease, for happiness actually attracts into the body a greater supply of the Universal life energy.” – Paramahansa Yogananda

04/29/17
“To be free from bondage the wise person must practise discrimination between One-Self and the ego-self.  By that alone you will become full of joy, recognising Self as Pure Being, Consciousness and Bliss.” – Adi Shankara

04/28/17

“The first peace, which is the most important,
is that which comes within the souls of people
when they realize their relationship,
their oneness with the universe and all its powers,
and when they realize that at the center of the universe
dwells the Great Spirit,
and that this center is really everywhere,
it is within each of us.”
– Black Elk

04/27/17
“The Vedanta recognizes no sin it only recognizes error. And the greatest error, says the Vedanta is to say that you are weak, that you are a sinner, a miserable creature, and that you have no power and you cannot do this and that.” – Swami Vivekananda

04/26/17
“The master is within; meditation is meant to remove the ignorant idea that he is only outside. If he is a stranger whom you await, he is bound to disappear also. What is the use of a transient being like that? But so long as you think you are separate or that you are the body, an external master is also necessary and he will appear to have a body. When the wrong identification of oneself with the body ceases, the master will be found to be none other than the Self.” – Ramana Maharshi

04/25/17
‘Like water which can clearly mirror the sky and the trees only so long as its surface is undisturbed, the mind can only reflect the true image of the Self when it is tranquil and wholly relaxed.” – Indra Devi

04/24/17
“A huge tiger called ‘mind’ prowls in the thick jungles of sense-pleasures. Let not those virtuous people who have a deep aspiration for liberation ever wander therein.” – Adi Shankara (Vivekachudamani v. 176)

04/23/17
“As long as a man keeps forming relationships which please his mind, so long will his heart be pierced with nails of sorrow.” – Visnu Purana

04/22/17
“My place is the Placeless, my trace is the Traceless ; ‘Tis neither body nor soul, for I belong to the soul of the Beloved. I have put duality away, I have seen that the two worlds are one; One I seek, One I know, One I see, One I call.” – Rumi

04/21/17
“Who can depart from his pain and aloneness without regret? Too many fragments of the spirit have I scattered in these streets, and too many are the children of my longing that walk naked among these hills, and I cannot withdraw from them without a burden and an ache. It is not a garment I cast off this day, bit a skin that I tear with my own hands… Yet I cannot tarry longer.” – Khalil Gibran

04/20/17
“Loud speech, profusion of words, and possessing skillfulness in expounding scriptures are merely for the enjoyment of the learned. They do not lead to liberation.” – Adi Shankara

04/19/17
“Meditation is not the pursuit of pleasure and the search for happiness. Meditation, on the contrary, is a state of mind in which there is no concept or formula, and therefore total freedom. It is only to such a mind that this bliss comes unsought and uninvited. Once it is there, though you may live in the world with all its noise, pleasure and brutality, they will not touch that mind.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti

04/18/17
“When a minute portion of energy travels along a nerve fibre and causes reaction from centres, the perception is either dream or imagination. But when by the power of long internal meditation the vast mass of energy stored up travels along the Sushumna, and strikes the centres, the reaction is tremendous, immensely superior to the reaction of dream or imagination, immensely more intense than the reaction of sense-perception. It is super-sensuous perception. And when it reaches the metropolis of all sensations, the brain, the whole brain, as it were, reacts, and the result is the full blaze of illumination, the perception of the Self.” – Swami Vivekananda

04/17/17
“The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical. It is the power of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms – this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong to the rank of devoutly religious men.” – Albert Einstein

04/15/17
“The greed of gain has no time or limit to its capaciousness. Its one object is to produce and consume. It has pity neither for beautiful nature nor for living human beings. It is ruthlessly ready without a moment’s hesitation to crush beauty and life.” – Rabindranath Tagore

04/14/17
“The spiritual journey does not consist of arriving at a new destination where a person gains what he did not have, or becomes what he is not. It consists in the dissipation of one’s own ignorance concerning oneself and life, and the gradual growth of that understanding which begins the spiritual awakening. The finding of God is a coming to one?s self.” – Aldous Huxley

