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Quotations appearing on our Home Page

"If you want to find the source of any problem, look to Lucre and Lust."
      - Sri Ramakrisna

"The death that meditation brings about is the immortality of the new. This is something more marvelous if you come upon it. I can go into it, but the description is not the described. It's for you to learn all this by looking at yourself-no book, no teacher can teach you about this."
      - Krishnamurti

"If you are thinking of anything with dependence upon it, there is a motive of curiosity, or pleasure, or success, and though the thinking will help towards satisfaction you will still be in bondage. There is no harm in this, but the higher samadhi, without such motives, is best."
      - Ernest Wood

"The sage, though living among limitations, is unaffected by their qualities, like space."
      - Shakaraharya (from Knowledge of the Self, verse 52)

"The real man is held to be a pure looker-on, entirely unaffected. It is only on that account that he can see truly. Any other sort of seeing would affect the thing seen. Then the seeing of it, so affected, would be wrong."
      - Ernest Wood

"You are here for no other purpose than to realize your inner divinity and manifest your innate enlightenment."
      - Morihei Ueshiba

"If you want to attain your true nature, you must have Great Faith, Great Courage, and Great Question."
      - Master Seung Sahn

"All methods, in the search for truth, should be looked on as a means, rather than as ends in themselves or as absolute truth."
      Thich Nhat Hanh

"Prayer is you talking to God; meditation is you listening to God."
      - Yogi Amrit Desai

"The Dark thought, the shame, the malice - meet them at the door laughing and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond."
      - Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks

"The Road has two rules only: begin and continue."
      - Christmas Humphreys

"Save me, O God, from those who think that I am something of value."
      - Saint Anthony the Great

"Using intellectual understanding to find your true nature is like expecting a hungry man to satisfy his gnawing hunger with a picture of a banana. Zen teaching is not like this. Zen teaching says, "Open your mouth. Here's a banana. Now eat!"
      - Zen Master Seung Sahn

"We do not fundamentally want to have and to do; we only want to be, and we use the having and doing for that purpose. Further, our will to be is not content with anything; it seeks its goal beyond the irksome limits of having and doing. Man will not be really happy until he is consciously one with God, and shares the freedom of that one Reality."
      - Ernest Wood

"Knowing is not thinking. Knowing begins when thinking ceases, having finished its work. Every new knowing is a joy, for it is a new experience of unity."
      - Ernest Wood

"It becomes necessary to realize that the body is not conscious, but we are conscious of the body, also that the mind is not conscious but we are conscious of the mind."
      - Ernest Wood

"All things are the same at their core but clinging to one and discarding another Is living in illusion. A mind is not a fit judge of itself. It is prejudiced in its own favor or disfavor. It cannot see anything objectively."
      - Seng Tsan, Third Chan Patriarch

"Just as one need not seek outside oneself for the light, so one need not seek outside one's own small personal existence for the greater, unlimited, opportunity. With this realization comes the final death of greed, of hating, of fanaticism, of self-satisfaction, and of stupidity."
      - Ernest Wood

"Argument implies a desire to win, strengthens egotism, and ties us to the belief in the idea of 'a self, a being, a living being, and a person'.."
      - Hui Neng, Sixth Chan Patriarch

"You know my coins are counterfeit, but you accept them anyway, my impudence and my pretending!"
      - Rumi

"We are reminded that even this highest samadhi is not the attainment itself, but only that last and highest act of the mind in which it is poised in its highest flight, in which it knows its own inadequacy, and surrenders. We are reminded that we are seeing the dawnlight and not the full sun, but oh what a marvel that dawnlight is, arising over a dark world and illuminating every part of it."
      - Ernest Wood

"Blessing is not found in anything weighed, measured, or counted, but only in that which is hidden from the eye."
      - the Talmud

"The cordial quality of pear or plum
Rises as gladly in the single tree
As in whole orchards resonant with bees."
      - Emerson

"Our modern scientists now know that the age of natural selection is gone, and men must look to themselves, not their material environment, for the direction and impulse needed for their future progress."
      - Ernest Wood

"I, Buddh, who wept with all my brothers' tears
  Whose heart was broken by a whole world's woe
Laugh and am glad, for there is Liberty."
  Ho! ye who suffer! know.
"Ye suffer from yourselves. None else compels,
  None other holds you that ye live and die,
And whirl upon the wheel, and hug and kiss
  Its spokes of agony,
Its tire of tears, its nave of nothingness."

      - the Buddha

"He whose happiness is within, whose delight is within, and likewise whose light even is within - that yogi, being of the nature of Brahman, goes up into the nirvana of Brahman.
"For those strivers who are disassociated from desire and anger, whose intelligence is controlled, whose (real) selves are known, near is the nirvana of Brahman."
      - the Bhagavad Gita, verses 24-6, discourse v

"The man who lives without longing, having cast off desires, without possessiveness, without egotism - he attains peace. This is the Brahmic state. Having obtained this, one is not confused. Being established in this at the end of (one's) time, one reaches even the nirvana of Brahman."
      - the Bhagavad Gita, verses 71-2, discourse ii

"Substances at base divided
In their summits are united;
There the holy essence rolls,
One through separated souls.
 
"Ever fresh the broad creation,
A divine improvisation,
From the heart of God proceeds,
A single will, a million deeds."

      - Emerson

"He excels who has sameness of appreciation (or valuation) towards well-wishers, friends, enemies, strangers, neutrals, haters, and kinsmen, and even saints and sinners."
      - the Bhagavad Gita

"There is only one thing for which God has sent me into the world, and that is to develop every kind of virtue or strength, and there is nothing in all the world that I cannot use for this purpose."
      -Epictetus

"Know that when you learn to lose yourself, you will reach the Beloved. There is no other secret to be learnt, and more than this is not known to me."
      - Ansari of Herat

"Put a fish on land and he will remember the ocean until he dies. Put a bird in a cage, yet he will not forget the sky. Each remains homesick for his true home, the place where his nature has decreed that he should be. Man is born in the state of innocence. His original nature is love and grace and purity. Yet he emigrates so casually, without even a thought of his old home."
 
