All truths are old, and all that we have to do is recognize and utter them anew.
- Goethe
A Jesuit priest went to Japan to study in a Zen monastery. He said that after sitting in meditation for long hours his legs would often begin to ache terribly. The master advised him on proper procedure and then asked what practice he was following in meditation. The Jesuit explained that he was sitting silently in the presence of God without words or thoughts or images or ideas. The master then asked if his God was everywhere. The Jesuit nodded his head, "yes." He asked if he was wrapped around in God, and the answer again was yes.
"Very good, very good," said the master. "Continue this way. Just keep on. And eventually you will find that God will disappear and only you will remain." The Jesuit was offended by this for it sounded like a denial of his sacred beliefs. He contradicted the master and said, "God will not disappear. But I might disappear and only God will be left." "Yes, yes," the master agreed, smiling. "It's the same thing. That is what I mean."
- Dick Sutphen in "The Oracle Within"
A Sufi teaching tells of a traveler who was crossing a strange land known as the Land of Fools. While walking down a rural road he observed farmers fleeing in terror. "There's a monster in that field," said a man as he ran past.
The traveler looked out into the field and saw a watermelon. So he called the farmers together and offered to kill the monster for them. He then walked into the field, took out a knife and cut the melon in half and started to eat it. The farmers were horrified and feared the traveler more than they had the watermelon. They drove him out of their world with pitchforks, screaming "He'll kill us next if we don't get rid of him."
The following season another traveler found himself journeying thought the same world, and the same thing happened to him. But instead of offering to kill the monster, he agreed with them that it was dangerous, and by tiptoeing away from it with them he gained their confidence. He spent time in their homes until he could teach them, a little at a time, the facts that would allow them to rise above their fear of watermelons and cultivate the melons themselves.
The truth alone does not make people free. Facts do not change attitudes.
- Dick Sutphen in "The Oracle Within"
A Sufi teaching tells of the man who visited a great mystic to find out how to let go of his chains of attachment and his prejudices. Instead of answering him directly, the mystic jumped to his feet and bolted to a nearby pillar, flung his arms around it, grasping the marble surface as he screamed, "Save me from this pillar! Save me from this pillar!"
The man who had asked the question could not believe what he saw. He thought the mystic was mad. The shouting soon brought a crowd of people. "Why are you doing that?" the man asked. "I came to you to ask a spiritual question because I thought you were wise, but obviously you're crazy. You are holding the pillar, the pillar is not holding you. You can simply let go."
The mystic let go of the pillar and said to the man, "If you can understand that, you have your answer. Your chains of attachment are not holding you, you are holding them. You can simply let go."
- Dick Sutphen in "The Oracle Within"
A Zen master had a beautiful young lady as his pupil. She became pregnant, and she falsely named her teacher as the father of her child. When the child was born, her family indignantly brought the child to the Zen master and accused him of taking advantage of his beautiful young pupil. His only reply was, "Ah-so." They left the child with the Zen master, who enjoyed caring for it and had many beautiful hours playing with the child. After about a year the young lady was very ill, and not wanting to die with this false accusation on her conscience, she told her family that the real father was a young man who lived in a nearby town. Her mother and father immediately went to the teacher and profoundly bowed and apologized and asked for the baby back. The Zen master gave them the baby and said, "Ah-so."
- Ken Keyes in "Handbook to Higher Consciousness"
A Zen monk was with his roshi one day when the roshi was murdered by thieves. His roshi cried out in fear and pain as he was being murdered, and this disturbed the student greatly. He was about to leave the monastery when another roshi approached him and said, "Fool! The object of Zen is not to suppress all emotion, but to free us to fully express at the appropriate moment."
- Dick Sutphen in "Master of Life"
A Zen story concerns an elder monk in a Japanese monastery. The young novices were in awe of this man, not because he was severe with them, but because nothing ever seemed to upset him. A few of the young men decided to test the monk by devising a plan to scare him.
Early one dark winter morning, it was the monk's duty to carry tea to the Founders Hall. The young men hid in the alcove of a long and winding corridor near the entrance to the hall. Just as the monk passed, they rushed out screaming like crazy men. Without faltering a step, the monk continued walking on quietly, carefully carrying the tea. When he arrived at his destination he set down the tray, covered the tea bowl so no dust could fall into it and then fell back against the wall and cried out in shock "Oh-oh-oh!"
A Zen Master relating this story said, "There is nothing wrong with emotions. Only one must not let them carry one away, or interfere with what one is doing."
- Dick Sutphen in "The Oracle Within"
A Zen story describes three men observing a flag fluttering in the breeze:
One man says, "The wind is moving the flag."
The second man says, "No, the flag is moving the wind."
The third man says, "You are both wrong; it is your mind that is moving."
- Dick Sutphen in "The Oracle Within"
A Zen story tells of two monks who met on the road. After their initial greetings, one monk asked the other, "What are you going to do tonight, my friend?" The second monk replied, "I will meditate and pray in the temple. What are you going to do?" "I'm going to spend a night of pleasure with the ladies," he answered.
The monks then went on their own ways, and that night in the house of pleasure, the monk was quite distracted. All he could think about was his friend meditating and praying. But was the other monk at peace with himself? No, he continued to think about his friend enjoying an evening with women.
When you make a choice, accept it completely and surrender to all the experiences that go along with your decision.
- Dick Sutphen in "The Oracle Within"
A Zen student asked his roshi the most important element of Zen.
The roshi replied, "Attention." "Yes, thank you," the student replied. "But can you tell me the second most important element?"
And the roshi replied, "Attention."
- Dan Millman in "Way of the Peaceful Warrior"
A loving person lives in a loving world;
A hostile person lives in a hostile world;
Everyone you meet is your mirror.
- Ken Keyes in "Handbook to Higher Consciousness"
A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.
- Thoreau
A man who was ragged and appeared to be without anything in a physical sense came upon a road boss and said, "Can you help me? I need work."
The road boss said, "Fine, take that large boulder over there and roll it up and down the hill. If you need work that will fulfill your need." The man said, "You don't understand, what I really need is money." The boss replied, "Oh, if it is only money you need, here is fifty dollars. But you cannot spend it."
Again the man was perplexed. "You don't understand, what I really need is food, fuel and clothing, not just money." The boss again replied, "If you are sure this is what you need, then spend the money for food, fuel and clothing, but don't eat the food, or burn the fuel or wear the clothing."
The man was finally forced to look at what he really needed which was a sense of security, peace and inner satisfaction. All totally invisible, all within the mind. All divine sustenance.
- Dr. Wayne Dyer in "Real Magic"
A metaphysician is a man who goes into a dark cellar at midnight without a light looking for a black cat that is not there.
- Baron Bowen
A monk asks:
Is there anything more miraculous than the wonders of nature?
The master answers:
Yes, your awareness of the wonders of nature.
