These pages contains quotations I originally shared on the nondual quotes list. Enjoy!
Good are friends when need arises; good is contentment with just what one has; good is merit when life is at an end, and good is the abandoning of all suffering. Dhammapada 331
As a human being related to all living beings we must first be related to ourselves. We cannot understand, love and welcome others without first knowing and loving ourselves. ~Jean Klein 'Who am I?'
We have made ourselves so weak; we have made ourselves so low. We may make great claims, but naturally we want to lean on somebody else. We are like little, weak plants, always wanting a support. How many times I have been asked for a "comfortable religion!" Very few men ask for the truth, fewer still dare to learn the truth, and fewest of all dare to follow it in all its practical bearings. ~ Swami Vivekananda
Disease, laziness, indecision, apathy, lethargy, craving sense-pleasure, erroneous perception, lack of concentration, unstable attention, these are the obstacles that distract consciousness. Sorrow, worry, restlessness, and irregular breathing accompany the distractions. To overcome them practice that oneness. From: YOGA SUTRAS - UNION THREADS by Patanjali English version by Sanderson Beck
*That Most Delicate Place*
There is a place in all of us that has remained innocent, uncorrupted
and untouched by the world. We have to locate that most delicate place.
It is a very sensitive place, it's where we feel love - where tenderness
and compassion arise, free from self-interest.
This place is the hole we have to fall into - and disappear in forever.
from "Enlightenment is a Secret" By Andrew Cohen
Just understand that birth-and-death is itself nirvana. There is nothing such as birth and death to be avoided; there is nothing such as nirvana to be sought. Only when you realize this are you free from birth and death. ~Dogen
Friend, our closeness is this: anywhere you put your foot, feel me in the firmness under you. How is it with this love, I see your world and not you? From: Rumi 'The Essential Rumi' Barks/Moyne
A genuine spiritual life is not one consisting of a series of disconnected and undefined experiences occurring at random; it is a constant dynamic process incorporating every element of our being. Stephen Batchelor Quoted in 'Zen and the Brain' James H. Austin M.D.
from: The Joy of the Snow
~Elizabeth Goudge
WE cannot understand - not yet - but we can see how the more
we lose our sense of separateness in the knowledge of the oneness
of all living creatures, millions of small leaves on the one single tree
of life, the more we shall lose our sense of self-importance, and so
be liberated from our self-pity; a bondage so horrible that I believe
it can bring us at last to a state not unlike that of Gollum, the dreadful
creature Tolkien created, living alone in the dark, talking to himself,
murmuring, 'My preciouss. My preciouss.'
But if that 'my preciouss' were to be the song of the leaves on
the tree, each leaf delighting in all the others, there could be no
love of self, no hatred and no sin, and none of the suffering that
springs from sin. And since a tree has no voice but the wind, and
the leaves know it, they would soon know who it was who was
singing their song with them and through them, and lifting an
swinging them in the dance. If we can find a little of our oneness
with all other creatures, and love for them, then I believe we
are half-way towards finding God.
Quoted in 'The Virago Book of Spirituality' Ed. Sarah Anderson
From: Enlightenment Unfolds -
The Essential Teachings of Zen Master Dogen
A fish swims in the ocean, and no matter how far it swims there
is no end to the water. A bird flies in the sky, and no matter how
far it flies there is no end to the air. However, the fish and the bird
have never left their elements. When their activity is large their
field is large. When their need is small their field is small. Thus,
each of them totally covers its full range, and each of them totally
experiences its realm. If the bird leaves the air it will die at once. If
the fish leaves the water it will die at once.
Know that water is life and air is life. The bird is life and the
fish is life. Life must be the bird and life must be the fish. You can
go further. There is practice-enlightenment which encompasses
limited and unlimited life.
Now if a bird or a fish tries to reach the end of its element before
moving in it, this bird or this fish will not find its way or its place.
When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualiz-
ing the fundamental point. When you find your way at this mo-
ment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point; for the
place, the way, is neither large nor small, neither yours nor others.
The place, the way, has not carried over from the past, and it is not
merely arising now. Accordingly, in the practice-enlightenment of
the buddha way, to attain one thing is to penetrate one thing; to
meet one practice is to sustain one practice.
Here is the place; here the way unfolds. The boundary of real-
ization is not distinct, for realization comes forth simultaneously
with the mastery of buddha-dharma. Do not suppose that what you
attain becomes your knowledge and is grasped by your intellect.
Although actualized immediately, the inconceivable may not be ap-
parent. Its appearance is beyond your knowledge.
From 'Ask The Awakened': Wei Wu Wei Why are you unhappy? Because 99.9 per cent Of everything you think, And of everything you do, Is for yourself - And there isn't one.