"Is this not sadder than the fishes and the birds?"
      - Master Han Shan

"External reality appears as such to the mind which has been distorted by psychic sediment. Apart from the mind, no external reality exists. To perceive it so would be an utter distortion."
      - from the Lankavatara Sutra

"Strengthening the mind is not done by making it move around as is done to strengthen the body, but by bringing the mind to a halt, bringing it to rest."
    - No Ajahn Chah (Heart & Mind #38)

"Of course there are dozens of meditation techniques but it all comes down to this - just let it all be. Step over here where it's cool, out of the battle. Why not give it a try?"
    - No Ajahn Chah (Heart & Mind #69)

"Remember, you don't meditate to "get" anything but to get "rid" of things. We do it, not with desire, but with letting go. If you "want" anything, you won't find it."
    - No Ajahn Chah (Heart & Mind #77)

"The smile on your face is sight enough. The sound of your name is song enough. Why cut me down with your deadly arrows, When the shadow of your whip is reason enough?"
    - Jalaluddin Rumi (translated by Johnathan Star)

"From beginningless time the mind has never had any real existence.
For one who has realized awareness through the mind's dynamic and settled conditions, all striving and seeking will seem like a futile effort to grow crops in space."
    - Je Gampopa

"If you want what visible reality can give, you're an employee. If you want the unseen world, you're not living your truth. Both wishes are foolish, but you'll be forgiven for forgetting that what you really want is love's confusing joy."
    - Rumi

"Keep walking, though there's no place to get to. Don't try to see through the distances. That's not for human beings. Move within, but don't move the way fear makes you move. Walk to the well. Turn as the earth and the moon turn, circling what they love. Whatever circles comes from the center."
      - Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks

"There is no difficulty about the Perfect Way. Only we must avoid the making of discriminations. When we are freed from hate and love, it will reveal itself as clearly as broad daylight."
      - Seng Ts'an

"When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him?"
      - Psalm 8, A Psalm of David

"Striving to leave the wilderness you become part of what's wild. Striving to cease grasping is, itself, grasping. So how do you gain control and get beyond desire? Open those eyes... the ones that were born in your own skull."
      - Hsu Yun (Empty Cloud)

"Two things fill the mind with ever-increasing wonder and awe, the more often and the more intensely the mind of thought is drawn to them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me."
      - Immanuel Kant (Critique of Pure Reason)

"To a frog that's never left his pond, the ocean seems like a gamble. Look what he's giving up: security, mastery of his world, recognition! The ocean frog just shakes his head. 'I can't really explain what it's like where I live, but someday I'll take you there.'"
      - Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks

"In this world the hearer listens only to the speaker who deals with facts the knowledge of which is necessary and desired. No one pays attention to those who expound doctrines that no one wants, as is the case with madmen or with ordinary men who are good at their practical affairs but ignorant of the sciences and the arts."
      - Tattva-Kaumudi (1896)

"It dives in shallows for beakfuls of moss, heads to sandy isles to preen its feathers. It was ready to fly off all by itself, then found its reflection and lingered."
      - Xie Tiao

"Great knowing is slow and capacious, small knowing is sly and capricious. Great words blaze with distinction, small words amaze making distinctions."
      - from The Zhuang-zi (Chuang Tzu)

"Do what fits perfectly as lips, Forsake all glib confusion, view those held in honor as slaves. The throngs of men toil and toil, The Sage is a simpleton, He shares thousands of years that make one spring. All the things of the world are thus, And by this he garners them."
      - from The Zhuang-zi (Chuang Tzu)

"I am He whom I love, and He whom I love is I, We are two spirits dwelling in one body. If thou seest me, thou seest Him, And if thou seest Him, thou seest us both."
      - Al Hallaj (he was accused of claiming divinity and was eventually publicly scourged and crucified.)

"A secret turning in us makes the universe turn. Head unaware of feet, and feet head. Neither cares, They keep turning."
      - Rumi (Translated by Coleman Barks)

"This moment this love comes to rest in me, many beings in one being. In one wheat grain a thousand sheaf stacks. Inside the needle's eye a turning night of stars."
      - Rumi (Translated by Coleman Barks)

"Keep walking, though there's no place to get to. Don't try to see through the distances. That's not for human beings. Move within, but don't move the way fear makes you move."
      - Rumi (Translated by Coleman Barks)

"Walk to the well. Turn as the earth and the moon turn, circling what they love. Whatever circles comes from the center."
      - Rumi (Translated by Coleman Barks)

"As rain falls on the just and the unjust alike, let your heart be untroubled by judgments and let your kindness rain on all."
      - from The Zhuang-zi (Chuang Tzu)

"... this material dimension is just samsara. See it and you see samsara for what it's worth. But what does it mean? Nothing but shifting names and changing forms. But when the ego drops away (is extinguished) you experience this Flux... and it is beautiful not just because it is dazzling, but because the act of seeing it as it is necessitates the ego's oblivion. The Veil (of ego) is lifted and you see clearly."
      - anonymous

"When I open my eyes to the outer world, I feel myself as a drop in the sea; but when I close my eyes and look within, I see the whole universe as a bubble raised in the ocean of my heart."
      - from Divine Symphony by Inayat Khan

"God's ego is the smallest of all."
      Rev. S. J. Crump

"But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night."
      Psalms 1:2

"My heart grew hot within me, and as I meditated, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue."
      Psalms 39:3

"Though rulers sit together and slander me, your servant will meditate on your decrees."
      Psalms 119:23

"Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long."
      Psalms 119:97

"As one with eyes who carries a lamp sees all objects, so too with one who has heard the Moral Law will become perfectly wise."
      - The Buddha (Udanavarga 22.4)

"Hatreds do not ever cease in this world by hating, but by love; this is an eternal truth.... Overcome anger by love, overcome evil by good. Overcome the miser by giving, overcome the liar by truth."
      The Buddha (Dhammapada 1.5 & 17.3)

"Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. From anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again."
      Luke 6.27`30

"Whatever the style, a surface appearance is only the outside substance of appearance. Whatever the determination, a plan to perform any Dharma method is only the inside substance of a scheme. "Only the person who gets rid of within and without escapes from birth and death and ascends to eternity."
      Master Hsu Yun (Empty Cloud)

"The cordial quality of pear or plum Rises as gladly in the single tree As in the whole orchards resonant with bees."
      - Emerson

"Human unhappiness results from man's acceptance of a state of servitude to the low condition of his own mind."
      - Ernest Wood

