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Invisiblespinvis
Stranger

Registered: 09/15/20
Posts: 586
Re: Greatest Spiritual Quotes? [Re: spinvis]
    #27863829 - 07/15/22 02:55 PM (1 year, 6 months ago)

Zhiyi's corpus;
"Sentient beings, limitless in number, I vow to ferry over.
Passions (klesa) which are numberless, I vow to extinguish.
The Dharma-gates without end (in number), I vow to know.
The supreme Buddha Way, I vow to actualize."


Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra;
"Just as all the Buddhas of the past
Have brought forth the awakened mind,
And in the precepts of the Bodhisattvas
Step-by-step abode and trained,
Likewise, for the benefit of beings,
I will bring to birth the awakened mind,
And in those precepts, step-by-step,
I will abide and train myself."


Bodhicittotpadaviddhi;
"Just as the past tathāgata arhat samyaksambuddhas, when engaging in the behavior of a bodhisattva, generated the aspiration to unsurpassed complete enlightenment so that all beings be liberated, all beings be freed, all beings be relieved, all beings attain complete nirvana, all beings be placed in omniscient wisdom, in the same way, I whose name is so-and-so, from this time forward, generate the aspiration to unsurpassed complete enlightenment so that all beings be liberated, all beings be freed, all beings be relieved, all beings attain complete nirvana, all beings be placed in omniscient wisdom."


Ram Dass - Have a Good Journey - Lecture;
"I went to India and I had been studying and working with psychedelic chemicals for many years, and at one point, when I met my Guru, he said; "You used that Yogi medicine?"
And I didn't know what he meant and somebody said LSD, and I said yes.
"You got any?"
And I said yes, he said; "Bring it."
So I brought it and I put one pill in his hand and he held out his hand for another and then another and that was 900 micrograms which was... a lot... um... And he went like that (inserts into mouth) and I thought, boy, this is gonna be interesting.
And then nothing happened, and I thought, that's far out. Then I thought well that makes perfect sense, if I'm stuck at A I take that in order to unstick me, so I will be able to get to B. But if you are already at B, it must be like drinking water, what difference does it make. I mean, there's nowhere to go, so you know, if you're at A and B, it doesn't matter.
So I went home and told everybody that I met this guy that took 900 micrograms and nothing happened. Because, I mean, that is our medicine, you know. But in the back of my mind I thought, maybe he is conning me, maybe he clouded my mind and threw it over his shoulder, you know.
So I went back to India two years later, and one day he called me up and he said; "Did you give me some medicine last time you were here?"
And I said yeah, he said; "Did I take it?"
I said I think you did.
"Oh, you got any more?"
I said yeah.
"Bring it."
So I brought it out. So he took, there were five pills, and he took four of them, one was broken, he wouldn't touch that. He took the four, which is 1200. And he stuck each one (mumbles under the tongue).
And then he said to me; "Will it make me mad?"
I said probably.
He said; "How long will it take?"
And I said maybe an hour. So he got a big watch and he was looking at it, and after a little while he pulled his blanket over his head and he came out looking mad. Like this (mad face) and then he just laughed at me.
Then he says; "These medicines were known about for thousands of years. In fact almost every culture has had medicines for altering consciousness."
I mean, that's the truth for the aside from what he said, and he said; "But people have lost the knowledge of how to use these really effectively and how to prepare themselves for it. It's useful but it's not the full samadhi. It's not the complete thing. But, it can be useful under certain conditions."
I said what are those conditions, he said; "When you're feeling much peace, and your mind is turned towards God, and you're in a cool place, it could be useful. It would allow you to come in and be in the presence of the spirit, but you can only stay for a few hours and then you'd have to leave. It's better to become the spirit than to visit it, but your medicine won't do that for you."


Digha Nikaya;
"Awakened, the Blessed One teaches the Dhamma for the sake of awakening.
Disciplined, the Blessed One teaches the Dhamma for the sake of disciplining.
Calmed, the Blessed One teaches the Dhamma for the sake of calming.
Having crossed over, the Blessed One teaches the Dhamma for the sake of crossing over."


Lotus Sūtra;
"Those who have not yet been ferried over, I will ferry over.
Those who have not yet understood, I will cause them to understand.
Those who have not settled themselves, I will cause them to be settled.
Those who have not attained nirvana, I will cause them to attain nirvana."


Kabir – Songs of Kabir – VII;
“I, 85. Sadho, Brahm alakh lakhaya

When He Himself reveals Himself, Brahma brings into manifestation
That which can never be seen.
As the seed is in the plant, as the shade is in the tree, as the
void is in the sky, as the infinite forms are in the void --
So from beyond the Infinite, the Infinite comes; and from the
Infinite the finite extends.

The creature is in Brahma, and Brahma in in the creature: they
are ever distinct, yet ever united.
He Himself is the tree, the seed, and the germ.
He Himself is the flower, the fruit, and the shade.
He Himself is the sun, the light, and the lighted.
He Himself is Brahma, creature, and Maya.
He Himself is the manifold form, the infinite space;
He is the breath, the word, and the meaning.
He Himself is the limit and the limitless: and beyond both the
limited and limitless is He, the Pure Being.
He is the Immanent Mind in Brahma and in the creature.

The Supreme Soul is seen within the soul,
The Point is seen within the Supreme Soul,
And within the Point, the reflection is seen again.
Kabir is blest because he has this supreme vision!”


Meister Eckhart - Selected Writings - The Talks of Instruction;
"When we go out of ourselves through obedience and strip ourselves of what is ours, then God must enter into us; for when someone wills nothing for themselves, then God must will on their behalf just as he does for himself. Whenever I have taken leave of my own will, putting it in the hands of my superior, and no longer will anything for myself, then God must will on my behalf, and if he neglects me in this respect, then he neglects himself. And so in all things in which I do not will for myself, God wills on my behalf. Now take note! What does he will for me, if I will nothing for myself? When I shed my own self, then he must of necessity will for me everything that he wills for himself, no more and no less, and in the very same way that he wills for himself. And if God did not do this, then by the truth which God is, he would not be just nor would he be God (which of course he is by his nature)."


Ugraparipṛcchā Sūtra;
"The unrescued I will rescue
The unliberated I will liberate
The uncomforted I will comfort
Those who have not yet reached paranirvana, I will cause to attain paranirvana"


Dipankara Jataka;
"Having crossed over [myself], I will rescue [others].
Liberated, I will liberate [others].
Comforted, I will comfort [others].
Having attained paranirvana, I will cause [others] to attain paranirvana."


Christina Rossetti - Completed Works of - AS THE DOVE WHICH FOUND NO REST;
“As the dove which found no rest
For the sole of her foot, flew back
To the ark her only nest
And found safety there;
Because Noah put forth his hand,
Drew her in from ruin and wrack,
And was more to her than the land
And the air:

So my spirit, like that dove,
Fleeth away to an ark
Where dwelleth a Heart of Love,
A Hand pierced to save,
Tho' the sun and the moon should fail,
Tho' the stars drop into the dark,
And my body lay itself pale
In a grave."


Kabir – Songs of Kabir – IX;
“I. 104. aisa lo nahin taisa lo

O How may I ever express that secret word?
O how can I say He is not like this, and He is like that?
If I say that He is within me, the universe is ashamed:
If I say that He is without me, it is falsehood.
He makes the inner and outer worlds to be indivisibly one;
The conscious and the unconscious, both are His footstools.
He is neither manifest nor hidden, He is neither revealed nor
unrevealed:
There are no words to tell that which He is.”


Lalitavistarasutra;
"I will attain the immortal, undecaying, pain-free Bodhi, and free the world from all pain."


Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā sutra;
"My own self I will place in Suchness, and, so that all the world might be helped, I will place all beings into Suchness, and I will lead to Nirvana the whole immeasurable world of beings."


Edited by spinvis (08/01/22 06:02 AM)


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Invisiblespinvis
Stranger

Registered: 09/15/20
Posts: 586
Re: Greatest Spiritual Quotes? [Re: spinvis]
    #27870183 - 07/20/22 11:01 AM (1 year, 6 months ago)

Stonehouse - The Mountain Poems of Stonehouse - 1;
"I made my home west of Cha River
where water fills Sky Lake and the moon fills the stream
strangers are frightened by the mountain's heights
but once they arrive they know the trail
dried snail shells on rock walls
fresh tiger tracks in the mud
I leave my door open when spring days get longer
when paulownias bloom and thrushes call"


Kabir - Songs of - V;
"I.63 avadhū, māyā tajī na jāy

Tell me, Brother, how can I renounce Maya?
When I gave up the tying of ribbons, still I tied my garment about me:
When I gave up tying my garment, still I covered my body in its folds.
So, when I give up passion, I see that anger remains;
And when I renounce anger, greed is with me still;
And when greed is vanquished, pride and vainglory remain;
When the mind is detached and casts Maya away, still it clings to the letter.
Kabīr says: “Listen to me, dear Sadhu! the true path is rarely found.”"


The Nag Hammadi Scriptures - The Secret Book of James;
"Jesus Appears to Peter and James (2, 7–3, 38)

The twelve disciples were all sitting together, recalling what the Savior had said to each of them, whether in a hidden or an open manner, and organizing it in books. I was writing what is in [my book]. Look, the Savior appeared, after he had left [us, while we] were watching for him.
Five hundred fifty days after he rose from the dead, we said to him, “Did you depart and leave us?”
Jesus said, “No, but I shall return to the place from which I came. If you want to come with me, come.”
They all answered and said, “If you order us, we’ll come.”
He said, “I tell you the truth, no one will ever enter heaven’s kingdom because I ordered it, but rather because you yourselves are filled. Leave James and Peter to me that I may fill them.”
When he called the two of them, he took them aside and commanded the rest to keep doing what they were doing.
The Savior said, “You have been favored [through the Father to receive my sayings. The other disciples also] have written [my sayings in their] books as if [they have understood, but be careful. They have done their] work without [really understanding]. They have listened like [foolish people], and…they have not understood.
“Do you not want to be filled?
“Your hearts are drunk.
“Do you not want to be sober?
“You ought to be ashamed.
“From now on, awake or asleep, remember that you have seen the Son of Humanity and have spoken with him and have listened to him.
“Woe to those who have seen the Son of Humanity.
“Blessed will you be who have not seen the human, or associated with him, or spoken with him, or listened to anything from him. Yours is life.
“Understand that he healed you when you were sick, that you might reign.
“Woe to those who have found relief from their sickness, for they will relapse into sickness.
“Blessed are you who have not been sick, and have known relief before getting sick. God’s kingdom is yours.
“So I tell you, be filled and leave no space within you empty, or he who is coming will mock you.”

Being Filled and Lacking (3, 38–4, 22)

Then Peter answered, “Look, three times you have told us, ‘Be [filled,’ but] we are filled.”
The [Savior answered] and said, “For [this reason I have told] you, ‘[Be filled],’ that you may not [lack. Those who lack] will not [be saved]. To be filled is good and to lack is bad. Yet since it is also good for you to lack but bad for you to be filled, whoever is filled also lacks. One who lacks is not filled in the way another who lacks is filled, but whoever is filled is brought to an appropriate end. So you should lack when you can fill yourselves and be filled when you lack that you may be able to [fill] yourselves more. Be filled with spirit but lack in reason, for reason is of the soul. It is soul.”"


Matsuo Basho - Collected works of Basho and the Haikuists - Haiku by Chiyo-ni;
"the first fall of snow;
if I write a word, it melts,
if I write, it melts"


Kahlil Gibran - The Complete Works of - Song of Man;
"I was here from the moment of the beginning, and here I am still.
And I shall remain here until the end of the world,
For there is no ending to my grief-stricken being.
I roamed the infinite sky, and soared in the ideal world, and floated through the firmament.
But here I am, prisoner of measurement.

I heard the teachings of Confucius;
I listened to Brahma's wisdom;
I sat by the Buddha under the Tree of Knowledge.
Yet here I am, existing with ignorance and heresy.

I was on Sinai when Jehovah approached Moses;
I saw the Nazarene's miracles at the Jordan;
I was in Medina when Mohammed visited.
Yet I here I am, prisoner of bewilderment.

Then I witnessed the might of Babylon;
I learned of the glory of Egypt;
I viewed the warring greatness of Rome.
Yet my earlier teachings showed the weakness and sorrow of those achievement.

I conversed with the magicians of Ain Dour;
I debated with the priests of Assyria;
I gleaned depth from the prophets of Palestine.
Yet, I am still seeking truth.

I gathered wisdom from quiet India;
I probed the antiquity of Arabia;
I heard all that can be heard.
Yet, my heart is deaf and blind.

I suffered at the hands of despotic rulers;
I suffered slavery under insane invaders;
I suffered hunger imposed by tyranny;
Yet, I still possess some inner power with which I struggle to greet each day.

My mind is filled, but my heart is empty;
My body is old, but my heart is an infant.
Perhaps in youth my heart will grow,
But I pray to grow old and reach the moment of my return to God.
Only then will my heart fill!

I was here from the moment of the beginning, and here I am still.
And I shall remain here until the end of the world,
For there is no ending to my grief-stricken being."


Saint Therese of Lisieux - Collection - TO LIVE OF LOVE - 1-3;
"The eve His life of love drew near its end,
Thus Jesus spoke: "Whoever loveth Me,
And keeps My word as Mine own faithful friend,
My father, then and I his guests will be;
Within his heart will make Our dwelling above.
Our palace home, true type of heaven above.
There, filled with peace, We will that he shall rest,
With us, in love.

Incarnate word! Thou Word of God alone!
To live of love, tis to abide with Thee.
Thou knowest I love Thee, Jesus Christ, my Own!
Thy Spirit's fire of love enkindleth me.
By loving Thee, I draw the Father here
Down to my heart, to stay with me always.
Blest Trinity! Thou art my prisoner dear,
of love, to-day

To live of love, 'tis by Thy life to live,
O glorious King, my chosen, sole Delight!
Hid in the Host, how often Thou dost give
Thyself to those who seek Thy radiant light.
Then hid shall be my life, unmarked, unknown,
That I may have Thee heart to heart with me;
For loving souls desire to be alone,
With love, and Thee!


William Blake - Auguries of Innocence;
"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
A Robin Red breast in a Cage
Puts all Heaven in a Rage
A Dove house filld with Doves & Pigeons
Shudders Hell thr' all its regions
A dog starvd at his Masters Gate
Predicts the ruin of the State
A Horse misusd upon the Road
Calls to Heaven for Human blood
Each outcry of the hunted Hare
A fibre from the Brain does tear
A Skylark wounded in the wing
A Cherubim does cease to sing
The Game Cock clipd & armd for fight
Does the Rising Sun affright
Every Wolfs & Lions howl
Raises from Hell a Human Soul
The wild deer, wandring here & there
Keeps the Human Soul from Care
The Lamb misusd breeds Public Strife
And yet forgives the Butchers knife
The Bat that flits at close of Eve
Has left the Brain that wont Believe
The Owl that calls upon the Night
Speaks the Unbelievers fright
He who shall hurt the little Wren
Shall never be belovd by Men
He who the Ox to wrath has movd
Shall never be by Woman lovd
The wanton Boy that kills the Fly
Shall feel the Spiders enmity
He who torments the Chafers Sprite
Weaves a Bower in endless Night
The Catterpiller on the Leaf
Repeats to thee thy Mothers grief
Kill not the Moth nor Butterfly
For the Last Judgment draweth nigh
He who shall train the Horse to War
Shall never pass the Polar Bar
The Beggars Dog & Widows Cat
Feed them & thou wilt grow fat
The Gnat that sings his Summers Song
Poison gets from Slanders tongue
The poison of the Snake & Newt
Is the sweat of Envys Foot
The poison of the Honey Bee
Is the Artists Jealousy
The Princes Robes & Beggars Rags
Are Toadstools on the Misers Bags
A Truth thats told with bad intent
Beats all the Lies you can invent
It is right it should be so
Man was made for Joy & Woe
And when this we rightly know
Thro the World we safely go
Joy & Woe are woven fine
A Clothing for the soul divine
Under every grief & pine
Runs a joy with silken twine
The Babe is more than swadling Bands
Throughout all these Human Lands
Tools were made & Born were hands
Every Farmer Understands
Every Tear from Every Eye
Becomes a Babe in Eternity
This is caught by Females bright
And returnd to its own delight
The Bleat the Bark Bellow & Roar
Are Waves that Beat on Heavens Shore
The Babe that weeps the Rod beneath
Writes Revenge in realms of Death
The Beggars Rags fluttering in Air
Does to Rags the Heavens tear
The Soldier armd with Sword & Gun
Palsied strikes the Summers Sun
The poor Mans Farthing is worth more
Than all the Gold on Africs Shore
One Mite wrung from the Labrers hands
Shall buy & sell the Misers Lands
Or if protected from on high
Does that whole Nation sell & buy
He who mocks the Infants Faith
Shall be mockd in Age & Death
He who shall teach the Child to Doubt
The rotting Grave shall neer get out
He who respects the Infants faith
Triumphs over Hell & Death
The Childs Toys & the Old Mans Reasons
Are the Fruits of the Two seasons
The Questioner who sits so sly
Shall never know how to Reply
He who replies to words of Doubt
Doth put the Light of Knowledge out
The Strongest Poison ever known
Came from Caesars Laurel Crown
Nought can Deform the Human Race
Like to the Armours iron brace
When Gold & Gems adorn the Plow
To peaceful Arts shall Envy Bow
A Riddle or the Crickets Cry
Is to Doubt a fit Reply
The Emmets Inch & Eagles Mile
Make Lame Philosophy to smile
He who Doubts from what he sees
Will neer Believe do what you Please
If the Sun & Moon should Doubt
Theyd immediately Go out
To be in a Passion you Good may Do
But no Good if a Passion is in you
The Whore & Gambler by the State
Licencd build that Nations Fate
The Harlots cry from Street to Street
Shall weave Old Englands winding Sheet
The Winners Shout the Losers Curse
Dance before dead Englands Hearse
Every Night & every Morn
Some to Misery are Born
Every Morn and every Night
Some are Born to sweet delight
Some are Born to sweet delight
Some are Born to Endless Night
We are led to Believe a Lie
When we see not Thro the Eye
Which was Born in a Night to perish in a Night
When the Soul Slept in Beams of Light
God Appears & God is Light
To those poor Souls who dwell in Night
But does a Human Form Display
To those who Dwell in Realms of day"


Matsuo Basho - Collected works of Basho and the Haikuists - Haiku by Chiyo-ni;
"if one does not bend
in the floating world...
bamboo-snow"


Jataka Tales Vol. 1 Prince Goodspeaker - The Goat Who Saved the Priest;
"Once upon a time, there was a very famous priest in a very old religion. He decided it was the right day to perform the ritual sacrificing of a goat. In his ignorance, he thought this was an offering demanded by his god.

He obtained an appropriate goat for the sacrifice. He ordered his servants to take the goat to the holy river and wash him and decorate him with flower garlands. Then they were to wash themselves, as part of the purification practice.

Down at the riverbank, the goat suddenly understood that today he would definitely be killed. He also became aware of his past births and deaths and rebirths. He realized that the results of his past unwholesome deeds were about to finally be completed. So he laughed an uproarious goat-laugh, like the clanging of cymbals.

In the midst of his laughter, he realized another truth that the priest, by sacrificing him, would suffer the same terrible results, due to his ignorance. So he began to cry as loudly as he had just been laughing!

The servants, who were bathing in the holy river, heard first the laughing and then the crying. They were amazed. So they asked the goat, "Why did you loudly laugh and then just as loudly cry? What is the reason for this?" He replied, "I will tell you the reason. But it must be in the presence of your master, the priest."

Since they were very curious, they immediately took the sacrificial goat to the priest. They explained all that had happened. The priest, too, became very curious. He respectfully asked the goat, "Sir, why did you laugh so loudly, and then just as loudly cry?"

The goat, remembering his past lives, said, "A long time ago, I too was a priest who, like you, was well educated in the sacred religious rites. I thought that to sacrifice a goat was a necessary offering to my god, which would benefit others, as well as myself in future rebirths. However, the true result of my actions was that in my next 499 lives I myself have been beheaded!

"While being prepared for the sacrifice, I realized that today I will definitely lose my head for the 500th time. Then I will finally be free of all the results of my unwholesome deeds of so long ago. The joy of this made me laugh uncontrollably.

"Then I suddenly realized that you, the priest, were about to repeat the same unwholesome action, and would be doomed to the same result of having your head chopped off in your next 500 lives! So, out of compassion and sympathy, my laughter turned to tears."

The priest was afraid this goat might be right, so he said, "Well, sir goat, I will not kill you." The goat replied, "Reverend priest, even if you do not kill me, I know that today I will lose my head and finally be released from the results of my past unwholesome action."

The priest said, "Don't be afraid, my fine goat. I will provide the very best protection and personally guarantee that no harm will come to you." But the goat said, "Oh priest, your protection is very weak, compared to the power of my unwholesome deed to cause its necessary results."

So the priest cancelled the sacrifice, and began to have doubts about killing innocent animals. He released the goat and, along with his servants, followed him in order to protect him from any danger.

The goat wandered into a rocky place. He saw some tender leaves on a branch and stretched out his neck to reach them. All of a sudden a thunderstorm appeared out of nowhere. A lightning bolt struck an over-hanging rock, and cut off a sharp slab, which fell and chopped off the goat's head! He died instantly, and the thunderstorm disappeared.

Hearing of this very strange event, hundreds of local people came to the place. No one could understand how it had happened.

There was also a fairy who lived in a nearby tree. He had seen all that had occurred. He appeared, gently fluttering in the air overhead. He began to teach the curious people, saying, "Look at what happened to this poor goat. This was the result of killing animals! All beings are born, and suffer through sickness, old age and death. But all wish to live, and not to die. Not seeing that all have this in common, some kill other living beings. This causes suffering also to those who kill, both now and in countless future rebirths.

"Being ignorant that all deeds must cause results to the doer, some continue to kill and heap up more suffering on themselves in the future. Each time they kill, a part of themselves must also die in this present life. And the suffering continues even by rebirth in hell worlds!"

Those who heard the fairy speak felt that they were very lucky indeed. They gave up their ignorant killing, and were far better off, both in this life, and in pleasant rebirths."


Kabir - Songs of - VI;
"I.83 candā jhalkai yahi ghat māhīn

The moon shines in my body, but my blind eyes cannot see it:
The moon is within me, and so is the sun.
The unstruck drum of Eternity is sounded within me; but my deaf ears cannot hear it.

So long as man clamours for the I and the Mine,
his works are as naught:
When all love of the I and the Mine is dead, then the work of the Lord is done.
For work has no other aim than the getting of knowledge:
When that comes, then work is put away.

The flower blooms for the fruit: when the fruit comes, the flower withers.
The musk is in the deer, but it seeks it not within itself: it wanders in quest of grass."


Ryokan - The Zen Poems of - 37;
"My walking stick and straw sandals in this swampy village
Have lured me out to enjoy an easterly breeze in February.
Spring warblers are now in the bush, learning their songs.
Strips of snow about the hedge, grasses already sprouting.
I met a friend by the way, and we spoke of grave subject.
We opened books at his house; heads in our hands, thought.
A perfect evening, both lights and winds in quiet harmony,
A plum tree breathing sweet inspiration to my blest heart."


Edited by spinvis (08/03/22 12:36 PM)


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Invisiblespinvis
Stranger

Registered: 09/15/20
Posts: 586
Re: Greatest Spiritual Quotes? [Re: spinvis]
    #27873751 - 07/23/22 05:35 AM (1 year, 6 months ago)

Bab'Aziz: The Prince That Contemplated His Soul;
“There are as many paths to God as there are souls on Earth.”