To the man of realization . . . it is indifferent whether the senses . . . are indrawn or turned without. What matters it to the sun whether the clouds gather together or are dispersed? ~Srimad Bhagavatam
"Even This Will Pass Away" by Thomas Bailey Aldrich TOUCHED with the delicate green of early May, Or later, when the rose uplifts her face, The world hangs glittering in starry space, Fresh as a jewel found but yesterday. And yet 'tis very old; what tongue may say How old it is? Race follows upon race, Forgetting and forgotten; in their place Sink tower and temple; nothing long may stay. We build on tombs, and live our day, and die; From out our dust new towers and temples start; Our very name becomes a mystery. What cities no man ever heard of lie Under the glacier, in the mountain's heart, In violet glooms beneath the moaning sea!
From: 'The Book'
Alan Watts
We can never, never describe all features of the total
situation, not only because every situation is infinitely
complex, but also because the total situation is the uni-
verse. Fortunately, we do not have to describe any sit-
uation exhaustively, because some of its features appear
to be much more important than others for understand-
ing the behavior of the various organisms within it. We
never get more than a sketch of the situation, yet this
is enough to show that actions (or processes) must
be understood, or explained, in terms of situations
just as words must be understood in the context of
sentences, paragraphs, chapters, books, libraries,
and . . . life itself.
To sum up: just as no thing or organism exists on its
own, it does not act on its own. Furthermore, every
organism is a process: thus the organism is not other
than its actions. To put it clumsily: it is what it does.
More precisely, the organism, including its behavior, is
a process which is to be understood only in relation to
the larger and longer process of its environment. For
what we mean by "understanding" or "comprehen-
sion" is seeing how parts fit into a whole, and then
realizing that they don't compose the whole, as one as-
sembles a jigsaw puzzle, but that the whole is a pattern,
a complex wiggliness, which has no separate parts. Parts
are fictions of language, of the calculus of looking at
the world through a net which seems to chop it up into
bits. Parts exist only for purposes of figuring and de-
scribing, and as we figure the world out we become
confused if we do not remember this all the time.
From 'Brihadaranyaka Upanishad' As long as there is duality, one sees the other, one hears the other, one smells the other, one speaks to the other, one thinks of the other, one knows the other; but when for the illumined soul the all is dissolved in the Self, who is there to be seen by whom, who is there to be smelt by whom, who is there to be heard by whom, who is there to be spoken to by whom, who is there to be thought of by whom, who is there to be known by whom? Ah, Maitreyi, my beloved, the Intelligence which reveals all by what shall it be revealed? By whom shall the Knower be known? The Self is described as *not this, not that.* It is incom- prehensible, for it cannot be comprehended; undecaying for it never decays; unattached, for it never attaches; unbound, for it is never bound. By whom, O my beloved, shall the Knower be known?
What you most want, what you travel around wishing to find, lose yourself as lovers lose themselves, and you'll be that. ~Attar
From: Enlightenment Unfolds -
The Essential Teachings of Zen Master Dogen
When dharma does not fill your whole body and mind, you
may assume it is already sufficient. When dharma fills your body
and mind, you understand that something is missing. For example,
when you sail out in a boat to the middle of an ocean where no land
is in sight, and view the four directions, the ocean looks circular,
and does not look any other way. But the ocean is neither round
nor square; its features are infinite in variety. It is like a palace. It is
like a jewel. It only looks circular as far as you can see at that time.
All things are like this.
Though there are many features in the dusty world and the
world beyond conditions, you see and understand only what your
eye of practice can reach. In order to learn the nature of the myriad
things, you must know that although they may look round or
square, the other features of oceans and mountains are infinite in
variety; whole worlds are there. It is so not only around you, but
also directly beneath your feet, or in a drop of water.
Everything is the original law; Every day the morning sun Clears the sky, In every mind there is no Separate mind. In every place the pure wind Circles the earth. If you can understand in this way, Then there is no need for Buddha To appear in this world Or for Bodhidharma to come From the west. - Daio (1235-1309)
There is no need to wait until another life or for future generations. Before you is the Buddha who proves to you the possibility of penetrating to God. -Chang Po-Tuan
From: HSIN HSIN MING Verses on the Faith Mind by The 3rd Zen Patriarch, Sengstau If the mind makes no discriminations, the ten thousand things are as they are, of single essence. To understand the mystery of this One-essence is to be released from all entanglements.
The true task of spiritual life is not found in faraway places or unusual states of consciousness. It is here in the present. It asks of us a welcoming spirit to greet all that life presents to us with a wise, respectful, and kindly heart. We can bow to both beauty and suffering, to our entanglements and confusion, to our fears and to the injustices of the world. Honoring the truth in this way is the path to freedom. ~ Jack Kornfield
Lotus Leaves by Mitsukuni, translated by Miyamori Asataro. "Over the lotus leaves A refreshing shower has run; Now, on the white jewels of dew The splendour of the setting sun!"