04/13/17
“It is all a matter of knowing. We are all indeed already perfect, but until we know it, we had better deal with our ignorance, and that can’t be done just by listening to words. It requires sadhana, trying, doing what we do not wish to do. It means long, hard self-effacing work. The heart of Ashtavakra’s advice is not to give up our practice, but to abandon our strenuous indolence. Striving is the root of sorrow, he says. But who understands this? – Thomas Byron (from his Introduction to “Heart of Awareness”)

04/12/17
“Behold the self by the self through pure enquiry, even as the cool moon perceives the entire space. One is tossed around over the waters of this illusory world-appearance like a piece of straw only as long as one does not get into the secure boat of self-enquiry.” – Yoga Vashistha

04/11/17
“The Purusha, when it identifies itself with nature, forgets that it is pure and infinite. The Purusha does not love, it is love itself. It does not exist, it is existence itself. The Soul does not know, It is knowledge itself. It is a mistake to say the Soul loves, exists, or knows. Love, existence, and knowledge are not the qualities of the Purusha, but its essence. When they get reflected upon something, you may call them the qualities of that something. They are not the qualities but the essence of the Purusha, the great Atman, the Infinite Being, without birth or death, established in its own glory.” – Swami Vivekananada (from his commentary on the Patanjali Yoga Aphorisms)

04/10/17
“There is one way of breathing that is shameful and constricted. Then, there’s another way: a breath of love that takes you all the way to infinity.” – Rumi

04/09/17

“The first and the most important thing is to know that life is one and immortal. Only the forms, countless in number, are transient and brittle. The life everlasting is independent of any form but manifests itself in all forms. Life then does not die… but the forms are dissolved.” – Sri Aurobindo

04/08/17

“That’s what every uncomfortable feeling is for-that’s what pain is for, what money is for, what everything in the world is for: your self-realization.” – Byron Katie

04/07/17

“The mystic and the physicist arrive at the same conclusion; one starting from the inner realm, the other from the outer world. The harmony between their views confirms the ancient Indian wisdom that Brahman, the ultimate reality without, is identical to Atman, the reality within.” – Fritjof Capra

04/06/17

“When you succeed in awakening the Kundalini, so that it starts to move out of its mere potentiality, you necessarily start a world which is totally different from our world. It is the world of eternity.” – Carl Jung

04/05/17

“Let this world-appearance be real or unreal, let it arise or set: but do not let its merits and demerits disturb your equanimity. For, at no time do you have a real relationship with this world-appearance: it is only because of your ignorance that such a relationship has appeared in you.” – Yoga Vasistha v.11 (the Story of King Janaka)

04/04/17

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” – Albert Einstein

04/03/17

“He, who claims to have attained liberation, (but at the same time) fosters possessiveness towards his body, is neither a Knower nor a Yogi; misery alone is his lot.” – Astavakra Samhita 16.10

04/02/17

“Don’t seek happiness. If you seek it, you won’t find it, because seeking is the antithesis of happiness. Happiness is ever elusive, but freedom from unhappiness is attainable now, by facing what is rather than making up stories about it.” – Eckhart Tolle

04/01/17
“There is nothing in the world more shameful than establishing one’s self on lies and fables.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

03/31/17

“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country… corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.” – Abraham Lincoln

03/30/17

“I regard that man as lost, who has lost his sense of shame.” – Plautus

03/29/17

“Always remember deep in your heart that all is well and everything is unfolding as it should. There are no mistakes anywhere, at any time. What appears to be wrong is simply your own false imagination. That’s all. But we live in a universe of Brahman, of Absolute Reality, self -contained Consciousness, where there’s perfection, perfect life, perfect bliss, perfect being. That perfection knows nothing about wrong and right, good and bad, happy and sad. It knows only itself as Perfection. And you are That.” – Robert Adams

03/28.17

“The Perennial Philosophy is expressed most succinctly in the Sanskrit formula, tat tvam asi (‘That art thou’); the Atman, or immanent eternal Self, is one with Brahman, the Absolute Principle of all existence; and the last end of every human being, is to discover the fact for himself, to find out who he really is.” – Aldous Huxley