Sri Ramana Maharshi;
"The Ordainer controls the fate of souls in accordance with their prarabdha karma. Whatever is destined not to happen will not happen, try as you may. Whatever is destined to happen will happen, do what you may to prevent it. This is certain. The best course, therefore, is to remain silent."


Amongst White Clouds;
"if this reckless delusional mind
has not been extinguished...
every day having these thoughts...
good and bad... so many things
always thinking
all these things...
"should I... shouldn't I..."
you can't stop it
what's this we call "reckless delusional mind"?
actually this is your habitual ways of thinking
it's because of these habits...
that you are always bumping heads with reality
everywhere "stubbing your toe"
this is your habits having the final say...
your delusional mind taking control"


2 Esdras 14:25-34-35;
”And you shall come here, and I will light in your heart the lamp of understanding, which shall not be put out until what you are about to write is finished.

If you, then, will rule over your minds and discipline your hearts, you shall be kept alive, and after death you shall obtain mercy.

For after death the judgment will come, when we shall live again, and then the names of the righteous shall become manifest, and the deeds of the ungodly shall be disclosed."


Amongst White Clouds;
"once delusion is extinguished,
your wisdom naturally arises...
and you don't differentiate suffering...
and joy.
actually this joy and this suffering...
they are the same.
the same."


Kabir - Songs of - XXXIX;
I.59 sādho, yah tan thāth tanvure ka

O friend! this body is His lyre; He tightens its strings, and draws from it the melody of Brahmā.
If the strings snap and the keys slacken, then to dust must this instrument of dust return:
Kabīr says: “None but Brahmā can evoke its melodies.”


Bab'Aziz: The Prince That Contemplated His Soul;
“He who has faith will never get lost. Everyone uses his most precious gift to find his way.”


Sri Ramana Maharshi;
"Know who you are, and all else will be known."


Luke 11:37-52;
“But while he was speaking, one Pharisee requested of him that he would dine with him, and he entered and reclined.” But that Pharisee when he saw him, he was amazed that he did not wash before his dinner. But Yeshua said to him, “Now you Pharisees are cleansing the outside of the cup and of the dish, but the inside of some of you is full of greed and wickedness.” “Mindless ones! Has not The One who made the outside also made the inside?” “However, give whatever you have in charity and behold, everything is pure to you.”

“But woe to you Pharisees, for you tithe mint and dill and every herb and you pass over justice and over the love of God, but these it was necessary for you to do and not that you should forsake the other!” “Woe to you Pharisees who love first class seats in the synagogues and greetings in the streets!” “Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, phonies, who are like tombs that are not known, and the children of men walk over them and do not know.”

And one of the Scribes answered and he said to him, “Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also.” But he said, “Woe to you also, you Scribes, for you load the children of men with heavy burdens and you will not touch those burdens with one of your fingers.” “Woe to you who are building the tombs of The Prophets, for your fathers murdered them.” “You testify therefore and you approve the deeds of your fathers, for they murdered them and you build their tombs.” “Because of this The Wisdom of God said, “Behold, I am sending Prophets and Apostles to them, and some of them they shall persecute and murder”, “So that the blood of all The Prophets that was shed from when the world was created shall be required of this generation,” “From the blood of Abel and unto the blood of Zachariah who was killed between The Temple and the altar; Yes, I say to you, that it shall be required of this generation.” “Woe to you Scribes, because you have taken away the keys of knowledge! You have not entered and those who are entering you have hindered.”"


Amongst White Clouds;
"ten thousand things
all in this breath
grasping hold of emptiness
there's really nothing to say"


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


Prof. N.R. Krishnamoorty Aiyer;
"Sometime around midnight - I was simply... I never moved about, I simply stayed where I was, I was unconscious of what things were happening around. The light that you have seen, light from a concave mirror being focused where you have a parallel beam. When you project on a concave mirror it is focused on a point, focal point. That focal point was the Heart. At that focal point all that light was drained. The Heart was opened. The Kundalini Shakti was completely sucked into that Heart. That is the seat of Arunachala - Ramana. And there - when the opening is open... usually the Heart is closed - the Heart opened. I never knew any of these things. I never read any theory. These are all practical experiences. Throughout the night - immediately - there gushed forth a flood of nectar (bliss) from the Heart. It drenched every pore of my skin, it drenched the whole physical system. It poured out, out, out, out, out, outward. It went on coming out in great floods. The whole universe was filled. The fun of it was that my awareness was not in the body. My awareness was over the whole of the space filled by that nectar. The whole universe was nectar. Nectar, I call it 'ether'. You may give it a name; something very subtle. But attached with awareness at every point. And that all the bodies there, living and nonliving, where simply like flakes, snow flakes floating in that ocean of nectar. If you ask me what is my body. My body is the whole universe of nectar."


Amongst White Clouds;
"the Lengyan scripture says;
"though there are words to speak, none of these are real"
talk and talk, like flowers falling from heaven...
it's all worthless."


Gautama Buddha;
"Siddhartha walked through the forest. In the forest, he found a group of ascetics. He watched them and thought this was the way to be enlightened. For six years he lived with the ascetics. For some time, he ate one grain of rice and drank from the river every day. One day a boat was on the river with a musician and his students on it. Siddhartha heard the musician say, "If the string is too tight, it will snap. If it is too loose, it will not play." After hearing that, Siddhartha knew that he wanted to find a middle way, something more effective than asceticism. He accepted a bowl of rice with milk from a village woman. He then had the strength, to meditate until Enlightenment."


Bab'Aziz: The Prince That Contemplated His Soul;
"The people of this world are like the three butterflies in front of a candle's flame.
The first one went closer and said: I know about love.
The second one touched the flame lightly with his wings and said: I know the love's fire can burn.
The third one threw himself into the heart of the flame and was consumed.
He alone knows what true love is."


Avadhuta Gita;
"I have no birth, no death, and no duties;
I've never done anything, either good or bad.
I'm purely Brahman, beyond all qualities;
How could either bondage or liberation exist for me?"


Kabir - Songs of - XXXVIII;
"I.50 bhram kā tālā lagā mahal re

The lock of error shuts the gate, open it with the key of love:
Thus, by opening the door, thou shalt wake the Beloved.
Kabīr says: “O Brother! do not pass by such good fortune as this.”


Amongst White Clouds;
"I've never really studied meditation, I just sit
this has to do with your own self cultivation
if you can cultivate your own mind...
then you can learn something really great from others"


John 1:4-11;
"In him was The Life and The Life is The Light of men. And The Light is shining in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.

There was a man sent from God; his name was Yohannan. He came for a witness, to testify about The Light, that everyone by him would believe. He was not The Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

For That One was The Light of Truth, which enlightens every person that comes into the world. He was in the world, and the world existed by his hand, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not."


Amongst White Clouds;
"the Buddha has a teaching for the heart of every being
if everyone had the same mind...
then he could speak just one teaching
but the illnesses are many"


Bab'Aziz: The Prince That Contemplated His Soul;
“The prince contemplated his soul so much that he left the visible world for the invisible one.”


Sri Ramana Maharshi;
"They say that I am dying, but I am not going away. Where could I go? I am here."


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Invisiblespinvis
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Re: Greatest Spiritual Quotes? [Re: spinvis]
    #27883987 - 07/31/22 11:30 AM (1 year, 5 months ago)

Eckhart Tolle - The Power of Now - Introduction;
"On one level, I draw your attention to what is false in you. I speak of the nature of human unconsciousness and dysfunction as well as its most common behavioral manifestations, from conflict in relationships to warfare between tribes or nations. Such knowledge is vital, for unless you learn to recognize the false as false -- as not you -- there can be no lasting transformation, and you would always end up being drawn back into illusion and into some form of pain. On this level, I also show you how not to make that which is false in you into a self and into a personal problem, for that is how the false perpetuates itself."


Shanghai Roxi Musical Studio Choirs - Kung-Fu Fighting;
"Woah ho ho oh
Woah ho ho oh
Everyone works hard
Strive to find the soul of Chi
Although it can sometimes be disconcerting
Light up my heart

Everybody was Kung fu fighting
Our Chi is what we're finding
I know it is a little bit frightening
Oh but it's so enlightening

Before the battle of the fist
Comes the battle of the mind
When you don't know who you are
Just look inside
When we move into the flow
We're always gonna win
So feel the Power
And let it in

Woah ho ho oh"


Eckhart Tolle - The Power of Now - Chapter One: You Are Not Your Mind;
"Those who have not found their true wealth, which is the radiant joy of Being and the deep, unshakable peace that comes with it, are beggars, even if they have great material wealth. They are looking outside for scraps of pleasure or fulfillment, for validation, security, or love, while they have a treasure within that not only includes all those things but is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer."


Alan Watts - Out of your Mind - The Nature of Consciousness;
"Some people will use a symbolism of the relationship of God to the universe, wherein God is, say, brilliant light—only somehow veiled, hiding underneath all these forms that you see as you look around you. So far, so good. But the truth is funnier than that. It is that you are looking right at the brilliant light now. That the experience you are having—which you call “ordinary everyday consciousness;” pretending you’re not it—that experience is exactly the same thing as it. There’s no difference at all. And when you find that out, you laugh yourself silly. That’s the great discovery.

In other words, when you really start to see things, and you look at an old paper cup, and you go into the nature of what it is to see what vision is, or what smell is, or what touch is, you realize that that vision of the paper cup is the brilliant light of the cosmos. Nothing could be brighter. Ten thousand suns couldn’t be brighter. Only: they’re hidden in the sense that all the points of the infinite light are so tiny, when you see them in the cup, they don’t blow your eyes out. But it is actually—see, the source of all light is in the eye. If there were no eyes in this world, the sun would not be light. You evoke light out of the universe, in the same way you—by virtue of having a soft skin—evoke hardness out of wood. Wood is only hard in relation to a soft skin. It’s your eardrum that evokes noise out of the air. You, by being this organism, call into being the whole universe of light and color and hardness and heaviness and everything, you see?

But in the mythology that we’ve sold ourselves on during the end of the nineteenth century—when people discovered how big the universe was, and that we live on a little planet in a solar system on the edge of a galaxy, which is a minor galaxy—everybody thought, “Ugh! We’re really unimportant after all. God isn’t there and doesn’t love us, and nature doesn’t give a damn.” And we put ourselves down, see? But actually, it’s this little funny microbe—tiny thing, crawling on this little planet that’s way out somewhere—who has the ingenuity, by nature of this magnificent organic structure, to evoke the whole universe out of what would otherwise be mere quanta. There’s jazz going on. But, you see, this little ingenious organism is not merely some stranger in this. This little organism, on this little planet, is what the whole show is growing there, and so realizing its own presence."


Thich Nhat Hanh - The Heart Sutra - The Insight That Brings Us to the Other Shore;
"Avalokiteshvara
while practicing deeply with
the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore,
suddenly discovered that
all of the five Skandhas are equally empty,
and with this realisation
he overcame all Ill-being.

Listen Sariputra,
this Body itself is Emptiness
and Emptiness itself is this Body.
This Body is not other than Emptiness
and Emptiness is not other than this Body.
The same is true of Feelings,
Perceptions, Mental Formations,
and Consciousness.

Listen Sariputra,
all phenomena bear the mark of Emptiness;
their true nature is the nature of
no Birth no Death,
no Being no Non-being,
no Defilement no Immaculacy,
no Increasing no Decreasing.

That is why in Emptiness,
Body, Feelings, Perceptions,
Mental Formations and Consciousness
are not separate self entities.

The Eighteen Realms of Phenomena
which are the six Sense Organs,
the six Sense Objects,
and the six Consciousnesses
are also not separate self entities.

The Twelve Links of Interdependent Arising
and their Extinction
are also not separate self entities.
Ill-being, the Causes of Ill-being,
the End of Ill-being, the Path,
insight and attainment,
are also not separate self entities.

Whoever can see this
no longer needs anything to attain.

Bodhisattvas who practice
the Insight That Brings Us to the Other Shore
see no more obstacles in their mind,
and because there
are no more obstacles in their mind,
they can overcome all fear,
destroy all wrong perceptions
and realize Perfect Nirvana.

All Buddhas in the past, present and future
by practicing
the Insight That Brings Us to the Other Shore
are all capable of attaining
Authentic and Perfect Enlightenment.

Therefore Sariputra,
it should be known that
the Insight That Brings Us to the Other Shore
is a Great Mantra,
the most illuminating mantra,
the highest mantra,
a mantra beyond compare,
the True Wisdom that has the power
to put an end to all kinds of suffering.
Therefore let us proclaim
a mantra to praise
the Insight That Brings Us to the Other Shore.

Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha!
Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha!
Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha!"


Eckhart Tolle - The Power of Now - Chapter One: You Are Not Your Mind;
"I love the Buddha's simple definition of enlightenment as "the end of suffering." There is nothing superhuman in that, is there? Of course, as a definition, it is incomplete. It only tells you what enlightenment is not: no suffering. But what's left when there is no more suffering? The Buddha is silent on that, and his silence implies that you'll have to find out for yourself. He uses a negative definition so that the mind cannot make it into something to believe in or into a superhuman accomplishment, a goal that is impossible for you to attain. Despite this precaution, the majority of Buddhists still believe that enlightenment is for the Buddha, not for them, at least not in this lifetime."


John 14;
"Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God and believe in me.” “There are many lodgings in my Father's house, and if not, I would have told you, because I go to prepare a place for you.” “And if I go prepare a place for you, I shall come again and bring you to join me, that where I am you shall be also.” “And where I am going, you know, and you know the way.”

Thoma said to him, “Our Lord, we do not know where you are going and how can we know the way?” Yeshua said to him, “I AM THE LIVING GOD, The Way and The Truth and The Life; no man comes to my Father but by me alone.”

“If you had known me, you also would have known my Father, and from this hour you do know him and you have seen him.”

Philippus said to him, “Our Lord, show us The Father, and it is sufficient for us.” Yeshua said to him, “All this time I am with you and you have not known me Phillip? Whoever has seen me has seen The Father, and how do you say, 'Show us The Father'?” “Do you not believe that I am in my Father and my Father in me? The words which I am speaking, I am not speaking from myself, but my Father who dwells within me, he does these works.” “Believe that I am in my Father and my Father in me, otherwise believe because of the works.” “Timeless truth, I tell you: 'whoever believes in me, those works which I have done he will also do, and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to the presence of my Father.' “ “And anything that you will ask in my name I shall do for you, that The Father may be glorified in his Son.” “And if you will ask me in my name, I shall do this.”

“If you love me, keep my commandments.”

“And I shall request from my Father and he will give you another Redeemer of the accursed, that he will be with you for eternity.” “He is The Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it has neither seen him nor known him; but you know him, for he dwells with you and he is in you.”

“I shall not leave you as orphans, for I shall come to you in a little while.” “And the world will not see me, but you shall see me; because I live, you also shall live.” At that day, you will know that I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you.” “Whoever has my commands and keeps them, he does love me, but he who loves me shall be loved from my Father and I shall love him, and I shall show myself to him.” Yehuda said to him (he was not Scariota), “My Lord, how is it you are going to show yourself to us and not the same to the world?” Yeshua answered and said to him, “Whoever loves me keeps my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and we will make our lodging with him.” “But he who does not love me does not keep my word, and this word which you are hearing is not mine, but The Father's who has sent me.”

“I have spoken these things with you while I am with you.” “But he, The Redeemer of the accursed, The Spirit of Holiness, whom my Father sends in my name, he will teach you all things and he will remind you of everything whatsoever I have told you.”

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. It is not as the world gives that I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, and do not let it be afraid.” “You have heard that I said to you, 'I am going away, and I am coming to you'; if you had loved me, you would have rejoiced that I am going to join my Father, for my Father is greater than I.” “And now, behold, I have told you before it happens, that when it has happened, you may believe.” “After this I will not be speaking much with you, for The Prince of the world is coming and he has nothing to use against me. But that the world may know that I love my Father, and just as my Father has taught me, so I have done. Rise up, let us depart from here.”"


Alan Watts - Out of your Mind - The Nature of Consciousness;
"So you see, when you ask, “How do I attain the knowledge of God? How do I attain nirvāṇa; liberation?” All I can say is: it’s the wrong question. Why do you want to attain it? Because the very fact that you’re wanting to attain it is the only thing that prevents you from getting there. You already have it. But of course, it’s up to you; it’s your privilege to pretend that you don’t. That’s your game; that’s your life game—that’s what makes you think you’re an ego. And when you want to wake up, you will—just like that. If you’re not awake, it shows you don’t want to. You’re still playing the hide part of the game. You’re still, as it were, the Self pretending it’s not the Self. And that’s what you want to do. So you see, in that way, too, you’re already there.

When you understand this, a funny thing happens—and some people misinterpret it. You’ll discover, as this happens, that the distinction between voluntary and involuntary behavior disappears. You will realize that what you describe as things under your own will feel exactly the same as things going on outside you. You watch other people moving, and you know you’re doing that, just like you’re breathing, or circulating your blood. And if you don’t understand what’s going on, you’re liable to get crazy at this point, and to feel that you are God in the Jehovah-sense. To say that you actually have power over other people, so that you could alter what they’re doing. And that you are omnipotent in a very crude, literal kind of Bible-sense, you see? And a lot of people feel that and they go crazy. They have to put them away. They think they’re Jesus Christ and that everybody ought to fall down and worship them. That’s only—they got their wires crossed. This experience happened to them, but they don’t know how to interpret it. So be careful of that. Jung calls it inflation. People who get the Holy Man syndrome, that I suddenly discover that I am the Lord, and that I am above good and evil, and so on, and therefore I start giving myself airs and graces. But the point is: everybody else is, too. If you discover that you are that, then you ought to know that everybody else is.

Well, for example, let’s see how—in other ways—you might realize this. Most people think—when they open their eyes and look around—that what they’re seeing is outside. It seems, doesn’t it, that you are behind your eyes, and that behind the eyes there is a blank which you can’t see at all. You turn around and you see something else in front of you. But behind the eyes there seems to be something that has no color. It isn’t dark, is isn’t light. It is there from a tactile standpoint; you can feel it with your fingers, although you don’t get inside it. But what is that, behind your eyes, you see? Well actually, when you look out there and see all these people and things sitting around, that’s how it feels inside your head. The color of this room is back here, in the nervous system, where the optical nerves are at the back of the head. It’s in there. It’s what you’re experiencing. What you see out here is a neurological experience. Now if that hits you, and you feel—sensuously—that that’s so, you may think that then, therefore, the external world is all inside my skull. But you’ve got to correct that, with the thought that your skull is also in the external world. So you suddenly begin to feel, “Well, wow! What kind of situation is this? It’s inside me, and I’m inside it, and it’s inside me, and I’m inside it.” But that’s the way it is."


Eckhart Tolle - The Power of Now - Chapter One: You Are Not Your Mind;
"When you say Being, are you talking about God? If you are, then why don't you just say it?

The word God has become empty of meaning through thousands of years of misuse. I use it sometimes, but I do so sparingly. By misuse, I mean that people who have never even glimpsed the realm of the sacred, the infinite vastness behind that word, use it with great conviction, as if they knew what they are talking about. Or they argue against it, as if they knew what it is that they are denying. This misuse gives rise to absurd beliefs, assertions, and egoic delusions, such as "My or our God is the only true God, and your God is false," or Nietzsche's famous statement "God is dead."


Osho - Om Mani Padme Hum – The Sound of Silence: The Diamond in the Lotus - 17. Ordinariness Is Perfectly Good;
"Enlightenment is not something that you have to attain, because that which is attained can be stolen. That which is attained can be robbed. That which is attained can be lost.

I say unto you, you are enlightenment itself.

I don't want you to attain enlightenment, I want you to live it. From this very moment, whatever you do, do it in the way enlightenment is bound to do it."


Edited by spinvis (08/21/22 07:26 AM)


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Invisiblespinvis
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Registered: 09/15/20
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Re: Greatest Spiritual Quotes? [Re: spinvis]
    #27884975 - 08/01/22 06:16 AM (1 year, 5 months ago)

Bruce Lee;
"Be Water, My Friend.
Empty your mind.
Be formless, shapeless, like water.
You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup.
You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle.
You put it into a teapot, it becomes the teapot.
Now water can flow or it can crash.
Be water, my friend."


Jim Carrey - Awakenings of;
"I mean I don't want to be presumptuous, but the meaning of life, want to know what it is? Love yourself. That's it, that's all, that's what I think it is. And be visible no matter what the risk, be honest there, and that's what we're doing, we're being visible. And it's a risky thing, sometimes it's not considered cool to be out there, and to be open. Fuck 'Em"


William S. Burroughs - Take Nirvana;
"Take nirvana. The camera achieves a nirvana of uncritical acceptance, it rejects nothing, it clings to nothing, it fears nothing, it desires nothing, it hates nothing, it loves nothing. Camera and recorder are crude models of your own built in equipment, you can make your own movies from a point of zero interference. Once you stop interfering, the movies move themselves. You have all the screens you can fill and all the projectors you need. So turn the zero camera on yourself. You never see anything else, anyway. Action! Camera! Right in the middle of the middle screen where the stars traditionally shine. Lets put all your worst scenes, all your failures and fumbles, everything you're most ashamed of, most afraid of, everything you don't want anyone to see. Switch on another projector, all your best scenes when you were competent, deft, well spoken, successful. You see now what you are doing? You've been desperately trying to push your good scenes on stage and shove the bad ones off stage. But it doesn't work does it? Shove them out one wing and they jump out the other."


Jim Carrey - Awakenings of;
"I know that it's kind of an odd thing to consider, it shouldn't be but it's a very strange concept to most people and especially to people that suffered trauma, and have trust issues, or whatever, to trust that they can close their eyes for a moment or a couple of moments during the day and let go of the show that's going on in their heads. We are so trapped, all of us, especially those who have suffered terrible trauma. To think of that as a real thing, and there is a difference between real danger and imagined danger, and it's hard to turn that off. And meditation for me, and for a lot of people, has been a way to turn that off, and or recognize that those thoughts are just thoughts, like clouds that cross the sky they will pass on. And to gently pull yourself back to a place of peace and to just stop the spiral of thought."


Alan Watts - Give Yourself To The Water;
"I must make it emphatic that Zen in its essence is not a doctrine, there's nothing you are supposed to believe in, and it's not a philosophy in our sense, that is to say a set of ideas, an intellectual net in which one tries to catch the fish of reality. Actually the fish of reality is more like water, it always slips through the net, and in water you know, when you get into it, there's nothing to hang on to. All this universe is like water. It is fluid, it is transient, it is changing. And when you are thrown into the water after being accustomed to living on the dry land, you're not used to the idea of swimming. You try to stand on the water, you try to catch hold of it, and as a result you drown. The only way to survive in the water, and this refers particularly to the waters of modern philosophical confusion, where God is dead, metaphysical propositions of meaningless, and there's really nothing to hang on to, because we're all just falling apart. And the only thing to do under those circumstances is to learn how to swim, and swim, you relax, you let go, you'll give yourself to the water, and you have to know how to breathe in the right way. And then you find that the water holds you up, indeed in a certain way you become the water. And so in the same way one might say, if one attempted to, again I say misleadingly, to put Zen into any sort of concept it simply comes down to this. That in this universe there is one great energy, and we have no name for it. People have tried various names for it, like God, like Brahman, like Tao, but in the west the word God has got so many funny associations attached to it, that most of us are bored with it. When people say God, the Father Almighty, most people feel funny inside. And so we like to hear new words, we'd like to hear about Tao, about Brahman, about Shingyo, and Tathātā, and such strange names from the far east because they don't carry the same associations of mawkish sanctimony and funny meanings from the past. But according to Buddhist philosophy all this universe is one Tathātā, that means ten thousand functions or ten thousand things, one Suchness, and we're all one Suchness."


