Awakening, Self Mastery

Quote: This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Author: William Shakespeare from Hamlet
Source: Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Keywords: authenticity honesty self-awareness self-confidence loyalty friendship

The true value of the human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which one has attained liberation from the self - Albert Einstein

"We understand why children are afraid of darkness, but why are men afraid of light?" -- Plato

It is our less conscious thoughts and our less conscious actions which mould our lives and the lives of those who spring from us - Samuel Butler

No man is free who cannot command himself - Pythagoras

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. Buddha

Sometimes questions are more important than answers. Nancy Willard

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how. Friedrich Nietzsche

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest. Confucius

There is a wisdom of the head, and... a wisdom of the heart. Charles Dickens

By grasping the Tao that was of old, you can master the present era of private property. Lao Tzu

All the fish needs to do is get lost in the water.
All man needs to do is get lost in the Tao. - Chuang Tzu

All men desire to free themselves solely from death; they do not know how to free themselves from life. Lao Tzu

Those who really seek the path to enlightenment dictate terms to their mind. They then proceed with strong determination. Buddha.

To be awake is to walk the border between control and abandon. - Carlos Castenada

The first rule is to keep an untoubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are. - Marcus Aurelius

The only difference between a wise man and a fool is that the wise man know's he's playing - Fritz Perls

Stop thinking that meditation is anything special. Stop thinking altogether. Surya Singer

Only the truly intelligent understand this principle of the identity of all things. They do not view things as aprrehended by themselves, subjectively, but transfer themselves into the position of the things viewed. - Chuang Tzu

I simply believe that some part of the human Self...is not subject to the laws of time and space - Carl Jung

The unexamined life is not worth living.

Plato

If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us. Herman Hesse

Thoughts Create Reality

Be master OF mind rather than mastered BY mind - Zen Saying

Keep your hand firmly upon the helm of thought.
In the bark of your soul reclines the commanding Master;
He does but sleep; wake Him.
Self -control is strength;
Right thought is Mastery;
Calmness is power.

James Allen

"The all is mind: The universe is mental." Hermes - Thoth

"All is Ati" -Yogacara

We need to cultivate our mind like a soil. We need fertile soil for seeds to spring. We need air in the soil. Likewise our minds need regular training and airing.

'Our minds need to be air conditioned' Ammachi

"The river has no shape, but it takes on the boundaries which it carves out for itself,
so is the mind boundless, until it creates a prison for its own thoughts."

Dr. Wayne Dyer writes that "all of our behavior results from the
thoughts that preceded it...so the thing to work on is not your
behavior but the thing that caused your behavior, your
thoughts."

All that we are is a result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become. The Buddha

I believe that if you think abaout disaster, you will get it. Brood about death and you hasten your demise. Think positively and masterfully with confidence and faith, and life becomes more secure, more fraught with action, richer in achievement and experience. -Eddie Rickenbacker

Think you can, think you can't, either way you'll be right. Henry Ford

Our best friends and our worst enemies are our thoughts. A thought can do us as more good that a doctor or banker ir a faithful friend. It can also do us more harm than a brick. Dr Frank Crane.

A man's life is what his thoughts make it. - Marcus Aurelius

A man is literally what he thinks.- James Lane Allen

A man is what he thinks all day long. - Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Our destiny cahnges with our thoughts; we shall become what we wish to become, do what we wish to do, when our habitual thoughts correspond with our desires.- Orison Swett Marden

If you think it's going to rain, it will. Clint Eastwood.

Quotes by Kahlil Gibran:

'If some fool tells you the soul perishes like the body and that which dies never returns, tell him the flower perishes but the seed remains and lies before us as the secret of life everlasting.'

'Every beauty and greatness in this world is created by a single thought or emotion inside a man. Everything we see today, made by past generations, was before its appearance, a thougth in the mind of a man or an impule in the heart of a woman.'

'We choose our joys and our sorrows long before we experience them.'

'You may chain my hands and shackle my feet; you may even throw me in a dark prison, but you shall not enslave my thinking because it is free.'

'Man struggles to find life outside himself, unaware that the life he is seeking is within him.'

'I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.'

 

NO MIND, NO THOUGHTS

Stop thinking that meditation is anything special. Stop thinking altogether. Surya Singer

 

The power of the warrior mind is its ability to act from a state of "No Mind", with technique arising effortlessly out of emptiness. As a mirror reflects objects without clinging to the images, the "Warrior Mind" is free to flow from one object to the next without impediment. From this state arises instinctive wisdom, the power that allows ordinary people to perform extraordinary feats.

 

Life is Like a mirror

Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it. - Ernest Holmes

The world is like a mirror; frown at it, and it frowns at you. Smile at it and it smiles to.- Herbert Samuels.

The world is a great mirror. It reflects back to you what you are. If you are loving, if you are friendly, if you are helpful, the world will prove loving and friendly to you, The world is what you are. - Thomas Dreier

'The mind is like a mirror through which you can see infinity. But if you put the blackness of hatred over it, you will see nothing.' Yogi Bhajan

The Purpose of Life - Sri Sri Ravi Shanka

Our first and foremost commitment is to do service in the world. If there is fear in your life, it is because of a lack of commitment. If there is confusion in your life, it is because of lack of commitment. The very thought, 'I am here in this world to do service', dissolves the "I" and when the "I" dissolves, worries dissolve. Service is not something you do out of convenience or for pleasure. The ultimate purpose of life is to be of service. An uncommitted mind is miserable. A committed mind may experience rough weather but will reap the fruits of its toil. When you make service your sole purpose in life, it eliminates fear and brings focus and purposefulness in your mind, action and long term joy -- and maybe short term problems!

