Can you think of anything more dreadful than to be tyrannized by the unreal parts of us which we fail to see? -
"What is love?"
"The total absence of fear," said the Master.
"What is it we fear?"
"Love," said the Master.
- Anthony de Mello, SJ One Minute Wisdom
Spiritual progress is like detoxification. Things have to come up in order to be released. - Marianne Williamson in "A Return to Love"
A long time ago I learned that everything is exactly as it is for a reason. The crumb is on our table not only to remind us of this morning's cookie, it is there because we have chosen not to remove it. No exceptions. Everything has a reason and the tiniest detail is a clue. - Richard Bach, Out of My Mind
The world is moved not only by the mighty shoves of the heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker. - Helen Keller
If we find the truth without an equal effort to find ourselves, we wander down the wrong trail. That is like trying to find an apple seed outside of an apple. It is what we see in ourselves which saves us; nothing else can do it. The seeing is the saving. If a man could endure for five minutes all the things he has hidden from himself for fifty years, he would redeem those fifty years in those five minutes. –
One does not become enlightened by imaging figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. - C. G. Jung
Time and money spent in helping men do more for themselves is far better than mere giving. - Henry Ford
Again, you have the idea that only certain people hold the key to the
What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the desire to find out, which is the exact opposite. - Bertrand Russell
I find that it is not the circumstances in which we are placed, but the spirit in which we face them, that constitutes our comfort. - Elizabeth T. King
It is often tragic to see how blatantly a man bungles his own life and the lives of others yet remains incapable of seeing how much the whole tragedy originates in himself, and how he continually feeds it and keeps it going. Not consciously, of course, for consciously he is engaged in bewailing and cursing a faithless world that recedes further and further into the distance. Rather, it is an unconscious factor which spins the illusions that veils his world. And what is being spun is a cocoon, which in the end will completely envelop him. - C. G. Jung, "Phenomenology of Self" in The Portable Jung
If you could get rid Of yourself just once, The secret of secrets Would open to you. The face if the unknown, Hidden beyond the universe Would appear on the Mirror of your perception. - Rumi
Enthusiasm is the best protection in any situation. Wholeheartedness is contagious. Give yourself, if you wish to get others. - David Seabury
It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision. - Helen Keller
God is not external to anyone, but present with all things, though they are ignorant that He is so. - Plotinus
This we know. The Earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the Earth. This we know. All things are connected like blood which unites one family. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. - Chief Seattle, 1853 Address
This is a dark time, filled with suffering and uncertainty. Like living cells in a larger body, it is natural that we feel the trauma of our world. So don't be afraid of the anguish you feel, or the anger or fear, for these responses arise from the depth of your caring and the truth of your interconnectedness with all beings. To suffer with is the literal meaning of compassion. – Joanna Macy
Peace is a species of action. It dies in the bank. Truly felt peace will pulsate outward toward the world around it, and peaceful people live generous, not quarantined lives. - Paul R. Fleischman in "Cultivating Inner Peace"
Every man stamps his value on himself... man is made great or small by his own will. - J.C.F. von Schiller
A life of reaction is a life of slavery, intellectually and spiritually. - Rita Mae Brown
We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose ones' own way. - Victor Frankl
One's true happiness depends more upon one's own judgment of one's self, on a consciousness of rectitude in action and intention, and in the approbation of those few who judge impartially, than upon the applause of the unthinking undiscerning multitude, who are apt to cry Hosanna today, and tomorrow, Crucify him. - Benjamin Franklin
For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that you must assume responsibility for being here, in this marvelous world, in this marvelous desert, in this marvelous time. I wanted to convince you that you must make every act count, since you are going to be here only a short while; in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it. - Don Juan Matus in Journey to Ixtlan
Not the owner of many possessions will you be right to call happy: he more rightly deserves the name of happy who knows how to use the Gods' gifts wisely and to put up with rough poverty, and who fears dishonor more than death. – Horace
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. - Albert Einstein
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 Hafiz so completely it has turned to ash and freed me of every concept and image my mind has ever known. - Hafiz
"How does one become a butterfly?" she asked pensively.
"You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar."
- Trina Paulus
You are here on earth to find yourself, not prove yourself. -
You are accustomed to authority which you think will lead you to spirituality. You think and hope that another can create, by his extraordinary powers - a miracle - transport you to this realm of eternal freedom which is Happiness. Your whole outlook on life is based in that authority. You are depending for your spirituality on someone else, for your happiness on someone else, for your enlightenment on someone else... When I say look within yourselves for the glory, for the purification, and for the incorruptibility of the self, not one of you is willing to do it. - J. Krishnamurti
Unquestionably, there are sad things in the world right now, even in my life right now, but grumbling doesn't make anything better. In fact, it makes things worse. The Buddha taught, "Every mind moment conditions the next." - Sylvia Boorstein in "It's Easier Than You Think"
Never put a period where God has put a comma. - Gracie Allen
The first virtue of all really great men is that they are sincere. They eradicate hypocrisy from their hearts. - Anotole France
You need not fear to not know who you are. A lack of labels or identities does not cause fear. It is just the reverse - labels cause fear. Every new label is a new shudder, for it must now be anxiously protected against all that seems to oppose it, all that bears a different label. Since labels are suppressed below the level of awareness, we deny their existence emphatically. Even the loud denial could be a clue for us, but it is also rejected. The only answer to 'Who are you' is total silence. -
It is a fool who blames the sun for his own blindness... The scriptures even proclaim aloud: "There is in truth no creation and no destruction; no one is bound, no one is seeking Liberation, no one is on the way to Deliverance. There are none Liberated. This is the absolute truth." My dear disciple, this, the sum and substance of all the Upanishads, the secret of secrets, is my instruction to you. - Shankara
Courage means being well aware of the worst that can happen, being scared almost to death, and then doing the right thing anyhow. - William Sloane Coffin in "Credo"
If a man be gracious to strangers, it shows that he is a citizen of the world, and his heart is no island, cut off from other islands, but a continent that joins them. - Francis Bacon
Nothing will sustain you more potently than the power to recognize in your humdrum routine, as perhaps it may be thought, the true poetry of life. - Sir William Osler (1849-1919) Canadian Physician
Remember this: The Truth, when it arrives, is always different from what we thought it would be. If we imagine that we already know the truth, that imagination is based on old and habitual ideas. But the truth is always something entirely new to the mind; therefore, we cannot know what a new day is like before we experience it, we cannot think accurately about a new truth until we first live it. -
There is much satisfaction in work well done, but there can be no happiness equal to the joy of finding a heart that understands. - Victor Robinsoll
Let your mind wander in the pure and simple. Be one with the infinite. Allow all things to take their course. Do not try to be clever. Then the world will be ruled! - Chuang Tzu Inner Chapters Feng & English, tr.