Jim Carrey - Awakenings of;
"Interviewer: His faith is personal and mystical, he believes that miracles will come true if you just believe in them, and he has his life and his career to prove it. But he does think that people who express strong feelings about spirituality, run the risk of being labeled a cook.

Jim: You know, what the hell, what the hell, you know whatever, I just want to be myself. If I loose a few fringe people who can't deal with the fact that there's other forces in the world, that's okay with me."


Jordan Peterson - The Pathway to Redemption - The real depth and meaning of the hero's journey;
"It's the classical fall of mans story, it's the story of Exodus, it's part of the reason that people aren't enlightened. It's that if you're gonna go up, and every up is predicated by a down of equivalent magnitude. Because look, if you're gonna improve, you're gonna discover that you're wrong about something first. And then to be wrong about something, means you're going to fragment, and it's going to be painful, to recognize the fact of that error. To recognize the consequences of that error across your life, to have to reformulate yourself so that error is no longer acting out as part of your personality and your life, it's an unbelievable descent. That's another thing that this is part of the reason why, for all the respect I have for Joseph Campbell, Campbell says; follow your bliss. That is certainly not something that Jung said, because Jung said; you'd search out what you're most terrified of, what you're most disgusted by, and the place you least want to go, where you have to bow the lowest, and that's the place where salvation might be found. I believe that's true and I believe it's terrifying. The pathway to redemption is through recognition of error, not true bliss. I think this is a psychotherapeutic truism, is that, if you're going to confront a monster, and you most certainly are, then you do it at a time and place of your choosing. Because otherwise it waits until you're at your weakest and most vulnerable, and then it attacks. And so there is no monster free pathway for to prepare as a knight of Christ, let's say. So that when it comes, you're there, or in fact confronting it at its weakest point. Or you power and you wait and it devours you, and those are your options. And we don't have the wisdom of the kind of pessimism that enables us to view life that way. We think, well if we're careful and if we're quiet, well the monster will avoid us completely, and everyone knows that's a lie. One of the things I really learned from reading the Abrahamic stories is that a fundamental call, is a call to adventure. And even the adventure, the relationship with God, that's part of that adventure, is wrestling with God."


John C. Lilly - The Quiet Center;
"In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true, either is true, or becomes true, within certain limits. To be found, experientially, and experimentally, these limits are beliefs to be transcended."


Jim Carrey - Awakenings of;
"When you put something so in the forefront of your life, some desire in the forefront of your life, that everything else starts to suffer. I understand that, because I have gone that way and then I'd pull myself back. But it's the yearning that can be something very positive, can create wonderful things. But when it makes you negate your life, the people in your life, they become upset or, you know again, when it makes you bear false witness, and sell somebody out, it's just not worth having. That yearning is the though part. The yearning to kind of have that but not make it completely consume you."


Alan Watts - The Happening;
"Be aware of what's going on in your head, like it was clouds in the sky, or the crackling of the fire. There's no problem to this, all you have to do, really, is look and listen, without naming, and if you are naming, never mind. Now that you can't force anything here, that you can't willfully stop thinking, and stop naming, is only telling you that the separate you doesn't exist. It isn't a mark of defeat, it isn't a sign of your lack of practice, and meditation. That it runs on all by itself, simply means, that the individual separate you is the figment of your imagination. Though you are aware at this point, of a happening. Remember you don't know anything about difference between you and it. Couldn't been told that, with no words for the difference between inside and outside. Being here and there. Nobody has taught you, what you see out in front of you, is either near or far from, your eyes. Watch a baby put out a finger to touch the moon. Don't know about that, just therefore here it is. We'll just call it this, and if you will feel it, the going on, which includes absolutely everything you feel. Well whatever that is, it’s what the Chinese call Tao, or what the Buddhists call Suchness or “Tathātā.” And it’s a Happening. It doesn’t happen to YOU because where is that? YOU, what you call you is part of the happening. And it’s a little scary because you feel “who’s in control around here?” Why should there be anyone? That's a very weird notion we have that, processes require something outside them to control them. It never occurred to us, that processes could be self controlling, even though we say to someone, control yourself! In order to think about self control, we split a person in two, though there's a you separate from the self that's supposed to be controlled. Well how can that achieve anything? How can a noun start a verb? Yet it's a fundamental superstition that that can be done. Though we have this process, which is quite spontaneous, going on, we call it life. It's controlling itself, it's aware of itself, it's aware of itself through you. You are an aperture through which the universe looks at itself, and because of it, the universe looking at itself through you, there's always an aspect of itself that it can't see. So it's just like that snake, you see, that is pursuing its tail, because the snake can't see its head, like you can't. We always find we investigate the universe, make the microscope bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and we will find ever more minute things. Make the telescope bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and the universe expands because it's running away from itself. It won't do that if you don't chase it."


Jordan Peterson - Explains Consciousness;
"Here's the case you could make; Consciousness extracts the proper world of being from potential through truth and then it's good. OK. That's a hard one, man. That manifests itself in human beings at the level of individual consciousness. That's the Logos within. That's the metaphysical foundation of the idea of natural right and responsibility. That's a bloody killer idea. That's expressed in the hero of heroes, that idea. That hero of heroes is the driving force behind human evolution. So not only do you get the action of the Logos metaphysically as the process that extracts order our of chaos at the beginning of time. You also get it as the major driver of evolution. And so then you ask, okay, then what kind of reality does that have? Cause you chase consciousness back, and it disappears into the mystery of the past, and we have no idea what its relationship is with matter. But it's the force that gives rise to the cosmos and drives evolution. It's like you're getting pretty close to God there."


Jim Carrey - Awakenings of;
"There's so much good in the world, I always say to everybody, I'm amazed when people go like; the world is insane man, it's crazy, it's out of control, it's like people are completely nuts, like that. Seriously, we live on a planet where we're very cramped together and I think we do really well. It's just when we watch the news, and when we watch entertainment, it's about people's conflicts tied together in the most exciting possible way, and you imagine that the world is this explosive, horrifying place. And the news is all this negativity condensed, and it's really not representative of what the world is or what the world wants."


Edited by spinvis (08/21/22 09:41 AM)


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Re: Greatest Spiritual Quotes? [Re: spinvis] * 3
    #27889249 - 08/04/22 04:43 AM (1 year, 5 months ago)



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Re: Greatest Spiritual Quotes? [Re: wabbey]
    #27889834 - 08/04/22 01:48 PM (1 year, 5 months ago)

Terence McKenna;
"We have the money, the power, the medical understanding, the scientific know-how, the love and the community to produce a kind of human paradise.
But we are led by the least among us -- the least intelligent, the least noble, the least visionary."


Terence McKenna;
"You are a divine being. You matter, you count. You come from realms of unimaginable power and light, and you will return to those realms."


Jordan Peterson - Rubin Report with Ben Shapiro - Food Of The Gods (The Mystical Experience);
"Jordan Peterson; I think the post-modern objection to meaning is actually wrong. While we talked about this earlier, I do believe that there's a transcendent ethic. And I do believe that it touches on the metaphysical. I believe it people experience that, because people are perfectly capable of having unutterably profound religious experiences, and the naturalistic materialists don't know what the hell to do with that, they have no idea what to do with that fact. Say, well it's delusional, it's like well hang on a second, people who have those experiences appear to be more successful and healthier. So in exactly what manner is that delusion? And if you induce it in the lab with psilocybin for example, among people who are dying of cancer, their fear of death goes away. It's like, you're gonna just lay that out there as delusional are you? Or they quit smoking, 85% success rate with one mystical experience on psilocybin, produces 85% cessation rate in smoking. And with MDMA, ecstasy, the three treatments with MDMA that's what the current research indicates, produces a 72% cure rate for intractable post-traumatic stress disorder. Those are miracle cures, and no one, they have to be accompanied by the mystical experience, no one knows how to account for them.

Ben Shapiro: So it's a very physical thing, I mean in a case like that, you talked about ayahuasca, or any of these things, you're eating something, you're ingesting something, you're smoking it, whatever it is. It is physical, it is here and now but the experience is metaphysical.

Jordan Peterson; Sure, that is a place where the biological and the transcendent touch, and we don't know what to make of that. That's why psychedelics through our whole culture, into such a, into such a flip this upside down, no one ever knew what to do with them. I mean the Indians regarded psilocybin as food of the Gods for a reason. And then when people have encountered psychedelic substances throughout human history, that's always how they've been characterized, that's right, food of the Gods, beware of them. But they open the door to the transcendent, and I think the evidence that they are doing something, that psychedelic substances, are doing something, that we seriously don't understand at all, not a bit, is overwhelming. Rick Strassman wrote a book on his experiences giving DMT to a whole bunch of people down in Austin, and Strassman is a pretty straight scientist. He was interested in measuring psycho physiological responses to the drugs. Well he'd give people DMT, and they all came back with the same story, I was blasted out of my consciousness, I met a whole bunch of alien beings, they were really surprised I was there, and then I came back, and it was the most real thing that's ever happened to me. And Strassman would say; you know, well you had a Jungian archetypal experience, or it was a dream, and they'd say; you don't understand. He got so distraught, because of these continual reports, that he had to stop doing the research. I'm not making a claim for anything metaphysical here, but I'm definitely pointing out that there are undeniable realms of human experience that involve religious experience, and a sense of the infinite transcendent, that look like they're healthy. And that you cannot deny."


Terence McKenna;
"Half the time you think you're thinking you're actually listening."


Terence McKenna;
"The purpose of life is to familiarize oneself with this after-death body so that the act of dying will not create confusion in the psyche."


Alan Watts - On The End;
"Change, and everything is changed, nothing can be held onto. To the degree that you go with a stream, you are still, but to the degree you resist the stream, then you notice, that the current is rushing past you and fighting with you. So swim with it, and you're there, you're at rest. And this is of course particularly true when it comes to those moments when life really seems to be going to take us away. And the stream of change is going to swallow us completely, the moment of death, and we think, this is the end, not yet, please. I'm not saying you ought to be willing to die, and that you should muscle up your courage when the terrible thing comes. Point is that you can only die well, if you understand that your disappearance as the form, your disappearance as this particular organism, is simply seasonal. It sounds terrible you see, that everything is going to die, and here you are, thinking that happiness, sanity, and security, consists in clinging on to things. But as soon as you really stop clinging to change, it becomes amazing, and not only do all your senses become wide wake, not only do you feel almost that you're walking on air, but you see, finally, that there is no duality, no difference between the ordinary world and the nirvana world. And if you keep identifying yourself with some sort of stable entity, you don't acknowledge your own separability from everything else that there is.

Now, let's get practical, you say; okay, I understand what you are saying theoretically, but I know that I would be terrified if somebody was going to tell me that I'm going to die. This panic to live is in us in an uncontrollable way, and this is part of the reason why we say; we have an instinct to survive.

A lot of people are afraid that when they die, they're going to be locked up in a dark room forever. Well try and imagine what it would be like to go to sleep and never wake up. And if you think long enough about that, it'll pose the next question to you; what was it like to wake up after having never gone to sleep, that was when you were born. You see, you can't have an experience of nothing, so after you're dead the only thing that can happen is the same sort of experiences when you were born. In other words we all know very well that after people die, other people are born, and they're all you. Only you could only experience it one at a time, you don't have to remember the past, in the same way you don't have to know how to shine the sun, you just do it like you breathe. Doesn't it astonish you that you are this fantastically complex thing, and that you're doing all of this, and you never had any education in how to do it? You never learned but you're this miracle? It's one of the great wonders of life. So when it comes, be absolutely willing to die, go over that waterfall, just as you go to sleep at night.

I was talking a great deal yesterday afternoon, about the Buddhist attitude to change, to death, to the transients of the world. And we're showing that preachers of all kinds, stir people up in the beginning by alarming them about change. That's like somebody actually raising an alarm just in the same way as if I want to pay you a visit and then we can come in, and I don't need to raise an alarm anymore. So in the same way, it sounds terrible you see, that everything is going to die, and pass away. And here you are, thinking that happiness, sanity, and security consist in clinging on to things which can't be clung to. And in any case, there isn't anybody to cling to them. The whole thing is the weaving of smoke. So, that's the initial standpoint, but, as soon as you really discover this, and you stop clinging to change, then everything is quite different. It becomes amazing, and not only do all your senses become more wide awake. Not only do you feel almost that you're walking on air, but you see, finally, that there is no duality. No difference between the ordinary world and the nirvana world. They are the same world, but what makes the difference is the point of view. And of course if you keep identifying yourself, with some sort of stable entity, that sits and watches the world go by, you don't acknowledge your union, your inseparability from everything else that there is. You go by with all the rest of the things, but if you insist on trying to take a permanent stand, on trying to be a permanent witness of the flux, then it grates against you, and you feel very uncomfortable. But it is, a fundamental feeling in most of us, that we are such witnesses. We feel that behind the stream of thoughts, of feelings, and our experiences, there is something which is the thinker, the feeler, and the experiencer. Not recognizing that that itself is a thought, feeling, or experience, and it belongs within and not outside the changing panorama of experience. It to find out what is eternal, you can't make an image of it, you can't hold on to it. And so it's psychologically more conducive to liberation, to remember, that the thinker, or the feeler, or the experiencer, and the experiences, are all together. They are all one."


Terence McKenna;
"We tend to disempower ourselves. We tend to believe we don't matter. And in the act of taking that idea to ourselves we give everything away to somebody else, to something else."


Terence McKenna;
""Western" civilization is a loaded gun pointed at the head of this planet."


St. Antony the Great;
"A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him, saying, 'You are mad; you are not like us."


John 4:23-26;
"But the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshipers will worship The Father in The Spirit and in The Truth, for The Father also is seeking such worshippers as these. For The Spirit is God, and it is fitting that those who worship him worship in The Spirit and in The Truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that The Messiah is coming, and when he comes, he will teach us all things.” Yeshua said to her, “I AM THE LIVING GOD, I who am speaking with you.”"


Terence McKenna;
"Matter is not lacking in magic, matter is magic."


Terence McKenna;
"If you're not the hero in your own novel, then what kind of novel is it? You need to do some heavy editing."


Kabir - Songs of - XLIII;
"I.82 pānī vic mīn piyāsī

I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty:
You do not see that the Real is in your home, and you wander from forest to forest listlessly!
Here is the truth! Go where you will, to Benares or to Mathura;
if you do not find your soul, the world is unreal to you."


Matthew 6:19-34;
"Do not place treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moths and corrosion disfigure and where thieves break in and steal. But place treasures for yourselves in Heaven, where neither moths nor corrosion disfigure and where thieves neither break in nor steal. For where your treasure is, there is your heart also.

But the lamp of the body is the eye; therefore if your eye shall be sound, your whole body also will be illuminated. But if your eye shall be bad, your entire body will be darkness; if therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great will be your darkness!

No man can work for two masters, for either he will hate one and will love the other, or he will honor one and the other he will ignore. You cannot work for God and for money.

Because of this I say to you, you shall not take pains for yourselves with what you will eat, or what you will drink, neither for your body, what you will put on; behold, is not the soul greater than food, and the body than clothing? Behold the birds of the sky, that they neither sow nor reap, neither do they gather into barns, and your Father who is in Heaven sustains them; behold, are you not better than they? But who of you, while taking pains, is able to add a foot and a half to his stature? And why are you taking pains about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow without laboring or weaving. But I say to you, not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field that is today and will fall into the oven tomorrow, does he not multiply more to you, Oh small of faith? Therefore do not be concerned or say, ''What will we eat?', or ''What will we drink?', or,''What will we wear'? For the Gentiles are seeking all these things, but your Father who is in Heaven knows that all these things are necessary for you. But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Therefore you shall not be concerned about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be concerned for itself. A day's own trouble is sufficient for it."


Terence McKenna;
"Culture is not your friend. Culture is for other people's convenience and the convenience of various institutions, churches, companies, tax collection schemes, what have you. It is not your friend. It insults you. It disempowers you. It uses and abuses you. None of us are well treated by culture."


Terence McKenna;
"What a bright world it would be if every alcoholic were a pothead."


Kabir - Songs of - XLVIII;
"I.107 calat mansā acal kīnhī

I have stilled my restless mind, and my heart is radiant: for in Thatness I have seen beyond That-ness. In company I have seen the Comrade Himself.
Living in bondage, I have set myself free: I have broken away from the clutch of all narrowness.
Kabīr says: “I have attained the unattainable, and my heart is coloured with the colour of love.”"


Paramahansa Yogananda;
"Millions of people never analyze themselves. Mentally they are mechanical products of the factory of their environment, preoccupied with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, working and sleeping, and going here and there to be entertained. They don’t know what or why they are seeking, nor why they never realize complete happiness and lasting satisfaction. By evading self-analysis, people go on being robots, conditioned by their environment. True self-analysis is the greatest art of progress."


Alan Watts - Give Yourself To The Water;
"Suchness comes and goes, like everything else, because this whole world is a on and off system. The Chinese say; it's the Yang and the Yin. And therefore it consists of; now you see it, and now you don't, here you are, here you aren't. Because that's the very nature of energy, to be like waves, and waves have crests and troughs. Only, we, being under a certain kind of sleepiness or illusion, imagine that the trough is going to overcome the wave, or the crest. The Yin, the dark principle is going to overcome the Yang, or the light principle, and that off is finally going to triumph over on. And we, shall I say, bug ourselves by indulging in that illusion. Jeez... opposing darkness did win out, wouldn't that be terrible? And so we're constantly trembling, and thinking that it may, because after all, isn't it odd, that anything exists? It's most peculiar, it requires effort, it requires energy, and it would be so much easier to have been nothing at all. Therefore we think; well, since being, since the inside of things is so much effort, you always give up after a while and you sink back into death. But death is just the other face of energy, and it's the rest, the not being anything around, that produces something around. Just in the same way that you can't have solid without space, or space without solid. When you wake up to this, and realize that the more it changes the more it's the same thing, as the French say. That you are really a playing of this one energy, and there is nothing else but that, that it is you, but that for you to be always you would be an insufferable bore. And therefore it is arranged that you stop being you after a while, and then come back as someone else altogether. And so, when you find that out, you become full of energy and delight, as Blake said; energy is eternal delight. And you suddenly see through the whole sham of things. You realize you are that, we won't put a name on it, you are that, and you can't be anything else."


Terence McKenna;
"Our whole task is to make ourselves understood, and to understand others as they wish to be understood, not as we wish to understand them."


Terence McKenna;
"I could believe it, I couldn't stop believing it, and yet I had not been prepared, I had not thought that magic ruled the world from top to bottom, side to side, atom to atom from first to last."


Kabir - Songs of - XLIX;
"I.105 jo dīsai, so to hai nāhīn

That which you see is not: and for that which is, you have no words.
Unless you see, you believe not: what is told you, you cannot accept.
He who is discerning knows by the word; and the ignorant stands gaping.
Some contemplate the Formless, and others meditate on form: but the wise man knows that Brahmā is beyond both.
That beauty of His is not seen of the eye: that metre of His is not heard of the ear.
Kabīr says: “He who has found both love and renunciation never descends to death.”"


St. Francis of Assisi;
"What you are looking for is what is looking."


Bertolt Brecht - Everything Changes;
"What has happened has happened. The water You once poured into the wine cannot be Drained off again, but Everything changes. You can make A fresh start with your final breath."


Terence McKenna;
"The rationalist is a fool. The reductionist is a moron. Because there are things which haunt this world that are, you know, stranger than we can suppose."


Terence McKenna;
"The "Western" mind is very queasy around these experiences, that cast into doubt its cherished delusions about how reality is put together, and when you get to DMT you have hit the main vein. I hold it in reserve as the ultimate convincer. I mean, that's for these, there are these people running around, you know, who say; Oh you people who are into drugs... haha, give me a good branch whiskey, and a little TV, I think you're deluding yourself.
Say, do you? Well, if you got five minutes to invest in this proposition, my cheerful friend? Because if you do, have I got news for you."


Kabir - Songs of - L;
"I.126 muralī bajat akhand sadāye

The flute of the Infinite is played without ceasing, and its sound is love:
When love renounces all limits, it reaches truth.
How widely the fragrance spreads! It has no end, nothing stands in its way.
The form of this melody is bright like a million suns:
incomparably sounds the vina, the vina of the notes of truth."


Jordan Peterson - The Ark of the Covenant, the Cathedral, and the Cross - Easter Message;
"There has to be a bridge between the finite and the infinite.

There has to be a place where the ephemeral meets the eternal.

There has to be a bridge between the knowable and the unknowable.

There has to be bedrock at the foundation.

The ark, which is the portal to God, is to be carried on the shoulders of those who are Holy. It is not to be touched. To touch the ark is to risk death. There are holy things that cannot be touched except at mortal risk. These things that cannot be touched are the very foundation of the community.

The ark must be placed at the center of the temple. The temple must be placed at the center of the community. The community must be arranged around what is untouchable and unshakeable. The untouchable and unshakeable is what is axiomatic. The people following the ark have determined to journey toward the eternal Promised Land.

The city arranged properly around the ark of the covenant is eternal Jerusalem.

Something must be axiomatic, or everything shakes and falls. The axiomatic cannot be expressed fully in words. The axiomatic, untouchable and unshakeable, is instead what makes communication possible. The axiomatic is a spirit, a process, a living force. Its manifestations, however, are concrete. That is the transformation of the spirit into matter. That is the generation of the Tablets of Stone.

The ark of the covenant contains the Rules that are derived in the first order from the axiomatic principle. That principle is the Spirit that made the Rules manifest. The Spirit is the ultimate inhabitant of the ark, and the rules the result of its action. That Spirit is the creative Logos.

The ark of the covenant and the temple is replaced by the cathedral at the center of the community. The cathedral is the cross in architectural form. The cross is where the transformation takes place. The transformation is the incorporation of the body of Christ. That incorporation is a dramatic pretense; is the embodiment of the decision not to believe in Christ but to act Him out, which is to believe in a much deeper manner than to merely believe.

Christ is He who transcends death by voluntarily accepting death. Christ is He who rejects the kingdoms of this world for the Kingdom of God. Christ is He who speaks the truth that creates the habitable order that is good from the chaos of potential that exists prior to the materialization of reality. Christ is He who wields potential as the sword that cleaves death. Christ is He whose radical acceptance of the conditions of life defeats the hatred, bitterness and vengefulness that the tragedy and malevolence that taints Being otherwise produces. Without the acceptance of death, bitterness rules, and Hell triumphs.

Christ is the potential of man and woman.

It is said that man and woman alike are made in the image of God, and that God is He who uses the eternal Logos to generate habitable order from the chaos of potential. This is the axiom. This is the diamond at the center of the world. This is the Spirit in the ark that is untouchable. This is the bedrock of the culture that brings peace and prosperity and that respects the dignity of man. This is the Great Truth. This is the responsibility whose acceptance allows each of us to live despite the catastrophic fragility of our limited being. Our likeness to God gives each of us a value that transcends the finite. Individual and society alike are charged with the ethical demand to respect that value. This is not only the presumption that grounds the idea of the Rights of Man. It is the presumption that lays upon each of us the Ultimate Responsibility that is the inevitable corollary of those Rights.