"When there is annoyance by bad thoughts, let there be reflection against them. This reflection to the contrary is: 'The bad thought of injury, untruth, theft, incontinence, or greed, whether done, caused to be done, or approved, whether preceded by greed, anger, or infatuation, whether mild, medium, or strong, results in endless pain and error.'"
      - Patanjali

"If you want to see, see right at once. When you begin to think, you miss the point."
      - anonymous

"Desire can trap us like a bird who sees food in a trap. He knows that he will be caught, but his desire causes him to close his eyes and act as if the trap does not exist."
      - Mishlei

"The more true wisdom a person has, the greater will be his humility."
      - Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv

"Without love, nothing has any value. You can experience all kinds of inner states and have all kinds of psychic abilities, but if you don't know how to love, they amount to nothing."
      - Lee Sannella, author of The Kundalini Experience

"If the red slayer think he slays, Or if the slain think he is slain, They know not well the subtle ways I keep, and pass, and turn again."
      - R. W. Emerson

"Thou in thy narrow banks art pent; The stream I love unbounded goes Through flood and sea and firmament; Through light, through life, it forward flows."
      - R. W. Emerson

"Reading the history of the emperors and dynasties in quietude, one feels nothing profound about the changes and caprices of the past; only when one experiences various challenges and difficulties in life does one gain a thorough understanding of the impermanence of worldly affairs."
      - Master Hsu Yun

"No knowledge about mere things makes anyone wise; it is only the knowledge of the value of things to some living being, or the proper use of things by and for living beings that constitutes wisdom. Wisdom comes in when there is heart as well as mind; when there is sensitiveness to the life-side, and concern as to how the life will be affected."
      - Ernest Wood

"Anger will not be removed by our being angry with it, but by our understanding it; yet the intention of our understanding it is not to remove it, but to observe what is really happening in the mind, whereupon the troublous emotion slinks away."
      - Ernest Wood

"Enter the Path! There spring the healing streams
Quenching all thirsts! There bloom th' immortal flowers
Carpeting all the way with Joy! There throng
Swiftest and sweetest hours."
      - The Buddha

"Harmony is the inlet of God into the mind, so that the mind acts in obedience to a law above mind - and that law is unity."
      - Ernest Wood

"Unity is the Nature of God, and harmony is its expression in mind and in the works of the mind."
      - Ernest Wood

"When the self wins its independence from its own madness or foolishness - for nothing else operates it - all will become clear, and time and space, which are products of action and thought, and are part of the dream, will disappear."
      - Ernest Wood

"Step by step, lifts bad to good, Without halting, without rest, Lifting Better up to Best; Planting seeds of knowledge pure, Through earth to ripen, through heaven endure."
      - R. W. Emerson

"For he that feeds men serveth few; He serves all who dares be true."
      - R. W. Emerson

"If you want to find the source of any problem, look to Lucre and Lust."
      - Sri Ramakrisna

"Nothing in the world is good or bad, but thinking makes it so."
      - William Shakespeare

"When you begin to recognize that suffering is grace you cannot believe it. You think you are cheating."
      - Ramdass

"It takes great courage to abandon ones self, to give up "I" and "mine": but death happens only once, and what dies is really nothing at all."
      - anonymous

"Zen is cultivation of the Self; but if the wrong methods are used, we end up mired in strife, cultivating that fictitious ego!"
      - anonymous

"The moment you know how your suffering came to be, you are already on the path of release from it."
      - The Buddha

"What nature leaves imperfect, the art perfects."
      - ancient alchemical saying

"A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them. They then dwell in the house next door, and at any moment a flame may dart out and set fire to his own house. Whenever we give up, leave behind, and forget too much, there is always the danger that the things we have neglected will return with added force."
      - C.G. Jung

"What happens within oneself when one integrates previously unconscious contents with the consciousness is something which can scarcely be described in words. It can only be experienced. It is a subjective affair quite beyond discussion."
      - C.G. Jung

"When one follows the path of individuation, when one lives one's own life, one must take mistakes into the bargain; life would not be complete without them. There is no guarantee-not for a single moment-that we will not fall into error or stumble into deadly peril. We may think there is a sure road. But that would be the road of death."
      - C.G. Jung

"I have realized that one must accept the thoughts that go on within oneself of their own accord as part of one's reality. The categories of true and false are, of course, always present; but because they are not binding they take second place. The presence of thoughts is more important than our subjective judgment of them. But neither must these judgments be suppressed, for they also are existent thoughts which are part of our wholeness."
      - C.G. Jung

"Since the unconscious, as the result of its spatio-temporal relativity, possesses better sources of information than the conscious mind-which has only sense perceptions available to it-we are dependent for our myth of life after death upon the meager hints of dreams and similar spontaneous revelations from the unconscious."
      - C.G. Jung

"Cut off the intermediary world of mythic imagination, and the mind falls prey to doctrinaire rigidities."
      - C.G. Jung

"Western man seems predominantly extraverted, Eastern man predominantly introverted. The former projects the meaning and considers that it exists in objects; the latter feels the meaning in himself. But the meaning is both without and within."
      - C.G. Jung

"A belief proves to me only the phenomenon of belief, not the content of the belief."
      - C.G. Jung

"Attainment of consciousness is culture in the broadest sense, and self-knowledge is therefore the heart and essence of this process. The Oriental attributes unquestionably divine significance to the self, and according to the ancient Christian view self-knowledge is the road to knowledge of God."
      - C.G. Jung

"The decisive question for man is: Is he related to something infinite or not? That is the telling question of his life. Only if we know that the thing which truly matters is the infinite can we avoid fixing our interest upon futilities, and upon all kinds of goals which are not of real importance."
      - C.G. Jung

"The more a man lays stress on false posessions, and the less sensitivity he has for what is essential, the less satisfying is his life. He feels limited because he has limited aims, and the result is envy and jealousy."
      - C.G. Jung

"If we understand and feel that here in this life we already have a link with the infinite, desires and attitudes change. In the final analysis, we count for something only because of the essential we embody, and if we do not embody that, life is wasted. In our relationships to other men, too, the crucial question is whether an element of boundlessness is expressed in the relationship."
      - C.G. Jung