This is from: 'Loving Kindness' by Sharon Salzberg Being free from concepts is like going backstage in a theater and suddenly realizing how much of our engagement with the drama has come from mere appearances: the costumes, the makeup, the staging, the lighting, and actors projecting artificial personae. It is liberating to realize that we are, in effect, "making it all up." We are playing on the stage set, lost in the costumes and the lighting. We are creating boundaries and divisions according to our histories, our fears, our needs, and our habits. But what is the substance of these boundaries? Where can they be found, in truth?
The heart has eyes which the brain knows nothing of. ~ Charles H. Perkhurst
Perfect knowledge is attained on the destruction of deluding karmas, of karmas which obscure knowledge and perception, and of karmas which obstruct [faith]. With the absence of the cause of bondage, the annihilation of all karmas is liberation. Jainism. Tattvarthasutra 10.1-2
*Advaita*
When you have calmed the furies of the mind
Forgotten greed and all ambitions snare:
When you have banished all intruding thought
And scotched the Ego lurking in its lair;
When you have come to nothing and seek nought
But less than nothing - in your earthly quest,
You will be ALL at last - and more than nothing,
For nothing will be more than all the rest.
~Robert Goslin
"Love grants in a moment what toil can hardly achieve in an age." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The wisdom of enlightenment is inherent in every one of us. It is because of the delusion under which our mind works that we fail to realize it ourselves, and that we have to seek the advice and the guidance of enlightened ones. ~Hui Neng
Swami Jyoti: "LOVE is not a social or human virtue as we normally view it. It is the very 'glue' by which the creation is possible." "Ordinarily when we use the word love, it refers to human feeling or sentiment. . .However, the human experience of love is also derived from that original Love, which is not a feeling. Feelings of love, sentimentality and affection, are behavior patterns born of Absolute Love. In today's world, unless you say 'I love you' nobody understands that you love him or her. But ultimate Love you do not express --it's just there, a radiation that attracts. In the lives of sages...we see love without any demonstration of feelings; Love just emanates from [their] eyes. That natural born Love is the basis of the relationship between God and man. These words are not needed. Why tell God *I love You*--God, Who is Love Incarnate, Love embodied, Who is Love Himself? Human expression is a very pale reflection of that ultimate relationship between you and your Sprit, you and your God." ". . . [Love] is completely fulfilling. You feel resigned, interconnected, not only with humanity but with everything; insects, stones, boulders, trees. . .Then if you close your eyes to leave the body due to old age or disease, you will not mind. There will be no pangs of pathos. You will have reached the beginning and the end. You will not see much difference between life and death; old age, sickness and such will lose their hold on you. You will be relaxed and content. Pleasure and pain will not affect you. You will quietly let go. Whatever the conditions, you will be released. You will have found the basis of your Being."
When your thinking rises above concern for your own welfare, wisdom which is independent of thought appears. -Ha Gakure Quoted in 'Zen Soup' Ed. Laurence G. Boldt
From: Enlightenment Unfolds -
The Essential Teachings of Zen Master Dogen
MAYU, Zen Master Baoche, was fanning himself. A monk ap-
proached and said, "Master, the nature of wind is permanent and
there is no place it does not reach. Why then do you fan yourself?"
"Although you understand that the natare of the wind is perma-
nent," Mayu replied, "you do not understand the meaning of its
reaching everywhere."
"What is the meaning of its reaching everywhere?" asked the
monk again. Mayu just kept fanning himself. The monk bowed
deeply.
The actualization of the buddha-dharma, the vital path of its
correct transmission, is like this. If you say that you do not need to
fan yourself because the nature of wind is permanent and you can
have wind without fanning, you will understand neither permanence
nor the nature of the wind. The nature of the wind is permanent.
Because of that, the wind of the buddha's house brings forth the
gold of the earth and makes fragrant the cream of the long river.
From: NONDUAL ECOLOGY In Praise of Wildness and In Search of Harmony With Everything That Moves by John McClellan *Everything That Moves-Primordial Purity* The way I see it, anything that arises on this planet is completely natural, pristine, and pure. Created by God's spontaneous, self-arising nature, sacred. God itself. Deep ecologists reserve this level of honor for wilderness areas, asking that they be untouched by outside forces, meaning generally man or machines. But is this entire planet not a pristine, sacred wilderness? Has it ever been touched by 'outside forces'? Is not all this Gaia's own doing?
The game is not about becoming somebody; it's about becoming nobody. -Ram Dass Quoted in 'Zen Soup' Ed. Laurence G. Boldt
The burden of the self is lightened when I laugh atmyself ~Rabindranath Tagore
You say, "How can I find God?" I say, "The Friend is the lining in your pocket - The curved pink wall in your belly - Sober up, Steady your aim, Reach in, Turn the Universe and The Beautiful Rascal Inside out." You say, "That sounds preposterous - I really don't believe God is in there." I say, "Well then, Why not try the Himalayas - You could get naked And pretend to be an exalted yogi And eat bark and snow for forty years." And you might think, "Hey, Old Man, Why don't you - go shovel Snowflakes!" ~Hafiz The Subject Tonight is Love Daniel Ladinsky
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