Face the chaos of the future.

Employ the Logos of which you are a part to transform that chaos into the habitable order that is Good. Speak the truth. Embody the truth.

Accept, impossibly, the limitations that make Being possible. Dispense in that manner with resentment, hatred, and the desire for infinite and unbounded vengeance and all the cruelty and evil that accompanies it. Pick up the cross of your tragedy and betrayal. Accept its terrible weight. Hoist it onto your shoulders and struggle impossibly upward toward the Kingdom of God on the hill.

The alternative is Death and Hell."


Terence McKenna;
"Given how weird life has been, why rush to prejudge death?
It's bound to be mighty strange, life was mighty strange. And... I'm curious."


Terence McKenna;
"Nothing lasts. That's one thing I think you learn from life, psychedelics, or just paying attention. Very little lasts. These Buddhists aren't kidding: you are here for a very brief moment, and you can sit on your thumb and do whatever you want, but in fact the clock is ticking. What are you gonna do about it? Are you gonna blow it off, or be a hedonist? What are you gonna do with that? If most most people took it seriously, a hell of a lot more would be done with more attention to quality and intent."


Edited by spinvis (08/06/22 12:34 AM)


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OfflineJacksparrow123
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Re: Greatest Spiritual Quotes? [Re: spinvis] * 1
    #27904307 - 08/15/22 12:54 PM (1 year, 5 months ago)

out of context but
"When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known"
First Epistle to the Corinthians


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Invisiblespinvis
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Re: Greatest Spiritual Quotes? [Re: Jacksparrow123]
    #27909024 - 08/19/22 03:07 AM (1 year, 5 months ago)

Job 13:5;
"He, The Maker, is silent; you should be silent, and let this be for your wisdom"


Ātmabodha – The Fruits of Self-Knowledge – Verse 46;
"Enlightened yogis see
the entire world in themselves
and see everything as non-separate from atma,
with the eye of knowledge."


John 15:1-19;
"“I AM THE LIVING GOD, The True Vine, and my Father is the vine dresser.” “Every branch on me not yielding fruit he takes away, and that which yields fruit he purges that it may bring forth much fruit.” “From now on you are purged because of the word which I have spoken with you.” “Stay with me, and I am in you. Just as the branch cannot yield fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither do you unless you stay with me.” “I AM THE LIVING GOD, The Vine, and you are the branches; whoever abides with me and I in him, this one brings forth much fruit, because without me, you can do nothing.” “If a man does not abide with me, he is thrown away like a shriveled up branch, and they gather it, throwing it into the fire to burn.” “But if you are abiding in me and my words will abide in you, everything whatsoever you desire to ask, it shall be done for you.” “In this The Father is glorified, that you will bring forth much fruit and that you will be my disciples.” “Just as my Father has loved me, even so I have loved you; continue in my friendship.” “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and I abide in his love.” “I have spoken these things with you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be perfect.”

“This is my commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.”

“There is no greater love than this: that a person would lay down his life for the sake of his friends.” “You are my friends if you will do all that I command you.” “No longer do I call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master does, but I have called you my friends, because all that I have heard from my Father, I have taught you.” “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and I have appointed you so that you also will go bring forth fruit and your fruit will remain, so that all you will ask my Father in my name, he will give to you.” “These things I command you that you will love one another.”

“And if the world hates you, know that it hated me before you.” “And if you had been from the world, the world would have loved its own; but you are not from the world, but I have chosen you from the world; because of this the world hates you.”"


Ātmabodha – False Attribution of Mental Activity – Verse 23;
"Desire, pleasure, pain, etc.
are experienced when your mind is active,
but cease to exist in dreamless sleep, when your mind is inactive.
Therefore, they belong to the mind, not the conscious self, atma."


1 Peter 3:8-11;
"But the conclusion is that you should all be in harmony; suffer with those who are suffering, love one another, be merciful and humble. And you should not repay a person evil for evil, neither insults for insults; but to the contrary of these things, give blessings, for you are called to this, that you would inherit blessing.

Therefore, whoever desires life and loves to see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips that they do not speak deceit.

Let him move away from wickedness and let him do good; let him seek peace and run after it."


Ātmabodha – Enlightenment – Verse 64;
"The all-pervasive, unchanging, conscious Self
is discovered with the eye of wisdom.
One without the eye of wisdom cannot discover it,
like the blind cannot see the sun."


Colossians 3:8-14;
"But now put off from you all these things: anger, fury, wickedness, blasphemy, impure speech; Neither should you cheat one another, but put off the old man with all of his ways, And put on the new, who is made new by knowledge in the image of his Creator, Where there is neither Jew nor Aramaean, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, neither Greeks nor Barbarians, neither Servant nor Freeman, but The Messiah is all and in every person.

Put on, therefore, as the chosen ones of God, holy and beloved, mercy and compassion, kindness and humility of mind, gentleness and long-suffering; And be forbearing one to another and forgiving one another. But if anyone has an outrage against his neighbor, forgive just as The Messiah has forgiven you, And with all these things, love, which is the bond of perfection."


Job 13:21;
"Do not remove your hand from me, and do not let your awesomeness terrify me"


Alexandra David-Neel - The Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects - Chapter II;
"This existing, that arises"


Thomas Merton - New Seeds of Contemplation - Chapter 1. What is contemplation?;
"CONTEMPLATION is the highest expression of man’s intellectual and spiritual life. It is that life itself, fully awake, fully active, fully aware that it is alive. It is spiritual wonder. It is spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life, of being. It is gratitude for life, for awareness and for being. It is a vivid realization of the fact that life and being in us proceed from an invisible, transcendent and infinitely abundant Source. Contemplation is, above all, awareness of the reality of that Source. It knows the Source, obscurely, inexplicably, but with a certitude that goes both beyond reason and beyond simple faith. For contemplation is a kind of spiritual vision to which both reason and faith aspire, by their very nature, because without it they must always remain incomplete. Yet contemplation is not vision because it sees “without seeing” and knows “without knowing.” It is a more profound depth of faith, a knowledge too deep to be grasped in images, in words or even in clear concepts. It can be suggested by words, by symbols, but in the very moment of trying to indicate what it knows the contemplative mind takes back what it has said, and denies what it has affirmed. For in contemplation we know by “unknowing.” Or, better, we know beyond all knowing or “unknowing.”"


Dalai Lama;
"The Dalai Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity, answered "Man! Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived."


1 Corinthians 13:1-13;
"If I shall speak with every human and Angelic language and have no love in me, I shall be clanging brass or a noise-making cymbal. And if I have prophecy, and I know all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith so that I may remove mountains, and I have no love in me, I would be nothing. And if I should feed everything that I have to the poor, and if I hand over my body to be burned up and I have no love in me, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and sweet; love does not envy; love is not upset neither puffed up. Love does not commit what is shameful, neither does it seek its own; it is not provoked, neither does it entertain evil thoughts, Rejoices not in evil, but rejoices in the truth, Endures all things, believes all things, hopes all, bears all.

Love never fails; for prophecies shall cease, tongues shall be silenced and knowledge will be nothing; For we know partially and we prophesy partially, But when perfection shall come, then that which is partial shall be nothing. When I was a child, I was speaking as a child, I was led as a child, I was thinking as a child, but when I became a man, I ceased these childish things. Now we see as in a mirror, in an allegory, but then face-to-face. Now I know partially, but then I shall know as I am known. For there are these three things that endure: Faith, Hope and Love, but the greatest of these is Love."


Ātmabodha – All-Pervasive Consciousness – Verse 15;
"Like rice kernels covered by husk,
by threshing it with reason,
atma, the pure, inner Self,
should be separated."


Matthew 7:1-14;
"You shall not judge, lest you be judged. For with the judgment that you judge, you will be judged, and with the measure that you measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you notice a chip that is in your brother's eye, and you do not observe the plank that is in your own eye? Or how do you say to your brother, 'Let me cast out the chip from your eye', and behold, a plank is in your eye? Hypocrite! First cast out the plank from your eye, and then you will see to cast out the chip from your brother's eye.

Do not give a sacrifice to dogs; neither throw your pearls before wild boars, lest they trample them with their feet, and return to run you through.

Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it is opened. And who is the man among you whose son will ask him for bread and will hand him a stone? And if he will ask him for a fish, will he hand him a snake? If therefore you who are evil know to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in Heaven give good things to those who ask him?

Everything whatsoever you desire that people should do for you, do likewise for them, for this is the Law and The Prophets.

Enter the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road is spacious which leads to destruction, and many are those who are going in it. How narrow is the gate and strict the way that leads to life, and few are those who find it!"


Ātmabodha – The Fruits of Self-Knowledge – Verse 41;
"On atma, like on a fireboard,
constant drilling with the spindle of meditation
kindles the flame of knowledge
and burns up the fuel of ignorance."


Job 29:3;
"His awe he made above my head in spreading his lamp over me, and by his light I walked in the dark"


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Invisiblespinvis
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Re: Greatest Spiritual Quotes? [Re: spinvis]
    #27911091 - 08/20/22 10:47 AM (1 year, 5 months ago)

Hermes Trismegistus - HERMETICA : The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius - Chapter V;
"A discourse of Hermes to Tat, his son: That god is invisible and entirely visible

This discourse I shall also deliver to you in full, O Tat, lest you go uninitiated in the mysteries of the god who is greater than any name. You must understand how something that seems invisible to the multitude will become entirely visible to you. Actually, if it were (not) invisible, it would not (always) be. Everything seen has been begotten because at some point it came to be seen. But the invisible always is, and, because it always is, it does not need to come to be seen. Also, while remaining invisible because it always is, it makes all other things visible. The very entity that makes visibility does not make itself visible; what (begets) is not itself begotten; what presents images of everything (is not) present to the imagination. For there is imagination only of things begotten. Coming to be is nothing but imagination. Clearly, the one who alone is unbegotten is also unimagined and invisible, but in presenting images of all things he is seen through all of them and in all of them; he is seen especially by those whom he wished to see him.

You then, Tat, my child, pray first to the lord, the father, the only, who is not one but from whom the one comes; ask him the grace to enable you to understand so great a god, to permit even one ray of his to illuminate your thinking. Only understanding, because it, too, is invisible, sees the invisible, and if you have the strength, Tat, your mind's eye will see it. For the lord, who is ungrudging, is seen through the entire cosmos. Can you see understanding and hold it in your hands? Can you have a vision of the image of god? If what is in you is also invisible to you, how will god reveal his inner self to you through the eyes?

If you want to see god, consider the sun, consider the circuit of the moon, consider the order of the stars. Who keeps this order? (For every order is bounded in number and in place.) The sun, the greatest god of those in heaven, to whom all heavenly gods submit as to a king and ruler, this sun so very great, larger than earth and sea, allows stars smaller than him to circle above him. To whom does he defer, my child? Whom does he fear? Does not each of these stars in heaven make the same circuit or a similar one? Who determined the direction and the size of the circuit for each of them?

Who owns this instrument, this bear, the one that turns around itself and carries the whole cosmos with it? Who set limits to the sea? Who settled the earth in place? There is someone, Tat, who is maker and master of all this. Without someone to make them, neither place nor number nor measure could have been maintained. Everything that is an order (has been made; only) something placeless and measureless can be not made. But even this does not lack a master, my child. Even if the unordered is deficient {- deficient, that is, in that it does not retain the character of order -} it is still subject to a master who has not yet imposed order on it.

Would that you could grow wings and fly up into the air, lifted between earth and heaven to see the solid earth, the fluid sea, the streaming rivers, the pliant air, the piercing fire, the coursing stars, and heaven speeding on its axis about the same points. Oh, this is a most happy sight to see, my child, to have a vision of all these in a single instant, to see the motionless set in motion and the invisible made visible through the things that it makes! This is the order of the cosmos, and this is the cosmos of order.

If you wish also to see the vision through mortal things on earth and in the deep, my child, consider how the human being is crafted in the womb, examine the skill of the craftwork carefully, and learn who it is that crafts this beautiful, godlike image of mankind. Who traced the line round the eyes? Who pierced the holes for nostrils and ears? Who opened up the mouth? Who stretched out the sinews and tied them down? Who made channels for the veins? Who hardened the bones? Who drew skin over the flesh? Who parted the fingers? Who flattened the bottoms of the feet? Who cut passages for the pores? Who stretched out the spleen? Who made the heart in the form of a pyramid? Who joined the {ribs} together? Who flattened the liver? Who hollowed out the lungs? Who made the belly spacious? Who set the most honored parts in relief to make them visible but hid the shameful parts away?

See how many skills have been applied to the same, single material, how many labors within the compass of a single work, all of them exquisite things, all finely measured, yet all different. Who made them all? What sort of mother or what sort of father if not the invisible god, who crafted them all by his own will? No one claims that a statue or a picture has been produced unless there is a sculptor or a painter. Has this craftwork been produced without a craftsman, then? Oh, how full of blindness, how full of irreverence, how full of ignorance! Tat, my child, never deprive the craftworks of their craftsman. .. . Or rather, he is stronger even {than a name used of god,} so great is the father of all. Surely it is he alone whose work it is to be a father.

If you force me to say something still more daring, it is his essence to be pregnant with all things and to make them. As it is impossible for anything to be produced without a maker, so also is it impossible for this maker [not] to exist always unless he is always making everything in heaven, in the air, on earth, in the deep, in every part of the cosmos, in every part of the universe, in what is and in what is not. For there is nothing in all the cosmos that he is not. He is himself the things that are and those that are not. Those that are he has made visible; those that are not he holds within him. This is the god who is greater than any name; this is the god invisible and entirely visible. This god who is evident to the eyes may be seen in the mind. He is bodiless and many-bodied; or, rather, he is all-bodied. There is nothing that he is not, for he also is all that is, and this is why he has all names, because they are of one father, and this is why he has no name, because he is father of them all.

Who may praise you, then, acting on your behalf or according to your purpose? And where shall I look to praise you - above, below, within, without? For there is no direction about you nor place nor any other being. All is within you; all comes from-you. You give everything and take nothing. For you have it all, and there is nothing that you do not have.

When shall I sing a hymn to you? One cannot detect in you time or season. For what shall I sing the hymn - for what you have made or what you have not made, for what you have made visible or what you have kept hidden? And wherefore shall I sing the hymn to you - for being something that is part of me, or has a special property, or is something apart? For you are whatever I am; you are whatever I make; you are whatever I say. You are everything, and there is nothing else; what is not, you are as well. You are all that has come to be; you are what has not come to be; you are the mind who understands, the father who makes his craftwork, the god who acts, and the good who makes all things. [The matter composed of the finest particles is air, but air is soul, soul is mind, and mind is god.]"


Imam Shakeeb - The Importance of Heart in Islam;
"Our Prophet said, that in the body, the human being has a piece of flesh, and that is the heart. When that becomes good, the whole body becomes good. When that becomes corrupted, then the actions of the body will also be corrupt. So our job is to protect and nurture that natural state of the heart until we die."


Marianne Williamson - A Return to Love - Our Deepest Fear;
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness
That most frightens us.

We ask ourselves
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

Your playing small
Does not serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking
So that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine,
As children do.
We were born to make manifest
The glory of God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us;
It's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we're liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others."


Iman Wael Ibrahmi - Peace In Islam;
"If you really trusted, if you trusted the destiny, that which has been written already beforehand, then God will substitute that with something way better. All what you need to do is to surrender. Which is actually the meaning of Islam. What is the meaning of Islam in the first place is to submit, and to surrender your own desires, your own will, to the will of the one who made you, because he knows better, he's the one who fashioned you."


Oriah Mountain Dreamer - The Invitation;
"It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for,
And if you dare to dream of meeting
Your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
For love, for your dream,
For the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon.
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow,
If you have been opened by life's betrayals,
Or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain,
Mine or your own,
Without moving
To hide it or fade it or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy,
Mine or your own,
If you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
Without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true.
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself,
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.
I want to know if you can be faithless and therefore be trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty
Even when it is not pretty every day,
And if you can source your own life
From its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure,
Yours and mine,
And still stand on the edge of a lake and shout to the silver of the full moon,
"Yes!"

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair,
Weary and bruised to the bone,
And do what needs to be done for the children.

It doesn't interest me who you are, how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
In the center of the fire with me
And not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
From the inside
When all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
With yourself,
And if you truly like the company you keep
In the empty moments."


Iman Wael Ibrahmi - Peace In Islam;
"We have to be satisfied from our heart because God will put us into these tests and difficulties, because he wanted to see who are really the truthful and honest slaves of his, who are the ones really that are in peace within themselves, and in peace with others. No matter how difficult life may seem, there would be always light at the end of the tunnel, that's Islam."


Alan Watts - Enjoy Your Dream;
"There are many many dialogues in the Pali scriptures, where people try to corner the Buddha, into a metaphysical position;

"Is the world eternal?"
The Buddha says nothing.
"Is the world not eternal?"
And he answers nothin'.
"Is the world both eternal and not eternal?"
And he don't say nothin'.
"Is the world neither eternal nor not eternal?"
And still he don't say nothin'.

He maintains what is called the noble silence, sometimes later called the thunder of silence. Because this silence, this metaphysical silence is not a void, it is very powerful. The silence is the open window through which you can see, not concepts, not ideas, not beliefs, but the very goods.

But if you say what it is you see, you erect an image, and an idol, and you misdirect people. It's better to destroy peoples beliefs, than to give them beliefs, I know it hurts, but it is the way. That is what cracks the eggshell, and lets out the chick. Of course, if you want to stay in the eggshell you can, but you'll get addled. This then you see is why Buddhism is in dialogue form. The truth cannot be told.

It can be suggested, it can be indicated, and a method of interchange, between teacher and student can be arranged, whereby the teacher constantly pricks the students bubbles, and that's what it's all about."


Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum - A Discription of the Stone;
"Though Daphne fly from Phoebus bright,
  Yet shall they both be one,
And if you understand this right,
  You have our hidden Stone.
For Daphne she is faire and white:
  But Volatile is she;
Phoebus a fixed God of might,
  And red as blood is he.
Daphne is a Water Nymph,
  And hath of Moysture store,
Which Phoebus doth consume with heate,
  And dryes her very sore.
They being dryed into one,
  Of christall flood must drinke,
Till they be brought to a white Stone:
  Which wash with Virgins milke,
So longe untill they flow as wax,
  And no fume you can see,
Then have you all you neede to aske,
  Praise God and thankfull be."


Iman Wael Ibrahmi - Peace In Islam;
"I would end with one beautiful narration of the Prophet Muhammad, Peace Be Upon Him, where he mentioned when someones came to him, and advised him, like; "Give me advice."
So the Prophet Muhammad, Peace Be Upon Him, said; "Don't be angry."
So the man said again; "Give me another one."
So the Prophet Muhammad, Peace Be Upon Him, responded; "Don't be angry."
Alright I heard that the first time, give me a third one.
And he said; "Don't be angry.""


Thomas Rawlin - A warning to the false Chymists or the Philosophical Alphabet - An Alchemical poem;
"All Things from One, and to One.
In the Center Truth, in the Circumference Vanity.

A Magicall Ænigma.

The omnipotent God in the rotten Mass.
(as it were in a Chaos) to be despised,
To us Mortalls has left all things,
Yet they in the Nature of Things are but one.
It is a Mass of Dust, a despicable Thing;
A Fire, an Aquosity; a most amiable Fountain;
It is neither a Stout Captain, nor invincible;
When it is not drawn out of its Cradle.
It is an old Man; it is an Infant; the Lord of all;
It is the red Servant, contrary to the King;
It is the green Lyon; something more sublime
Than the King, or Subjects; but fugitive.
It flys, and attracts; the Virgin obeyeth not,
Unless the Father provoke her with Many Goads;
Then she follows, and much demands
A Husbands company, with whom she cohabits.
She is covered and impregnated with the Embrace,
A clear Water is evacuated out of her Heart
With Blood, wherewith she is raised up
Now dying as it were, and is recreated.
Things bright and clear being so obtained
The King and Queen being begot togeathere
Being put presently in the Secret Prison,
Feed them with heavenly Dew; not Watry things.
Being Dead at length, the Spirit flys away
Washes and purifys the Soul and the Body
Then a more intense Fire allway perpetuats
With a cold Fire; it volatilizes not.
Now no Errour follows in the Work,
Burn all with a very strong Fire,
Bring out at length the Blood, the Soul
After the White King: Then thrice imbibe.
(The King being thus known) the Body is the Soul,
And fixt, and permanent, although like Wax;
The Colour is not an Accident; but a Substance
Reigning in all, with the highest Glory.

Glory to God alone, the three-one."


Ram Dass - Be Here Now;
"And the world of Yin & Yang
Is another astral plane
& it's one of the highest planes
In the world of form
But it's still duality
It is still polarization
There is God - there is man
There is good - there is evil
Yes - no
Pleasure - pain
Loss - gain
The world most everybody is living in
Most of the time

The only way out of that is to take
The poles of every set of opposites
And see the Way in which
THEY ARE ONE
And: if you can get into that place
Where you see the interrelatedness of
EVERYTHING
And: you see the Oneness in it all
Then: no longer are you attached
To your polarized position
The whole thing about generation gaps
Is a hype
THE SPIRIT
IS
THE SPIRIT
When you can center and see your whole life
As a story in which chapters are

UNFOLDING
Then: the moment-to-moment ego involvement
"Am I getting enough at this moment?"
ceases to be a dominant theme
And: you start to live in the
TAO
(The Way)
Jesus said: I am the Way
It's the same Way!
THE WAY
IS THE WAY IS
THE WAY

THE WAY is THE HARMONY
OF THE UNIVERSE
When one comes into the Spirit
When one sees how it is
One understands that behind all the individual
Differences
Man - womeman
Big - little
Old - young
Good - bad
Every label you can think of
Becomes background instead of figure
What stands out is:

HERE WE ARE
HERE & NOW
THAT'S ALL THERE IS"


Pseudo-Majrīṭī - Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm - The Aim of the Sage / The Goal of The Wise - Picatrix Liber Atratus - Book Four - Chapter Three;
"What the Chaldeans held to be the profundities and secrets of this science, and what they said about it

The Chaldeans, indeed, were those magi who made themselves preeminent in this science and these workings; and they are held to have been entirely perfect in this science. They themselves assert that Hermes first constructed a certain house of images, from which he used to measure of the flow of the Nile at the Mountains of the Moon; but this house was made of the Sun. He used to hide himself there from men in such a way that no one who was with him was able to see him.

He also it was who built, in the east of Egypt, a city twelve miles in length, in which he built a certain citadel that had four gates in its four quarters. At the eastern gate he put the image of an eagle, at the western gate the image of a bull, at the southern gate the image of a lion, and at the northern gate he built the image of a dog. He made certain spiritual essences enter into these, which used to speak in voices that issued from the images; nor could anyone pass through the portals without their permission. In that city he planted certain trees, in the midst of which he set up an arbor that bore the fruits of all generation.

At the summit of the citadel he caused to be built a certain tower, which attained a height of thirty cubits, and on the summit of it he commanded to be put a sphere, the color of which changed in every one of the seven days. At the end of the seven days it received the color it had at first. Every day, that city was filled with the color of that sphere, and thus the aforesaid city used to shine every day with color.

Around that tower, in a circle, water abounded, in which many kinds of fish used to live. Around the city he placed diverse and changing images, by means of which the inhabitants of the city were made virtuous and freed from sin, wickedness and sloth. The name of this city was Adocentyn. Its people were most deeply learned in the ancient sciences, their profundities and secrets, and in the science of astronomy."