- Angelus Silesius
A warning may not be out of place to those who have a tendency to be argumentative. Those who are easily provoked to argument should recollect that when they rush out eagerly to verbal battle they throw open the doors of their mental fortress, leaving it undefended. At such times any thought-forces which may happen to be in their neighborhood can enter in and possess their mental bodies. While strength is being wasted over points which are often of no importance, the whole tone of their mental bodies is being steadily deteriorated by the influences which are flowing into it. The occult student should exercise great care in permitting himself to enter into arguments. It is a common experience that argument seldom tends to alter the opinion of either side; in most cases it but confirms the opinions already held.
- Arthur E. Powell in "The Mental Body"
Acquisition of [higher] knowledge is not the end, but the means to the end; the end consists of the attainment, thanks to this knowledge of the higher worlds, of greater and truer self-confidence, a higher degree of courage, and a magnanimity and perseverance such as cannot, as a rule, be acquired in the lower world.
For every one step that you take in the pursuit of higher knowledge, take three steps in the perfection of your own character.
- Rudolf Steiner
All nature is art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony, not understood.
All partial evil, Universal Good;
And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite,
One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right.
- Pope
All rising to a great place is by a winding stair.
- Francis Bacon
All that is gold does not glitter
Not all those who wander are lost.
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
- JRR Tolkein.
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women, merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts.
- Shakespeare
All there is in your life is the eternal now moment - and your experience of the moment is created by the programming in your head.
- Ken Keyes in "Handbook to Higher Consciousness"
All we are dealing with wherever we live in the Universe is just different levels of energy, some of which is unmanifest at one extreme, called spirit, and some of which we find at the other extreme in a manifest form which we call matter. Because it is ALL energy and all energy obeys a few basic laws. They are called he laws of physics in science, and called spiritual law in esoterics - everything in the Universe obeys exactly the same laws. The way we see and experience them simply depends on our perspective.
What you see, depends on where you stand.
- Ra Bonewitz in "The Cosmic Crystal Spiral"
An immense amount of suffering is caused by undisciplined imagination. The failure to control the lower passions (especially sex-desire) is the result of an undisciplined imagination, not of a weak will. Even though strong desire is felt, it is creative thought which brings about action. There is no danger in merely seeing or thinking about the object of desire, but when a man imagines himself as giving way to his desires, and allows the desires to strengthen the image he has made, then his danger begins. It is important to realize that there is no power in objects of desire as such, unless and until we indulge in imaginations which are creative. Once having done this, struggle is certain to ensue.
In this struggle we may call upon what we think is our will, and try to escape from the results of our own imaginings by frantic resistance. Few have learned that anxious or frantic resistance inspired by fear are very different from will. The will should rather be employed to control the imagination in the first instance, thus eradicating the cause of our troubles at its source and origin.
- Arthur E. Powell in "The Mental Body"
And the end of all our exploring,
will be to arrive where we started,
and know the place for the first time.
- T.S. Eliot.
And what is life? God manifested in the material plane. For it is in Him that we live and move and have our being.
- Edgar Cayce
Anything that really frightens you may contain a clue to enlightenment. It may indicate to you how deeply you are attached to structure, whether mental, physical, or social. Attachment and resistance are appearances with the same root: when you resist by pulling away your awareness, the emotion is one of fear, and the contraction is experienced as a pull like magnetism or gravity; that is, attachment. That is why we often fear to open our minds to more exalted spiritual beings. We think fear is a signal to withdraw, when in fact it is a sign we are already withdrawing too much.
- Thaddeus Golas in "The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment"
As long as one is in the position of "choosing" to view life from either a dualistic or non-dualistic perspective, then the decision has already been made in favor of the dualistic perspective. Consider what it means to choose - it means that one is separate from the act of choosing, and from the choices. "A person exercising free-will" is operating under the illusion that he/she is a separate entity with the ability to "choose" without having a reason to do so (if one has a reason for making a certain choice, then it is the reason making the choice..) This illusion can be considered the very definition, or basis, of dualism.
For what it's worth, this all seems very confusing to me, too.
- Gerald Bryan on talk.religion.newage
Be more than food for the moon
Be what you came here for
- Kathi Lawder
Before you can do something, you must first be something.
- Goethe
Behead yourself! Dissolve your whole body into Vision; become seeing, seeing, seeing!
- Jalalu'l-Din Rumi
"But if there are forces of light, don't they want to rid the universe of the forces of dark?" she asked?
"Yes, of course they do and we have battled with the Dark Lords for aeons. But neither of us ever wins the war, because it's impossible to win. We are in a universe of duality. Within duality, one half of duality can never win. There is never a final, decisive battle, because just when you think the war is either lost or won, the pendulum swings back on the opposite direction. Fighting duality is like fighting with part of yourself, one hand hitting the other hand. It's frustrating and ultimately pointless."
- From EL*AN*RA, the Healing of Orion, by Solara
Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?
- Job 38:31
Change your thoughts and you change your world.
- Norman Vincent Peale
"Come to the edge" He said.
They said "We are afraid!"
"Come to the edge" He said.
They came. He pushed... and they flew!
- Guillaume Apollinaire
Did we not choose the separation that we may have the joy of reunion?
- William Tucker
Do nothing, and leave nothing undone.
["Doing nothing" is what happens when the doer disappears, it isn't something that one does or chooses not to do.]
- Lao Tzu
Do what you can with what you've got, where you are.
- Theodore Roosevelt
Do your duty always, but without attachment. That is how a man reaches the ultimate Truth; by working without anxiety about results.
- Bhagavad-Gita
Don't believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is illusion. Look with your understanding, find out what you already know, and you'll see the way to fly.
- Richard Bach in "Jonathan Livingston Seagull"
Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your Vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil. The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream.
- James Allen in "As You Think"
Each person has a unique way of finding enlightenment, so don't put them down just because you don't think they are right. Remember, if you Mind, it will matter. If you DON'T MIND, it won't matter. Simple as that..
- Yohan (Deore) on alt.astrology
Ecstatic Love is an ocean, and the Milky Way is a flake of foam floating on it.
- Rumi
Emotional states are the creation of mind.
(You can choose how to react)
The mind obeys the will.
What lies behind the will?
Where is the location of that which lies behind the will?
- Uma Silbey in "The Complete Crystal Guidebook"
Enlightenment is not an attainment; it is a realization. And when you wake up, everything changes and nothing changes. If a blind man realizes that he can see, has the world changed?
- Dan Millman in "Way of the Peaceful Warrior"
Even the desire to be non-violent, when one is violent, is itself violence with what is.
- Gerald Bryan on talk.religion.newage
Even when we get what we addictively want, our wanting to keep things that way automatically creates a new addiction.
- Ken Keyes in "Handbook to Higher Consciousness"
Every human being has the right to do whatever s/he chooses, so long as s/he does not harm another human being.
- One way of stating the Libertarian axiom
Expand your love, your consciousness, and your loving compassion by experiencing everything that everyone does or says as though you had done or said it.