03/27/17

“It is the duty of all to support and side with Dharma. All must fight and support Dharma regardless of their personality, background, status.” – Swami Vivekananda

03/26/17

“Strength, strength is what the Upanishads speak to me from every page. This is the one great thing to remember, it has been the one great lesson I have been taught in my life; strength, it says, strength, O man, be not weak. Are there no human weaknesses? – says man. There are, say the Upanishads, but will more weakness heal them, would you try to wash dirt with dirt? Will sin cure sin, weakness cure weakness? Strength, O man, strength, say the Upanishads, stand up and be strong.” – Swami Vivekananda

03/25/17

“If you have true gratitude, it will express itself automatically. It will be visible in your eyes, around your being, in your aura. It is like the fragrance of a flower. In most cases if there is a beautiful flower, the fragrance will be there naturally. The flower and its fragrance cannot be separated.” – Sri Chinmoy

03/24/17

“There is a beautiful expression of this in the Chandogya Upanishad: ‘There is this City of Brahman, (that is the body), and in this city there is a shrine, and in that shrine there is a small lotus, and in that lotus there is a small space, (akasa). Now what exists within that small space, that is to be sought, that is to be understood.’ This is the great discovery of the Upanishads, this inner shrine, this guha, or cave of the heart, where the inner meaning of life, of all human existence, is to be found.” – Father Bede Griffiths (Swami Dayananda)

03/23/17

“It is from the numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” – Robert Kennedy

03/22/17

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” – Abraham Lincoln

03/21/17

“Dangerous consequences will follow when politicians and rulers forget moral principles. Whether we believe in God or karma, ethics is the foundation of every religion.” – Dalai Lama

03/20/17

“Humility means that one should not be anxious to have the satisfaction of being honored by others.” – A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

03/19/17

“Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn! Look to this Day! For it is Life, the very Life of Life. In its brief course lie all the Verities and Realities of your Existence. The Bliss of Growth, The Glory of Action, The Splendor of Beauty; For Yesterday is but a Dream, And To-morrow is only a Vision; But To-day well lived makes Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness, And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope. Look well therefore to this Day! Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!” – Kalidasa

03/18/17

“Some people live as though they are already dead. There are people moving around us who are consumed by their past, terrified of their future, and stuck in their anger and jealousy. They are not alive; they are just walking corpses.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

03/17/17

“You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” – Abraham Lincoln

03/16/17

“This is the gist of all worship: to be pure and to do good to others. He who sees Shiva in the poor, in the weak, and in the diseased, really worships Shiva. And if he sees Shiva only in the image, his worship is but preliminary. He who has served and helped one poor man seeing Shiva in him, without thinking of his caste or creed or race or anything, with him Shiva is more pleased than with the man who sees Him only in temples.” – Swami Vivekananda

03/15/17

“The moment you have faith, there is the experience. The moment you have trust, there is realization, there is enlightenment. Then this world no longer exists as the world. The world exists as the Self. It exists as God. And then, with our physical eyes, we can see the light of God everywhere and in everything.’ – Gurumayi Chidvilasananda

03/14/17

“Any kind of expectation creates a problem. We should accept, but not expect. Whatever comes, accept it. Whatever goes, accept it. The immediate benefit is that your mind is always peaceful.” – Swami Satchidananda

03/06/17

“Do not look at anybody in terms of friend or foe, brother or cousin; do not fritter away your mental energies in thoughts of friendship or enmity. Seeking the Self everywhere, be amiable and equal-minded towards all, treating all alike.” – Adi Shankara

03/05/17
“What man needs is not philosophy or religion in the academic or formalistic sense of the term, but ability to think rightly. The malady of the age is not absence of philosophy or even irreligion but wrong thinking and a vanity which passes for knowledge.” – Krishnananda Saraswati

03/04/17
“The love we experience through other people is just a shadow of the love of the inner self. There is a sublime place inside us where love dwells. The love that pulses in the cave of the heart does not depend on anything outside. It does not expect anything. It is completely independent.” – Swami Muktananda