Edited by spinvis (08/20/22 11:17 AM)


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Invisiblespinvis
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Registered: 09/15/20
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Re: Greatest Spiritual Quotes? [Re: spinvis]
    #27914906 - 08/23/22 09:42 AM (1 year, 5 months ago)

The Gospel of Thomas - 10;
"Jesus says: "I have cast fire upon the world, and see, I am guarding it until it blazes.""


Terence McKenna - Alchemy & The Hermetic Corpus - May 1991 - Workshop;
"Some of you may know the song by the Grateful Dead in which the refrain is, “We need a miracle every day.” I think any reasonable person can conclude that the redemption of the world, if it’s to be achieved, can only be achieved through magic. It’s too late for science. It’s too late for hortatory politics."


Hermes Trismegistus - HERMETICA : The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius - Chapter XII;
"This entire cosmos - a great god and an image of a greater, united with god and helping preserve the father's will and order - is a plenitude of life, and throughout the whole recurrence of eternity that comes from the father there is nothing in the cosmos that does not live, neither in the whole of it nor in its parts. For there never was any dead thing in the cosmos, nor is there, nor will there be. The father wished it to be alive as long as it holds together, and so it was necessary for the cosmos to be god. How then, my child, can there be dead things in god, in the image of all, in the plenitude of life? For deadness is corruption, and corruption is destruction. How can any part of the incorruptible be  corrupted or anything of god be destroyed?"


Terence McKenna - Alchemy & The Hermetic Corpus - May 1991 - Workshop;
"I remember Al Wong once said to me, we were talking about the yin/yang symbol, and he said, “The interesting thing is not the yin or the yang, the interesting thing is the S-shaped surface which runs between them,” and that S-shaped surface is a river of alchemical mercury. Where the alchemists saw this river of alchemical mercury was in the boundary between waking and sleeping. There is a place, not quite sleeping, not quite waking, and there flows this river of alchemical mercury where you can project the contents of the unconscious and you can read it back to yourself. This kind of thinking is confounding to scientific thought, where the effort is always to fix everything into a given identity and a given set of behaviors.

The other Hermetic perception that is well illustrated by thinking for a moment about mercury is the notion — and this is central to all Hermetic thinking — of the microcosm and the macrocosm. The notion that somehow the great world, the whole of the cosmos is reflected in the mystery of man — meaning men and women — it’s reflected in the mystery of the human mind-body interface. For an alchemist it makes perfect sense to extrapolate from what we call “internal” psychological processes to external processes in the world. That distinction doesn’t exist for the alchemist, and I tell you, the longer I live the more convinced I am that this is absolutely the truth."


Bob Marley - Get Up Stand Up;
"Preacher man, don't tell me
Heaven is under the earth
I know you don't know
What life is really worth
It's not all that glitters is gold
Half the story has never been told
And now you see the light
You stand up for your rights

You see, most people think
Great God will come from the sky
Take away everything
And make everybody feel high
But if you know what life is worth
You would look for yours on earth
And now you see the light
You stand up for your rights

We sick an' tired of your 'ism-schism game
Dyin', goin' to heaven in-a Jesus' name, Lord
We know when we understand
Almighty God is a living man
You can fool some people sometimes
But you couldn't fool all the people all the time
And now we see the light
You stand up for your rights!"


Terence McKenna - Alchemy & The Hermetic Corpus - May 1991 - Workshop;
"All esoteric traditions, East and West, talk about the creation of this body of light and we will not, in this weekend, talk very much about non-Western alchemy, Taoist and Vedic alchemy, but in those systems too the notion is about the creation of this vehicle of light. This is one metaphor for the externalization of the soul.

The philosopher’s stone is another, and I will challenge you to try to imagine what the achievement of the philosopher’s stone would be like, because it’s in trying to think that way that you begin to dissolve the categories of the Cartesian trap."


Alan Watts - Who Do You Think The Devil is?;
"Existence already includes non-existence. You could say being and non-being constitute existence. Just as we know physically, sound is constituted by sound silence, in very rapid alternation. So being, non-being, constitute existence, and existence is something of which you may say the game is worth the candle. If it weren't, it wouldn't be, it's like that. Some people try to say there is good and bad with a small g and small b, and they together constitute good capital g. Or one might say that humanity, and the good of humanity, is a curious combination of beneficence and rascality, of reason and passion. And if human beings didn't have those two sides, they would be less than human. Man is in a certain sense redeemed by his passions. Redeemed by being something of a rascal, because if he weren't, he would be like a stew with no salt in it. The salt somehow is something that in a large quantity is horrible, but in a certain small quantity delightful. And so everybody has to be salted with a certain amount of unrespectability, otherwise they're impossible and intolerable. The only thing is, as a fervent cook, don't overdo it.
It is in that respect that it is said of great gurus in India, they'd have a very funny thing they say, Westerners go over, and they meet this man who's supposed to be extremely holy, and they're all a God, and then after spending a few days with him they begin to wonder. They find he smokes cigarettes, they find that he occasionally loses his temper, and they begin to think; 'Well is this man so holy after all? I mean he surely should not be dependent on these little habits, and luxuries and so on'. And then they find out he has a girlfriend, and then they leave because they're so scandalized. Well then the Hindus say; 'uh-uh-uh, now you shouldn't get so upset about this, because if this man didn't have a few little vices, he would cease to manifest, he would simply disappear'. He has to have these things to keep him grounded, to keep him in the world. Or if suddenly he gets terribly angry with a certain student, and seems to lose his temper, they say; 'oh no no no'. That's a tactical anger, that he did on purpose to wake you up to something, it was for your own development, for your own good, he didn't really feel angry at all. Oh dear, but do you see the point? There is something in the fact, that if he didn't have these little attachments, he wouldn't be manifesting, he'd simply disappear. There's something in that, only don't take it too piously, I think you get the point.
So then, we now have to explore a very important aspect of the joker, as equivalent to Gurdjieff's sly man. You see he points out the four ways, the monk, the fakir, the yogi, and the sly man, and all the first three ways are ways of great difficulty. They involve very very strenuous discipline, and of course as we get it through the books about Gurdjieff, the way of the sly man involves a discipline too. But I think there's more to be said about the way of the sly man than appears in any of those writings. Because this is very closely connected with the whole approach of Taoism, the Chinese philosophy of Wu Wei, or non aggression, and with what is called in Buddhism, the middle way. When the Buddha first discussed the middle way, he put it like this, he said; 'To try and solve the problem of suffering by immersing yourself in pleasure only leads to a hangover, to try and solve the problem by asceticism, also brings no liberation, you merely get tied up in a kind of masochism where you say, I know I'm right just so long as I'm hurting, and all that is doing is expiating your kind of infantile guilt sense'. So he said there is a middle way between asceticism on the one hand, and hedonism on the other.
But actually, the middle way is more subtle than that, and it's beautifully discussed in Professors Bahm a book called The Philosophy of Buddha, professor of philosophy at the university of New Mexico.
And he gives a very very fascinating analysis of the middle way, in the form of a dialogue, whereby the students brings a problem to the teacher, and he says; 'I suffer, and it's a problem to me', and the teacher says; 'You suffer because you desire, if you didn't desire, you wouldn't suffer, so try not to desire'. And the student goes away, and says; 'I'm not very successful in this, I can't stop desiring, it's terribly difficult, and furthermore I find that in trying to desiring I'm desiring to stop desiring, now what am I to do about that'? And the teacher replies; 'Do not desire to stop desiring any more than you can'. And so the student goes away and practices that, but he comes back to the teacher and said; 'I still find myself desiring excessively to stop desiring, and it doesn't work'. So the teacher says; 'Do not desire too much not to desire to stop desiring'.
Now do you see what's happening? Step by step, almost like Achilles approaching the tortoise, the student is being brought together with himself, to the point where he catches up with his own inner being, and can accept it completely. And that is the most difficult thing to do, to accept oneself completely, because the moment you can do that, you have in effect done psychologically, what is the equivalent of saying in philosophical or theological terms, you as you are now are the Buddha. Just as I was explaining a few minutes ago, that's unbelievable, because we're always trying to get away from ourselves as we are now in one fashion or another. We will only stop doing that through a series of experiments, in which we try resolutely to get away from ourselves as we are. So that is the middle way. But ordinarily in these other ways, the way of the yogi, the fakir, and the monk, the individual makes a big thing out of the work of liberation, and especially likes the kind of teacher who will put him through the most severe paces. It's interesting how there arise from time to time, schools in the West, where someone comes along, offering people, say; 'Look it's all very well to go to discussion groups and talk about these things, but that's not the real thing, what you need is really to get down and do some work', and often these teachers are very rude, and very stern, but people love it. And such a person will always attract a great following. Because people get the feeling now we are at serious business here, this is really something. And this can be an awful problem.
Let's suppose that you have some difficult and distressing habit, like drinking too much, and you're assured that once you've become the victim of this habit, it's an extraordinarily difficult thing to get rid of it, and it requires intense willpower. And so that kills you right off, you're a dead duck from then on. It's as if you had said to the devil one morning; 'Look I'm going to get rid of you, I'm not going to have anything to do with you anymore'. So the devil, who is an archangel, and is terribly clever, is all set for you. And because he knows that you are getting out of his way, he surrounds you with greater temptations than you ever imagined. If you are going to outwit the devil, it's terribly important that you don't give him any advance notice. And this is were the work of the sly man comes in.
Put it in other terms, in Hindu or Buddhist terms, in the popular terms, liberation is getting out of the toils of karma. It's like this, during your many past lives you've done all kinds of deeds, good and bad, and you are reaping the consequences of these deeds today, and also today you're setting up future consequences. Now before you can be liberated, you've got to pay off your karmic debts, and so the moment you set your foot on the path of liberation, you are apt to find, that all your karmic creditors will come to your door. And that's why it's often said that people who start out on a serious work of yoga, suddenly get sick and lose their money, and their best friends drop dead, and all kinds of ghastly things happen. That's because you see they served notice, that they were going to do this, and so all the creditors came around. If you're going to leave town and you owe lots of money, you mustn't announce that you're leaving or give a farewell party to your friends, because the grocer will find out.
So the art of the sly man, is to make no contest, but simply to leave, without one word. In other words though, that's the meaning of Wu Wei, in the technical vocabulary of Taoism. Wu Wei, not to interfere, not to force things. That's the best translation of Wu Wei, not to force things. So he just drops it like that, but you are in this respect, you are your own worst enemy. Because even if you serve notice privately on yourself, that suddenly you're going to drop it all. Already the devil knows, because who do you think the devil is?
Now this lies behind the whole problem, that is discussed in the book Zen in the Art of Archery. The necessity of letting go of the bow string, without first deciding to do so. Another way of putting it is that the decision to release the bow string, and the action of doing so must be simultaneous. Not to decide, and then act, but to act, decide, all at once. Now why is this? If you are going to be an expert archer, you must shoot before you think, otherwise it'll be too late. You don't aim, and then shoot. It's all one action. And this is true likewise of any sort of shooting, a pistol shooting as well. That if you aim, if you decide, and then fire, you apt to do things like pulling the trigger instead of squeezing. All kinds of wrong things are done, and you're always a moment too late, if you decide first. You have to act, and decide simultaneously. So what does that do? That puts up a very curious problem which in its own turn becomes a bind. To try and act quickly enough, so that you overtake the preliminary decision. To try not to decide first, and that is an impossible problem.
I wonder if you ever read von Kleist's story, about the fighting bear, this is included in Nancy Wilson Ross's book, The World of Zen, as a kind of Western Zen. It's a story about a man who has a fight with a circus bear, and the bear reads his mind, and always forestalls any attack that he makes on it. There's absolutely nothing he can do to get past the bear. And so in the same way you might imagine a guru who is a mind reader, and he always knows if you decide before you act, and if you do, the devil will catch you. Instead of deciding that you won't be an alcoholic anymore, the only thing to do is not to drink, without any previous decision on this matter. But how can anyone do that? That's the question. How can I decide not to decide? How can I announce that I won't make any announcement without making an announcement. There is no way out of that bind. Try as you may, you go on and on and on, trying, as Herrigel did to release the bowstring, without thinking first to release it. But then strangely enough one day the thing happened, he did it, and this is involved in our learning of almost all techniques. That we work and work to achieve that final point of perfection, and it doesn't come and it doesn't come and then one day, it happens.
Now what is the reason for that? Is it simply, and this is really the way it's usually explained, but this is an oversimplification, it is not that we have practiced it so often that it suddenly becomes perfect. It is much more subtle than that. What happens is that we've practiced so often that we find out we can't do it, and it happens at the moment you know you can't do it. When you reach a certain point of despair, when you know you are the one weird child who will never be able to swim, at that moment you're swimming. Because the desperation and the total inability to do it at all has brought you to a point which we might call don't care. You stop trying, you stop not trying, trying to get it that way, you just have arrived at the inside.
That your decision, your will, doesn't have any part in the thing at all, and that's what you needed to know. You've overcome the illusion of having a separate ego. There is no way of telling anyone that that's an illusion, and getting appropriate action, because we are thoroughly indoctrinated with the idea, that it's real. And if I say; 'Well I'm going to get rid of my ego', that's what the Taoist call beating a drum in search of a fugitive, he hears you coming. So the ego, that is to say, the illusion of having a separate will, and a separate eye center, that can be an effective agent, that cannot be overcome by a decision which seems to be centered in the ego. You might as well put out fire with fire. It can come only when an attempt to act from the ego center has been revealed to be completely futile, then the thing happens. Because you've really discovered, that it was after all an illusion.
Now be very careful how you formulate this sort of thing philosophically. This could of course correspond to the kind of person who feels unafraid, and who feels very free because he's a complete fatalist. A lot of people are, and are very happy in their fatalism. They really feel they don't do anything, it just happens, and that it's all life, and that they won't die until it's their time to die, and so why worry? They have the sense of everything is just happening to them, and this is a kind of floating feeling, it's as if you didn't have to push things at all, they just flowed along. Well now, that state of affairs, that feeling of you don't have to push anything, it just floats along, is very similar to the experience I'm describing, if not the same thing. But this person has interpreted it as a fatalist, in a rather passive way. That is to say, he has felt that there still is some kind of a little differentiation, between himself as the experiencer on the one hand, and that force or set of forces called fate on the other. He is pushed around, but he witnesses being pushed around.
Now in this state this person still has a little fragment of impurity left, there's still one fly left in the ointment, and that is the sensation of being pushed around. There is still a fundamental division between the knower and the known, and in this case, the case of the fatalist, the knower seems to be the passive thing, and everything known, the objective world, or the goings-on of his own physiology, they appear to be the active end. And the knower just has the experience of himself being moved, moved, moved, moved, by the tides of life. The important thing to find out is this, that the sensation of being the knower, and the experiencer of all this, is not as it were aside from everything else that's going on, but part of it. Just as you, although you experience your own existence subjectively, you are nevertheless part of the external world, you are in my external world just as I am in your external world. So in this way the final barrier between the knower and the known is broken down.
There is nobody as it were being carried along by fate, there is just the process, and all that you are is part of the process. Then there is a curious flip, the individual who has always felt himself to be the tiny little thing on the end of the big determining process, suddenly goes bloop. Have you watched sometimes a tiny little piece of mercury, coming nearer and nearer to a large piece of mercury? The sudden moment when they touch each other and bloop, the little thing vanishes into the big one, almost more dramatically than a drop into the ocean. In this case that I'm talking about, it isn't that the individual organism vanishes, the individual human being doesn't vanish. But he experiences no longer a passive relationship to the world, he simply sees that all that he is, and all the he ever was, was something that the entire process was doing. At the time, in other words, when he felt himself to be separate, he sees that that is in a certain way just what he should have felt. Because that was what the process was doing in him, in exactly the same way that it was giving him brown or blue eyes, or blonde or brunette hair. And that's going through the door, and turning around and seeing there wasn't a door. A finding that you aren't fated, that you're not trapped because there's nobody in the trap, and it takes something trapped to make a trap."


Hermes Trismegistus - HERMETICA : The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius - Chapter XVIII;
"The sun, nourisher of all that grows, harvests the first pick of the crops as it first rises, using its rays like great hands to gather in the crops, and the rays that are its hands gather in the most ambrosial (effluences) of the plants; in just this way, since we have taken our beginning from the almighty and have received the effluence of his wisdom and have used it up in growing the supercelestial plants that are our souls, we must go back again and exercise the praise from which he will water every shoot that we plant."


Terence McKenna - Alchemy & The Hermetic Corpus - May 1991 - Workshop;
"I quoted to you last night Jean-Paul Sartre’s statement, “Nature is mute.” Now I see this as an obscenity almost, an intellectual crime against reason and intuition. It’s the absolute antithesis of the Logos, and much of our world is ruled by men older than I am who are fully connected into that without any question, and they just think all the rest of this is just namby-pamby ecological softheartedness of some sort. There is no openness to the power of bios, to the fact of a living cosmos. The reinvestiture of spirit into matter, the rebirth of the world soul is a necessary concomitant to what we now understand about the real nature of the world."


Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum;
"The world is a maze and what you why
Forsooth of late a great rich man did die
And as he lay dying on his bed
These words in secret to his son he said
“My son,” quoth he, “’Tis good for thee
I die, for thou shall much the better be thereby
And when thou seest that life hath me bereft
Take what thou findest and where I have it left
Thou dost not know, nor what my riches be
All which I will declare, give ear to me
An earth I had all venom to expel
And that I cast into a mighty well
A water eke to cleanse what was amiss
I threw into the earth, and there it is
My silver all into the sea I cast
My gold into the air and at the last
Into the fire for fear it should be found
I threw a stone worth forty thousand pound
Which stone was given me by a mighty king
Who bade me wear it in a fair gold ring.”
Quoth he, “This stone is by that ring found out
If wisely thou canst turn this ring about
For every hoop contrary is to other
Yet well agree and of the stone is mother
So now, my son, I will declare a wonder
That when I die this ring must break asunder.”
The king said so, but when he said, “Withal
Although the ring be broken in pieces small
An easy fire shall soon it close again
Who this can do he need not work in vain
’Til this my hidden treasure be found out
When I am dead, my spirit shall walk about
Make him to bring your fire from the grave
And stay with him ’til you my riches have.”
These words a worldly man did chance to hear
Who daily watched the spirit but near the near
And yet it met with him and every one
Yet tells him not where is this hidden stone."


Terence McKenna - Alchemy & The Hermetic Corpus - May 1991 - Workshop;
"What is being described is what Jungians call the individuation process: a dissolving of the boundaries of the ego, an allowing of the chaotic material of the unconscious to pour forth where it can be inspected by consciousness, and we’ll see tonight when we look at this art that these images are full of ravening beasts, incestuous mother/son pairs, incestuous brother/sister pairs, hermaphrodites. All taboos are broken, this stuff just boils up from the unconscious, is sublimed through these processes and then is somehow fixed, and this fixing is the culmination of alchemy. If you can bring off this trick then you possess the ur-Stone, the philosopher’s stone, the lapis, the Sophic Hydrolith of the Wise, Eirenaeus Philalethes calls it. There are hundreds of control words for naming the secret difficult to obtain: alchemical gold, in short, this is what we’re after. If you possess it, nothing else is worth anything because it is psychic completion, peace of mind. Jung called it the self. It’s the self that we are trying to recover, and remember how we talked about the Gnostic myth of the light trapped in matter? Well this is the lumina lumen, the light of light, the lux natura, the light drawn out of nature and condensed into a fixed form which then becomes the universal panacea, and I’m using as many of these alchemical terms as I can draw out of my memory to give you a feeling for it. This is the universal medicine. It cures all ills, it brings you riches, fame, wealth, self-respect. It’s the answer, it’s what everyone is looking for and no one can find."


Lamentations 3:22-33;
"The kindness of LORD JEHOVAH that does not fail and his mercies that do not end

In the newness of the morning, great is your faithfulness , LORD JEHOVAH!

My soul has said: “He is my portion”; because of this, I shall wait for him

LORD JEHOVAH is good to him who waits for him, and to the soul that seeks him

It is good for him who hopes in truth for the redemption of LORD JEHOVAH

It is good for a man when he will take up your yoke in his youth

He will sit alone and he will be silent, because he has taken your yoke upon himself

He will put his mouth into the dust, because there is hope

He will give his cheek to him who hits him, and he will be filled with reproach

Because LORD JEHOVAH does not forget for eternity

But he is lowly and he shows love according to the multitude of his compassions

Because he has not answered from his heart, and he humbles the children of mighty men"


Edited by spinvis (08/27/22 01:19 AM)


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Invisiblespinvis
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Re: Greatest Spiritual Quotes? [Re: spinvis]
    #27922063 - 08/28/22 04:02 AM (1 year, 4 months ago)

Alan Watts - Eastern Wisdom, Modern Life - Part Three: 1965-1967 - 11. Swimming Headless;
"There was a young man who said though, it seems that I know that I know, but what I would like to see is the I that knows me when I know that I know that I know."


Alan Watts - Eastern Wisdom, Modern Life - Part Four: 1968-1969 - 15. Not What Should Be, but What is!;
"A lot of yoga teachers may try to get you to control your own mind, mainly to prove to you that you cannot do it. "A fool who persists in his folly will become wise," and so they speed up the folly. Initially you may have a certain amount of superficial success by a process commonly called self-hypnosis, and you may think you are making progress. A good teacher will let you go along that way for a while, until he really throws you by asking, "Why are you concentrating?""


Alan Watts - Limits of Language;
"The reason why certain people turned to philosophy, well I became a philosopher was that ever since I was a little boy I always felt that existence, as such, was weird. I mean here we are, and isn’t that odd? Of course it is odd, but what do you mean by odd? Well, it is what is different from even, and what is odd stands out. What is even lies flat, but you cannot see the outstanding without the flat background. Is the thing standing out? It’s odd. Each one of you is odd: strange, unique, particular, different. How do we know what we mean by that, except against the background of something even that is not differentiated, like space? So, you get this philosophical itch, you begin to scratch your head and think about why is that so. Well after awhile you may realize that “Why?” is a meaningless question, and so you may ask: “How is it so?” Well, that leads you into science and other investigations. So you want to know, “What is it?” I mean, what is this happening, this thing called existence, “what is it”? You ask that question long enough, and it suddenly hits you that if you could answer it, you would not know what terms to put the answer in. I mean, when we investigate the properties of nature, and we do get some answers, all the answers are in terms of particular structures, forms, patterns. And these can be measured, and their behavior can be predicted. But when I want to ask the question “What are the forms made of?”, I mean “What is it really?”, we cannot think of any way in which we could answer the question, because we would have to have a class of all classes.

When you ask the question “What?” it is like saying: “Is you is or is you ain’t?” Is you animal, is you vegetable, is you mineral? Are you a Republican or a Democrat? Are you male or female? Are you a Christian or a Jew or a Hindu, or a what have you? We classify, always, to give an answer to the question “What is it?” And when you classify you distinguish an inside group from an outside group. So what we want to know is what is the group of all groups. But we can’t imagine what the outside would be. So we can’t answer the question, “what is it”?