- Ken Keyes in "Handbook to Higher Consciousness"
Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.
- Sabaean axiom
Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.
- I Corinthians 2:9
Few things matter much; most things do not matter at all.
- Bishop Leadbeater
Finally you come to a point where you almost know it all. You are very wise. You are very pure... except for the fact that you may well have gotten caught in the last trap... the desire to know it all and still be you, "the knower." This is an impossibility. For all of the finite knowledge does not add up to the infinite. In order to take the final step, the knower must go. That is, you can only BE it all, but you can't know it all. The goal is non-dualistic - as long as there is a "knower" and "known" you are in dualism.
- Baba Ram Dass in "Be Here Now"
First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
- Epictetus
First you are in the light, then the light is in you, then you and the light become one!
- From "Out On a Limb"
Forget all you know or think you know;
Abandon power and enforced decree.
Inward, where the deepest rivers flow,
Find the currents of eternity....
- Wayland Drew in the Book of Fin Raziel
Go as far as you can see, and when you get there you'll see farther.
- Elbert Hubbard
Go beyond reason to love - it is safe. It is the only safety. Love all you can, and when you are ready all will be shown to you. The state of mind that most needs enlightenment is the one that sees human beings as needing to be guided or enlightened. The sin that most needs to be loved and forgiven is the state of mind that sees human beings as sinners.
- Thaddeus Golas in "The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment"
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
- The Serenity Prayer
Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment. The way is within every one, but not every one is in the way...
- From talk.religion.newage
Happiness adds and multiplies as we divide it with others.
- From Christopher Lane Barber's .plan file
Have you ever noticed how, when you point your finger at someone else, there are three fingers pointing back at you (??)
- Karen Millar on talk.religion.newage
He who knows, does not speak.
He who speaks, does not know.
- Lao Tzu
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter.
- Keats
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come. You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being. Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen! Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory!
- Angels in Revelation
How soon will you realize that the only thing you don't have is the direct experience that there's nothing you need that you don't have?
- Ken Keyes in "Handbook to Higher Consciousness"
I am a lazy man. Laziness keeps me from believing that enlightenment demands effort, discipline, strict diet, non-smoking, and other evidences of virtue. There is a paradise in and around you right now, and to be there you don't even have to make a move. There is nothing you need to do first in order to be enlightened. All potential experiences are within you already. You can open up to them at any time.
- Thaddeus Golas in "The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment"
I am become a transparent eyeball...
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
I am perceiving everyone, including myself, as an awakening being who is here to claim his or her birthright to the higher consciousness planes of unconditional love and oneness.
- Ken Keyes in "Handbook to Higher Consciousness"
I don't take drugs: I am drugs.
- Salvador Dali
"I know that astrology isn't a science" said Gail. "Of course it isn't. It's just an arbitrary set of rules like chess or tennis or, what's the strange thing you British play?"
"Er, cricket? Self-loathing?" "Parliamentary democracy. The rules just kind of got there. They don't make any kind of sense except in terms of themselves. But when you start to exercise those rules, all sorts of processes start to happen and you start to find out all sorts of stuff about people. In astrology the rules happen to be about stars and planets, but they could be about ducks and drakes for all difference it would make. It's just a way thinking about a problem which lets the shape of that problem begin emerge. The more rules, the tinier the rules, the more arbitrary they are, the better. It's like throwing a handful of fine graphite dust on a piece of paper to see where the hidden indentations are. It lets you see the words that were written on the piece of the paper above it that's now been taken away and hidden. The graphite's not important. It's just the means of revealing their indentations. So you see, astrology's nothing to do with astronomy. It's just to do with people thinking about people..."
- Douglas Adams in "Mostly Harmless"
I searched for God and found only myself.
I searched for myself and found only God.
- Sufi proverb
I used to create my own reality, but then I created a reality in which I no longer had the power to create reality.
- John A. Johnson on talk.religion.newage
I was talking to a Zen master the other day and he said, "You shall be my disciple."
I looked at him and said, "Who was Buddha's teacher?" He looked at me in a very odd way for a moment and then he burst into laughter and handed me a piece of clover.
- Alan Watts in "OM: Creative Meditations"
I'm walking though the desert
and I am not frightened although it's hot
I have all that I requested
and I do not want what I haven't got
I have learned this from my mother
See how happy she has made me
I will take this road much further
though I know not where it takes me
I have water for my Journey
I have bread & I have wine
no longer will I be hungry
for the bread of life is mine
I saw a navy blue bird
flying way above the sea
I walked on & I learned later
that this navy blue bird was me
I returned a paler blue bird
and this is the advice they gave me
"you must not try to be too pure
you must fly closer to the sea"
- Sinead O'Connor in "I do not want what I haven't got"
If I defend then I'm attacked.
Choose your enemies carefully, for it is they you will become most like.
- From talk.religion.newage
If I supply you with a thought, you may remember it and you may not. But if I can make you think a thought for yourself, I have indeed added to your stature.
- Elbert Hubbard
If man had never charted a path into the unknown, he would never have discovered the known.
- Miriam R. G. Gould
If our habitual conditioning is to overcome our pain, we will have a tendency to feel overwhelmed when things don't go the way we wish. We may even feel a need to "beat" another's pain. We will find it difficult to connect with them just where they are. We won't be able to touch them with love because if we want anything from somebody, even for them to be out of pain, they will be an object in our mind rather than the subject our heart. If we can open to our own pain and explore our resistances and long-held aversions, there arises the possibility of touching another's pain with compassion, of meeting another as we meet ourselves with a bit more clarity and tenderness. We see in such instances how the work we do on ourselves is clearly of benefit to all sentient beings. Each person who works to open his heart touches the heart of us all. When we are no longer recreating the problem, we reaffirm the solution. We discover from day to day how the healing we do for ourselves is a healing for us all.
- Stephen Levine in "Healing into Life and Death"
If there is existence, there must be non-existence. And if there was a time when nothing existed, there must have been a time before that - when even nothing did not exist. Suddenly, when nothing came into existence, could one really say whether it belonged to the category of existence or non-existence?
- Chuang-Tzu
If you dream hard enough and love long enough, anything is possible.
- From "The Boy Who Could Fly"
If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time.....
But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine,
then let us work together.
- Aboriginal Woman in Michele Lord's .sig file
If you meet the Buddha in the road, kill him.
- Zen Buddhist saying
If you seek to be one of the Chosen, simply choose yourself!
- Star-Borne bumper sticker
If you want to do a certain thing,
you first have to be a certain person.
Once you become that certain person,
you will not care anymore about doing that certain thing.
- Dogen
If you want to help others with their growth, work on your own.
If you want to work on your own growth, help others with theirs.
- Walter D. Pullen on talk.religion.newage
If you wish to reach the stage of enjoying everything, then seek enjoyment in nothing.