Aim at the sun and you may not reach it; but your arrow will fly far higher than if you had aimed at an object on a level with yourself. - F. Hawes
We are disturbed not by what happens to us, but by our thoughts about what happens. - Epictetus
Trials, temptations, disappointments - all these are helps instead of hindrances, if one uses them rightly. They not only test the fibre of a character, but strengthen it. Every conquered temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before. - James Buckham
Some day, in years to come, you will be wrestling with the great temptation, or trembling under the great sorrow of your life. But the real struggle is here, now, in these quiet weeks. Now it is being decided whether, in the day of your supreme sorrow or temptation, you shall miserably fail or gloriously conquer. Character cannot be made except by a steady, long continued process. - Phillips Brooks (1835-1893) American Bishop
Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning. - John Henry Cardinal
Don't tell me you will love me forever. Tell me that you will love me Thursday afternoon at four o'clock. - W. H. Auden quoted in "The Five Things We Cannot Change" by David Richo
There are obviously two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live. - James Truslow Adams
You are not happy because you are well. You are well because you are happy. You are not depressed because trouble has come to you, but trouble has come to you because you are depressed. You can change your thoughts and feelings, and then the outer things will come to correspond, and indeed there is no other way of working. - Emmet Fox
Q: Why do you say that we must question everything in spiritual matters, instead of having faith and trust?
R: Because much of what is called faith is merely gullibility. Also, deceivers are clever in making stones resemble bread. You may acquire a taste for stones, and in time will be unable to distinguish between stones and bread. And in the final tragedy you will no longer want bread, and will even fight those offering it.
-
You can find on the outside only what you possess on the inside. - Adolfo Montiel Ballesteros
Waste your money and you're only out of money, but waste your time and you've lost part of your life. - Michael Leboeuf
God breaks the heart again and again and again until it stays open. - Hazrat Inayat Khan quoted in "The Exquisite Risk" by Mark Nepo
I don't know what I appear in the world, but to myself I seem to have been only a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary. Whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. - Isaac Newton
Do not seek to know the truth. Only cease to cherish opinions. - Zen Saying
Fear is the opportunity for courage, not proof of cowardice. - John McCain
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. – Confucius
A childlike man is not a man whose development has been arrested; on the contrary, he is a man who has given himself a chance of continuing to develop long after most adults have muffled themselves in the cocoon of middle aged habit and convention. - Aldous Huxley
Fear about how one will support oneself in the future arises not because there is no way of sustaining oneself, but because one's mind is poor. - Jae Woong Kim quoted in "Polishing the Diamond, Enlightening the Mind"
Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Apathy can be overcome by enthusiasm, and enthusiasm can be aroused by two things: first, an idea which takes the imagination by storm; and second, a definite, intelligible plan for carrying that idea into action. -
Would you like something to challenge and strengthen your mental forces? At the next disappointing event, reflect: "This is also just as much a part of life as what I label a favorable event. As a whole person, I see both sides equally; I do not split events into good and bad. Being whole, I see the whole." Do this, even if you don't understand it, for it contains a tremendous secret. -
To think bad thoughts is really the easiest thing in the world. If you leave your mind to itself it will spiral down into ever increasing unhappiness. To think good thoughts, however, requires effort. This is one of the things that discipline - training - is about. - James Clavell, in his novel "Shogun"
The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the obviously not true. it is the chief occupation of mankind. - H. L. Mencken
The great man is he who does not lose his child's heart. - Mencius (371-291 B.C.)
A society based on universal compassion is not just our only hope; it is an evolutionary imperative. - Marc Ian Barasch in "Field Notes on the Compassionate Life: A Search for the Soul of Kindness"
It did not matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those being questioned by life - daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each of us. - Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
Rest and laughter are the most spiritual and subversive acts of all. - Anne Lamott in "Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith"
Love wholeheartedly, be surprised, give thanks and praise-then you will discover the fullness of your life. - Brother David Steindl-Rast
Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it. What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside. - Ramana Maharshi
Man improves himself as he follows his path; if he stands still, waiting to improve before he makes a decision, he'll never move. - Paulo Coelho
That which we do not confront in ourselves we will meet as fate. - C. G. Jung
Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him. - Epictetus (55-135 AD) Roman Philosopher
No comments:
Post a Comment