These pages contains quotations I originally shared on the nondual quotes list. Enjoy!
The Way is not about knowing or not-knowing.
Knowing is only delusion and
not-knowing is merely blank consciousness.
~Nan-Ch'uan
Quoted in 'Zen Wisdom' Timothy Freke
For enlightenment to happen the perceiver must turn right around and wake up to the fact that he is face to face with his own nature - that HE IS IT. The spiritual seeker ultimately finds that he was already at the destination, that he himself IS what he had been seeking and he was in fact already home. ~Ramesh S. Balsekar A NET OF JEWELS
Think of Brahman, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, as a shoreless ocean. Through the cooling influence, as it were, of the bhakta's love, the water is frozen at places into blocks of ice. In other words, God now and then assumes various forms for His lovers and reveals Himself to them as a Person. But with the rising of the Sun of Knowledge, the blocks of ice melt. Then one doesn't feel any more that God is a Person, nor does one see God's forms. What He is cannot be described. Who will describe Him? He who would do so disappears. He cannot find his I any more. ~Sri Ramakrishna
From 'Ask The Awakened' Wei Wu Wei This 'real' nature with whose revelation the Chan Masters are primarily concerned, or the Atman-'I' of the Vedantists, is not the far-off, unreachable will-o'-the-wisp we are apt to imagine, but just the within of which we know the without. It is just the other side of the medal, and it lies wherever our senses and our intellect cease to function.
It does nothing, yet it has fashioned the universe. Sustaining the entire universe, it does nothing at all. All substances are non-different from it, yet it is not a substance; though it is non-substantial it pervades all substances. The cosmos is its body, yet it has no body... that infinite consciousness is and is not. It is even what it is not. All these statements about what is and what is not are based on logic, and the infinite consciousness goes beyond truth, beyond logic. 'Vasishtha's Yoga' (pp. 377-378)
If the process of manifestation, which involves the full-fledged appearance of the visible world, never truly involves a departure from the unmanifest, undifferentiated reality of Shiva, then it follows that the tantric path of return consists of the recovery of this vision of the undifferentiated unity of all things. This vision, which at first appears to annihilate all things into the dark abyss of Shiva, later grows into the unmilana samadhi, which reveals the pulsating essence of Shiva actively structuring and maintaining all the apparently finite and even inert forms of visible reality. The yogin must come to a vision of the inseparability of all things from Shiva. ~Abhinavagupta
Remember: if you can cease all restless activity, your integral nature will appear. from: The Hua Hu Ching
"If you lose all differentiation between yourselves and others, fit to serve others you will be. And when in serving others you will win success, then shall you meet with me; And finding me, you shall attain to Buddhahood." ~Milarepa
O Rama, two aspects of the "heart" are spoken of here: one is acceptable and the other is to be ignored. The heart that is part of this physical body and is located in one part of the body may be ignored! The heart which is acceptable is of the nature of pure consciousness. It is both inside and outside and it is neither inside nor outside. This is the principal heart and in it is reflected everything which is in the universe, and it is the treasure-house of all wealth. Consciousness alone is the heart of all beings, not the piece of flesh which people call the heart! from: 'Vasishtha's Yoga'
... we should learn to see God in all gifts and works, neither resting content with anything nor becoming attached to anything. For us there can be no attachment to a particular manner of behavior in this life, nor has this ever been right, however successful we may have been. ~Meister Eckhart
Sogyal Rinpoche: It is important to remember always that the principle of egolessness does not mean that there was an ego in the first place, and the Buddhists did away with it. On the contrary, it means there was never any ego at all to begin with. To realize that is called "egolessness."
When you are with everyone but me, you're with no one. When you are with no one but me, you're with everyone. Instead of being so bound up with everyone, be everyone. When you become that many, you're nothing. Empty. ~Rumi 'The Essential Rumi' Barks/Moyne
The Imperson witnesses everything 'we' do and everything 'we' think (all psychic and physical manifestation), and that is the great joke. For we ourselves are the Imperson, and the 'we' that acts and thinks is only a personalisation of the one Unself (Reality) seen as phenomenon, a notion that as phenomenon has neither permanence nor duration but is renewed every instant. 'Why Lazarus Laughed' Wei Wu Wei
When you touch one thing with deep awareness, you touch everything. ~Thich Nhat Hanh, from "Touching Peace"
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, an angel of the Lord said unto them, "Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." LUKE 2:8-11
"Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love." ~Hamilton Wright Mabie
SO WHAT IS THERE TO REALIZE? Peonies bloom on peony trees. A cat doesn't become a chicken. Tulips are tulips, not roses. Why can't we realize this true fact? That to be me is great. I don't have to be anyone but me. I am blooming as I am in my life, just as a peony blooms on a peony tree. Further, a beautiful peony flower does not worry about when it will wilt and fall to the ground. It does not compete with the flower next to it; rather it blooms with its whole self. -- Sensie Ogui from "Zen Shin Talks"
The notion of oneself being identical with the body is the cause of egoism. It is this egoism that entangles all judgments of value in the preconception that knowledge is acquired through the senses and the mind or the intellect. This prejudice of egoism is Samsara, the persistent idea that all knowledge is in terms of space, time and externality. ~Swami Krishnananda
Make your mind one-pointed in meditation, and your heart will be purified... With all fears dissolved in the peace of the Self and all desires dedicated to Brahman, controlling the mind and fixing it on me (God), sit in meditation with me as your only goal. With senses and mind constantly controlled through meditation, united with the Self within, an aspirant attains nirvana, the state of abiding joy and peace in me. Bhagavad Gita 6:12-15
All I know is Love,
And I find my heart Infinite
And Everywhere!
~Hafiz
ALL THIS CAN SOUND RATHER ESOTERIC-- rapture, bliss, impermanence, lack of self-- and it is important not to let the practice become a cluster of words up in your head. You don't want to create an image of yourself, a stone Buddha like those you see around various centers, always sitting in the lotus posture and discerning marvelous wisdom. The whole point of a book like this, of retreats and classes, of sitting practice itself, is for you to take the practice into everyday life, to practice moment to moment. You can learn everything I've said just as well by cleaning the toilet. ~Larry Rosenberg, from "Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation"
In reality there are no others, and by helping yourself you help everybody else. ~Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The privilege of a lifetime is to be yourself. ~ Joseph Campbell
The particular is born and reborn, changing name and shape, the gnani is the Changeless Reality, which makes the changeful possible. The entire universe is his body, all life is his life. As in a city of lights, when one bulb burns out, it does not affect the network, so the death of a body does not affect the whole. With me, all is one, all is equal. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Song Maker I MADE a hundred little songs That told the joy and pain of love, And sang them blithely, tho' I knew No whit thereof. I was a weaver deaf and blind; A miracle was wrought for me, But I have lost my skill to weave Since I can see. For while I sang -- ah swift and strange! Love passed and touched me on the brow, And I who made so many songs Am silent now. ~Sara Teasdale
Neither ignorance nor illusion ever happened to you. Find the self to which you ascribe ignorance and illusion and your question will be answered. You talk as if you know the self and see it to be under the sway of ignorance and illusion. But, in fact, you do not know the self, nor are you aware of ignorance. By all means, become aware, this will bring you to the self and you will realize that there is neither ignorance nor delusion in it. It is like saying: if there is sun, how can darkness be? As under a stone there will be darkness, however strong the sunlight, so in the shadow of the "I-am-the-body" consciousness there must be ignorance and illusion. Don't ask 'why' and 'how'. It is in the nature of creative imagination to identify itself with its creations. You can stop it any moment by switching off attention. Or though investigation. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
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