- Saint John
In Buddhism there is no place for using effort. Just be ordinary and nothing special. Eat your food, move your bowels, pass water, and when you're tired go and lie down. The ignorant will laugh at me, but the wise will understand.
- Lin-chi
In a human-potential story you are told to imagine yourself walking down a road by the sea when you come upon a drowning man. Because you don't know how to swim, you can deal with the problem in one of three ways:
1. Sympathy: You jump in the river and drown with him.
2. Empathy: You sit down and moan and cry about him drowning.
3. Compassion: You do something about it. Throw him a rope or run and find someone who knows how to swim.
- Dick Sutphen in "The Oracle Within"
In great trials a man generally tries to act as he ought, while in little affairs he shows himself as he really is.
- Anonymous
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
- John 1:1
In the long run you hit only what you aim at. Therefore, though you should fail immediately, you had better aim at something high.
- Thoreau
"In the sphere of duality, the highest attainment which you could achieve as an individualized unit of consciousness was the state termed Unconditional Love. Now we shall leave even that behind, as we move into the realm of All-Encompassing Love, where love simply is - all pervading, inside outside, everywhere. It is the glue which holds our Star together. Where there is no more 'I love you,' for we are no longer living under the illusion of separation, but where love - simply is... It is the foundation of everything."
- From EL*AN*RA, the Healing of Orion, by Solara
In the warrior's path, women don't feel important... because importance waters down fierceness. In the warrior's path, women are fierce. They don't demand anything, yet they are willing to give anything of themselves. They fiercely seek a signal from the spirit of things in the form of a kind word, an appropriate gesture; and when they get it, they express their thanks by redoubling their fierceness.
In the warrior's path, women don't judge. They fiercely reduce themselves to nothing order to listen, to watch, so they can conquer and be humbled by their conquest or be defeated and enhanced by their defeat.
In the warrior's path, women don't surrender. They may be defeated a thousand times, but they never surrender. And above all, in the warrior's path, women are free.
- Florinda Donner in "The Witch's Dream"
It is better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you are not.
- Andre Gide
It is easier to fight for one's principles than live up to them.
- Alfred Adler
It is important not to judge others for their pleasures of the flesh. What you deny to others will be denied to you, for the plain reason that you are always legislating for yourself, all your words and actions define the world you want to live in. One of the necessary laws for our relations as equal beings is this: What you say, goes - but only for you and those who agree with you. If you say a man should not receive help undeservedly, it may not affect his life much, but it will hold for you: you will not get undeserved help. If you say other people's sexual preferences are vulgar, it won't change their experiences, but your pleasures will become vulgar. It is precisely your unlimited power to control your experience that hangs you up. How much compassion and forgiveness do you want for yourself? Give it to others. Go to the extreme: forgive all beings for their karmic debts to you. Grant to others the freedom, the love, the consciousness that you want for yourself.
- Thaddeus Golas in "The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment"
It is in giving that we receive.
- Saint Francis
It is not a personal affront to you when someone is being discordant, it is a measure of his pain. He's showing you how much he hurts, and how much compassion he needs. But keep in mind, too, that not all victims are innocent. In a certain karmic sense, no victims are innocent, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't help them, for it is our fate to exist in a relation to them, and how we behave determines our own karma. But we should give help in a way that does not extend our attachment to low vibrations. That means we should give what we would expect to get, good or bad, in the same circumstance, and begin with the knowledge that all beings are equals.
- Thaddeus Golas in "The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment"
It is not entertainment I am seeking. It is understanding. Understanding, understanding, and more understanding. I will stuff myself with it, sniff it up with every pore, cram it into every orifice. Someday it will pay off. Everything will fall into its proper place, and I will, at last, understand.
- Laurel Coldman
It takes years for average persons in the nagual's world to remove themselves from their involvement with themselves and be capable of seeing the wonder of it all.
- Florinda Donner in "The Witch's Dream"
It's good to remember that the sum of all knowledge that we possess is but a tip of an immense iceberg, much of which remains unknown, under the surface. Also, the more you know the less you really know, until such time when you come to know nothing at all. This is when you no longer are and knowledge no longer exists! :)
- Bob Pietkivitch
It's not how high you are, it's "Hi, how are you?"
- Mike Sugarbaker
Joshu is my favorite Zen Master. It is said that a monk once asked him, "To be holy - what is it like?"
Joshu replied, "To dump a mountain of sh*t on a clean plain." In Zen language that means if we do not divide the world into "holy" and "unholy," there is nothing to stain it.
- Dick Sutphen in Master of Life magazine
Knowledge is the antidote to fear.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Knowledge is the knowing that we cannot know.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Life is warning you to get rid of an addiction every time you are emotionally uncomfortable in any way.
- Ken Keyes in "Handbook to Higher Consciousness"
Life must be lived as play.
- Plato
Love God and do what you will.
- Saint Augustine
Love as much as you can from wherever you are. This line is especially good to recall when you feel frightened, crazy, or have taken some bad dope. Write it on the wall of your room. You may not want to love what you feel or see, you may not be able to convince yourself that you could love it at all. But just decide to love it. Say out loud that you love it, even if you don't believe it. And say, "I love myself for hating this."
- Thaddeus Golas in "The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment"
Love everyone unconditionally... including yourself.
- Ken Keyes in "Handbook to Higher Consciousness"
Love is cool; I mean, like, really cool. Like, the coolest thing in the universe, where, like, people open up inside and show the world how they feel, and they ain't afraid someone's gonna laugh because they, like, love themselves already!
- Personality 42, a generic 60's philosopher
Love is the answer...
- Karen Millar's .signature file
Love it the way it is. The way you see the world depends entirely on your own vibration level. When your vibration changes, the whole world will look different. It's like those days when everyone seems to be smiling at you because you feel happy. The way to raise your vibration level is to feel more love. Start by loving your negative feelings, your own boredom, dullness and despair. It's hard to believe, but changing the content of your mind does nothing to change your vibration level.
For the purpose of raising your awareness, it is useless to change your ideas, your faith, your behavior, your place of residence, or your companions. It is not arbitrary or an accident that you are where you are, so you might as well get your attitude straight before you make a change. Otherwise you might find yourself chasing all over creation looking for the right place, and not even the Sea of Infinite Bliss will feel right to you. You take yourself with you wherever you go. As they say in Zen: If you can't find it where you are standing, where do you expect to wander in search of it?
- Thaddeus Golas in "The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment"
Loving yourself is a willingness to be in the same space with your own creations. How contracted would you become if you try to withdraw from your own ideas? Loving yourself is not a matter of building your ego. Egotism is proving you are worthwhile after you have sunk into hating yourself. Loving yourself will dissolve your ego: you will feel no need to prove you are superior.
- Thaddeus Golas in "The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment"
Make no judgments where you have no compassion.
- Anne McCaffrey
Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by the dozens.