Sri Sri Ravi Shanka

Emptiness - Selflessness

‘You can’t realise love or yourself until you are still enough to drop down through the restlessness and frustrations into that deeper level of your being.’ by Barry Long

"When "I" and "You" are absent, I've no idea if this is a mosque, synagogue, church or temple. Mahmud Sahbistari

We too should make ourselves empty, that the great soul of the universe may fill us with its breath - Lawrence Binyon

If you realize what the real problem is - losing yourself - you realize that this itself is the ultimate trial. - Joseph Campbell

SELFLESSNESS -BUDDHIST WISDOM

"No 'I'," in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi

"When we practice zazen (Zen Meditation) our mind always follows our breathing. When we inhale, the air comes into the inner world. When we exhale the air goes out to the outer world. The inner world is limitlness and the outer world is also limitless. We say "inner world" or "outer world" but actually there is just one whole world. In this limitless world our throat is like a swinging door. The air comes in and goes out like someone passing through a swinging door. If you think "I" breathe, the "I" is extra. There is no you to say "I" What we call "I" is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale. It just moves; that is all. When your mind is pure and calm enough to follow this movement, there is nothing: no "I", no world, no mind nor body; just a swinging door."

SELFLESSNESS TAOIST WISDOM

The perfect man has no self, because he has transcended the finite and identified himself with the Universe - Chuang Tzu

Forget about being separated from others and from the Divine Source - Lao Tzu

To be selfless is to be all-pervading. To be all pervading is to be transcendent. Lao Tzu

To embrace all things means also that one rids oneself of any concept of separation: male or female, self or other, life and death. Division is contrary to the nature of the Tao - Lao Tzu

What is springs from what is not - Lao Tzu

To the mind that is still the whole universe surrenders - Lao Tzu

If there is no other, there can be no I. If there is no I, there will be none to make distinctions - Chuang Tzu

To embrace all is to be selfless - Lao Tzu

The man who is not divorced from the great source is the natural man - Chuang Tzu

What is this place where thought is useless?
Knowledge and emotion cannot fathom it! Yumen

How can I forget "me" when everything is designed to remember me of myself?

The perfect man has no self; the spiritual man has no achievement; the sage has no name. Chuang Tzu

 

SELFLESSNESS - Sufi Wisdom

"When "I" and "You" are absent, I've no idea if this is a mosque, synagogue, church or temple. Mahmud Sahbistari

When you lose yourself, you find the Beloved." There is no other secret. I don't know any more than this. Ansari of Herat

"In the state of fana, which is also called ittihad, Lord and Worshipper, lover and Beloved, bith disappear. If there is no lover there is no Beloved. If there is no devotee, there is no Lord. The two are an inseparable polarity, so the disappearance of one is the disappearance of the other."

Abd Al Kader

God has stolen my false,"I" and brought me close to the true "I". All colours have returned to pure white. The journey is over and nothing but God exists. All attributes and relationships have been erased. The primal state has been reestablished. Abd Al Kader

Don't say, "I am nothing,"
but don't say,"I am something."
Don't say,"Nothing concerns me,"
but don't say,"Something concerns me,"

Just say "Allah"- and you will witness wonders. Sidi Ali Al-Jamal

also see selflessness page & emptiness page

STILLNESS, NON ACTION

"Let the water settle; you will see the moon and stars mirrored in your being." --Jelaluddin Rumi

"A reflection on a pool of water does not reveal its depth."

Patience is the companion of wisdom. Saint Augustine

Tao abides in non-action. Yet nothing is left undone - Lao Tzu

In walking just walk. In sitting just sit. Above all don't wobble.

How can I be still? By flowing with the Stream - Lao Tzu

I take no action and people are reformed. I enjoy peace and people become honest. I use no force and people become rich - Lao Tzu

Let everything be allowed to what it naturally does,

see non-action page

SILENCE

Quote: Silence is the perfectest herald of joy: I were but little happy, if I could say how much.
Author: William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)

Quote: The silence often of pure innocence Persuades when speaking fails.
Author: William Shakespeare (The Winter's Tale)
Keywords: innocence character honesty integrity

Quotes about Silence by Kahlil Gibran

'The real in us is silent; the acquired is talkative.'

'The silence of the envious is too noisy.'

'A hermit is one who renounces the world of fragments that he may enjoy the world wholly and without interruption.'

 

GENERAL

Be master OF mind rather than mastered BY mind - Zen Saying

Without forgiveness life is governed by... an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation. Roberto Assagioli

"We are healed of suffering only by experiencing it to the full" Marcel Proust

"the way through the world is more difficult than to find the way beyond it" Wallace Stevens

"one must have chaos in one to give birth to a dancing star" Fredrich Nietzche

"true strength is delicate" Louise Nevelson

"the uncertainty about what I and the patient are there for, is what we are there for" James Hillman

"We are afraid of things that cannot harm us, and we know it. And we long for things which cannot help us and we know it. But actually it is something within us that we are afraid of, and it is something within ourselves we long for"

"One of the many paradoxes about soul-making is that its reward is the most valuable and unique a person could have, and yet its raw material is often the most despised and common" Thomas Moore

Quotes from Manuel Schoch

• "Understanding is slower than energy and therefore very limited. So understanding will never create energy."
• "You forgive if you stop the interpretations and descriptions."
• "Energy is faster than Consciousness or understanding. It takes 0.05 seconds to become conscious of something."

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• Quotes Main Section
• Quotes - Enlightenment
• Enlightenment
• Selflessness
• Non-action
• Emptiness
• No-thoughts
• Buddhism Main Index