Humility does not consist in hiding our talents and virtues, in thinking ourselves worse and more ordinarily than we are, but in possessing a clear knowledge of all that is lacking in us and in not exalting ourselves for that which we have, seeing that God has freely given it to us and that, with all His gifts, we are still of infinitely little importance. (Lacordaire – French Ecclesiastical Preacher)
Science and technology cannot replace the age-old spiritual values that have been largely responsible for the true progress of world civilizations as we know it today. (Dalai Lama)
Destruction of your enemy is the destruction of yourself. The very concept of war is outdated. If the twentieth century was the century of bloodshed, the twenty-first has to be the center of dialogue. (Dalai Lama)
I am optimistic that the ancient values that have sustained mankind are today reaffirming themselves to prepare us for a kinder, happier twenty-first century (Dalai Lama)
Things change from moment to moment, things are impermanent. We worry over the past, we anticipate the future, and we barely perceive a shred of the passing moment (Dalai Lama)
Then the Blessed One spoke and said: “Know, Vasetha, that from time to time a Tathagata is born in the world, a fully Enlightened One, blessed and worthy, abounding in wisdom and goodness, happy with knowledge of the worlds, unsurpassed as a guide to erring mortals, a teacher of gods and men, a Blessed Buddha. He thoroughly understands this universe, as though he saw it face to face… The Truth does he proclaim both in its letter and in its spirit, lovely in its origin, lovely in its progress, lovely in its consummation. A higher life doth he make known in all its purity and in all its perfectness. Buddhist Sutta Destruction of your enemy is the destruction of yourself. The very concept of war is outdated. If the twentieth century was the century of bloodshed, the twenty-first has to be the center of dialogue. (Dalai Lama)
I have come to the conclusion that whether or not a person is a religious believer does not matter much. Far more important is that they be a good human being. (Dalai Lama)
Indulging our senses and drinking salt water are alike; the more we partake, the more our desire and thirst grow. (Dalai Lama)
Nirvana is where there is no birth, no extinction; it is seeing into the state of Suchness, absolutely transcending all the categories constructed by the mind; for it is the Thathagata’s inner consciousness. (Lankavatara Sutra)
Those who vainly reason without understanding the truth are lost in the jungle of the Vijnanas (relative knowledge), running about here and there and trying to justify their view of ego-substance. The self-realized in your inmost consciousness appears in its purity; this is the Tathagata-Garbha (the Buddha-womb), which is not the realm of those given over to mere reasoning. Pure in its own nature and free from a category of finite and infinite, Universal Mind is the undefiled Buddha-womb, which is wrongly apprehended by sentient beings. (Lankavatara Sutra)
What could begin to deny self, if there was not something in man different from self? (William Law)
Men are not in hell because God is angry with them; they are in wrath and darkness because they have done to the light, which infinitely flows from God, as that man does to the light of the sun, who puts out his own eyes. (William Law)
Perpetual inspiration is as necessary to the life of goodness, holiness, and happiness as perpetual respiration is necessary to animal life. (William Law)
Love is infallible; it has no errors, for all errors are the want of love. (William Law)
To pretend to devotion without great humility and renunciation of all worldly tempers is to pretend to impossibilities. He that would be devout must first be humble, have a full sense of his own miseries and wants and the vanity of the world, and then his soul will be full of desire after God. A proud, or vain, or worldly-minded man may use a manual of prayers, but he cannot be devout, because devotion is the application of a humble heart to God as its only happiness. (William Law)
The difference between a good and a bad man does not lie in this, that the one wills that which is good and the other does not, but solely in this, that the one concurs with the living inspiring spirit of God within him, and the other resists it, and can be chargeable with evil only because he resists it (William Law)