- Montaigne
Man is often too proud to examine the self-evident things which are closest to him. Zen found the followers of the Mahayana looking for truth to scriptures, to holy men and Buddhas, believing that they would reveal it to them if they lived the good life. For man's apparent humility in thinking that wisdom is something too sublime to reveal itself in the ordinary affairs of his life is a subtle form of pride. Inwardly he feels that he must be so great as to be removed from the things of the world before he can receive truth, and such is his pride that he will only deign to receive it from the lips of sages and from the pages of sacred scriptures. He does not see it in human beings or in the incidents of everyday life; he does not see it in himself, for again he is too proud to see himself as he is. So far from seeking for truth he hides his imperfections under his 'meritorious deeds' and approaches the Buddhas from behind their mask.
- Alan W. Watts in "The Spirit of Zen"
Many people come;
looking, looking, taking picture.
Too many people.
No good...
Some people come, see.
Good!
- Dawa Tenzing at Thyangboche Monastery in Nepal, 1973
Materialistic success can be explained quite simply. Those who succeed focus their attention on success - not on their talent. Remember these words! All of their efforts are focused toward the upward movement rather than the perfection of their artistic ability. Neither do they allow anyone to anything to stand in the way of reaching their goals. This includes wives, families, friends and their children. They are prepared to pay the very high price that success demands.
- Brad Steiger in "The World Beyond Death"
Meaning can only be understood in relation to its environment. Therefore, the words only make full sense in context... There are no absolutes, there is no meaning without relationships, everything is not only interacting but interdependent. The kahunas use this idea to help give a person a powerfully secure sense of significance, while at the same time teaching him that to heal himself is to heal the world, and to heal the world is to heal himself. This is not a loss of individuality, but an understanding that individuality itself is a relationship with the environment.
- Serge King in "Kahuna Healing"
More than likely, we will never achieve the satisfaction of knowing a single "why" of our becoming... Any answer would necessarily include understanding the why of the why, and that would be a little like looking into one's own eyes.
- Frances Wosmek in "Acknowledge the Wonder"
Nearly all spiritual practices are based on attention. In fact, whenever you think you have lost the path, or whenever you feel confused by esoteric terminology or technique, remember that all these techniques or teachings are various ways to help you learn to pay attention.
- Rick Fields in "Chop Wood, Carry Water"
Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
- Luke 17:21
Never wrestle with a pig - you both get covered in sh*t, but the pig likes it.
- From alt.astrology
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
- Eleanor Roosevelt
Oh, oh, I just hurt that person by what I said. I must control my behavior better in the future. Whoops, there, I did it again. Hmmm, my behavior seems to come from my thoughts/feelings, so if I control them, then I won't have to worry about controlling my behavior. Uh, oh, there goes a bad thought. I'll replace it with a good one. Whoops, gotta bad feeling. Lessee now, which good one should I replace it with? Hmmm, the problem is that by the time I know I have a bad thought or feeling, it's already happened. How can I control something that I don't even know is coming? Wait a minute, why do I want to control my thoughts/feelings? Isn't the desire for control itself a feeling? Where does it come from? I seem to want control in order to avoid seeing/thinking/feeling certain things. Somehow, these things are threatening to me. In what way do these things threaten me? Somehow, I perceive them as being "alien" and "not me". But how do I know what is "me" and "not me"? Who is deciding this? Perhaps the boundary needs to be examined. Who created the boundary, and who is going to examine it?
- Gerald Bryan on talk.religion.newage
On a clear day, rise and look around you and you'll see who you are
on a clear day, how it will astound you
that the glow of your being outshines every star!
You feel part of every mountain, sea and shore.
You can hear from far and near a world you've never heard before
And on that clear day you can see forever more
- Alan Jay Lerner
Once upon a time men were possessed by devils. Now they are not less obsessed by ideas
- CG Jung
One of my psychedelic excursions had gotten off to a bad start, and I was sinking into a really satanic bummer. As I looked about me at people turning evil, shrunken, colorless, old, and weird, I suddenly thought, "Well, what did you think it was that needed to be loved?" And just like that the doors opened and I was in paradise.
No resistance. This does not mean that you must be physically passive or meekly put up with bad vibrations or rip-offs. This means no resistance in your mind. Be free in your head, act out of love, and do what feels good. There is no action that is always right or wrong: the only true variable is the love with which you act. As you open your awareness, life will improve of itself, you won't even have to try. It's a beautiful paradox: the more you open your consciousness, the fewer unpleasant events intrude themselves into your awareness.
- Thaddeus Golas in "The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment"
One's distance from Heaven is in proportion to the measure of one's self-love.
- Emanuel Swedenborg
People think Angels can fly because they have wings. Angels fly because they can take themselves lightly. Namaste.
- Lynn M. McDougal on alt.astrology
Philosophy is the art of drawing conclusions from definitions that have been chosen so that one can draw the conclusions one would like to get. It immediately follows that philosophy is silly.
- Thomas Kettenring's .sig file.
Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.
- From Seth Cohn's .signature file
Pray to God but keep rowing to shore.
- Russian Proverb
Prayer is the wing wherewith the soul flies to heaven.
- Saint Ambrose
Relationship... is the mirror in which you discover yourself. Without relationship you are not; to be is to be related; to be related is existence. You exist only in relationship; otherwise you do not exist; existence has no meaning. It is not because you think you are that you come into existence. You exist because you are related; and it is the lack of understanding of relationship that causes conflict.
- Krishnamurti
Remember that all is One... and what you do to your neighbor, your friend or your foe, is a reflection of what you think of your Creator.
- Edgar Cayce
Remember that all things are only opinion and that it is in your power to think as you please.
- Marcus Aurelius
Remember, you cannot abandon what you do not know. To go beyond yourself, you must first know yourself.
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream!
- Old children's song
Science is the branch of mysticism that deals with the measurable. Mysticism is the branch of science that deals with the unmeasurable.
- Ra Bonewitz in "The Cosmic Crystal Spiral"
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
- Helen Keller
Seems it strange that thou should live forever? Is it less strange that thou shouldst live at all? This is a miracle, and that no more.
- Edward Young
Self-improvement is a dangerous form of vanity.
- Alan Watts
Signs of being 'touched' spiritually:
1) Big dopey grin.
2) Urge to touch other people. Spiritually, that is.
3) Urge to tell everyone over and over how happy and how wonderful things are.
4) Constant use of trite pollyanna sayings.
5) Simplistic pollyanna attitude.
- William Henry Timmins on alt.pagan
Somewhere a day is ending, ushering in the coming night;
Somewhere a day is dawning, bringing in the morning light.
- Alva W. Browser
Stress is the result of attachment –
No attachment... no stress.
- Uma Silbey in "The Complete Crystal Guidebook"
The motive for purifying yourself - that you feel spiritually impure - will prevent any genuine gain until you learn to love the impurity you started with. Can any being seriously think that he is going to pass through the infinity of time without ever making another mistake? Quite often a flash of enlightenment will give you this message: Go back to where you started and learn to love it more.