"The feeling for the infinite can be attained only if we are bounded to the utmost. The greatest limitation for man is the 'self'; it is manifested in the experience: 'I am only that!' Only consciousness of our narrow confinement in the self forms the link to the limitlessness of the unconscious. In such awareness we experience ourselves concurrently as limited and eternal, as both the one and the other. In knowing ourselves to be unique in our personal combination - that is, ultimately limited - we possess also the capacity for becoming conscious of the infinite. But only then!"
      - C.G. Jung

"In an era which has concentrated exclusively upon extension of living space and increase of rational knowledge at all costs, it is a supreme challenge to ask man to become conscious of his uniqueness and his limitation. Uniqueness and limitation are synonymous. Without them, no perception of the unlimited is possible - and, consequently, no coming to consciousness either."
      - C.G. Jung

"We stand in need of a reorientation, a metanoia. Touching evil brings with it the grave peril of succumbing to it. We must, therefore, no longer succumb to anything at all, not even to good. A so-called good to which we succumb loses its ethical character. Not that there is anything bad in it on that score, but to have succumbed to it may breed trouble. Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism."
      - C.G. Jung

"We must beware of thinking of good and evil as absolute opposites. The criterion of ethical action can no longer consist in the simple view that good has the force of a categorical imperative, while so-called evil can resolutely be shunned. Recognition of the reality of evil necessarily relativizes the good, and the evil likewise, converting both into halves of a paradoxical whole."
      - C.G. Jung

"Good and evil are no longer so self-evident. We have to realize that each represents a judgement. In view of the fallibility of all human judgement, we cannot believe that we will always judge rightly. We might so easily be the victims of misjudgement."
      - C.G. Jung

"The individual who wishes to have an answer to the problem of evil, as it is posed today, has need, first and foremost, of self-knowledge, that is, the utmost possible knowledge of his own wholeness. He must know relentlessly how much good he can do, and what crimes he is capable of, and must beware of regarding the one as real and the other as illusion. Both are elements within his nature, and both are bound to come to light in him, should he wish - as he ought - to live without self-deception or self-delusion."
      - C.G. Jung

"By virtue of his reflective faculties, man is raised out of the animal world, and by his mind he demonstrates that nature has put a high premium precisely upon the development of consciousness. Through consciousness he takes possession of nature by recognizing the existence of the world and thus, as it were, confirming the Creator."
      - C.G. Jung

"The need for mythic statements is satisfied when we frame a view of the world which adequately explains the meaning of human existence in the cosmos, a view which springs from our psychic wholeness, from the co-operation between conscious and unconscious. Meaninglessness inhibits fullness of life and is therefore equivalent to illness. Meaning makes a great many things endurable - perhaps everything."
      - C.G. Jung

"Everything is flux."
      - Heraclitus

"Shamefully,
A power wrests away the heart from us,
For the Heavenly Ones each demand sacrifice;
But if it should be withheld
Never has that led to good"
      - H”lderlin

"All are clear, I alone am clouded."
      - Lao-tzu

"Individuation means becoming a single, homogeneous being, and, in so far as 'individuality' embraces our innermost, last, and incomparable uniqueness, it also implies becoming one's own self. We could therefore translate individuation as 'coming to selfhood' or 'self-realization.'"
      - C.G. Jung

"Be righteous and be not wicked; and even if the whole world tells you that you are righteous, regard yourself as if you were wicked."
      - Niddah

"It is not the number of books you read, nor the variety of sermons you hear, nor the amount of religious conversation in which you mix. But it is the frequency and earnestness with which you mediatate on these things till the truth in them becomes your own and part of your being, that ensures your growth."
      - F.W. Robertson

"Reading and conversation may furnish us with many ideas of men and things, yet it is our own meditation that must form our judgement"
      - Watts

"Meditation is that exercise of the mind by which it recalls a known truth, as some kind of creatures do their food, to be ruminated upon till all the valuable parts be extracted."
      - George Horne

"Meditation is the soul's perspective glass, whereby, in her long removes, she discerneth God, as if he were nearer at hand."
      - Feltham

"In all the vast and the minute, we see the unambiguous footsteps of the God, who gives its luster to the insect's wing and wheels his throne upon the rolling worlds."
      - Cowper

"Nature is too thin a screen; the glory of the omnipresent God bursts through everwhere."
      - Emerson

"The very word "God" suggests care, kindness, goodness; and the idea of God in his infinity, is infinite care, infinite kindness, infinite goodness. - We give God the name of good: it is only by shortening it that it becomes God."
      - H. W. Beecher

"How often we look upon God as our last and feeblest resource! We go to him because we have nowhere else to go. And then we learn that the storms of life have driven us, not upon the rocks, but into the desired haven."
      - George Macdonald

"An old mystic says somewhere, 'God is an unutterable sigh in the innermost depths of the soul.' With still greater justice, we may reverse the proposition, and say the soul is a never ending sigh after God."
      - Christlieb

"God should be the object of all our desires, the end of all our actions, the principle of all our affections, and the governing power of our whole souls."
      - Massillon

"What is there in man so worthy of honor and reverence as this, that he is capable of contemplating something highter than his own reason, more sublime than the whole universe-that Spirit which alone is self-subsistent, from which all truth proceeds, without which is no truth?"
      -Jacobi

"Religion cannot pass away. The burning of a little straw may hide the stars of the sky, but the stars are there, and will reappear."
      - Carlyle

"True religion extends alike to the intellect and the heart. Intellect is in vain if it lead not to emotion, and emotion is vain if not enlightened by intellect; and both are vain if not guided by truth and leading to duty."
      - Tryon Edwards

"Let your religion be seen. Lamps do not talk, but they do shine. A light-house sounds no drum, it beats no gong; yet, far over the waters, its friendly light is seen by the mariner."
      - T.L Cuyler

"There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it."
      - G.B. Shaw

"Of all acts of man, repentance is the most divine. - The greatest of all faults is to be conscious of none."
      - Carlyle

"True repentance consists in the heart being broken for sin and broken from sin. Some often repent, yet never reform; they resemble a man travelling in a dangerous path, who frequently starts and stops, but never turns back."
      - Thorton

"Mere sorrow, which weeps and sits still, is not repentance. - Repentance is sorrow converted into action; into a movement toward a new and better life."
      - M.R. Vincent

"Right actions for the future are the best apologies for wrong ones in the past - the best evidence of regret for them that we can offer, or the world receive."
      - Tryon Edwards

"The casting down of our spirits in true humility is but like throwing a ball to the ground, which makes it rebound the higher toward heaven."
      - J. Masan