Your own self is your own Cain that murders your own Abel. For every action and motion of self-has the spirit of Anti-Christ and murders the divine life within you. (William Law)
Intercession is the best arbitrator of all differences, the best promoter of true friendship, the best cure, and preservative against all unkind tempers, all angry and haughty passions. (William Law)
By love do not mean any natural tenderness which is more or less in people according to their constitution; but I mean a larger principle;e of the soul, founded in reason and piety, which makes us tender, kind and gentle to all our fellow creatures as creatures of God, and for his sake. (William Law)
Every life leaves behind an accumulation of broken odds and ends – bizarre and sometimes smelly. Rummaging there, one can always unearth enough evidence to establish that the deceased was both monstrous and mediocre. Such a combination is quite common – whoever doubts it needs only look at himself in a mirror. (Simon Leys, Sinologist, and essayist)
Science is essentially an imaginative excursion into what might be true (Peter Medawar)
As an unintelligent man seeks for the abode of music in the body of the lute, so does he look for a soul within the skandhas (the material and psychic aggregates, of which the individual mind-body is composed). (Mahayana Buddhism)
Having realized his own self as the Self, a man becomes selfless; and in virtue of selflessness, he is to be conceived as unconditioned. This is the highest mystery, betokening emancipation; through selflessness, he has no part in pleasure or pain but attains absoluteness. (Matirayana Upanishad)
Henceforth in the real Brahman, he (the liberated spirit) becomes perfected and another. His fruit is the untying of bonds. Without desires, he attains to bliss eternal and immeasurable and therein abides. (Maitrayana Upanishad)
One who wants to follow the dharmic path must adhere to contentment, forgiveness, control over mind, honesty, cleanliness of mind and body, control of senses, spiritual learning, truthfulness, and freedom from anger. (Manu Smriti)
When you do not practice for one day, you will know; when you do not practice for two days, your orchestra will know; and when you do not practice for three days, your audience will know it (Illustrious violinist Yehudi Menuhin).
Human behavior is the product of an endless stream of perceptions, feelings, and thoughts, at both the conscious and unconscious levels. (Leonard Mlodinow)
Research suggests that when it comes to understanding our feelings, we humans have an odd mix of low ability and high confidence. (Leonard Mlodinow) Three degrees of silence-silence of the mouth, the silence of the mind and silence of the will. To refrain from the idle talk is hard; to quiet the gibbering of memory or imagination is much harder; hardest of all is to still the voices of craving and aversion within the will. (Miguel de Molinos – Spanish mystic)
Since all is empty, all is possible.” (Nagarjuna, Tibetan Philosopher).
Mark well how varied are the aspects of the immovable One, And know that the first reality is immovable. Only when this reality is attained Is the true working of Suchness understood. (Hui Neng)
When not enlightened, Buddhas are no other than ordinary beings; when there is enlightenment, ordinary beings at once turn into Buddhas. (Hui Neng)
There is nothing true anywhere, the truth is nowhere to be found. If you say you see the True, this seeing is not the true one. When the True is left to itself, there is nothing false in it, for it is mind itself. When mind in itself is not liberated from the false, there is nothing true; nowhere is the truth to be found (Hui Neng)
The holy light of faith is so pure that, compared with it, particular lights are but impurities; and even ideas of the saints, of the Blessed Virgin, and the sight of Jesus Christ in his humanity are impediments in the way of the sight of God in His purity. (J. J. Olier – French priest and founder of the Sulpicians)