- Thaddeus Golas in "The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment"
The Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh tells a story that demonstrates how prejudices can function: A young boy and his father went to the zoo and stood in front of the lion cage fascinated with the animals inside. While the father was distracted for a moment, the boy inched between the bars of the outer crowd retainer and stood within inches of the cage. As a lion bounded toward the boy, the father leaped over the retainer and snatched his son to safety, just as the lion's claws shot out between the bars and swiped at the boy.
A journalist was in the crowd and he decided to write a short feature about it. Among other questions, he asked the father, "What political party do you belong to?"
"I'm a Nazi," the father replied. The following morning's newspaper carried the headline, "A Dirty Nazi Steals the Lunch of a Hungry African Immigrant."
- Dick Sutphen in "The Oracle Within"
The Lord Buddha was once asked by a disciple to sum up the whole of His teaching in one verse. He replied: -
Cease to do evil;
Learn to do well;
Cleanse your own heart;
This is the religion of the Buddha.
- Arthur E. Powell in "The Mental Body"
The Zen master was asked the solemn question--what is buddha? He took off his sandal, put it on his head, and walked away.
- From sorsha's .signature file
The ally we must cultivate is the part of our enemy which knows the truth.
- Mohandas K. Gandhi
The great obstacle of progress is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge.
- Rod Beckwith's .sig file.
The human mind never framed an aphorism containing a more important truth than this one: "All seeming misfortunes are blessings in disguise." There is but one qualification necessary to render this an aphorism of universal validity; namely, one must have performed his whole duty on the premises. That is to say, if he does all that he can, honestly and honorably, to avert a threatened calamity, he will find that if he yields not to discouragement or despair when the catastrophe comes, it will invariably prove to have been a blessing. Seeming calamities are often the result of one's having mistaken his calling; and it frequently happens that the best part of one's lifetime is spent in a vain search for the work which the Lord gave him to do. But if courage is not lost, and his career is characterized by industry and integrity, he is sure to find it at last. He can then look back upon his past life and see cause to thank God for every seeming misfortune as fervently as for every season of prosperity; for he will then realize that each has constituted a step in the pathway leading to his true sphere of usefulness.
- Thomson Jay Hudson in "The Evolution of the Soul"
The love and peace of higher consciousness flow from just being - and enjoying it all. Anything you do will not be enough unless you feel fulfilled in just being. Usually we are not happy when we find doing whatever it is that we think we have to do. Doing creates expectations that your world and the people around you may or may not fit. The things we do disappear in time. We must learn to appreciate just being alive in the nowness of whatever situation we are in.
- Ken Keyes in "Handbook to Higher Consciousness"
The meaning of here and now is beautifully illustrated by a Zen story of a monk who was being chased by two tigers. He came to the edge of a cliff. He looked back - the tigers were almost upon him. Noticing a vine leading over the cliff, he quickly crawled over the edge and began to let himself down the vine. Then as he checked below, he saw two tigers waiting for him at the bottom of the cliff. He looked up and observed that two mice were knawing away at the vine. Just then, he saw a beautiful strawberry within arm's reach. He picked it and enjoyed the best tasting strawberry in his whole life!
- Ken Keyes in "Handbook to Higher Consciousness"
The meaning of life is to find out what the meaning of life is.
- Walter D. Pullen
The miracle is this - the more we share, the more we have.
- Leonard Nimoy
The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed.
- Albert Einstein
The most famous Zen story concerns Nanin, a Japanese master. A university professor once visited him to inquire about Zen. Nanin served the man tea, pouring his visitor's cup full and continued pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he could not longer restrain himself. "It is full to overflowing. No more will go in!" he said.
Nanin replied, "Like this cup, you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"
Self-actualization is the process of deprogramming, not the acquiring of new knowledge.
- Dick Sutphen in "The Oracle Within"
The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything.
- Theodore Roosevelt
The pain man creates by attempting to gain his own pleasures, reacts upon him as his own pain. When man ceases to be the cause of pain, he will cease to be the receiver of it. When man becomes the cause of delight he will reap only delight. And each must learn this lesson for himself.
- Earlyne Chaney in "Shining Moments of a Mystic"
The past is dead;
The future is imaginary;
Happiness can only be in the Eternal Now Moment.
- Ken Keyes in "Handbook to Higher Consciousness"
The physical universe was created when Oneness became duality, and we can see this duality, this yin and yang, everywhere in the universe, in every atom, every action, and in every function of the human body. Yin and yang are manifest everywhere, except at the very center of being, the perfect point of balance, at that infinite moment where the future becomes the past.
- Robert B. Tisserand
The physically weak man can make himself strong by careful and patient training, so the man of weak thoughts can make them strong by exercising himself in right thinking.
- James Allen in "As You Think"
The purpose of meditation, paradoxically, is to learn to be without purpose. Since nearly everything we do in life is done with some goal in mind, most of our actions are only means to an end, pointing us continually toward a future that does not exist. But meditation, when no goal distracts it, allows us to discover the richness and profundity of the present moment. We begin to realize the miraculous power of our own lives - not as they will be, or as we might imagine they once were at some golden time in the past, but as they actually are. Meditation is one of the few things in life that is not about DOING but about BEING.
- Rick Fields in "Chop Wood, Carry Water"
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.
- Marcel Proust
The saints are what they are, not because their sanctity makes them admirable to others, but because of the gift of sainthood makes it possible for them to admire everybody else.
- Thomas Merton
The secret to enjoying life is to take an interest in it.
- Thomas Troward in "The Law and the Word"
The student should bear in mind that the very essence of consciousness is constantly to identify itself with the Not-Self, and as constantly to re-assert itself by rejecting the Not-Self. Consciousness, in fact, consists of this alternating assertion and negation - "I am this" - "I am not this." Hence consciousness is, and causes in matter, the attracting and repelling that we call a vibration.
- Arthur E. Powell in "The Mental Body"
The surest way not to fail is to determine to succeed.
- Richard Brinsley Sheridan
The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self.
- Albert Einstein
The ultimate purpose of our life is to rejoin God in conscious participation of divinity.
- Edgar Cayce
There are many paths to enlightenment. Some of us who have expanded to a degree of illumination have thereafter preached the dogmatic certainty of one particular path. But enlightenment doesn't care how you get there. And if you aren't going to be thinking about it in paradise, then don't worry about it now.
- Thaddeus Golas in "The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment"
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
- Hamlet
There is a famous story in India about two brothers. The elder brother left home and prayed in the forest most intensely. At the end of twelve years he returned home.
The younger brother was delighted to see him and he requested, "Please, please show me some occult power. You have practiced for twelve long years while I have been leading an ordinary life. Please show me what you have accomplished."
The elder brother said, "Come with me." The two brothers entered the village and walked to the river. At the river bank the elder brother sat down and entered into deep meditation. After a while he stood up and walked across the river on the surface of the water.