"The doctrines of grace humble man without degrading, and exalt without inflating him."
      - Charles Hodge

"Be wise; soar not to high to fall, but stoop to rise."
      - Massinger

"Humility is the root, mother, nurse, foundation, and bond of all virtue."
      - Chrysostom

"It is the witness still of excellence to put a strange face on its own perfection."
      - Shakespeare

"There is but one road to lead us to God-humility; all other ways would only lead astray, even were they fenced in with all virtues."
      - Boileau

"It is from out of the depths of our humility that the height of our destiny looks grandest. Let me truly feel that in myself I am nothing, and at once, through every inlet of my soul, God comes in, and is everything in me."
      - W. Mountford

"It is no great thing to be humble when you are brought low; but to be humble when you are praised is a great and rare attainment."
      - St. Bernard

"Trees that, like the poplar, lift upward all their boughs, give no shade and no shelter whatever their height. Trees the most lovingly shelter and shade us when, like the willow, the higher soar their summits, the lowlier droop their boughs."
      - Bulwer

"God walks with the humble; he reveals himself to the lowly; he gives understanding to the little ones; he discloses his meaning to pure minds, but hides his grace from the curious and the proud."
      - Thos. à Kempis

"Humility is the truest abstinence in the world. It is abstinence from self-love and self-conceit, from vaunting our own praise and exploits, from ambition of our nature, and consequently is the noblest self-denial."
      - Delany

"We know God easily if we do not constrain ouselves to define him."
      - Joubert

"The growth of grace is like the polishing of metals. There is first an opaque surface; by and by you see a spark darting out, then a strong light; till at length it sends back a perfect image of the sun that shines upon it."
      - Payson

"Grace comes into the soul, as the morning sun into the world; first a dawning; then a light; and at last the sun in his full and excellent brightness."
      - T. Adams

"If you want to find the source of any problem, look to Lucre and Lust."
      - Sri Ramakrisna

"Let us unite contemplation with action. -In the harmony of the two, lies the perfection of character. -They are not contradictory and incompatible, but mutually helpful to each other."
      - Foote

"Be still prepared for death; and death or life shall thereby be the sweeter."
      - Shakespeare

"To neglect, at any time, preparation for death, is to sleep on our post at a siege; to omit it in old age, is to sleep at an attack."
      - Johnson

"Let death be daily before your eyes, and you will never entertain any abject thought, nor too eagerly covet anything."
      - Epictetus

"There is no death! What seems so is transition; this life of mortal breath is but a suburb of the life elysian, whose portal we call death."
      - Longfellow

"This outer world is but the pictured scroll of worlds within the soul; a colored chart, a blazoned missal-book, wherein who rightly look may spell the splendors with their mortal eyes, and steer to Paradise."
      - Alfred Noyes

"If this life be not a real fight, in which something is eternally gained for the universe by success, it is no better than a game of private theatricals from which one may withdraw at will."
      - William James

"The very commonplaces of life are components of its eternal mystery."
      - Gerturde Atherton

"Let your life lightly dance on the edges of time like dew on the tip of a leaf."
      - Rabindranath Tagore

"Life is like music, it must be composed by ear, feeling and instinct, not by rule. Nevertheless one had better know the rules, for they sometimes guide in doubtful cases though not often."
      - Samuel Butler

"Life is a long lesson in humility."
      - James M. Barrie

"The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together; our virtues would be proud if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would despair if they were not cherished by our virtues."
      -Shakespeare

"Life is hardly respectable if it has no generous task, no duties or affections that constitute a neceessity of existence. Every man's task is his life-preserver."
      - Emerson

"Life is a series of surprises. We do not guess to-day the mood, the pleasure, the power of to-morrow, when we are building up our being."
      - Emerson

"Life, like the waters of the seas, freshens only when it ascends toward heaven."
      - Jean Paul Richter

"You are born with wings. Why prefer to crawl through life?"
      - Rumi

"Life is thick sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us."
      - Voltaire

"To complain that life has no joys while there is a single creature whom we can relieve by our bounty, assist by our counsels, or enliven by our presence, is to lament the loss of that which we possess, and is just as rational as to die of thirst with the cup in our hands."
      - Fitzosborne

"There are two lives to each of us, the life of our actions, and the life of our minds and hearts."
      - Bulwer

"History reveals men's deeds and their outward characters, but not themselves."
      - Bulwer

"There is a secret self that has its own life, unpenetrated and unguessed."
      - Bulwer

"The meaning, the value, the truth of life can be learned only by an actual performance of its duties, and truth can be learned and the soul saved in no other way."
      - T.T. Munger

"There is nothing which must end, to be valued for its continuance. If hours, days, months, and years pass away, it is no matter what hour, day, month, or year we die. The applause of a good actor is due to him at whatever scene of the play he makes his exit."
      - Steele

"The truest end of life is to know the life that never ends."
      - William Penn

"Life's evening will take its character from the day that preceded it."
      - Shuttleworth

"Live as if you expected to live an hundred years, but might die to-morrow."
      - Ann Lee

"Light is the shadow of God."
      - Plato

"Why did Bodhidharma come from the west? Everything's a beginning for something else."
      - anonymous

"The mind is never right but when it is at peace within itself; the soul is in heaven even while it is in the flesh, if it be purged of its natural corruptions, and taken up with divine thoughts and contemplations."
      - Seneca

"Everything here, but the soul of man, is a passing shadow. -The only enduring substance is within. -When shall we awake to the sublime greatness, the perils, the accountableness, and the glorious destinies of the immortal soul?"
      - Channing

"The old thoughts never die; immortal dreams outlive their dreamers and are ours for aye; no thought once formed and uttered ever can expire. "
      - Mackay

"A person who is alone can't hold a conversation. A drum has to be hollow for its sound to reverberate. Absences count. Words limit. Interpretations differ. What isn't said is also relevant. Absolute Truth cannot be expressed in words. It must be experienced. "And then, in eloquent silence we best reveal that we have awakened to the Dharma."
      - Master Han Shan

"Oh, for this one rare occurrence
Gladly would I give ten thousand pieces of gold!
A hat is on my head, a bundle on my back,
And my staff, the refreshing breeze and the full moon."
      - anonymous

"When one looks at it one cannot see it. When one listens to it, one cannot hear it. But when one uses it, it is inexhaustible."
      - The Tao Te Ching