03/03/17
“Yoga believes in transforming the individual before transforming the world. Whatever change we want to happen outside should happen within. If you walk in peace and express that peace in your very life, others will see you and learn something.” – Swami Satchidananda

03/02/17
“The first and the most important thing is to know that life is one and immortal. Only the forms, countless in number, are transient and brittle. The life everlasting is independent of any form but manifests itself in all forms. Life then does not die… but the forms are dissolved.” – Sri Aurobindo
SONY DSC

03/01/17

“The whole world yearns after freedom, yet each creature is in love with his chains; this is the first paradox and inextricable knot of our nature.” – Sri Aurobindo

02/28/17

“A narrow vision is divisive, a broad vision expansive. But a divine vision is all-inclusive.” – Swami Tejomayananda

02/27/17

“Be more humble than a blade of grass, more tolerant than a tree, always offering respect onto others and never expecting any in return.” – Chaitanya Mahaprabhu

02/26/17

“Men of low moral character and false education, generally, would try to fulfil their pernicious ambitions with the help of the wretched vengeful scum of society, who, though physically alive, are dead to all sweetness and goodness in life.” – Chinmayananda Saraswati, commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, 17.4.

02/25/17

“The tragedy of human history is decreasing happiness in the midst of increasing comforts.” – Chinmayananda Saraswati

02/24/17 – Mahashivratri

Mahashivratri – ‘The Great Night of Lord Shiva,’ on the 13th night and the 14th day of the lunar month Phalguna. A night that is solemn and marks a remembrance of “overcoming darkness and ignorance” in one’s life, one’s country and the world. May Lord Shiva, the Great Destroyer, destroy the darkness and ignorance that prevents us from being truly free. Om Namah Shivaya

“In Hinduism, Shiva the Cosmic Dancer, is perhaps the most perfect personification of the dynamic universe. Through his dance, Shiva sustains the manifold phenomena in the world, unifying all things by immersing them in his rhythm and making them participate in the dance – a magnificent image of the dynamic unity of the Universe.” – Fritjof Capra

02/23/17

“Laws just or unjust may govern men’s actions. Tyrannies may restrain or regulate their words. The machinery of propaganda may pack their minds with falsehood and deny them truth for many generations of time. But the soul of man thus held in trance or frozen in a long night can be awakened by a spark coming from God knows where and in a moment the whole structure of lies and oppression is on trial for its life.” – Winston Churchill

02/22/17

“I no longer listen to what people say, I just watch what they do. Behavior never lies.” – Winston Churchill

02/21/17

“I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.” – Abraham Lincoln

02/20/17

“Do not be misled by what you see around you, or be influenced by what you see. You live in a world which is a playground of illusion, full of false paths, false values and false ideals. But you are not part of that world.” – Sai Baba

02/19/17

“The man who promises everything is sure to fulfil nothing, and everyone who promises too much is in danger of using evil means in order to carry out his promises, and is already on the road to perdition.” – Carl Jung

02/18/17

“Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, whose philosopher is a juggler, and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking. Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpetings, and farewells him with hootings, only to welcome another ruler with trumpetings again. Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with years and whose strong men are yet in the cradle. Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation.” – Khalil Gibran

02/17/17

“All action is prayer. All trees are desire-fulfilling. All water is the Ganga. All land is Varanasi. Love everything.” – Neem Karoli Baba

02/16/17

“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.” – Isaac Asimov

02/15/17

“Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.” – John Milton

02/14/17 – Valentine’s Day

4 from the Heart for Valentine’s Day: May this day bring you Love and Clarity…

“Even if a person hurts you, give him love. The worst punishment is to throw someone out of your heart… You should love everyone as God, and love each other. If you cannot love each other, you cannot achieve your goal.” – Neem Karoli Baba

“Love the earth and sun and animals, Despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, Stand up for the stupid and crazy, Devote your income and labor to others… And your very flesh shall be a great poem.” – Walt Whitman

“One of God’s Name is Love . He Himself resides within all , at every moment , everywhere.”
― Anandamayi Ma