Immediately the younger brother hailed the ferryman, gave him an anna and was quickly rowed across the river to join his brother. When the two brothers were joined together, the younger brother said, "You had to slave for twelve years to be able to do something that I can do in five minutes? Is this the result of your years of spiritual discipline and austere life? Shame, shame!"
The elder brother realized that he had foolishly wasted his twelve years. He left home once more, this time to aspire only for Truth, only for Light, only for God.
- Sri Chinmoy in "Kundalini - the Mother Power"
There is a parable about a poor man walking through the woods reflecting upon his many troubles. He stopped to rest against a tree, a magical tree that would instantly grant the wishes of anyone who came in contact with it. He realized he was thirsty and wished for a drink. Instantly a cup of water was in his hand. Shocked, he looked at the water, decided it was safe and drank it. He then realized he was hungry and wished he had something to eat. A meal appeared before him. "My wishes are being granted," he thought in disbelief. "Well, then I wish for a beautiful home of my own," he said out loud. The home appeared in the meadow before him. A huge smile crossed his face as he wished for servants to take care of the house. When they appeared he realized he had somehow been blessed with an incredible power and he wished for a beautiful, loving, intelligent woman to share his good fortune.
"Wait a minute, this is ridiculous," said the man to the woman. "I'm not this lucky. This can't happen to me." As he spoke everything disappeared. He shook his head and said, "I knew it," then walked away thinking about his many troubles.
Thoughts are things and they create your reality.
- Dick Sutphen in "The Oracle Within"
There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly vanish and be replaced by something even more bizarre and incomprehensible. There is another theory which states that this has already happened...
- Douglas Adams in "The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe"
There is no absurdity so palpable but that it may be firmly planted in the human head if only you begin to incubate it before the age of five by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity.
- Schopenhauer
There is no religion higher than Truth.
- Seal of the Theosophical Society
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
- Shakespeare
There is nothing to seek and nothing to find. You're already enlightened, and all the words in the world won't give you what you already have. The wise seeker, therefore, is concerned with one thing only: to become aware of what he already is, of the True Self within.
- Zen maxim as in Ed Carp's .sig file.
There is something in such laws that takes the breath away. They are not discoveries or inventions of the human mind, but exist independently of us. In a moment of clarity, one can at most discover that they are there and take them into account. Long before there were people on the earth, crystals were already growing in the earth's crust. On one day or another, a human being first came across such a sparkling morsel of regularity lying on the ground or hit one with his stone tool and it broke off and fell at his feet, and he picked it up and regarded it in his open hand, and he was amazed.
- M. C. Escher in "Approaches to Infinity"
Things should be as simple as possible, but not simpler.
- Albert Einstein
Thinking about sense-objects
Will attach you to sense-objects;
Grow attached, and you become addicted;
Thwart your addiction, it turns to anger;
Be angry, and you confuse your mind;
Confuse your mind, you forget the lesson of experience;
Forget experience, you lose discrimination;
Lose discrimination, and you miss life's only purpose;
[Miss life's only purpose, and you think about sense-objects.]
- Bhagavad-Gita
Those who are enlightened 'liberate' themselves not from the world but from their own deluded minds, which force metaphysical distinctions upon the world. If it is a cow, it is a cow; if it is a moon shining through the window, it is moonlight.
- Zen Master Nansen
Those who of old were good practicers of Tao did not use it to make people bright, but rather used it to make them simple.
- Lao Tzu
Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first makes angry.
- Euripides
Thus the skilled master of life never opposes things; he never tries to change things by asserting himself against them; he yields to their full force and either pushes them slightly out of direct line or else moves them right around in the opposite direction without ever encountering their direct opposition. That is to say, he treats them positively; he changes them by acceptance, by taking them into his confidence, never by flat denial.
Thus the highest form of man makes himself a vacuum so that all things are drawn to him; he accepts everything until by including all things he becomes their master. It is the principle of controlling things by going along with them, of mastery through adaptation.
- Alan W. Watts in "The Spirit of Zen"
To feel young one must continually feed upon new thought. The body needs constant supplies of fresh and nutriment, and the mind has needs that are no less exacting.
- W. J. Colville
To prevent contact with the entrapped spirits of darkness, you must practice loving all things unconditionally and seek to make contact with your Higher Self, your Soul. When you vibrate with the highest form of love, contact with your Soul is quite easy, for both of you are vibrating on a similar frequency.
- Brad Steiger in "The World Beyond Death"
To understand a problem obviously requires a certain intelligence, and that intelligence cannot be derived from or cultivated through specialization. It comes into being only when we are passively aware of the whole process of our consciousness, which is to be aware of ourselves without choice, without choosing what is right and what is wrong. When you are passively aware, you will see that out of that passivity - which is not idleness, which is not sleep, but extreme alertness - the problem has quite a different significance; which means there is no longer identification with the problem and therefore there is no judgment and hence the problem begins to reveal its content. If you are able to do that constantly, continuously, then every problem can be solved fundamentally, not superficially.
- Krishnamurti
Truth is like beauty. It's relative, and often fades over time.
- I. Chris English on alt.astrology
Two Zen monks were once traveling together when they came to a stream widened by recent rainfall. By the bank stood a beautiful young woman dressed in fine clothes. She obviously wanted to cross the water but was distressed at the prospect of ruining her finery. Without hesitation one of the monks offered to carry the young woman across the stream on his back. She gratefully accepted his kind offer. The monk helped to hoist her up on his back and without more ado carried her across and put her down on the dry ground.
The two monks then continued on their way, but the other monk started complaining. "It is not right to touch a woman, especially one so young and lovely. It is against our commandments to experience close contact. How could you go against the rules for monks?" The monk who had carried the woman walked along silently for a few minutes before replying. Finally he said, "I set her down by the river, but you are still carrying her."
- Dick Sutphen in "The Oracle Within"
Ultimately, your greatest teacher is to live with an open heart.
- Emmanuel
Watching quietly, listening softly
Dance with life, and be.
- Ariel Controna-Decene-Diversonac
We are all teachers, and what we teach is what we need to learn, and so we teach it over and over again until we learn it.
- From a Course in Miracles
We are what we pretend to be.
- Kurt Vonnegut
We both exist and know that we exist, and rejoice in this knowledge.
- Saint Augustine
We have all probably gone through periods of belief system house-cleaning, with the feeling of being in control and taking charge of our lives, success, and all of that. What I'm suggesting is that there is a basic illusion underlying this appearance, which is the feeling that "I" am doing this. If I choose to change a belief for whatever reason, then who has chosen the new belief? Me, or the reason for the choice? Choosing to change one's belief system is a good way to avoid looking at one's relationship to belief systems per se. We are motivated by pain, or uncomfortableness, and rather than understand our relationship to those feelings, we seek to change them by adopting new belief systems, finding new lovers, moving to different cities, changing jobs, ... We always try to "fix" what is perceived as being outside of us, rather than trying to understand the motivation to fix.