"I find myself walking toward my destination, away from myself."
      - Bobby Austin

"The science and knowledge of all things consists in learning of the true harmony and consonance of nature with the macrocosm and microcosm of the world and man, since all things originate in one and all things in turn flow and return to one."
      - ancient alchemical saying

"On this road man cannot succeed by his own strength, but perhaps he will succeed if in some way the guide and leader within him is awakened, who will lead him to his goal."
      - Rudolf Bernoulli

"Only a fool is interested in other people's guilt, since he cannot alter it. The wise man learns only from his own guilt. He will ask himself: Who am I that all this should happen to me? To find the answer to this fateful question he will look into his own heart."
      - C. G. Jung

"Salvation does not come from refusing to take part or from running away. Nor does it come from just drifting. Salvation comes from complete surrender, with one's eyes always turned to the center."
- note written on a piece of paper in a dreamer's vision
      (C.G. Jung, the Eranos Yearbook, Series XXX)

Naturalissimum et perfectissimum opus est generare tale quale ipsum est. ("The most natural and perfect work is to generate what is like to itself.")
      - ancient alchemical saying

A visiting Zen student asked Ajahn Chah, "How old are you? Do you live here all year round?" "I live nowhere," he replied. "There is no place you can find me. I have no age. To have age, you must exist, and to think you exist is already a problem. Don't make problems; then the world has none either. Don't make a self. There's nothing more to say."
      - No Ajahn Chah

"The 'One Who Knows' clearly knows that all conditioned phenomena are unsubstantial. So this "One Who Knows" does not become happy or sad, for it does not follow changing conditions. To become glad is to be born; to become dejected is to die. Having died, we are born again; having been born, we die again. This birth and death from one moment to the next is the endless spinning whell of samsara."
      - No Ajahn Chah

"If your mind is happy, then you are happy anywhere you go. When wisdom awakens within you, you will see Truth wherever you look. Truth is all there is. It's like when you've learned how to read - you can then read anywhere you go."
      - No Ajahn Chah

"Because people don't see themselves, they can commit all sorts of bad deeds. They don't look at their own minds. When people are going to do something bad, they have to look around first to see if anyone is looking: 'Will my mother see me?' 'Will my husband see me?' 'Will the children see me?' 'Will my wife see me?' If there's no one watching, then they go right ahead and do it. This is insulting themselves. They say no one is watching, so they quickly finish their bad deed before anyone will see. And what about themselves? Aren't they a 'somebody' watching?"
      - No Ajahn Chah

"Strengthening the mind is not done by making it move around as is done to strengthen the body, but by bringing the mind to a halt, bringing it to rest."
      - No Ajahn Chah

"Where does rain come from? It comes from all the dirty water that evaporates from the earth, like urine and the water you throw out after washing your feet. Isn't it wonderful how the sky can take that dirty water and change it into pure, clean water? Your mind can do the same with your defilements if you let it."
      - No Ajahn Chah

"Any speech which ignores uncertainty is not the speech of a sage."
      - No Ajahn Chah

"If you really see uncertainty clearly, you will see that which is certain. The certainty is that things must inevitably be uncertain and that they cannot be otherwise. Do you understand? Knowing just this much, you can know the Buddha, you can rightly do reverence to him."
      - No Ajahn Chah

"Sometimes I'd go to see old religious sites with ancient temples. In some places they would be cracked. Maybe one of my friends would remark, 'Such a shame, isn't it? It's cracked.' I'd answer, 'If they weren't cracked there'd be no such thing as the Buddha. There'd be no Dhamma. It's cracked like this because it's perfectly in line with the Buddha's teaching.'"
      - No Ajahn Chah

"Some of you have come from thousands of miles away, from Europe and America and other far-off places, to listen to the Dhamma here at Nong Pah Pong Monastery. To think that you've come from so far and gone through so much trouble to get here. Then we have these people who live just outside the wall of the monastery but who have yet to enter through its gate. It makes you appreciate good kamma more, doesn't it?"
      - No Ajahn Chah

"I went all over looking for places to meditate. I didn't realize it was already there, in my heart. All the meditation is right there inside you. Birth, old age, sickness, and death are right there within you. I travelled all over until I was ready to drop dead from exhaustion. Only then, when I stopped, did I find what I was looking for ... inside me."
      - No Ajahn Chah

"Whatever we do, we should see ourselves. Reading books doesn't ever give rise to anything. The days pass by, but we don't see ourselves. Knowing about practice is practicing in order to know."
      - No Ajahn Chah

"The basics in our practice should be first, to be honest and upright; second, to be wary of wrongdoing; and third, to be humble within one's heart, to be aloof and content with little. If we are content with little in regards to speech and in all other things, we will see ourselves, we won't be distracted. The mind will have a foundation of virtue, concentration, and wisdom."
      - No Ajahn Chah

"Of course there are dozens of meditation techniques, but it all comes down to this - just let it all be. Step over here where it is cool, out of the battle. Why not give it a try?"
      - No Ajahn Chah

"Regardless of time and place, the whole practice of Dhamma comes to completion at the place where there is nothing. It's the place of surrender, of emptiness, of laying down the burden. This is the finish."
      - No Ajahn Chah

"The Dhamma is not far away. It's right with us. The Dhamma isn't about angels in the sky or anything like that. It's simply about us, about what we are doing right now. Observe yourself. Sometimes there is happiness, sometimes suffering, sometimes comfort, sometimes pain... this is Dhamma. Do you see it? To know this Dhamma, you have to read your experiences."
      - No Ajahn Chah

"We don't become monks or nuns to eat well, sleep well, and be very comfortable, but to know suffering: -how to accept it...-how to get rid of it... -how not to cause it. So don't do that which causes suffering, like indulging in greed, or it will never leave you."
      - No Ajahn Chah

"People have suffering in one place, so they go somewhere else. When suffering arises there, they run off again. They think they're running away from suffering, but they're not. Suffering goes with them. They carry suffering around without knowing it. If we don't know suffering then we can't know the cause of suffering. If we don't know the cause of suffering then we can't know the cessation of suffering. There's no way we can escape it."
      - No Ajahn Chah