“I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close.” – Pablo Neruda

02/13/17

“Go not to the temple to put flowers upon the feet of God, first fill your own house with the fragrance of love. Go not to the temple to light candles before the altar of God, first remove the darkness of sin from your heart. Go not to the temple to bow down your head in prayer, first learn to bow in humility before your fellow men. Go not to the temple to pray on bended knees, first bend down to lift someone who is down trodden. Go not to the temple to ask for forgiveness for your sins, first forgive from your heart those who have sinned against you.” – Rabindranath Tagore

12/31/16

My Dear Beloved Friends,

On this last day of the year, as I fly off to India, I leave you with Swami Sivananda’s admonition for the New Year and mine as well. What higher resolution or goal in life can one have than contemplation – the Key to Perfection. Read as you contemplate with Fiona Joy Hawkins’ “Contemplating.” “Key to Perfection” on My Facebook Page

12/30/16

My Dear Beloved Friends,

On this the next to last day of 2016, Swami Sivananda continues his discourse on the nature of a Jivanmukta (an enlightened being) by explaining how the enlightened one views the world and his/her place in it. “The Sage’s View of the World” is one that is brimming with love, seeing God everywhere. So, listen to Fiona Joy Hawkins’ “Love Forever,” as you read…“Sage’s View of the World” on My Facebook Page

12/29/16

My Dear Beloved Friends,

Now that I am traveling to India and will not be posting until mid-February, I wanted to leave you on these last three days of 2016 with three special readings from Swami Sivananda. In this the first, he explains the true nature a Jivanmukta (an enlightened being). Of course, one does not get to be enlightened without the influence of Divine Grace. So, listen to “Grace” with Fiona Joy Hawkins on piano while you read… “Jivanmukta” on My Facebook Page

12/28/16

“What good is it to me that Mary gave birth to the son of God fourteen hundred years ago, and I do not also give birth to the Son of God in my time and in my culture? We are all meant to be mothers of God. God is always needing to be born.” – Meister Eckhart

12/27/16

“Becoming is not a contradiction of being but the epiphany of being” – Ananda Coomaraswamy

12/26/16

“In shallow men the fish of little thoughts cause much commotion. In oceanic minds the whales of inspiration make hardly a ruffle.” – Sri Yukteswar Giri

12/25/16

“Have a very Merry and Joyful Holiday, Everyone.” – Your host

12/24/16

“All action is prayer. All trees are desire-fulfilling. All water is the Ganga. All land is Varanasi. Love everything.” – Neem Karoli Baba

12/23/16

“The world is not a burden; we make it a burden by our desires. When the desires are removed, the world is as light as a feather on an elephant’s back.” – Baba Hari Dass

12/22/16

“When by the flood of your tears, the inner and the outer have fused into One, you will find Her whom you sought with such anguish, nearer than the nearest, the very breath of life, the very core of every heart.” –Anandamayi Ma

12/21/16

Another quote from Sri Sarada Devi, the Holy Mother, (Sri Maa) in honor of her birthdate

“The whole world is a dream; even this (the waking state) is a dream … What you dreamt last night does not exist now.”

12/20/16

“Such is life, here today, gone tomorrow! Nothing goes with one, except one’s merit and demerit; good and evil deeds follow one even after death.” – Sri Sarada Devi, the Holy Mother (Sri Maa)

12/19/16

“Neither seek nor avoid; take what comes. It is liberty to be affected by nothing. Do not merely endure; be unattached.” – Swami Vivekananda

12/18/16

“A quiet mind does not mean that there will be no thoughts or mental movements at all, but that these will be on the surface, and you will feel your true being within, separate from them, observing but not carried away” – Sri Aurobindo

12/17/16

“Knowing that I am different from the body, I need not neglect the body. It is a vehicle that I use to transact with the world. It is the temple which houses the Pure Self within.” – Adi Shankara

12/16/17

“The question ‘Who am I?’ is not really meant to get an answer, the question ‘Who am I?’ is meant to dissolve the questioner” –  Ramana Maharshi

12/15/16

“The winds of grace are always blowing, but you have to raise the sail.” – Ramakrishna