- Gerald Bryan on talk.religion.newage
We keep so busy talking
we are so keen to act
that we forget
that in the heart
lies all we need
untapped, intact.
- Angelus Silesius
We make boundaries so that we can feel separate and move coherently through the world: it's part of our necessary natural growth to do that. In doing it, we forget the secret, which is that we are not separate...
Respect your limits. Love your limits; they protect you from an abundance so immense it can be intolerable. If, however, you stretch your limits also, you will move in the direction of receiving and becoming unconditional love.
- Julie Henderson in "The Lover Within"
We see things not as they are - but as we are.
- Ken Keyes in "Handbook to Higher Consciousness"
We turn to Spirit for help when our foundations are shaking, only to find out that it is Spirit who is shaking them.
- Dan Millman in "The Way of the Peaceful Warrior"
We're space aliens because Earth is in Space!
- Gary Murphy's 3 year old son
What am I doing on a level of consciousness where this is real? That is the first question to ask yourself when you become aware of something ugly or evil or stupid.
- Thaddeus Golas in "The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment"
What does it mean, to be whole? It means that we must be willing to conceive of, to contain within ourselves, whatever is "other than" any limited idea. It means knowing that when we create a positive, we are at the same time creating a negative. When we choose an ideal of knowledge, then we must deal with the ignorance that is other than the knowledge. When we emphasize an ideal of holiness, then we must live with the sin that is its companion, and accept our responsibility for having created it.
However, if we remain constantly open and unresisting to such negatives, we are not compelled to dwell on them: If we allow that ugliness is always within us, then we are free to create beauty. If we know that stupidity is always within us, then we are free to emphasize this intelligence.
Love is the highest and holiest action because it always contains that which is not love within itself, it always and ever moves to include the unloving.
- Thaddeus Golas in "The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment"
What you are looking for is what you are looking with.
- Ernest Holmes.
What you cannot think about, you cannot control. What you cannot conceive of in your awareness, you will stumble over in your path. Violent human beings are precisely those who refuse at some time that they could be violent. It also happens that if you are unwilling to conceive of people being the victims of violence, you may become a victim yourself, for you will not be sufficiently aware of how it happens to avoid it. Everything that is manifest begins in the spirit: every evil that is manifest to us is there because we refused to conceive of causing it, or denied someone else the freedom to conceive of it. The way out, as hard as it may be to believe, is not by resisting further, by moving the furniture around, but by being willing to conceive of it - by loving it, in short. As we should have done in the first place.
Unfortunately, most people with good intentions are trying to deny or eliminate what is already manifest. And many spiritual revivals are a deeper denial of the facts of our vibration level. What can we do about evil? A great deal, if our heads are clear. My catch-all phrase is: "I wouldn't deny that experience to the One Mind."
Once you have cleared your head on the matter, then do whatever feels right to you. Evil occurs as a secondary reality, after you have withdrawn to a low vibration level. The seduction of evil is precisely in that it involves us in trying to get rid of it.
- Thaddeus Golas in "The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment"
What you resist, you draw to yourself. As long as you resist something, you are locked into combating it and merely perpetuate its influence in your life. Resistance is fear, something that you need to karmically resolve. You must let go of the fear by encountering it until you learn to consciously detach from what you view to be negative.
- Dick Sutphen in "The Oracle Within"
Whatever we have done in withdrawing from full consciousness of the One Mind, we are doing now. Whatever we are doing will always be within us to do, even when we are not doing it, and therefore is not to be resisted, but transcended. These are reminders I frequently use: "That's always within me." "This, too, can be experienced with a completely expanded awareness."
- Thaddeus Golas in "The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment"
When one door opens, so does another one.
- A.C.H. Smith in "Labyrinth"
When the will and the imagination are in conflict, it is always the imagination that wins.
- Emile Coue in "Self-Mastery through Conscious Auto-Suggestion"
When we see men of worth, we should think of equaling them; when we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inward and examine ourselves.
- Confucius
When you learn to love hell, you will be in heaven.
- Thaddeus Golas in "The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment"
Where there are two people, there is untruth.
- Soren Kierkegaard
Where there is no solution, there is no problem.
- From John Price's .signature file
Whether or not it is apparent to you, undoubtedly the universe is unfolding as it should.
- Pierre Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, 1968-1984.
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.
- Nietzsche
Why believe in God when you can experience God? Belief is a poor substitute for experience. If you want to know, don't simply believe. You can only believe things you don't actually know.
- Dick Sutphen in "The Oracle Within"
With a stroke of love
on the canvas of my soul
I'm painting a perfect world
with shades of Michelangelo
With each promise made
in every heart that knows
we can live in a perfect world
in shades of Michelangelo
I hear songs of children
echo in the sky
I hear songs of children
a tomorrow so bright!
- Belinda Carlisle in "Runaway Horses"
You add suffering to the world just as much when you take offense as when you give offense.
- Ken Keyes in "Handbook to Higher Consciousness"
You can't find it by seeking, but only seekers find it.
A man in his folly soon becomes wise.
The only value in seeking is to finally discover that seeking doesn't work.
Alcoholics remain alcoholics until they hit bottom, and the fastest way to hit bottom is to drink more.
The rabbit chases the carrot in front of him. The harder he chases it, the sooner he drops down in total exhaustion, whereupon he notices that the carrot has fallen down with him. If he had chosen the path of just ambling after the carrot, he might never have discovered this.
If we fervently believe that effort can get us there, by God, we should expend as much effort as possible to get there.
That's why I respect people like Jimmy Swaggart and Oral Roberts - at least they have the motivation to put all their energies into their quest, no matter how mis-guided it might seem to others.
Repression retards resolution.
- Gerald Bryan on talk.religion.newage
You can't solve problems for someone whose problem is that they don't want problems solved.
- Richard Back in "One"
You cannot teach a man anything. You can only help him to find it within himself.
- Galileo
You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. That you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love [only] those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors [wicked] do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors [wicked] do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
- Jesus in Matthew 5:43-48
You may control a mad elephant;
You may shut the mouth of the bear and the tiger;
Ride the lion and play with the cobra;
By alchemy you may earn your livelihood;
You may wander through the universe incognito;
Make vassals of the gods; be ever youthful;
You may walk on water and live in fire:
But control of the mind is better and more difficult.
- Thayumanavar
You thought, as a boy, that a mage is one who can do anything. So I thought once. So did we all. And the truth is at as a man's real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower: until at last he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he must do.
- Ursula K. LeGuin
You were there. All you have to do is to remember.
- Colin Low on talk.religion.newage
Who am I, What am I?
As I am, I am not. But as we are, I AM.
And to you my creation, My Perfect Love is your Perfect Freedom.
And I will be with you forever and ever, until the End, and then forever more.
- GOD as quoted in "Pyramid Energy: The Philosophy of God, The Science of Man."