"Some people get bored, fed up, tired of the practice and lazy. They can't seem to keep the Dhamma in mind. Yet, if you go and scold them, they'll never forget that. Some may remember it for the rest of their lives and never forgive you for it. But when it comes to the Buddha's teaching, telling us to practise conscientiously, why do they keep forgetting these things? Why don't people take these things to heart?"
      - No Ajahn Chah

"Once you understand non-self, then the burden of life is gone. You'll be at peace with the world. When we see beyond self, we no longer cling to happiness and we can truly be happy. Learn to let go without struggle, simply let go, to be just as you are - no holding on, no attachment, free."
      - No Ajahn Chah

"All bodies are composed of the four elements of earth, water, wind and fire. When they come together and form a body we say it's a male, a female, give it names, and so on, so that we can identify each other more easily. But actually there isn't anyone there - only earth, water, wind and fire. Don't get excited over it or infatuated by it. If you really look into it, you will not find anyone there."
      - No Ajahn Chah

"Peace is within oneself to be found in the same place as agitation and suffering. It is not found in a forest or on a hilltop, nor is it given by a teacher. Where you experience suffering, you can also find freedom from suffering. Trying to run away from suffering is actually to run toward it."
      - No Ajahn Chah

"If you let go a little, you will have a little peace. If you let go a lot, you will have a lot of peace. If you let go completely, you will have complete peace."
      - No Ajahn Chah

"Anyone can build a house of wood and bricks, but the Buddha taught us that sort of home is not our real home. It's a home in the world and it follows the ways of the world. Our real home is inner peace."
      - No Ajahn Chah

"The heart of the path is quite easy. There's no need to explain anything at length. Let go of love and hate and let things be. That's all that I do in my own practice."
      - No Ajahn Chah

"The greatness of a nation and it's moral progress can be judged by the way it's animals are treated."
      - Mahatma Gandhi

"God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illuminated by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a Wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason."
      - Dag Hammarskold

"When your original reason for studying Zen is not right, you wind up having labored without accomplishment. This is why ancients used to urge people to study Zen as if they were on the brink of death."
      - Yuanwu

"Why do you not understand your nature, when it is inherently there? There is not much to Buddhism-it just requires getting to the essential. We do not teach you to annihilate random thoughts, suppress body and mind, shut your eyes, and say this is Zen. You should observe your present state-what is the reason for it? Why do you become confused?"
      - Foyan

"Search back into your own vision-think back to the mind that thinks. Who is it?"
      - Foyan

"I tell people to get to know themselves. Some people think this means what beginners observe, and consider it easy to understand. Reflect more carefully, in a more leisurely manner-what do you call your self?"
      - Foyan

"You must know how to check yourself before you can attain Zen. It is because of confused minds that people strive on the Way; they go to mountains and forests to see teachers, on the false assumption that there is a particular path that can give people peace and comfort. They do not know it is best to work on finding out where they got confused."
      - Foyan

"There is no greater mystery than the following: Ourselves being the Reality, we seek to gain reality. We think there is something hiding our Reality, and that it must be destoyed before the Reality is gained. That is ridiculous. A day will dawn when you yourself laugh at your past efforts. That which will be on the day you laugh is also here and now."
      - Ramana Maharshi

"Whatever be the means adopted, you must at last return to the Self, so why not abide as the Self here and now?"
      - Ramana Maharshi

"There is neither creation nor destruction, Neither destiny nor freewill; Neither path nor achievement; This is the final truth."
      - Ramana Maharshi

"Just as a man shudders with horror when he steps upon a serpent, but laughs when he looks down and sees that it is only a rope, so I discovered one day that what I was calling "I" cannot be found, and all fear and anxiety vanished with my mistake."
      - Buddha

"How Fascinating the idea of death can be.
Too bad, though, because it just isn't true."
      - Hafiz

"Everyone is God speaking.
Why not be polite and listen to Him?"
      - Hafiz

"Knock,
And He'll open the door.
Vanish,
And He'll make you shine like the sun.
Fall,
And He'll raise you to the heavens.
Become nothing,
And He'll turn you into everything!"
      - Jelaluddin Rumi

"The meaning of Life is to see."
      -Hui-Neng

"Between God and Me there is no 'Between'."
      - Meister Eckhart

"The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me."
      - Meister Eckhart

"When a person is confused, he sees east as west. When he is enlightened, west itself is east."
      - Ta-Hui

"The foolish reject what they see, not what they think. The wise reject what they think, not what they see."
      - Huang-Po

"Among the great things which are to be found among us, the Being of Nothingness is the greatest."
      - Leonard Da Vince

"I saw a wise man dying of starvation. Leaves fall in the slightest wind in December. And I saw a wealthy man beating his cook for some mistake with the spices. Since then, I, Lalla, have been waiting for my love of this place to leave me."
      - Lalla

"Self is what you are, You are That fathomless in which experience and concepts appear. Self is the Moment which has no coming or going, It is the Heart, Atman, Emptiness, It shines to Itself, by Itself, in Itself. Self is what gives breath to life, You need not search for It, It is Here. You are That through which you would search. You are what you are looking for! And That is all it is. Only Self is."
      -Sri H.W.L. Poonja

"You were never born, and though only desire takes birth, Nothing has ever happened, Nothing has ever existed!
Nothing ever will."
      -Sri H.W.L. Poonja

"There is no method, no teaching, and no practice. Only be quiet and allow no I-thought to arise and You will reveal your Self to your Self."
      -Sri H.W.L. Poonja

"There is an Awareness beyond the awareness of objects and events. You are That Awareness in which the awareness of objects stays."
      -Sri H.W.L. Poonja

"Words are symbols for what's hidden from the mind. They are inherently without meaning. We create meaning not from thoughts, but from the symbols thoughts evoke."
      - anonymous

"If you are carrying a heavy suitcase and you get on a train, you can put your suitcase down - for the same train that is carrying you, is carrying your burden."
      - Ramana Maharshi

"If you must be mad, why be mad about the things of the world? Be mad for God alone!"
      - Sri Ramakrishna

"When I was young I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people."
      - Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972)

"For I desire kindness, not sacrifice."
      - Hosea 6:6; speaking in the name of God

"Give of yourself ... you can always give something, even if it is only kindness....No one has ever become poor from giving."
      - The Diary of a Young Girl, March 1944

"Love blinds us to faults, hatred to virtues."
      - Moshe ibn Erza (c. 1055-after 1135) Shirat Yisrael