So, the physicists finally abandoned the quest for stuff, and they gave us a description of the universe entirely in terms of form: the pattern, not the stuff. People ask, “What is the work?”, but you can’t do that! “What is the pattern made of? Surely, there must be an answer to that?” See, what happens is, when you turn up the microscope all stuff turns into form, it becomes articulate. You know, the carpet looks like some sort of stuff, but when you look at it under a microscope you will see the crystalline structure of the nylon, or whatever it is made of. See? Then they want to know, “What are the crystals made of?” All right? Turn up the volume and you will find molecules. Turn up the volume, you will find wavicles. Then, “But the wavicles must be of something!” Of course they are not, we find substance, or stuff, totally vanishes, and we are left with form. Sanskrit does not really have a word for “matter.” It has nama-rupa which means “named form,” it’s the form that matters. Or let us put it in another way: everything is a matter of form, and let’s go into this, it’s fascinating.

You see, “Does it matter? What does that mean? Does it matter? Is it important?” In other words, does it measure up to anything? Now let’s go back to the Indo-European roots of the language, matter comes from a Sanskrit root matra, which means “to measure”. Lay out the foundation, you say, for a building. So from this root matra if we go on into Sanskrit, we get the word maya, and maya is generally translated as illusion, although it also means magic, creative power. The word illusion comes from the Latin ludere, to play. “Let us pretend that we matter.” Also from the root matra we have “meter,” and that is also “to measure;” metere in Greek, mater in Latin, which means “mama”, “mother.” The mother of Buddha was called Maya, and Mary, ma again, is the mother of Jesus – ma, ma, ma, ma, ma. But ma, you see, is a matter of form, pattern. The Chinese call the basic principle of nature li, and the character for li means the markings in jade, the fiber in muscle, the grain in wood. So Joseph Needham translates it “organic pattern”. That’s what’s going on. There isn’t any stuff involved. What stuff is, is a pattern seen out of focus, where it becomes fuzzy, like kapok you see? We say, kapok is the stuffing of the cushion. And that’s stuff. You see, some kind of goop. But when we examine the kapok closely, we find structure. That’s what you will find, and there will be anything else. Crazy. Because it completely flouts our common sense. We say …but surely, philosophers beat tables that are in front of them and you know, they say, “It is there, because …bang!, you know. There must be something that is stuff, that is substantial.” But the only reason why you cannot pass your hand through a table is the table is moving too fast. It is like trying to put your finger through an electric fan, only it is going much faster than an electric fan. Anything solid is going so fast that there is no way to get this through it, that’s all. So you say, “What is it that is going so fast?”

Well, that question is based on a grammatical illusion. The grammatical illusion is that all verbs have to have subjects, can you imagine anything more weird than the idea that a verb, or action, or event must be set into motion by a noun? That is to say, a non-event or thing. Now what is the difference between a thing and an event? I can’t, for the life of me, tell. We say, “This is a fist,” that’s a noun. Now, what happens to it when I open my hand? This thing has unaccountably disappeared, so I should have called this a “fisting,” and this is a “handing.” It may also be a “pointing.” So, we could devise a language such as that of the Nootka Indians, where there are no nouns and there are only verbs. Chinese is very close to that, I think the superimposition of the idea of noun and verb on the Chinese language is a Western invention. I can’t think of any Chinese word for a noun. But all those languages of Indo-European origin have nouns and verbs in them; they have agents and operations. That’s one of the basic snags: when we divide the world into operations and agents, doings and doers, then we ask such silly questions as, “Who knows?” “Who does it?” “What does it?” When the “what” that is supposed to do it is the same as “the doing,” you could very easily see that the whole process of the universe may be understood as “process.” Nobody is doing it. Because when you go back to doing it, you go back to the military analogy, the chain of command, the boss who goes bang! and the object obeys. That’s a very crude idea, very unsophisticated.

So, if you can bear it, we have suddenly eliminated a “spook,” and the spook was called “stuff.” So, we are now more at ease with ourselves in a world of form, nama-rupa, named forms. We can, of course, get rid of the names. We can now go further and try the experiment with not calling the forms by any names, but just observing the forms, although when we have got rid of the names we cannot even call them “forms,” because that is a name. And, there is the bizazz going on, which Buddhists called tathata, and that means “suchness” or “thusness.” Actually tathata is “da – da – da,” because when a baby first talks it says “da”: “Da, da, da, da.” And fathers flatter themselves thinking that it is saying “dada”, “daddy,” it isn’t, it is saying “da.” So the Upanishads say, Tat vam asi: you are it. The basic “da” does not mean anything. Da is like everything else, you see, the world is a musical phenomenon, good music never refers to anything except the music itself. You do not ask Mr. Bach, Mr. Ravi Shankar, “What do you mean by this music? What is it intended to express?” Bad music always expresses something other than itself, like the 1812 Overture or the Sunken Cathedral. Good music never talks about anything other than the music. If you ask Bach, “What is your meaning?” he say “Listen! That is the meaning.” Giraffes are giraffing, trees are treeing, stars are starring, clouds are clouding, rain is raining. And if you don’t understand, look at it again. And people are peopling. Wow."


Alan Watts - Eastern Wisdom, Modern Life - Part Four: 1968-1969 - 15. Not What Should Be, but What is!;
"Seeing that you cannot control your mind, you realize there is no controller. What you took to be the thinker of thoughts is just one of the thoughts. What you took to be the feeler of the feelings is just one of the feelings. What you took to be the experiencer of experience is just a part of the experience. There is not any thinker of thoughts or feeler of feelings."


Alan Watts - The Nature of Consciousness II, Part 7: The Road to Here;
"Let's say we take as the basic supposition - which is the thing that one sees in the experience of satori or awakening, or whatever you want to call it - that this now moment in which I'm talking and you're listening, is eternity. That although we have somehow conned ourselves into the notion that this moment is ordinary, and that we may not feel very well, we're sort of vaguely frustrated and worried and so on, and that it ought to be changed. This is it. So you don't need to do anything at all. But the difficulty about explaining that is that you mustn't try and not do anything, because that's doing something. It's just the way it is. In other words, what's required is a sort of act of super relaxation; it's not ordinary relaxation. It's not just letting go, as when you lie down on the floor and imagine that you're heavy so you get into a state of muscular relaxation. It's not like that. It's being with yourself as you are without altering anything. And how to explain that? Because there's nothing to explain. It is the way it is now. See? And if you understand that, it will automatically wake you up."


Alan Watts - Eastern Wisdom, Modern Life - Part Four: 1968-1969 - 15. Not What Should Be, but What is!;
"Everybody these days is interested in spiritual development. And wisely so, because we want to change our consciousness. Many people are well aware that this egocentric consciousness is a hallucination, and that they presume it’s the function of religion to change it. Because that’s what the Zen Buddhists and yogis and all these people in the Orient are doing. They’re changing their state of consciousness to get something called satori—or mystical experience, or nirvāṇa, or mokṣa, or what have you. And everybody around here is really enthused about that, because you don’t get that in church. I mean, there have been Christian mystics, but the church has been very quiet about them.

In the average church all you get is talk. There’s no meditation, no spiritual discipline. They tell God what to do interminably, as if he didn’t know. And then they tell the people what to do, as if they could or even wanted to. And then they sing religious nursery rhymes. And then, to cap it all, the Roman Catholic Church—which did at least have an unintelligible service; which was, you know, it was real mysterious and suggested vast magic going on—they went and put the thing into bad English. And they took away incense, and they took away—they became a bunch of Protestants, and the thing was just terrible! So now all these Catholics are at loose ends. As Clare Boothe Luce put it—it ought to be a pun, but she said, you know, “It’s no longer possible to practice contemplative prayer at mass.” Because you’re being advised, exhorted, edified all the time, and it becomes a bore. Think of God listening to all those prayers! I mean, talking about grieving the Holy Spirit! It’s just awful. People have no consideration for God at all!

But in pursuing these spiritual disciplines—yoga and Zen and so forth, and also psychotherapy—there comes up a big difficulty. And the big difficulty is this: I want to find a method whereby I can change my consciousness. But therefore—to improve myself. But the self that needs to be improved is the one that is doing the improving. And so I’m rather stuck. I find out the reason that I think I believe, say, in God is that I sure hope that somehow God will rescue me. In other words, I want to hang on to my own existence. And I feel rather shaky about doing that for myself, but I just hope there’s a God who’ll take care of it. Or, if I could be loving, I would have a better opinion of myself. I’d feel better about it. I could face myself (as people say) if I were more loving. So the unloving me—somehow, by some gimmickry—has to turn itself into a loving me, and this is just like trying to lift yourself off the ground with your own bootstraps. It can’t be done! And that’s why religion in practice mainly produces hypocrisy and guilt: because of the constant failure of these enterprises."


Alan Watts - Limits of Language;
"Ears are easiest to begin with. Can you hear anyone listening to something else—other than sound, you know? Can you hear the listener? No? Well, then presumably, it’s not there! Then you become again as a child, and simply forget all that you ever were told, and contemplate what is, all these ghosts go away. Huh, weird! But they just go. And then you enter into the eternal state where there’s no problem! Well, then you go back, and you collect your opinions again, and you think, “Well, that won’t do.” How—how can I be practical, and be in that sort of state? Well, I remember—in the Sermon On The Mount—that Jesus said a lot of things about this. “Consider the lilies of the field: how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet, Suleiman in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.” “And if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you faithless ones?” Wow! So do not worry about tomorrow, saying, “What shall we eat? what shall we drink?” Or, “How should we clothe ourselves?” All the rabble seeks after these things! Sufficient to the day is the worry of it.

Nobody ever preaches a sermon on that text! Never—I’ve heard lots of sermons!—and never one on that one, because people say, “Look, that’s all very well because Jesus was the boss’s son. And he knew,” you see, “that he was really in charge of the universe, and he has nothing to worry about. But we have to be practical.” Oh? What do you suppose the Gospel was; the “good news?” Do you know it never got out? “You, too, are the boss’s son.” That was the gospel."


Alan Watts - Limits of Language;
"The only place to begin is now, because here is where we are. So why put it off? A lot of people say, “Well, I’m not ready.” What do you mean, you’re not ready? What’re you—why, where… what do you have to be to be ready? “Well, I—I’m—I’m not good enough because I’m neurotic, I’m (perhaps) not old enough, not mature enough for such knowledge. I still am frightened of pain, and of course I’d have to overcome that. I’m still dependent on material things. I have to, you know, eat a lot, and drink a lot, and sex around, and all that kind of thing. And I think that I’d better get all of that under control first.” Oh? You mean you’ve got a case of spiritual pride? You want to be able to congratulate yourself for having gone through “The Discipline,” which is rewarded with realization? Nu-uh. That is trying to quench fire with fire.

In other words, the reason you’re—wouldn’t it be great to be a mystic? Look at it this way. I mean, ca-razy! To have no fear, no attachments, no hang-ups! To be as free as the air! So that, you know, you could just wander out on the streets, and give away all your clothes to the beggars, and let go of the whole thing; let it all hang out. Wouldn’t it be crazy to have that courage? And you look into yourself honestly and you find that, inside, you’re actually a quaking mess of sensitivity. “Ughh!” You know? So that this desire to be the great mystic is nothing more than a symptom of your quaking mess. It’s self-defense. So you think, “Wowee! We’ll do that yoga bit, and we’ll get real tough.” That only means you’re going to be increasingly insensitive. Running away from the quaking mess, escaping. You never can. You’re stuck with it. There is nothing you can actually do to transform your own nature into unattached selflessness, because you have a selfish reason for wanting to do it."


Alan Watts - Eastern Wisdom, Modern Life - Part Three: 1965-1967 - 12. Zen Bones;
"The understanding of Zen, the understanding of awakening, the understanding of mystical experience, is one of the most dangerous things in the world, and for a person who cannot contain it, it is like putting a million volts through your electric shaver. You blow your mind, and it stays blown."


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Invisiblespinvis
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Registered: 09/15/20
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Re: Greatest Spiritual Quotes? [Re: spinvis]
    #27923496 - 08/29/22 03:28 AM (1 year, 4 months ago)

Ezekiel 8:16-18;
"And he brought me into the courtyard of the inner house of LORD JEHOVAH, and I saw in the door of the temple of LORD JEHOVAH, between the porch and the altar, about twenty and five men stood and their backs were against the temple of LORD JEHOVAH and their faces toward the East, and they arose early and they worshipped the sun
And he said to me: “See, son of man! Is this abomination that they do here a little thing to those of the house of Yehuda? For they have filled the land with evil and they have turned to anger me, and they snort with their nostrils
Also I shall work in anger and my eyes shall not have pity, and I shall not be merciful, and they shall cry in my ear with a loud voice and I shall not listen to them”"


Matthew 23:9-10;
"And you should not call yourselves “Father”, in the earth, for one is your Father who is in Heaven. And you will not be called Leaders, because one is your Leader, The Messiah."


2 Kings 23:4-5;
"And the King commanded Khelqia the High Priest and the Priests who were behind him and those keeping the door, to cast out from the house of LORD JEHOVAH all the garments that were made for Baal and for the idols and for all the host of Heaven, and they burned them outside of Jerusalem in the valley of Qedrun, and he took their ashes to Bayth Eil. And he killed those Priests whom the Kings of Yehuda appointed to lay incense on the high places in the villages of Yehuda and in the environs of Jerusalem, and who were setting incense for Baal, and for the sun, and for the moon, and for the stars and all the host of Heaven."


Matthew 23:12;
"Whoever will exalt himself will be humbled and whoever will humble himself will be exalted."


Jeremiah 8:1-3;
"In that time, says LORD JEHOVAH, they shall bring out the bones of Kings of Judea and the bones of their Princes, and the bones of their Priests and the bones of their Prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem from their graves
And they shall spread them out to the sun and to the moon and to all the hosts of Heaven which they loved, and they served them, and they went after them, and they inquired of them, and they worshiped them. They shall not be gathered and they shall not be buried, but they shall be like a dung heap on the face of the ground
And all the rest from this evil generation who were left will choose death for themselves, rather than life, in all the countries where I led them, says LORD JEHOVAH of Hosts"


Luke 11:34-35;
“The lamp of the body is your eye; when therefore your eye is clear your whole body shall be illuminated, but if it should be bad, your body also shall be darkened.” “Take care therefore lest the light that is in you is darkness”"


Deuteronomy 4:15-20;
"Be very aware in your souls because you did not see a form in the day when LORD JEHOVAH spoke with you in Khoreeb from within the fire: So that you would not become corrupt and make for yourselves images and forms of every kind, a form of males or of females, A form of any beast that is in the earth, a form of any bird of the wing flying in Heaven, A form of any creeping thing of the earth, a form of any fish of the sea which is under the earth: And that you would not lift up your eyes into the sky and see the sun and the moon and the stars and all the hosts of the sky and you would go astray and serve them and worship them which LORD JEHOVAH your God distributed for all the nations under Heaven. And LORD JEHOVAH has come near you and has brought you out from the furnace of iron from Egypt, that you would be a people to him and an inheritance, as today."


James 5:12;
"But above all things, my brethren, do not be swearing vows, neither by Heaven, neither by The Earth, neither by any other oath; let your word be, 'Yes, yes' and 'No, no', lest you be condemned under the judgment."


Deuteronomy 17:2-4;
"And if a man or a woman who will do evil before LORD JEHOVAH your God will be found among you in one of your cities that LORD JEHOVAH your God gives to you, and that one will pass over his covenant. And will go and serve other gods and will worship them, or the sun, or the moon, or all the host of Heaven, that I have not commanded; And they tell you and you hear and you shall investigate well if the account is true and this detestable thing has been committed in Israel"


Proverbs 6:12-19;
"A foolish evil man walks in rebellion.

He winks with his eyes and strikes with his feet and he signals with his fingers,

And he is turned backward in his heart and devises evil always, and he stirs up strife between two.

Because of this, his ruin will come suddenly and suddenly he will be broken, and there will be no remedy for him.

There are six things that LORD JEHOVAH hates, and his soul has despised a seventh:

Lofty eyes and the false tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,

The heart that makes plans of depravity and feet that hasten to run to evil,

A false witness who speaks lies and deception among brothers."


Matthew 6:23;
"But if your eye shall be bad, your entire body will be darkness; if therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great will be your darkness!"


Job 31:26-28;
"If I have seen light when peaceful and the moon when shining

If I go and my heart is enticed in secret and I have kissed my hands with my mouth

Also he sees all my devices, if I have lied before God"


Luke 14:11;
"“Because everyone who will exalt himself shall be humbled and everyone who will humble himself shall be exalted.”"


Deuteronomy 16:21-22;
"Do not plant for yourself a grove of any tree on the side of the altar of LORD JEHOVAH your God which you shall make for yourself. And you shall not set up as a monument for yourself anything that LORD JEHOVAH your God hates.”"


Jude 1:3-7;
"Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write to you about our common life, it was necessary for me to write to you, as I am to persuade you to compete for the faith, which was once delivered to The Holy Ones. For men have obtained entrance, who from the beginning were written with this guilty verdict: “Evil men who pervert the grace of our God into an abomination and deny him who is the only Lord God and our Lord Yeshua The Messiah.”

I wish to remind you, as you all know, that God, when once he had brought the people out from Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And those Angels who kept not their Principality, but abandoned their own way of life, he has kept to the great Day of Judgment in unseen chains under darkness, Just as Sadom and Amorah and their surrounding cities, in which, like these, they committed fornication and went after other flesh, are subject to demonstrations of eternal fire while they are condemned to judgment."


Isaiah 5:20;
"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, and put light for darkness and darkness for light, and put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!"


Hosea 10:2-3;
"Their heart has been divided and from now they will be condemned; he will overthrow their altars and he shall plunder their high places

Because from now they will say: ”We have no King from LORD JEHOVAH; we do not stand in awe of a King! What shall he do for us?”"


Matthew 6:1-6;
"Pay attention in your charity giving, that you do it not in front of people so that you may be seen by them, otherwise there is no reward for you with your Father in Heaven.

When therefore you do your charity giving, you should not blast a trumpet before you like the pretenders in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be glorified by the children of men; truly I say to you, they have received their reward. But you, whenever you do charity giving, let not your left know what your right is doing. So that your charity may be in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you in public.

And when you pray, be not like the pretenders who like to stand in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets to pray, that they may be seen by the children of men, and truly I say to you, they have received their reward. But you, when you pray, enter into your closet and lock your door, and pray to your father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you in public."


Matthew 7:21-23;
"It is not everyone that says to me, 'My Lord, my Lord'', who enters the Kingdom of Heaven, but whoever does the will of my Father who is in Heaven. Many will say to me in that day, 'My Lord, my Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, and in your name have cast out demons, and have done many mighty works in your name?' And then I will confess to them, 'I have never known you, remove yourselves far from me, you workers of evil.'"


Philippians 3:18-20;
"For many who walk differently, about whom I have told you many times, but now as I weep, I say that they are the enemies of the cross of The Messiah. For their end is destruction, whose God is their belly and their glory is in their shame- these whose minds are in the dirt. But our business is in Heaven and from there we look for The Life Giver, our Lord Yeshua The Messiah."


Colossians 2:8-9;
"Beware lest any man rob you by philosophy, or by empty deception, according to the teaching of men and according to the principles of the world and not according to The Messiah, For all The Fullness of The Deity dwells in him bodily."


1 Peter 2:4;
"He to whom you draw near, The Living Stone, whom the children of men have rejected, and is chosen and precious to God"


John 1:17;
"For The Law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Yeshua The Messiah."


John 14:6;
"Yeshua said to him, “I AM THE LIVING GOD, The Way and The Truth and The Life; no man comes to my Father but by me alone.”"


John 18:20;
"And Yeshua said to him, “I have spoken openly with the people, and at all times I have taught in the synagogue and in The Temple, where all of the Judeans assemble and I have spoken nothing in secret.”"


1 John 5:18-21;
"And we know that no one who is born from God commits sin, for he who is born from God keeps his soul and The Evil One does not touch it. We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in The Evil One. And we know that The Son of God has come and he has given us a mind to know The True One and to be in The True One- in his Son, Yeshua The Messiah. This One is The True God and The Life Eternal.

My children, keep yourselves from the worship of idols."


Luke 14:12-14;
"Then he said also to the one who had invited him, “Whenever you make a banquet or supper, do not call your friends, neither your brothers, nor your relatives, nor your rich neighbors, lest also they should invite you and this would be a reward to you.” “But whenever you make a reception, invite the poor, the disabled, the maimed and the blind.” “And you will be blessed, for they have nothing to repay you, for your reward will be in the resurrection of the righteous.”"


John 8:32;
"“And you will know the truth, and that truth will set you free.”"


Ephesians 5:8-9;
"For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in our Lord, therefore so walk as children of Light. For the fruits of The Light are in all goodness, righteousness and truth."


John 6:44-46;
"“No man can come to me, unless The Father who has sent me will draw him, and I shall raise him in the last day.” “For it is written in The Prophets, 'All of them will be taught of God.' Everyone, therefore, who has heard from The Father and has learned from him, comes to me.” “No man has seen The Father, except he who is from God; he himself sees The Father.”"


John 10:7-10;
"But again Yeshua said to them, “Timeless truth I speak to you; I AM THE LIVING GOD, The Gate of the flock.” “And all who had come were thieves and robbers, but the flock did not hear them.” “I AM THE LIVING GOD, The Gate; if anyone will enter by me, he shall live and shall go in and out and shall find the pasture.” “But a thief does not come except to steal, kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have whatever is abundant.”"


Ephesians 2:8;
"Because in him, we both have access by One Spirit to The Father."


Romans 10:9;
"And if you will confess with your mouth our Lord Yeshua, and you will believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall have life"


Hebrews 7:25;
"And he can give life for eternity to those who come near to God by him, for he lives always and offers prayers for our sakes."


Romans 5:1-2;
"Because we have been declared righteous, therefore, by faith, we shall have peace with God in our Lord Yeshua The Messiah, For in him we have been brought close by faith to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God."


1 Timothy 2:5;
"For God is One, and The Mediator of God and the sons of men is One: The Son of Man, Yeshua The Messiah"


Revelation 3:20;
"“Behold, I stand at the door and I shall knock. If a man listens to my voice and will open the door, I also shall come in and I shall have supper with him, and he with me.”"


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Invisiblespinvis
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Registered: 09/15/20
Posts: 586
Re: Greatest Spiritual Quotes? [Re: spinvis]
    #27945356 - 09/11/22 01:24 PM (1 year, 4 months ago)

Hazur Maharaj Baba Sawan Singh;
"The human body is a cage. Within it is imprisoned the spirit or soul, which is like a bird in a cage. The bird is in love with the cage and is always singing songs of attachment for the earth. If, however, the covers, or bodies, are cast off from the soul, the bird begins to taste the Truth, and the cage is shattered into fragments. The bird then flies away to its home, which is in Sach Khand [the Realm of Truth]...When the veils are torn, millions of enrapturing joys which constitute the "peace that passeth understanding," are all attained."


Alan Watts - on Eastern Wisdom and Modern Life - The Void;
"[draws a circle] That is a way of demonstrating the basic experience which underlies some of the major forms of Oriental philosophy. And actually, this way of demonstrating it, is taken from a kind of Chinese and Japanese Buddhism called Zen, which I’m going to be talking about quite a bit today, because Zen is one of the best examples of a philosophy, shall we call it, in which this experience is dominant. Zen, of course, is a Japanese word. And that is the Japanese way of pronouncing the Chinese word Chán. And this, in turn, is the Chinese way of pronouncing an Indian Sanskrit word, dhyāna. And dhyāna refers to the kind of experience which has been represented in this circle. Another word for it would be a second Sanskrit term, śūnya. And the nearest we can translate śūnya in English is “emptiness” or “void.” And so we might say this is an experience of the void.