Revelations are the aberration of faith; they are an amusement that spoils simplicity in relation to God, that embarrasses the soul and makes it swerve from its directness in relation to God. They distract the soul and occupy it with other things than God. Special illuminations, auditions, prophecies and the rest are marks of weakness in a soul that cannot support the assaults of temptation or of anxiety about the future and God’s judgment upon it. Prophecies are also markers of creaturely curiosity in a soul to whom God is indulgent and to whom, as a father to his importunate child, he gives a few trifling sweet-meats to satisfy its appetite. (J. J. Olier – French priest and founder of the Sulpicians)
How shall I grasp it? Do not grasp it. That which remains when there is no more grasping is the Self. (Panchadasi – Advaitic Vedanta)
The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing. (Blaise Pascal)
Chance favors the prepared mind (Louis Pasteur)As we meditate, wisdom grows. We better understand what we are and what should be. And meditation is the vehicle that takes us on this infinite journey. (Kamlesh Patel, The Heartfulness Way)
Worms ate up thousands of books but did not receive a certificate of erudition. (Kamlesh Patel, The Heartfulness Way)
From selfishness toward selflessness. From the reactive mind to the responsive heart; from imprisonment in the folds of ego to freedom from ego. from the here and now to eternal, timeless existence; from worshipping forms to formlessness; from contraction to expansion, from restlessness to peacefulness; from the superficial to the authentic; from insistence to acceptance; from imbalance to balance; from darkness to light; from heaviness to lightness; from grossness to subtlety; from the periphery to the core of the Being, the Source, the Higher Self. (Kamlesh Patel, Yoga Master)
Belief without experience is hollow. (Kamlesh Patel, The Heartfulness Way)
Where there is love, there is acceptance. Where there is love, there is forgiveness. Where there is love, there is compassion. Love is the root of every noble quality (Kamlesh Patel, The Heartfulness Way)
On the guru and student relationship: In a guru-student (aspirant) relationship, the aspirant is the deciding factor-never the guru. Kamlesh Patel, The Heartfulness Way)
On learning from a guru: The ultimate source (of life and spirituality) does not reside within a guru. His frame does not contain the Source. The is Source is nowhere. It can also be anywhere, but the only place that you will ever find it is within yourself. The purpose of the external guru is to lead you to the inner one-the divine Self, which guides and inspires us. (Kamlesh Patel, Yoga Master)
Acceptance is a cheerful thing. There is no such thing as a grudging acceptance. You are either grudging or you are accepting (Kamalesh Patel, Yoga Master)
Lies are created. Untruth is created. Reality can never be created-it is as it is (Kamlesh Patel, Yoga Master)
But if God is everywhere, He is also inside you. In that case, why see him in any other place (Kamlesh Patel, Yoga Master)
The myth is essentially a cultural construct, a common understanding of the world that binds individuals and communities together. This understanding may be religious or secular. Ideas such as rebirth, heaven, and hell, angels and demons, fate and free will, sin, Satan, and salvation are religious myths. Ideas such as sovereignty, nation-state, human rights, women’s rights, animal rights, and gay rights are secular myths. Religious or secular, all myths make profound sense to one group of people. Not to everyone. They cannot be rationalized beyond a point. In the final analysis, you either accept them or you don’t. (Devadutt Patnaik)
Myth transmits a traditional culture-specific understanding of the world. Myth needs faith, not proof. Science needs proof, not faith (Devadutt Patnaik)
The mythless state is also a myth-the myth of the rational mind (D. Patnaik). The gods helped to explain the experience of transcendence.
Myth becomes sacred when within a divine plot (Devadutt Patnaik)
Myth transmits a traditional culture-specific understanding of the world. Myth needs faith, not proof. Science needs proof, not faith (Devadutt Patnaik).
Conventionally myth means falsehood; Nobody likes to live in falsehood. Everybody believes they live in truth. But there are many types of truth. Some objective, some subjective, some logical, some intuitive. Some cultural, some universal. Some are based on evidence; others depend on faith. The myth is the truth which is subjective, intuitive, cultural and grounded in faith (Unknown).
History becomes sacred when placed within a divine plot (Devadutt Patnaik).
