The greatest of all delusions is the conviction that knowledge is not a delusion.
Stay without ambition, without the least desire, exposed, vulnerable, unprotected, uncertain and alone, completely open to and welcoming life as it happens, without the selfish conviction that all must yield you pleasure or profit, material or so-called spiritual.
You want to be loved because you do not love; but the moment you love, it is finished, you are no longer inquiring whether or not somebody loves you.
Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig.
Real devotion is a love affair with truth. It’s being more interested in truth than anything else. It’s when truth is our highest priority… in that moment we are in devotion to truth, to the One.
What if you let go of every bit of control and every urge that you have, right down to the most infinitesimal urge to control anything, anywhere, including anything that may be happening with you at this moment? Imagine that you were able to completely and absolutely give up control on every level. If you were able to give up control absolutely, totally, and completely, then you would be a spiritually free being.
When women carrying jars of water on their heads, stop to talk, they are very careful, keeping their mind on the water jars. Similarly, when a sage engages in activity, his mind remains fixed in the Self and his activity does not distract him.
Thous carriest within thee a Sublime Friend whom thou knowest not. For God dwells in the inner part of every man, but few know how to find Him. The man who sacrifices his desires and his works to the Beings from whom the principles of everything stem, and by whom the Universe was formed through sacrifice, attains perfection. For one who find his happiness and joy within himself, and also his wisdom within himself, is one with God. And, mark well, the Soul which has found God is freed from rebirth and death, from old age and pain, and drinks the water of Immortality.
Said the monk: “All these mountains and rivers and the earth and stars - where do they come from?” Said the master: “Where does your question come from?”
The most fundamental aggression to ourselves, the most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves, is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently.
Visitor: Is sorrow a thought?
Bhagavan: All thoughts are sorrowful.
Bhagavan: All thoughts are sorrowful.
Treat with equal love all the people with whom you have relations. Thus the abyss between 'myself' and 'yourself' will be filled.
Seek my grace within the Heart. I will drive away your darkness and show you the light.
Even as birds, O beloved, return to their tree for rest,
thus all things find their rest in Atman, the Supreme Spirit.
All things find their final peace in their inmost Self, the Spirit.
thus all things find their rest in Atman, the Supreme Spirit.
All things find their final peace in their inmost Self, the Spirit.
Rub your eyes and look again at Love, with Love!
You may experience anything, but you should never rest content with that. Whether you feel pleasure or fear, ask yourself who feels the pleasure or the fear and so carry on the sadhana until pleasure and fear are both transcended, till all duality ceases and till the reality alone remains.
Conflict isn’t inherent in existence. Existence is just the way it is. Conflict only comes from our relationship with life. Inner conflict only comes from our relationship with ourselves.
When life is easy, comfortable, convenient, who cares? Who bothers to become alert? When a friend dies, there is a possibility. When your woman leaves you alone—those dark nights, you are lonely. You have loved that woman so much and you have staked all, and then suddenly one day she is gone. Crying in your loneliness, those are the occasions when, if you use them, you can become aware. The pain is not to make you miserable, the pain is to make you more aware! And when you are aware, misery disappears.
When you look deeply into your anger, you will see that the person you call your enemy is also suffering. As soon as you see that, the capacity of accepting and having compassion for him is there. When you are able to love your enemy, he or she is no longer your enemy. The idea of ‘enemy’ vanishes and is replaced by the notion of someone who is suffering and needs your compassion.
We are living in a culture entirely hypnotized by the illusion of time, in which the so-called present moment is felt as nothing but an infinitesimal hairline between an all-powerfully causative past and an absorbingly important future. We have no present. Our consciousness is almost completely preoccupied with memory and expectation. We do not realize that there never was, is, nor will be any other experience than present experience.
We are therefore out of touch with reality. We confuse the world as talked about, described, and measured with the world which actually is. We are sick with a fascination for the useful tools of names and numbers, of symbols, signs, conceptions and ideas.
We are therefore out of touch with reality. We confuse the world as talked about, described, and measured with the world which actually is. We are sick with a fascination for the useful tools of names and numbers, of symbols, signs, conceptions and ideas.
Colors blind the eye.
Sounds deafen the ear.
Flavors numb the taste.
Thoughts weaken the mind.
Desires wither the heart. The Master observes the world
but trusts his inner vision.
He allows things to come and go.
His heart is open as the sky.
Sounds deafen the ear.
Flavors numb the taste.
Thoughts weaken the mind.
Desires wither the heart. The Master observes the world
but trusts his inner vision.
He allows things to come and go.
His heart is open as the sky.
We do not need to search in order to find our True Being, we already are it. And the mind which searches for it, is the very reason why we cannot find it.
As long as the mind is there, your body and your world are there. Your world is mind-made, subjective, enclosed within the mind, fragmentary, temporary, personal, hanging on the thread of memory.
We could say that meditation doesn’t have a reason or doesn’t have a purpose. In this respect it’s unlike almost all other things we do except perhaps making music and dancing. When we make music we don’t do it in order to reach a certain point, such as the end of the composition. If that were the purpose of music then obviously the fastest players would be the best. Also, when we are dancing we are not aiming to arrive at a particular place on the floor as in a journey. When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point. And exactly the same thing is true in meditation. Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment.
Many voices ask for our attention. There is a voice that says, ‘Prove that you are a good person.’ Another voice says, ‘You’d better be ashamed of yourself.’ There also is a voice that says, ‘Nobody really cares about you,’ and one that says, ‘Be sure to become successful, popular, and powerful.’ But underneath all these often very noisy voices is a still, small voice that says, ‘You are my Beloved, my favor rests on you.’ That’s the voice we need most of all to hear. To hear that voice, however, requires special effort; it requires solitude, silence, and a strong determination to listen. That’s what prayer is. It is listening to the voice that calls us ‘my Beloved.’