Before trying to explain what this is—and, you know, the funny thing is it really can’t be explained, because it has to be felt, because it’s a transformation of one’s basic feeling, one’s basic consciousness of life. But I should mention first that it is characteristic of Eastern philosophy to be based on experience rather than ideas. You see, philosophy in the Western world, especially as it’s taught in our universities and academies, is mainly a matter of thinking. It’s a matter of trying to arrive at certain clear, positive ideas about the nature of man, the nature of the universe, and so on and so forth. And also, religion in the West is somewhat similar, because religion is largely concerned with belief in certain ideas.

In these basic forms of Eastern philosophy, on the other hand—such as Zen, which is a kind of Buddhism; or Taoism, the basic native philosophy of China; or in Vedanta, which is the central form of Indian philosophy—what is basic to them is not ideas, but a way of experiencing, a way of feeling. And this might be called (as it is here) the void, demonstrated by this circle. Because it is not a void which is just emptiness. This isn’t the idea that there are people in the backward worlds of Asia, who think that the universe is ultimately nothing at all. It is rather that the void represents complete spiritual freedom—or you might say, if you don’t like the word “spiritual,” complete psychological freedom.

And therefore, I want to try, if I can, to communicate to you, to give you some idea, of what this experience is. In Japanese, in Zen, it is called satori. And I like the way that that’s pronounced in southern Chinese. They pronounce it ng. Because it’s something that happens to you suddenly.

Now let me try, if I can possibly, to put into some sort of words what this experience is. This experience—which, so far as they are concerned, is the objective of human life—to get this is to understand the meaning of human nature and destiny. Only, because it’s a transformation of consciousness—because it’s something you feel rather than something you think—it is for this reason to put into words. But it is as if you saw quite suddenly—and indeed, this experience could’ve happened to you. It can come without warning to anybody. And so what I’m going to be saying may strike a familiar ring in some ears. But it is as if, quite suddenly, you became totally convinced that the way everything is in this universe and at this moment is absolutely right. And that’s almost putting it too weakly.

I’m not trying to talk about a sort of Pollyanna feeling, where we say, “Well, this is the best of all possible worlds. And everything, however evil and however wrong, it’s going to work out alright in the end, because it’s a means to an end in some master design.” I’m not saying that. I’m saying: it is suddenly feeling that everything is right the way it is now, however appalling, however terrible. And you know it beyond a shadow of doubt.

There are two other aspects to this experience as well, and although you feel them altogether, we have to talk about them separately. While the first aspect is feeling that everything, just as it is, is so right that you could say of it, “This is why I’m alive. This is what life’s all about.” The second is that everything you see and feel seems to come to life in an extraordinary way. You feel the world as you’ve seen it before was seen almost in a dream, where it is as if just the ordinary things that were confronting you suddenly went yaah! and came alive. And the third aspect of it is that you no longer feel yourself and what you are experiencing to be separated. Although you don’t lose the feeling of the outline of your skin, you don’t forget that I or Joe Dokes is a possible name by which you can refer to yourself. Nevertheless, it suddenly seems to you that your skin is no longer what divides you from the world, it’s what joins you to it. What you see outside you is also you.

Now, we ordinarily restrict the idea of ego, of I-ness, or of you-ness, to some sort of psychological entity or process inside us which is in control of things, and we identify ourselves with a sort of controlling center. But in this experience it is as if that center were suddenly enlarged to include the whole universe. You almost feel as if you were God—except that in Eastern thought one doesn’t think of God as a kind of omnipotent person. I mean, there are lots of people in our asylums who say, “Well, I’m God.” I always like the story of the woman who insisted that she was God, and to humor her someone said, “Well, if you’re God, will you please explain how you managed to create the universe in six days?” She said, “I never talk shop.”

It isn’t feeling God in that sense, as if you could do anything, but it is feeling that you and this whole world are one. And that in this experience of oneness and this sudden coming alive of everything, and the profound rightness—that’s the only word I can use—the profound rightness of each moment, of this moment, however far it may seem to be short of one’s ideals of perfection. This is it. And you say, having seen this, “I can die content. This is what it was all about.”

Now, you might think at the same time that an experience of this kind is rather dangerous. I mean, supposing one did become convinced that everything, just as it is, is the ideal, is right. Would this mean that you could go out and murder some rich relative in order to inherit their fortune? Does it mean you can do anything you like? You can kick your father and mother, you can be cruel to your children, that you could steal and rob anything? In a way, it does mean that. But that is only to say—isn’t it?—that we are free. And freedom is dangerous. But yet, freedom is one of the things which we cherish as one of our greatest possessions and privileges. But if we deny ourselves freedom, then we don’t really have the power to act morally. Because all true moral acts are not the acts we are bound to do, they are the acts we are free to do.

But freedom is dangerous. The moment you teach a child to walk, you can teach it to kick its mother. The moment you teach a child to use a knife to cut up its steak with, the child can go and kill someone with a knife. Life is risky. Life is not safe. And so, in the same way, this experience is not safe. But, on the other hand, its content is so joyous that when people are profoundly happy, they are not in the mood, usually, to go out and slug someone. And so you might say this experience, then—which is the foundation of these great forms of Oriental philosophy—that sounds wonderful, and I’d like to get it.

You know, that reminds me of a story. Once a fellow was traveling in England, and he’d lost his way and wanted to get to a certain village. And he went to a country yokel and said, “Can you tell me the way to Little Tottenham?” And the yokel scratched his head and said, “Well, sir, I do know where that is, but if I were you I wouldn’t start from here.” And so, in the same way, when one asks, “How do I get this experience?” that’s not quite the right question. And to go out to get it is, from the first, the wrong approach. Because this sort of transformation of consciousness happens to a person only in the moment when, you might say, they give up grasping, they start to treat life not as something to be grabbed. When their whole approach to things is no longer clutching.

You know, it was a basic teaching in Buddhism that the root of all human suffering is clinging, or grasping. Just in the same way as I was suggesting on a previous program that you can’t cling to your breath without losing it. You have to let go of your breath. And for that reason the word that is used in Buddhism for this experience—it’s another word familiar to you all, nirvana—literally means “blow out.” Whew! Don’t hang on. Don’t clutch life. And so one of the great problems is: how on Earth to get ourselves to give up clutching, to give up clinging? But, you see, if that’s something you eagerly want to do because you want to get something good out of it, this is still a grasping attitude.

Well, you know, in Zen they have a means of teaching people how to stop clinging. Zen, incidentally, is supposed to have been brought from India to China around somewhere between 400 and 500 AD by a fierce looking gentleman called Bodhidharma. You can see him in this picture by the Japanese painter Soga Jasoku. He’s always drawn as a very fierce fellow with a twinkle in his eye at the same time. And when Bodhidharma came to China, he didn’t have any disciples. But there was one fellow who sought him out, and his name was Eka. And Eka came to Bodhidharma and said, “Sir, I want you to accept me as your disciple.” And Bodhidharma replied, “I have nothing to teach. What I understand is an experience,”—in other words—“and I can’t put it into words. And therefore, go away. I can’t teach it to you.” But Eka insisted on being taught, and he waited outside Bodhidharma’s cave in the snow. And if you look in the picture by Sesshū, you can see Eka standing out there. And Eka got so persistent, and Bodhidharma so persisted in his refusal to teach him, that at last Eka cut off his arm and handed it to Bodhidharma saying, “Look! Here is the testimony of my sincerity. Please take me as your disciple.” So Bodhidharma said, “Alright, what do you want?” And Eka replied, “I have no peace of mind. Please pacify my mind.” And by “mind,” of course, he meant his soul, his self. So Bodhidharma said, “Bring out your mind here before me. I’ll pacify it.” But Eka said, “When I look for my mind, I can’t find it.” Bodhidharma said, “There! I have pacified your mind.” And at that moment Eka had this satori. In other words, he had the experience I’ve tried to describe to you.

Because Bodhidharma made him really struggle to catch hold of himself, to find that separate ego, that controlling center, which all of us tend to believe ourselves to be. But, you know, when you look for it you can’t find it. It’s like they say lunatics sometimes, sitting in an asylum, are doing this [tries to catch the thumb]. Yes, they sit (for hours, perhaps) in a padded cell doing that. But you can’t catch hold of it.

You know, perhaps one of the good ways of showing you what this means is through the application of Zen to Japanese fencing. You know, Japanese fencing—or kendō, which means “the way of the sword”—is done with gruesome swords like this. And the samurai (or Japanese feudal soldier) used to practice Zen to give them courage, and they applied it through the art of fencing. Now, if you go to study with a Japanese fencing master, you will not at first be given a sword and be told how to use it. You will be made a kind of janitor around the house, and you have to do all the little chores like sweeping the floors, putting away the bedding, washing up the dishes, and so on and so forth. And while you are doing that, the master will get hold of a practice sword. This, you see, is made of bamboo. It’s made of about six slips of bamboo loosely tied together, so that if you get hit with it, although it may give you a pretty hard crack, at least you don’t get killed. And while the poor boy who’s the apprentice is doing the household duty, the teacher struts around with one of these things, and unawares gives him a bang on the head. And the boy is expected to defend himself by any means at his disposal. If he’s got a saucepan in his hand, use the saucepan. If he’s picking up a cushion, use the cushion. And everywhere, always at unknown moments, the teacher sneaks up on him and bangs him on the head.

So after a while the poor fellow is going around, looking this way and looking that, expecting at any moment the teacher to hit him. And he begins, in his mind, to plan how he can be ready to meet the teacher’s assault. And as he goes along a passage, he’s expecting the teacher to come right round the corner at the end. And instead of that, just as he’s all ready to defend himself, doing! he gets hit on the head from behind. Now, when this has been going on for a little time, there are only two possibilities. The apprentice gets a nervous breakdown and quits, or he learns. And what does he learn?

He learns that the teacher will always outwit him; that he can never be prepared for an unexpected attack. And so he gives up trying to control the situation. He gives up trying to prepare. In other words, he just wanders around just like this. Oh, maybe it hits, maybe it doesn’t. He gives up caring whether he’s going to get hit or not. And at that moment the teacher gives him the practice sword and says, “Now you can begin to learn fencing.”

Because the importance of this is simply: let us say you’re faced with a group of attackers, and you don’t know where the next attack is coming from. If you are ready to go for this fellow, and this one is going to come at you, and you’re all set to go for him, you have to withdraw from here to go here. But if you’re in a middle position, and you’re not tensed in mind in any particular direction, you’re ready to go in all directions, wherever the attack may come from.

And so, in exactly the same way, the Zen way of teaching teaches one to see that you cannot be in complete control of your whole life situation. You cannot, in other words, fundamentally possess yourself. And so they set you with the problem of trying to find out who you are. Who is the knower behind all your experience? Who is the experiencer? Who is the ego, the I? And they make you search for it, and search for it, and search for it. Or you could put this in another way: they ask you—and this really amounts to the same thing—act with total sincerity. Show me (in the Zen way of putting it) who you were before your father and mother conceived you. In other words, show me your real, basic, original self. And this means: perform an absolutely, 100% genuine and sincere act.

Well, you know how it is when you try to be sincere, when you try to be natural: you know jolly well that you’re trying, and that everything you do is a fake. And so, in the same way, the Zen student finds out that he cannot act 100% genuinely with his whole being. And he gets frustrated again and again and again, and the teacher rejects every attempt he makes to show him his real self, until the moment comes when he suddenly realizes—not just as an idea, but something that he knows in his whole body, he knows with his very bones—that it can’t be done. You cannot intentionally be natural. And he gives up. And that moment of giving up is just the same as when the student of the sword gives up trying to prepare to defend himself. And in the moment when we let go of ourselves in that way, zhhupp, there comes upon us this experience of the void, of complete freedom—or, as we might say in psychological language: being free from blocking.

You know, blocking is when you are stalled by something. When somebody says something to you that fundamentally embarrasses you, or when an event happens in life which, as it were, knocks the wind out of your sails, you are blocked. And to be free from blocking, to be free from being stopped, being phased, is part of the satori experience. To be able to go straight ahead—as it were, going with the stream of life and not trying to resist the stream. Just as, for example, if you were actually swimming, and you got caught in a strong current: if you try to swim against it you’re perfectly sure to drown. But you have to learn in that situation to turn around and go with the stream, let it carry you. And then, in that moment, you and the stream become one. The whole force of the stream becomes one with your own body. And you learn after that how to use the force of the stream to edge to the side, and get out of it in that way. This, of course, is the philosophy of judo, of the “gentle way,” a philosophy of self defense in which Zen Buddhism has had a great influence.

So then, when the moment of letting go comes, when we see that every moment of life is now it—in other words, the object of life is no longer seen as something to grasp after in the future, every moment is it now. Every moment. Even the most trivial answers the question: what is life for? And so, you see, the experience at the basis of Zen and at the basis of other types of Oriental philosophy can be demonstrated by ordinary everyday life. That’s why, in Zen teaching, those old masters in China didn’t like to answer questions about philosophy with wordy explanations. They had quite a different way going about it.

I remember one case where a Confucian scholar came to a teacher and said, “Please explain to me your secret teaching.” And the teacher replied, “Well, there’s a saying in your own master Confucius which very well puts it. When Confucius said, ‘My disciples, do you think I’m holding anything back from you? Indeed, I am holding nothing back.’” Now, that was all he said. And so the Confucian scholar was a bit perturbed and said, “Well, what do you mean?” And the Zen teacher said, “Well, forget it. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” Well, a few days later, they were walking together in the mountains. And they happened to pass a bush of wild laurel. And the Zen teacher turned to the Confucian scholar and said, “Do you smell it?” The scholar said, “Yes.” “You see,” said the teacher, “I’m keeping nothing back from you!” And it’s said that at that moment the scholar was awakened.

This is the characteristic approach of Zen: to answer questions about abstract, vast matters of philosophy with absolutely concrete, momentary events. Because it is these concrete, momentary events that are the answer. If they are experienced with a mind that is no longer clinging to life and clinging to itself—as I said—the trivial, the ordinary, the momentary suddenly comes zhupp! to life. And this, you see, this thing that we are living now is the answer. And so Zen teachers have said very strange things when asked philosophical questions. One of them said, “The cypress tree in the yard.” Another said, “Three pounds of flax.” Another said, “It’s windy again this morning.” Sometimes they don’t say anything.

There’s a famous story of a Chinese general, I think he was, who came to one of the old masters and said to him, “What is the way?” And in answer, the master… [points at sky, then at glass]. The teacher said, “I don’t understand.” The master said, “Cloud in the sky, water in the jar.”"


Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī - The Soul of Rumi: A New Collection of Ecstatic Poems - What Was Told, That;
"What was said to the rose that made it open was said
to me here in my chest.

What was told the cypress that made it strong
and straight, what was

whispered the jasmine so it is what it is, whatever made
sugarcane sweet, whatever

was said to the inhabitants of the town of Chigil in
Turkestan that makes them

so handsome, whatever lets the pomegranate flower blush
like a human face, that is

being said to me now. I blush. Whatever put eloquence in
language, that’s happening here.

The great warehouse doors open; I fill with gratitude,
chewing a piece of sugarcane,

in love with the one to whom every that belongs!"


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Invisiblewabbey
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Re: Greatest Spiritual Quotes? [Re: spinvis] * 1
    #27947616 - 09/12/22 10:50 PM (1 year, 4 months ago)

"The soul loves to meditate, for in contact with the Spirit lies its greatest joy. If, then you experience mental resistance during meditation, remember that reluctance to meditate comes from the ego; it doesn't belong to the soul."
- Sri Paramahansa Yogananda:psychsplit::heartpump::sunny:


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Invisibleconnectedcosmos
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Re: Greatest Spiritual Quotes? [Re: wabbey] * 1
    #27953992 - 09/17/22 05:05 AM (1 year, 4 months ago)

Bring a banyan fruit.'

'Here it is, sir.'
'Cut it up.'
'I've cut it up, sir.'
'What do you see here?'
'These quite tiny seeds, sir.'
'Now, take one of them and cut it up.'
'I've cut it up, sir.'
'What do you see there?'
'Nothing, sir.'
Then he told him: 'This finest essence here, son, that you can't even see-look how on account of that finest essence this huge banyan tree stands here.

'Believe, my son: the finest essence here - that constitutes the self of this whole world; that is the truth; that is the self (ātman). And that's how you are, Śvetaketu.' - Chandogya Upanishad


--------------------


54. The true nature of things is to be known personally , through the eyes of clear illumination and not through a sage : what the moon exactly is , is to be known with one's own eyes ; can another make him know it?


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Invisiblespinvis
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Registered: 09/15/20
Posts: 586
Re: Greatest Spiritual Quotes? [Re: connectedcosmos]
    #27960111 - 09/21/22 04:33 AM (1 year, 4 months ago)

Lao Tzu;
"Kindness in words creates confidence.
Kindness in thinking creates profoundness.
Kindness in giving creates love."


The Ten Grave Precepts. The first lines are from Soto Zen liturgy; the second from Diane Rizzetto’s book; and the third lines are Dogen’s comments;
"1. I vow not to kill.
1. I take up the way of supporting life.
2. By not killing life the Buddha seed tree grows. Transmit the life of the Buddha and do not kill.

2. I vow not to take what is not given.
1. I take up the way of taking only what is freely given and giving freely of all that I can.
2. The self and objects are such as they are, two yet one. The gate of liberation stands open.

3. I vow not to misuse sexuality.
1. I take up the way of engaging in sexual intimacy respectfully and with an open heart.
2. Let the three wheels of self, object and action be pure. With nothing to desire, one goes along with the Buddhas.

4. I vow to refrain from false speech.
1. I take up the way of speaking truthfully.
2. The Dharma Wheel turns from the beginning. There is no surplus or lack. The sweet dew saturates all and harvests the truth.

5. I vow to refrain from intoxicants.
1. I take up the way of cultivating a clear mind.
2. Originally pure, don’t defile. This is the Great Awareness.

6. I vow not to slander.
1. I take up the way of speaking of others with openness and possibility.
2. In the Buddhadharma, go together, appreciate together, realize together, and actualize together. Do not permit fault finding. Do not permit haphazard talk. Do not corrupt the Way.

7. I vow not to praise self at the expense of others.
1. I take up the way of meeting others on equal ground.
2. Buddhas and ancestors realize the vast sky and the great earth. When they manifest the noble body, there is neither inside nor outside in emptiness. When they manifest the Dharma body there is not even a bit of earth on the ground.

8. I vow not to be avaricious.
1. I vow not to spare the Dharma assets.
2. One phrase, one verse, that is the ten thousand things and the one hundred grasses. One Dharma, one realization is all Buddhas and ancestors. Therefore from the beginning there’s been no stinginess at all.

9. I vow not to harbor ill will.
1. I take up the way of letting go of anger.
2. Not negative, not positive, neither real nor unreal. There is an ocean of illuminated and bright clouds.

10. I vow not to disparage the Three Treasures.
1. I vow not to defame the Three Treasures.
2. To expound the Dharma with this body is foremost. The virtue returns to the ocean of reality. It is unfathomable. We just accept it with respect and gratitude."


Thich Nhat Hanh;
"The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our attention. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers."


Laozi;
"Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habit."


Exodus 20:1-17;
"And God said all these words,

“I AM LORD JEHOVAH your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt from the house of bondage.

You shall not have other gods outside of me.

You shall not make for you any image or any form that is in Heaven from above or what is in the earth from beneath or what is in the water beneath the Earth: You shall not bow to them and you shall not serve them because I AM LORD JEHOVAH your God, a jealous God; he pays the love debts of fathers for the children unto three and unto four generations for those hating me; And I produce grace to thousands of generations of My friends and those keeping my commands.

You shall not swear in the Name of LORD JEHOVAH your God with a lie because LORD JEHOVAH does not declare him innocent who swears in his Name with a lie.

Remember the day of the Sabbath for its holiness. Six days you shall serve and you shall do all your work: And the seventh day is the Sabbath to LORD JEHOVAH your God; you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your Servant or your Maidservant or your beast or your settler who is in your town: Because for six days LORD JEHOVAH made Heaven and Earth and the seas and everything that is in them, and he was refreshed in the seventh day; because of this, LORD JEHOVAH blessed the seventh day and hallowed it.

Honor your father and your mother that your days will increase in the land that LORD JEHOVAH your God gives to you.

You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not testify a false testimony against your neighbor.

You shall not lust for the house of your neighbor; you shall not lust for the wife of your neighbor or his Servant or his Maid Servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbor’s."


Alan Watts - on Eastern Wisdom and Modern Life - Queries and Sources;
"It is like an eye which can see but does not itself see."


Edited by spinvis (10/19/22 06:29 AM)


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Invisiblespinvis
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Re: Greatest Spiritual Quotes? [Re: spinvis]
    #27960114 - 09/21/22 04:37 AM (1 year, 4 months ago)

Swami Muktananda;
"Through intense deep meditation you reach a state that is beyond thought, beyond change, beyond imagination, beyond differences and duality. Once you can stay in that state for a while and come out of it without losing any of it, then the inner divine love will begin to pour through you. You will not see people as different, separate individuals. You will see your own Self in everyone around you. Then the flow of love from within you will be constant and unbroken."


Alan Watts - on Eastern Wisdom and Modern Life - On Death;
"I have often puzzled and puzzled about what it must be like to go to sleep and never wake up. To be simply not there forever and ever. After all, one has some intimation of this by the interval that  separates going to sleep from waking. When we don't have any dreams, but go to sleep, and then suddenly, we're there again. And in the interim, there was nothing. And if there was never any end to that interval, if the waking up didn't happen, that's such a curious thought. And yet, you know, I believe that although that's rather gloomy kind of consideration, I found that's one of the most creative thoughts I ever thought in my life. And I keep going back to it.

It's in line with a lot of the very fundamental questions that children ask when they say, "Mommy, who would I have been if you're married someone else?" These are the kinds of questions that make us puzzle profoundly about our existence. And one of the reasons why, I think, thinking about not being, about total non-existence, is so creative, is that in comparison with that thought, the fact that we are seems kind of queer. Incredibly odd.

But in the Western world, I suppose we have two dominant ideas about what happens to us when we die. There's the old fashioned idea that after we die we go to another world. I say old fashioned, not to say it's out of date. We don't know what the answer to this is. But that's the traditional answer of the Western world. When you die you go to another life. Maybe heaven, maybe purgatory, maybe hell, who knows? I think nowadays, though, the more general idea, the more plausible idea to many people is that when we die we just cease to be. That's all there is to it. But we're inclined, I think, to have in our minds a picture of this, which indeed, is depressing of being shut up in the dark for always, and always, and always. To be kind of buried alive in a blackness where we are blind, deaf, and dumb but somehow still conscious.

But in the Eastern world, there are different ideas of this. The major Eastern idea is what is generally known as reincarnation. Of going through life, after life, after life in an endless series. A process that is represented in this Japanese print of the Wheel of Life, the Buddhist Wheel of Life. And it shows the wheel of stages of existence through which beings pass, clutched by the great demon of impermanence. This is rather an unusual representation of the Wheel of Life. Perhaps some of you have seen these before. They usually have six divisions in the central part of the wheel here. And this one happens to have five, and it's the Chinese-Japanese version of the Buddhist Wheel of Life. Whereas, I think, prints in books-- I know there was one some years ago in "Life" magazine-- usually show the Tibetan version. But what we have here, and I think what I'll do, is I'll explain to begin with the popular interpretation of it. And then go on to see what more philosophical Buddhists think of it in a deeper way.