For Hindus, the temple is as important as the deity within. The deity gives meaning to the temple; if the deity did not exist, the devotees would not go to the temple. If the temple did not exist, if there were no magnificent archways, embellished walls, decorated roofs or fluttering flags, devotees would not know where to look for the deity. Thus the temple and the deity within validate each other. The temple is the body and the deity, its soul. (Devadutt Patnaik)
Mythos gave rise to the oracles and the arts. From logos came science and mathematics. Logos explained how the sun rises and how babies are born. It took the man to the moon. But it never explained why. Why does the sun, rise? Why is a baby born? Why does man exist on earth? For answers, one has to turn to the mythos. Mythos gave purpose, meaning, and validation to existence. (Devadutt Patnaik)
We make an idol of truth itself; for truth apart from charity is not God, but his image and idol, which we must neither love nor worship. (Pascal)
Through meditation, we move from the complexity of mind to the simplicity of heart. Everything starts with the heart. When the heart is at peace, the mind is at rest. When the heart is content, the mind gains insight, clarity, and wisdom. (Kamlesh Patel, The Heartfulness Way)
Experience is greater than knowledge. (Kamlesh Patel, Yoga Master)
A book may give us wisdom, but it cannot make us wise. A book can give us knowledge, but it cannot make us experience the truth of that knowledge. What the book offers is an experiential method that has helped many individuals discover that experience is greater than knowledge. (Kamlesh Patel, The Heartfulness Way)
You can’t satisfy a person’s hunger with the promise of food. Neither can mere belief satiate a craving heart. (Kamlesh Patel, The Heartfulness Way)
From selfishness toward selflessness. From the reactive mind to the responsive heart; from imprisonment in the folds of ego to freedom from ego. from the here and now to eternal, timeless existence; from worshipping forms to formlessness; from contraction to expansion, from restlessness to peacefulness; from the superficial to the authentic; from insistence to acceptance; from imbalance to balance; from darkness to light; from heaviness to lightness; from grossness to subtlety; from the periphery to the core of the Being, the Source, the Higher Self. (Kamlesh Patel, Yoga Master)
In a guru-student (aspirant) relationship, the aspirant is the deciding factor-never the guru. (Kamlesh Patel, The Heartfulness Way)
The ultimate source (of life and spirituality) does not reside within a guru. His frame does not contain the Source. The is Source is nowhere. It can also be anywhere, but the only place that you will ever find it is within yourself. The purpose of the external guru is to lead you to the inner one-the divine Self, which guides and inspires us. (Kamlesh Patel, Yoga Master)
Spiritual aspiration is present in all, but in many cases it is dormant. Sometimes, it only takes a touch of transmission, and you become awakened to your deeper purpose. (Kamlesh Patel, Yoga Master)
Thoughts and emotions are like waves on the surface of the ocean. They may disturb the sailor who stays up on the surface, but not the whale, which swims in the depths. (Kamlesh Patel, Yoga Master)
For Hindus, all of creation is divine. Everything in nature is therefore worthy of worship. There is no discomfort in visualizing God in plants, animals, rivers, mountains, rocks and in man-made objects such as pots, pans, pestles, and mortars. (Devadutt Patnaik)
The mythless state is also a myth-the myth of the rational mind (D. Patnaik).
History becomes sacred when placed within a divine plot (Devadutt Patnaik).
Civilization requires a state of delusion. We have a need to believe that culture exists for a reason, that history has a direction, that every event has a meaning and that every person has a value; myth provides that delusion (Devadutt. Patnaik).
They are on the way to truth who apprehend God by means of the divine, Light by the light. (Philo, Roman Philosopher)
He who thinks that God has any quality and is not the One injures not God, but himself (Philo)
When I paint my object is to show what I have found and not what I am looking for. (Pablo Picasso)
The virtue of wisdom more than anything else contains a divine element which always remains. (Plato) Each being contains in itself the whole intelligible world. Therefore All is everywhere. Each is there All, and All is each. Man as he now is has ceased to be the All. But when he ceases to be an individual, he realized himself again and penetrates the whole world. (Plotinus, Greek Philosopher)
Each being contains in itself the whole intelligible world. Therefore All is everywhere. Each is there All, and All is each. Man as he now is has ceased to be the All. But when he ceases to be an individual, he realizes himself again and penetrates the world. (Plotonious of Egypt).
Do not try to grasp Reality by rejecting your senses and thoughts. When you are neither attached to nor detached from, them, then you enjoy your perfect unobstructed freedom, then you have your seat of enlightenment. (Huang Po)
The Mind is no other than the Buddha, and Buddha is no other than sentient being. When Mind assumes the form of a sentient being, it has suffered no decrease; when it has become a Buddha, it has added nothing to itself. (Huang PO)
Making a living did not always equate to making a living. Indeed, making a life also requires one to focus on the art of living-on loving relationships, emotional intelligence, and a sense of meaning and purpose (Joshua Pollock, The Heartfulness Way).
We never know what life has in store for us, what is just around the corner, and that is part and parcel of the mystery and beauty of living (Joshua Pollock).
Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy (Proverbs 31: 8-9)
When Enlightenment is perfected, a Bodhisattva is free from the bondage of things but does not seek to be delivered from things. Samsara (the world of becoming) is not hated by him, nor is Nirvana loved. When perfect Enlightenment shines, it is neither bondage nor deliverance. (Prunabuddha-sutra)
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.