12/14/16

“Therefore he who delights in understanding the material world is not a Sage.  He who has personal attachments is not humane. He who calculates the time of his  actions is not wise. He who does not know the interaction of benefit and harm is not a superior man. He  who pursues fame at the risk of losing his self is not a scholar. He who loses his life and is not true to himself  can never be a master of man.” – Chuang Tzu

12/13/16

“If you want money more than anything, you’ll be bought and sold your whole life.” – Rumi

12/12/16

“An arrogant man is a lonely creature in the world and his only companions are his own imagined self-importnace and dreams of his glories which none but he can see.” – H. H. Swami Chinmayananda

12/11/16

“There is a huge silence inside each of us that beckons us into itself, and the recovery of our own silence can begin to teach us the language of heaven.” – Meister Eckart

12/10/16

“Are you looking for me?
I am in the next seat.
My shoulder is against yours.
you will not find me in the stupas,
not in Indian shrine rooms,
nor in synagogues,
nor in cathedrals:
not in masses,
nor kirtans,
not in legs winding around your own neck,
nor in eating nothing but vegetables.
When you really look for me,
you will see me instantly —
you will find me in the tiniest house of time.
Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God?
He is the breath inside the breath.”
― Kabir

12/09/15

“God is a comedian playing to an audience that is too afraid to laugh.” – Voltaire

12/08/16

“It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

12/07/16

“Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky, We fell them down and turn them into paper,
That we may record our emptiness.”
― Kahlil Gibran

12/06/16

12/05/16

In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors.” – William Blake

12/04/16

“Be content with what you have;
rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize there is nothing lacking,
the whole world belongs to you.”
― Lao Tzu

12/03/16

“Just as a stone, a tree, a straw, grain, a mat, a cloth, a pot, and so on, when burned, are reduced to earth (from which they came), so the body and its sense organs, on being burned in the fire of Knowledge, become Knowledge and are absorbed in Brahman, like darkness in the light of the sun.” – Adi Shankaracharya

12/02/16

“A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it.” – Tagore

12/01/16

“If science could get rid of consciousness, it would have disposed of the only stumbling block to its universal application.” – Brand Blanchard

11/30/16

“Men honor what lies within the sphere of their knowledge, but do not realize how dependent they are on what lies beyond it.” – Chuang Tzu

11/29/16

“Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf.” – Tagore

11/28/16

At times we flow toward the Beloved
like a dancing stream.
At times we are still water
held in His pitcher.
At times we boil in a pot
turning to vapor –
that is the job of the Beloved.
– Rumi

11/27/16

“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” – Joseph Campbell

11/26/16

“What is lost by ignorance is never really lost.  What is gained by knowledge was always there.” – Swami Sarvapriyananda

11/25/16 – Black Friday

“What is the difference between a discussion and an argument?  A discussion generates light; an Argument generates heat.” – H.H. Swami Chinmayananda

11/24/16 – (Thanksgiving Day)

“To see the world in a grain of sand, and to see heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hands, and eternity in an hour.” – William Blake  

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

11/23/16

“When the flower blooms
The bees come uninvited.”
― Ramakrishna

11/22/16

“That thing of hell and eternal punishment is the most absurd, as well as the most disagreeable thought that ever entered into the head of mortal man.” – George Berkeley

11/21/16

“Most men live like raisins in a cake of custom.” – Brand Blanchard

11/20/16

When the eyes and ears are open,
even the leaves on the trees teach like
pages from the scriptures. – Kabir

11/19/16

“You pray in your distress and in your need, would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.” – Kahlil Gibran

11/18/16

“He who binds to himself a joy Does the winged life destroy; But he who kisses the joy as it flies Lives in eternity’s sun rise.” – William Blake

11/17/16

“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.” – Tagore

11/16/16

“Permeating the earth, I nourish all living beings with my energy. I become the moon and thereby supply the soma, the juice of life, to all vegetation.” – Bhagavad Gita (15:13)

11/15/16

“Lo! God Himself shines here as this mass of spotless snow, as lakes and springs, as these tall peaks and these powerful cold blasts and these crystalline streams. All I see is God. The Himalayas are God. The entire Earth is God. Everything exists in Him. Everything shines because of His brightness.  All beauty is His.” – Sri Swami Tapovanam Maharaj