These then are the five, or sometimes six realms of existence through which, as I said, beings pass through their various lives. We could start here, for example. This is the human world. And then next to this is the world of the Devas, which we would translate into English as angel. Then this is the world of the animals. This is the world that is sometimes called the hells. Only that's not quite a correct term for it. It should be called the world of the purgatories, because in this scheme of the universe, there is no everlasting state. There's no everlasting heaven and there's no everlasting hell. The Demon of Impermanece clutches the whole thing, and they all terminate. Next to the hells, there is the realm of what are called pretas. They are frustrated spirits, sometimes shown with very large stomachs and very tiny mouths. Enormous appetite, but very small means of satisfying it. And the idea is, you see, that in the course of his development, the individual goes through life after life. If he does well, he ascends towards the heavens. If he does ill, he descends to the hells. Or he may fall from the human state to the animal state. Or fall from the human state to the state of the ghosts.

But the point that has to be remembered in the Buddhist idea of transmigration or reincarnation, is that you can never stop anywhere. You may ascend to heaven, but what goes up must eventually come down. You may descend to hell, but what goes down must eventually come up. And so one goes on and on moving through these various world's until in Buddhist ideas you become sufficiently awakened to become a Buddha, one who is released from the wheel. And who does not fall anymore into the sequence of rebirth but enters the eternal state of nirvana.

Now if you will look closer again, you will see that there are a number of figures around the outside of the wheel. And these represent what is called the 12-fold chain of dependent origination. That is to say, they are a series of links which form what might be called the sequence of life. They are, as it were, a schematic diagram of the force or the process that keeps this wheel rotating. And the chain starts with a demon down at the bottom here who represents ignorance, or perhaps unconsciousness, the state of not knowing. Then next in order, you will see a potter's wheel. And this represents potentialities of life. Next comes a monkey who represents consciousness. A man in a boat. For some reason this represents the combination of name and form. Words bringing out shapes. Words identifying shapes and things in the world. Here comes sense consciousness, the five senses. A man's body with the senses exposed. And here comes contact, a pair of lovers. After this, there comes perception. I'm not quite sure what the symbol in this wheel is. It seems to show a man with a sword behind a screen and two women playing in front of the screen. The usual symbol you'll find here for perception is a man with an arrow in his eye showing the pain involved in the perception of the world. The next in the link is desire. It shows a woman with twins. The next one here is called grasping, and that shows a man with a basket into which he is trying to get the fruits of life. And then as we come over around the wheel, we get a figure, which means growth. I think this is one of the gods of prosperity. But it means growth, the fullness of life. Here is birth, a woman in parturition. Here is old age. And then, although the final stage of the links of dependent origination as they are usually drawn, shows this one as the last, and calls it old age and death. In this particular wheel, they've been spread out, so that you get old age, sickness, death, grief, compassion, suffering and, again back into ignorance. Here's another figure of ignorance, the camel being led by a blind man.

Now what I want you to notice particularly about this is that the chain represents what is called in Sanskrit the process of karma. Karma is sometimes understood, and maybe your ordinary dictionaries give it to you, as the law of cause and effect. But actually, it comes from the root Kri- which in Sanskrit means to act or to do. And the basic idea of karma is that it is action which always involves the necessity for other action. As the Buddha once expressed it, this arises, that becomes. Now this isn't quite the same thing as cause and effect. It is rather the idea of linkage. For example, when I pick up this brush, I lift it by one end, and the other end comes up. Now we could say, this is cause and effect, although this would be a rather cumbersome way of thinking about it. I could say, for example, that the coming up of the brush at this end is the effect of the cause my lifting it at this end. But we don't ordinarily think so complicatedly about it. We think in a simpler fashion, namely, that to pick up this end is also to lift up that end, because it's all one.

So in the same way, Buddhists and Hindus who follow the idea of karma, believe that life and death  involve each other in the same way that the two ends of the brush lifting up one involves lifting up the other. So in this way, living involves dying. We wouldn't say that the cause of death is birth. But birth and death go together and they are inseparable. And so if we will look again for a moment at the wheel, we can see that there are these important phases of it all together. Here it ends with the sequence of pictures representing death and suffering and its attendant grief. Ending in the blind man leading the camel, and the demon, which together, represent ignorance or unconsciousness. But once again here, we have the potentiality of life, and then the monkey representing consciousness. All these things are looked upon as linked and therefore inseparable. And thus, you see, we don't look upon ignorance as the first step or the first link in the chain from a chronological point of view. We only start numbering the steps of the change here, because one has to begin somewhere when one's talking.

And so the basic idea of this link is interrelatedness, interlockness, so that death and life, as I said, imply each other. So that you might, speaking from the standpoint of Indian philosophy of Hinduism, of Buddhism, you might pick an argument with Hamlet and say, to be or not to be is not the question.
These are not alternatives. They are things that go together just like up and down, back and front, solid and space.

Now there's another aspect to karma, which needs to be considered here. And that is that karma also involves the idea of the continuity of pattern. You know, strictly speaking, Buddhists don't believe that there is any soul entity which passes from one life to another. There is no sort of fixed eye, or fixed ego which once was an animal, and then became a man, and then became an angel, and then eventually became a Buddha or something like that. The idea of karma as the linking factor between the various lives is what we might call continuity of pattern.

For example, consider an army regiment. A certain regiment goes on year, after year, after year. Old European regiments, for example, have existed for hundreds of years. And yet, the personnel of those regiments, and even the barracks in which they are stationed, are entirely changed.

In the same way a university. Harvard University has existed for a long time. Oxford for a lot longer. And yet, there is not a single member of the faculty, not a single student, who was there when it first began. And yet, you see, the university goes on. Because what goes on is a pattern, a form of life.

In the same way, the individual body of man, every seven years, I think, all the molecules composing our physical structure are entirely changed. And yet, something identifiable as the pattern, which we associate with Mr. or Mrs. So-and-So, is still there.

Another fascinating illustration of continuity of pattern, in a sense, is wave motion. It's perhaps easiest to illustrate with something like a barber's pole. When you twirl it, now as you twirl it, there's an illusion of something moving upwards from the bottom to the top of the pole. It seems that the strips go along. Now actually, they don't go along. They just go round. And in the same way, also, when waves move across water, there's no water moving across, there is the wave pattern moving across. The water is just going up and down as you can tell when you see, say, a dead leaf floating on the water's surface, and it isn't moved along by the waves.

So this idea of continuity of pattern is the solution which Indian philosophy offers on the matter of the problem of death. The individual as it were entity is constantly changing. He does not go on, but the pattern or the karma, the pattern of action, goes on. And it's all embraced by that figure you saw of the great Demon of Impermanence.

Could we look at that demon once again? I want to say something more about him. From our Western ideas, this fellow looks pretty evil. And we might associate him with the devil in the Hebrew or Christian sense of a principle of evil. In Buddhism, demons are not evil. They are really benevolence. They have a frightening aspect, but underneath this there is a deeper meaning. This demon represents change or impermanence. But deep inside, underlying this, is that change is a liberating factor. Death is a liberating factor. Did it not exist, life would not exist either. And, therefore, the wise man is not afraid of the demon. He goes as it were straightforward to him to embrace him, and at that moment, the demon is transformed.

So in the same way in a deeper sense, Buddhists do not think of these various realms of the wheel as literal worlds where there are angels, and demons, and starved ghosts. But they represent the various phases of consciousness. Equanimity, a general kind of medium consciousness, quiet consciousness as the human state. The angel state is supreme happiness. The animal state is an animality. Here is misery in its extreme, and here is frustration in its extreme. But the fundamental idea of the whole wheel that we have to remember, the idea of karma, is the interlocking, the interdependence, of being and not being, of death and life. And the fact that the demon of change is really a disguise of the very source of life. The death, without which, life is impossible. The change, without which, life is totally boring.

Now, of course, when any idea like that is explained, the first thing that we ask is; is it true? Is there a process of rebirth? Do our patterns go on and on and have influence to an illimitable future? But as this idea is held by deeply thoughtful Hindus and Buddhists, it isn't a belief in something which we can't prove. It's really quite a self-evident notion. Think of it in this way. Supposing I make two statements. Statement one-- after I die, I shall be reborn again as a baby, but I shall forget my former life. Statement two-- after I die, a baby will be born. Now I believe that those two statements are saying exactly the same thing. And we know that the second one is true. Babies are always being born. Conscious beings of all kinds are constantly coming into existence after others die.

But why would I think that the two statements are really the same statement? Because after all, if you die and your memory comes to an end, and you forget who you were, being reborn again is exactly the equivalent of somebody else being born. Because we have no consciousness of our continuity unless we have memory. If the memory goes, then we might just as well be somebody else. But it seems to me that the fascinating thing about this is that, although a particular set of memories vanish, death is not the end of consciousness.

In other words, we are deluded by a kind of fantasy. If we think of death as endless darkness, endless nothingness, is not only inconceivable, but it's logically absolutely meaningless. Because we aren't able  to have any idea, much less sensation, of nothing unless it can be compared with the sensation of something. These two things go together. And, therefore, I think what is meant is that the vacuum created by the disappearance of a being, by the disappearance of his memory system is simply filled by another being who is I just as you feel you're I.

The funny thing about being I, about feeling that one is sort of a center of the universe, is that you can only experience this I sensation in the singular. You can't experience being two or three I's all at the same time. Now then, it seems to me that this idea has three very important consequences. One is that the disappearance of our memory in death is not really something to be regretted. Of course, everybody wishes to hold forever to the memories and to the people and the situations that he particularly loves. But surely, if we think this through, is that what we actually want? Do we really want to have those we  love, however greatly we love them, always, and always, and always, and always? Isn't it inconceivable that even in a very distant future, we wouldn't get tired of it? And this, indeed, is the secret to the thing. This is why the Demon of Impermanence is benevolent. Because it is forgetting about things that renews their wonder.

Just think, when you opened your eyes on the world for the first time as a child, how brilliant colors were. What a jewel the sun was. What marvels the stars. How incredibly alive the trees were. That's all because they were new to your eyes. Or in the same way, you know how it is, you've been reading a mystery story. And you're looking around the house and want something to read, and you pick up an old mystery story. If you read it years and years ago, and you've forgotten all about the plot, it still excites you. But if you remember the plot, it doesn't excite you. And so by the dispensation of forgetting, the world is constantly renewed. And we are able to see it again and again, and to love again and again, to have people to whom we are deeply attached and deeply fond, always with renewed intensity. And without the contrast of having seen them before, before, before for always, and always, and always.

Another consequence of this is a very curious realization to me. Remember that question, who would I be if my mother had married someone else? If I were you, we often said, one might so easily have been you. I might so easily have been born in China and India. Why do I feel that the world is centered in this place as distinct from some other place? You jolly well know the world is centered where you are. And this gives one a very strange feeling of the idea that other people jolly well exist in the same sense you do. Everybody's name is I. That's what you call yourself. So there will always be I's in the world. Every I is, in a way, the same I. We all might be anyone else, and there is no escape. It goes on, and on, and on, and on. So long as there is consciousness anywhere, there is I. You then, in a way, look out through all I's, and that perhaps is the secret of the great virtue of compassion."


Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī - The Essential Rumi - The Guest House;
"This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

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."


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Invisiblespinvis
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Registered: 09/15/20
Posts: 586
Re: Greatest Spiritual Quotes? [Re: spinvis]
    #27960122 - 09/21/22 04:46 AM (1 year, 4 months ago)

Kabir - The Bijak of Kabir;
“Many have died; you also will die. The drum of death is being beaten. The world has fallen in love with a dream. Only sayings of the wise will remain.”


Jiddu Krishnamurti - On his Spiritual Awakening;
"Ever since I left Australia I have been thinking and deliberating about the message which the Master K.H. gave me while I was there. I naturally wanted to achieve those orders as soon as I could, and I was to a certain extent uncertain as to the best method of attaining the ideals which were put before me. I do not think a day passed without spending some thought over it, but I am ashamed to say all this was done most casually and rather carelessly. But at the back of my mind the message of the Master ever dwelt.

Well, since August 3rd, I meditated regularly for about thirty minutes every morning. I could, to my astonishment, concentrate with considerable ease, and within a few days I began to see clearly where I had failed and where I was failing. Immediately I set about, consciously, to annihilate the wrong accumulations of the past years. With the same deliberation I set about to find out ways and means to achieve my aim.

During that period of less than three weeks, I connected to keep in mind the image of the Lord Maitreya throughout the entire day, and I found no difficulty in doing this. I found that I was getting calmer and more serene. My whole outlook on life was changed.

Then, on the 17th August, I felt acute pain at the nape of my neck and I had to cut down my meditation to fifteen minutes. The pain instead of getting better as I had hoped grew worse. The climax was reached on the 19th. I could not think, nor was I able to do anything, and I was forced by friends here to retire to bed. Then I became almost unconscious, though I was well aware of what was happening around me. I came to myself at about noon each day. On the first day while I was in that state and more conscious of the things around me, I had the first most extraordinary experience. There was a man mending the road; that man was myself; the pickaxe he held was myself; they very stone which he was breaking up was a part of me; the tender blade of grass was my very being, and the tree beside the man was myself. I almost could feel and think like the roadmender, and I could feel the wind passing through the tree, and the little ant on the blade of grass I could feel. The birds, the dust, and the very noise were a part of me. Just then there was a car passing by at some distance; I was the driver, the engine, and the tyres; as the car went further away from me, I was going away from myself. I was in everything, or rather everything was in me, inanimate and animate, the mountain, the worm, and all breathing things. All day long I remained in this happy condition. I could not eat anything, and again at about six I began to lose my physical body, and naturally the physical elemental did what it liked; I was semi-conscious.

I have seen the Light. I have touched compassion which heals all sorrow and suffering; it is not for myself, but for the world. I have stood on the mountain top and gazed at the mighty Beings. Never can I be in utter darkness; I have seen the glorious and healing Light. The fountain of Truth has been revealed to me and the darkness has been dispersed. Love in all its glory has intoxicated my heart; my heart can never be closed. I have drunk at the fountain of Joy and eternal Beauty. I am God-intoxicated."


Beata Grant - Daughters of Emptiness - Song Dynasty (960-1279) - Benming, also known as Mingshi;
"Don’t you know that afflictions are nothing more than wisdom,
But to cling to your afflictions is nothing more than foolishness?
As they rise and then melt away again, you must remember this:
The sparrow hawk flies through Silla without anyone noticing!

Don’t you know that afflictions are nothing more than wisdom
And that the purest of blossoms emerges from the mire?
If someone were to come and ask me what I do:
After eating my gruel and rice, I wash my bowl.
Don’t worry about a thing!
Don’t worry about a thing!
You may play all day like a silly child in the sand by the sea,
But you must always realize the truth of your original face!
When you suffer the blows delivered by the patriarchs’ staff,
If you can’t say anything, you will perish by the staff,
If you can say something, you will perish by the staff.
In the end, what will you do
If you are forbidden to travel by night but must arrive by dawn?"


Red Pine - The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma - Breakthrough Sermon;
"The mind is the root from which all things grow. If you can understand the mind, everything else is included. It's like a tree. All of its fruit and flowers, its branches and leaves, depend on its root. If you nourish its root, a tree multiplies. If you cut its root, it dies. Those who understand the mind reach enlightenment with minimal effort. Those who don't understand the mind practice in vain. Everything good and bad comes from your own mind. To find something beyond the mind is impossible."


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Invisiblespinvis
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Registered: 09/15/20
Posts: 586
Re: Greatest Spiritual Quotes? [Re: spinvis]
    #27962633 - 09/22/22 02:50 PM (1 year, 4 months ago)

Gabor Maté - The Wisdom Of Trauma;
"When I see human faces, I see beauty, I see tremendous suffering and enormous potential for transcendence."


J. Krishnamurti - San Diego 1974 - Conversation 8 - Does pleasure bring happiness?;
"K: You will see it in a minute, sir, you will see what an extraordinary thing takes place. I see pleasure, enjoyment, joy and happiness, see pleasure as not related to any of that, the other two, joy and enjoyment. So thought gives direction and sustains pleasure. Right? Now I ask myself... the mind asks can there be non-interference of thought, non-interference of thought in pleasure? I enjoy. Why should thought come into it at all?

A: There's no reason at all.

K: But it does.

A: It does, it does.

K: Therefore the question arises how is the mind, the brain to stop thought entering into that enjoyment? You follow?

A: Yes.

K: Not to interfere. Therefore they said, the ancients, and the religious, control thought. You follow? Don't let it creep in. Therefore control it.

A: The minute it raises its ugly head, whack it off. It's like a hydra.

K: It keeps on growing. Now, is it possible to enjoy, to take a delight in that lovely scene, and no thought creep in? Is this possible? I'll show you, it is possible, completely possible if you are attentive at that moment, completely attentive. You follow sir?

A: Which has nothing to do with screwing oneself up with muscular effort to focus in there.

K: Right. Just be wholly there. When you see the sunset see it completely. When you see a beautiful line of a car, see it. And don't let this thought begin. That means at that moment be supremely attentive, completely, with your mind, with your body, with your nerves, with your eyes, ears, everything attentive. Then thought doesn't come into it at all. So pleasure is related to thought and thought in itself brings about fragmentation, pleasure and not pleasure. Therefore I haven't pleasure, I must pursue pleasure.

A: It makes a judgement.

K: Judgement.

A: A judgement.

K: Judgement. And the feeling of frustration, anger, violence - you follow, all that come into... when there is the denial of pleasure, which is what the religious people have done. They are very violent people. They have said no pleasure.

A: The irony of this is overwhelming. In classical thought you have that marvellous monument, the works of St. Thomas Aquinas who never tired of saying in his examination of thought, and the recognition of the judgement that one must distinguish in order to unite. His motive was very different from what seems to have been read. Because we manage to distinguish, but we never see the thing whole and get to the uniting, so the uniting just vanishes... it's terrible.

K: That's the whole point, sir. So unless I... unless the mind understands the nature of thinking, really very, very, very deeply, mere control means nothing. Personally I have never controlled a thing. This may sound rather absurd. But it is a fact.

A: Marvellous.

K: Never. But I've watched it. The watching is its own discipline and its own action. Discipline in the sense, not conformity, not suppression, not adjusting yourself to a pattern but the sense of correctness, the sense of excellence. When you see something why should you control? Why should you control when you see a poisonous bottle on the shelf? You don't control. You say, that's quite right, you don't drink. You don't touch it. It's only when I don't read the sign properly, when I see it and when I think it is a sweet then I take it. But if I read the label, if I know what it is I won't touch it. There's no control.

A: Of course not. It's self-evident. I'm thinking of that wonderful story in the Gospel about Peter who in the storm gets out to walk on the water because he sees his lord coming on the water and he's invited to walk on the water. And he actually makes it a few steps and then it says he loses faith. But it seems to me that one could see that in terms of what you've been saying, at the point where thought took over he started going down. That was the time when he started going down. But he was actually walking. The reason that I am referring to that is because I sense in what you are saying that there is something that supports, there is a support that's not a support that's fragmented from something else but there is an abiding something which must be sustaining the person.

K: I wouldn't put it that way, sir. That is, that leaves a door open, that opens a door to the idea in you there is God.

A: Yes, yes I see the trap.

K: In you there is the higher self, in you there is the Atman, the permanent.

A: Maybe we shouldn't say anything about that.

K: That's it. No, but we can say this though: to see - look what we have done this morning - to see appetite, desire, to see the implication, the structure of pleasure, and there is no relation to enjoyment, and to joy, to see all that, to see it, not verbally but actually, through observation, through attention, through care, through very careful seeing - that brings an extraordinary quality of intelligence. After all intelligence is sensitivity. To be utterly sensitive in seeing it - if you call that intelligence, the higher self, or whatever, it has no meaning. You follow?

A: It's as though you are saying at that instant it's released.

K: Yes. That intelligence comes in observation.

A: Yes.

K: And that intelligence is operating all the time if you allow it - not if you allow it. If you are seeing. I mean, I see, I have seen all my life, people who have controlled, people who have denied, people who have negated, and who have sacrificed, who have controlled, suppressed, furiously, disciplined themselves, tortured themselves. And I say, for what? For God? For truth? A mind that has been tortured, crooked, brutalised, can such a mind see truth? Certainly not. You need a completely healthy mind, a mind that is whole, a mind that is holy in itself. Otherwise go and see something holy, unless the mind is sacred, you cannot see what is sacred. So, I say, sorry, I won't touch any of that. It has no meaning. So, I don't know how this happened that I never for a second control myself. I don't know what it means."


1 Kings 19:11-13;
"And behold, LORD JEHOVAH made a great and mighty wind ripping apart the mountains and breaking the rocks before LORD JEHOVAH. LORD JEHOVAH was not in the wind, and after the wind, an earthquake. LORD JEHOVAH was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire. LORD JEHOVAH was not in the fire. And after the fire, a voice that was speaking softly. And when Elyah heard, he wrapped up with his cloak around his face and went out and stood himself at the mouth of the cave, and there the voice was upon him and said to him: “What are you doing here Elyah?”"


Gabor Maté - The Wisdom Of Trauma;
"A Greek playwright wrote that the Gods created us human beings so that we have to suffer into truth. Our job as human beings is to learn from our suffering and to grow from it. We don't have to keep perpetuating pain for ourselves and inflicting suffering onto others. In working with so many other people, I've learned that working through trauma can teach us so much wisdom and can reveal the beauty of our existence, that because of trauma, you had lost sight of."


Thích Nhất Hạnh - Please Call Me by My True Names;
"Don’t say that I will depart tomorrow —
even today I am still arriving.

Look deeply: every second I am arriving
to be a bud on a Spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,
to fear and to hope.

The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death
of all that is alive.

I am the mayfly metamorphosing
on the surface of the river.
And I am the bird
that swoops down to swallow the mayfly.

I am the frog swimming happily
in the clear water of a pond.
And I am the grass-snake
that silently feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,
my legs as thin as bamboo sticks.
And I am the arms merchant,
selling deadly weapons to Uganda.

I am the twelve-year-old girl,
refugee on a small boat,
who throws herself into the ocean
after being raped by a sea pirate.
And I am the pirate,
my heart not yet capable
of seeing and loving.

I am a member of the politburo,
with plenty of power in my hands.
And I am the man who has to pay
his “debt of blood” to my people
dying slowly in a forced-labor camp.

My joy is like Spring, so warm
it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth.
My pain is like a river of tears,
so vast it fills the four oceans.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and my laughter at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can wake up,
and so the door of my heart
can be left open,
the door of compassion."


Mary Lutyens - Krishnamurti, The Years of Awakening - Pages 249-250;
“I have been asked what I mean by ‘the Beloved’. I will give a meaning, an explanation, which you will interpret as you please. To me it is all – it is Sri Krishna, it is the Master K.H., it is the Lord Maitreya, it is the Buddha, and yet it is beyond all these forms. What does it matter what name you give? …… So you will see my point of view when I talk about my Beloved. It is an unfortunate thing that I have to explain, but I must. I want it to be as vague as possible, and I hope I have made it so. My Beloved is the open skies, the flower, every human being. ... It is no good asking me who is the Beloved. Of what use is explanation? For you will not understand the Beloved until you are able to see Him in every animal, in every blade of grass, in every person that is suffering, in every individual.”


Gabor Maté - The Wisdom Of Trauma;
"I was a driven, workaholic doctor. Now why was a driven workaholic doctor? Because the message I got as an infant is that the world didn't want me. Now how do you deal with not being wanted? You make yourself needed. So if you're traumatized and if you don't think you're lovable, my god, go to medical school. Now they're going to want you all the time. When they're dying, when they're being born, every moment in between, and that's highly addictive, because you get the validation all the time."


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