"Hatred makes the straight crooked."
      - Hebrew proverb

"It is better for my enemy to see good in me than for me to see evil in him."
      - Yiddish proverb

"I have only one life, and it is short enough. Why waste it on the things I don't want most?"
      - Justice Louis Brandeis (1856-1941)

"Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person is like expecting the bull not to charge you because you are a vegetarian."
      - Rabbi Harold Kushner, paraphrasing Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan (1881-1983), in When All You've Ever Wanted Isn't Enough, page 91

"A man is what he is, not what he used to be."
      - Yiddish proverb

"Strive to see supernal light, for I have brought you into a vast ocean. Be careful! Strive to see, yet escape drowning."
      - Isaac of Akko

"All conceptual entanglement among human beings and all the inner, mental conflicts suffered by each individual result solely from our cloudy concept of the divine. All thoughts, whether practical or theoretical, flow out of the endless divine ocean and return there."
      - Daniel C. Matt, The Essential Kabbalah, The Heart of Jewish Mysticism

"The essence of faith is an awareness of the vastness of Infinity. Whatever conception of it enters the mind is an absolutely negligible speck in comparison to what should be conceived, and what should be conceived is no less negligible compared to what it really is."
      - Daniel C. Matt, The Essential Kabbalah, The Heart of Jewish Mysticism

"Every definition of God leads to heresy; definition is spiritual idolatry. Even attributing mind and will to God, even attributing divinity itself, and the name "God" - these, too, are definitions. Were it not for the subtle awareness that all these are just sparkling flashes of that which transcends definition-these, too, would engender heresy."
      - Daniel C. Matt, The Essential Kabbalah, The Heart of Jewish Mysticism

"The greatest impediment to the human spirit results from the fact that the conception of God is fixed in a particular form, due to childish habit and imagination. This is a spark of the defect of idolatry, of which we must always beware."
      - Daniel C. Matt, The Essential Kabbalah, The Heart of Jewish Mysticism

"All the troubles of the world, especially spiritual troubles such as impatience, hopelessness, and despair, derive from the failure to see the grandeur of God clearly."
      - Daniel C. Matt, The Essential Kabbalah, The Heart of Jewish Mysticism

"The infinite transcends every particular content of faith."
      - Daniel C. Matt, The Essential Kabbalah, The Heart of Jewish Mysticism

"The essence of serving God and of all the mitsvot is to attain the state of humility, that is, to understand that all your physical and mental powers and your essential being depend on the divine elements within. You are simply a channel for the divine attributes. You attain this humility through the awe of God's vastness, through realizing that 'there is no place empty of it.'"
      - Daniel C. Matt, The Essential Kabbalah, The Heart of Jewish Mysticism

"When the mind is at peace, the world too is at peace. Nothing real, nothing absent. Not holding on to reality, not getting stuck in the void, you are neither holy nor wise, just an ordinary fellow who has completed his work."
      - Layman Pang (c. 740 - 808) from The Enlightened Heart

"My daily affairs are quite ordinary; but I'm in total harmony with them. I don't hold on to anything, don't reject anything; nowhere an obstacle or conflict. Who cares about wealth and honor? Even the poorest thing shines. My miraculous power and spiritual activity: drawing water and carrying wood."
      - Layman Pang (c. 740 - 808) from The Enlightened Heart

"God, whose love and joy are present everywhere, can't come to visit you unless you aren't there."
      - Angelus Silesius (1624-1677) from The Enlightened Heart

"God is a pure no-thing, concealed in now and here; the less you reach for him, the more he will appear."
      - Angelus Silesius (1624-1677) from The Enlightened Heart

"He who binds
to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy.
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sun rise."
      - William Blake (1757 - 1827)

"To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour."
      - William Blake (1757 - 1827)

"The music that fills the outer ear is but an echo of the inner harmony. One who learns to make his whole being an ear, alone hears the music of eternity."
      - Swami Rama, from Love Whispers

"When worldly love is spiritualized-transformed from sense experience to soul experience-the values of life are understood. Love is always divine, one and the same, within and without both."
      - Swami Rama, from Love Whispers

"When one learns to forget all that one remembers, then in which language will the mind think? The thinker has nothing to think upon. Therefore, there is no thought and no mind. Only the Self exists with its majestic glory, which is simply beautiful and indescribable."
      - Swami Rama, from Love Whispers

"If you walk toward Him, He comes to you running."
      - Muhammad

"I am the companion of him who remembers Me."
      - Muhammad

"O my Loard, if I worship Thee for fear of hell, burn me in hell; and if I worship Thee for hope of Paradise, exclude me thence; but if I worship Thee for Thine own sake, withhold not from me Thine eternal Beauty."
      - Rabia

"Don't drink by the water's edge. Throw yourself in. Become the water. Only then will your thirst end."
      - Jeanette Berson

"It is said that when you take only one step toward Him, He advances ten steps toward you. But the complete truth is that God is always with you."
      - Muhammad

"The Suchness of the Universe never moves.
The Buddha sees things of this world
as reflections of light;
And explains that the nature of all things
is always quiescent,
is without solidity and has no resting place.
The Suchness of the Universe never moves.
This is the realization of tranquility."
      - from the Flower Ornament Scripture (Avatamsaka Sutra)

"The faults of others are easily seen, but one's own faults are seen with difficulty. One winnows the faults of others like chaff, but conceals his own faults as a fowler covers his body with twigs and leaves."
      - The Buddha, Dhammapada, XVIII, 252

"It is well to remember that the entire population of the universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others."
      - Andrew J. Holmes, Wisdom in Small Doses

"When science discovers the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed to find they are not it."
      - Bernard Baily

"Be empty of yourself!"
      - Bodhidharma

"Nevertheless, in both religions, the main emphasis is on the internal spiritual battle against one's own ignorance and destructive ways."
      - Alexander Berzin (Holy Wars in Buddhism and Islam: The Myth of Shambhala)

"Not the light which illumines the world from without is God, but the light which we cast upon it from within us: i.e., perception through sympathy."
      - From the Diary of Richard Wagner, The Brown Book 1865-1882, translated by George Bird

"If you love all things, you will also attain the divine mystery that is in all things. For then your ability to perceive the truth will grow every day, and your mind will open itself to an all-embracing love."
      - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

 

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Last modified: July 11, 2004
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