Quotes
Prisoner
Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner. – Lao Tzu
Dreamlike
There is no good reason to say that yesterday was more solid and real than last night’s dream, except that we cling to our dreamlike experience of yesterday more than to our experience of last night’s dream. – 7th Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche
Beyond the Dream
The very idea of going beyond the dream is illusory. Why go anywhere? Just realize that you are dreaming a dream you call the world, and stop looking for ways out. The dream is not your problem. Your problem is that you like one part of your dream and not another. Love all, or none of it, and stop complaining. When you have seen the dream as a dream, you have done all that need be done. – Nisargadatta Maharaj
Dream World
It is necessary that Soul and Body should exist, because Spirit, without manifestation, would construct only a dream world, never coming into Self-Realization. – Ernest Holmes
Dare to Think
I’m not trying to counsel any of you to do anything really special except dare to think. And to dare to go with the truth. And to dare to really love completely. – R. Buckminster Fuller
Tenacity
What is supremely important is to be free from contradictions: the goal and the way must not be on different levels; life and light must not quarrel; behaviour must not betray belief. Call it honesty, integrity, wholeness; you must not go back, undo, uproot, abandon the conquered ground. Tenacity of purpose and honesty in pursuit will bring you to your goal. – Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Creative Power
The greatest discovery that man ever made was, that his thought has creative power; that is that it uses creative power. – Ernest Holmes
Centering
So remember, centering is the method, not the result. The result is cosmic, oceanic experience. There is no center then. – Osho
Notice
Your way out is to just notice who’s noticing… The one who notices is already free. – Michael A Singer, The Untethered Soul
Restless
Detach yourself from all that makes your mind restless. Renounce all that disturbs its peace. If you want peace, deserve it. – Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Duality
I have put duality away. I have seen the two worlds are one. – Rumi
Searching for the Marvelous
Ordinary life does not interest me. I seek only the high moments. I am in accord with the surrealists, searching for the marvelous. I want to be a writer who reminds others that these moments exist; I want to prove that there is infinite space, infinite meaning, infinite dimension. – Anaïs Nin
Source of Life
We know the outer world of sensations and actions, but of our inner world of thoughts and feelings we know very little. The primary purpose of meditation is to become conscious of, and familiar with, our inner life. The ultimate purpose is to reach the source of life and consciousness. – Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Aware
Be aware of wonder. – Robert Fulghum
Eternal Name
The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name. The unnameable is the eternally real. Naming is the origin of all particular things. Free from desire, you realize the mystery. Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations. Yet mystery and manifestations arise from the same source. This source is called darkness. Darkness within darkness. The gateway to all understanding. – Tao Te Ching, Ch.1, interpreted by Stephen Michell
Be Alive
That is why humans resist life. To be alive is the biggest fear humans have. Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive – the risk to be alive and express what we really are. Just being ourselves is the biggest fear of humans. We have learned to live our lives trying to satisfy other people’s demands. We have learned to live by other people’s points of view because of the fear of not being accepted and of not being good enough for someone else. – Miguel Ruiz
Out of Control
With some tumultuous surroundings, as life introduces struggles and challenges, I’d like to try an experiment in ease. What if I can find the ease in the storm, the peace in the chaos, to just be. Everything will be figured out, and I can do it without struggle or worry. The challenge is to let go of the illusion of control, let life happen, and to know that you don’t know. We always think we know what is best for ourselves, not only that… what is best for reality. If we do this, if we act in this specific way or do this particular action, life will be just the way we want. But that’s impossible, there are truly too many factors. Life is an infinite amount of changes, possibilities, stories. The story that is best for you is out of your control. I’m not sure best is even the right word here… your life is what you make of it. It’s always been about a goal of achieving success, about looking like a success in the eyes of others, but what you do, day to day, the feelings you have inside, the love you express, the smiles you create……
Embrace the Mystery
Embrace the mystery, let chaos unfold. You’re never in danger, don’t let your thoughts take control. The answer has already been given, it’s always a part of your soul. The peace within the quiet is truth. You’re already home.
True Artist
To me, the true artist is one who lives completely, harmoniously, who does not divide his art from living, whose very life is that expression, whether it be a picture, music, or his behavior; who has not divorced his expression on a canvas or in music or in stone from his daily conduct, daily living. That demands the highest intelligence, highest harmony. To me the true artist is the man who has that harmony. He may express it on canvas, or he may talk, or he may paint; or he may not express it at all, he may feel it. But all this demands exquisite poise, that intensity of awareness and therefore, his expression is not divorced from the daily continuity of living. -Krishnamurti
In Love
Be in love with your life. Every minute of it. – Jack Kerouac
Good Music
When people hear good music, it makes them homesick for something they never had, and never will have. – Edgar Watson Howe
Living Truth
To me there is a reality, an immense living truth; and to comprehend that, there must be utter simplicity of thought. – Krishnamurti
Who Am I
Give up all questions except one: ‘Who am I?’ After all, the only fact you are sure of is that you are. The ‘I am’ is certain. The ‘I am this’ is not. Struggle to find out what you are in reality. To know what you are, you must first investigate and know what you are not. – Sri Nisargadatta Mahara
Coded
We all have the extraordinary coded within us… waiting to be released. – Jean Houston
Really Free
That he is really free, but that, in order to be free, he must first go through the experiences which will teach him how to use his freedom properly. – Ernest Holmes
Light and Heart
We all need to return to the basics. Within society, and within ourselves. Simplify and attend to what makes the worlds inner & outer into better places. Kindness, honesty, and compassion – we can all have these for each other and our own self, and in all these small doses of lightness, we will become the greater good. We make a difference in the small things we do, the things that don’t make headlines, that people do every day out of humanity and grace. To give light and heart to another is to improve the very fabric of our existence. The more we can improve through open minds, selflessness, and care, the more we can love, the better the whole of the universe becomes. Starting small is the key, as there is no limit to what steps upon steps, every piece coming together, will end up becoming.
Dissolution
Incidentally practice of meditation affects deeply our character. We are slaves to what we do not know; of what we know we are masters. Whatever vice or weakness in ourselves we discover and understand its causes and its workings, we over-come it by the very knowing; the unconscious dissolves when brought into the conscious. The dissolution of the unconscious releases energy; the mind feels adequate and become quiet. – Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Possibility
When I speak of Possibility, I am speaking of a way of looking at reality – or more than that – a way of Being. I see reality itself as Possibility itself. – Bob Frissell
Become Aware
Keep uppermost in your mind that the illusion that you experience is an illusion, that it is surrounding you for the purpose of teaching you. It can only teach you if you become aware of its teachings. – The Law Of One