Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
You've got to make a person aware of how miserable they really are and show them how happy they can be. Otherwise, why should they seek this nebulous goal called self-discovery.
People who are advanced meditators don't worry about liberation and self-realization; they instead are interested in the welfare of others and aiding others in their liberation.
You and I are both life. There's just the experience of every moment. We like to call them moments. There isn't really such a thing. There's just is-ness; there's just eternity.
All of the energy of existence is going to flow through you. You will be in thousands of planes of consciousness at once or beyond in nirvana or having a sandwich with a friend.
The world is always chaos, but we pretend that it's not because it makes us feel better. In doing so we're able to go through it in a specific manner and form: That's the tonal.
It is not bad living in a monastery. I've done it many times in many lives. But I think you can do a better job outside the monastery, if you have the necessary component parts.
Don't worry about your future lives, past lives. Button up your shirt! Stand up straight! Go out and do something. Go out and have some fun. Be alive, change, dissolve, explode!
Advance yourself by advancing others. Do not judge others. Be of service to them, but realize that you are not necessarily the instrument of perfecting and immortalizing others.
Between the creative, open and spontaneous approach to life, and the highly disciplined, pragmatic approach, there's a doorway, if you can find it - and it leads to immortality.
People are kept in line in society because they fear punishment. The assumption that underlies this mentality is that a human being will follow their desires without mitigation.
There was a time when you came forth from infinity, your essence that is. You've always existed, and you'll always exist. But there are different states of mind in the universe.
In this lifetime you can lose everything. Everything passes here. But you don't lose any spiritual knowledge that you have gained in this or any other lifetime. It is inside you.
You can take power from others; you can steal it. It is not a very high-grade power. It will give you a certain amount of access to a better life; but it corrupts the individual.
Not all teachers utilize both forms of light.In certain circles, those teachers who can manifest the light of samadhi but not the mystical light have put down the mystical light.
Very often, in order to bring about stillness we have to be tirelessly active in the outer world. You might suppose this would agitate the mind. It will not, if it is the dharma.
Have the right attitude in advanced practice. Feel that you are always a beginner in Zen. They refer to it as "beginners mind". I feel I am a beginner, always; because it's true.
The more perfectly you can refine the process of Frisbee, the tighter your energy is and the more you become one with the nothingness of the Frisbee, the nothingness of the play.
The reason a person is in a particular state of mind is primarily because of attraction and aversion. Attraction and aversion cause us to format a mental or intellectual program.
The study of meditation is the entrance into the world of Wonderland. It has nothing to do with how you'd like it. You want a nice neat little study that's easily understandable.
The kundalini rises and the kundalini is hot, it's a hot energy. Sometimes you feel it cascading up your spine, and it's kind of searing or it's tingling, it almost feels sexual.
A mantra is a very powerful word. It vibrates like music does, only not on this plane but on other planes of reality. It creates a powerful force. It starts the kundalini moving.
Happiness is warm puppy. In other words, happiness is the things around you. Just to see that puppy is to be happy. You don't have to do anything; you don't have to add anything.
Towards the end of your meditation session, or when you feel your meditation is deep, chant "Kring" seven times. Repeat it with sharp intensity, without elongating the syllables.
This culture seems to be so obsessed with sexuality, the good and the bad of it. Every advertisement, every preacher, everybody's concerned, one way or the other about sexuality.
You can make all the changes to the island of the tonal you want, you can take excursions into the nagual, but to push yourself into the reordering process is absolutely foolish.
All I can say is that these cult stories are totally untrue, are without any foundation, and trade on a deep bias against Westerners who dare to embrace an Eastern belief-system.
As you focus your attention on the heart center, you will begin to feel your thoughts slowing down. You'll begin to feel your mind becoming calm and quiet. They won't bother you.
The surface personality is only the beginning of what we are. So as we meditate, we still that surface personality, we can see beyond it, and we see that we encompass multitudes.
Power is something that is not really visible. Some people have the power to rise above circumstance. Sociological factors and DNA are not all that determine success. It is power.
When you dig a well, there's no sign of water until you reach it, only rocks and dirt to move out of the way. You have removed enough; soon the pure water will flow," said Buddha.
Most people think happiness comes from experiences in the world. The fulfillment of desire causes a type of happiness. But as soon as they experience passes, the happiness passes.
There is competition in Zen. Let's not be ridiculous. There is competition in everything in life; being a winner in Zen means, competing and winning in the world of enlightenment.
Buddhism suggests that you have that choice; you are in the driver's seat. Hertz or somebody has put you there. You have an absolute choice about what you experience in your mind.
Eventually light prevails, you just have to be patient. So practice Buddhism, learn to be enlightened, put a smile on your face, go find a great teacher, meditate, and stay funny.
On your journey, remember there is no end. That is true knowledge. There is no final knowledge. There is no final enlightenment, that is a very finite, human way of seeing things.
Power is the active force in life. It is the force that makes awareness. The general term for spiritual power is kundalini. Kundalini is the energy of life that creates awareness.
Why is it when you start to meditate you stop at a certain point? Because you're tied to the world, you have holes in your being and you haven't learned to lead an efficient life.
Just to exist, just to be, to take a breath, to feel that, whether its pleasure or pain, loss or gain, just your experience in life is unique to you. No one sees life like you do.
You cannot compel someone to love. Love is like the wind. It comes when it does, it stops when it does, it changes direction when it does. Who are you and I to criticize the wind?
Emotional control is essential for attaining higher levels of mind. The thing that the teacher looks for in a student is the degree of self-control, not coldness that someone has.
The word "emptiness" for example, is a very important word both in Christianity and in Buddhism. It has shades of meaning however, that are different in the respective traditions.
Don't run away from the world. The world is God. Don't run towards the world. God is the void. Don't be afraid of the complexities of this life, nor the stark simplicity of death.
Just studying Buddhism, then meditating and going to Buddhist monasteries, talking to Buddhist monks, combined with the Thai people themselves, changed the way I look at the world.
A balanced person will get depressed, discouraged, frustrated and angry sometimes, but doesn't direct it towards anybody else. If they do, they quickly realize they made a mistake.
If you are doing that which is within you, what that part of you that is beyond body would like you to do, then you would not experience stress because you would be very fulfilled.
Most people put the cart before the horse, which is an interesting way to go through life. They approach everything directly. In Zen we approach everything backwards or inside out.
As the kundalini energy increases, as the energy of the psyche becomes more pronounced, which it does as thought becomes eclipsed by silence, all the variant mind states burn away.
There is no reason not to love. There is no reason not to be joyous. There is no reason not to celebrate because all of this means nothing, absolutely nothing. So why not be happy?
When we interact with others the ego manifests. We have to show that we're superior or that we know more, are more spiritual, evolved - or that we're the worst, everyone is better.
From the first, in people and in things, there is no such thing as trash. These words point to the fundamental truth of Buddhism, a truth I could not as yet conceive in those days.