Quotes

" Stop talking and thinking, and there is nothing you will not be able to know. " - Seng Ts'an

" Contemplation is that condition of alert passivity, in which the soul lays itself open to the divine Ground within and without, the immanent and transcendent Godhead. " - Aldous Huxley

" Let there be a silent understanding and no more. Away with all thinking and explaining." - Huang Po

" Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves." - Henry David Thoreau

Here in this simple quote is the starting point which thrusts the spiritual path upon most of us. Until life becomes a pressing, insolvable problem, we won't put aside our desires and fears long enough to begin questioning.

" We look back and analyze the events of our lives,... these are intellectual questions. There is another way of seeing, a backward-and-forward-at-once vision, that is not rationally understandable. The spirit approaches the matter differently." - Rumi

We soon see that the intellect alone will not take us to Enlightenment. Another type of seeing, or attention, is needed. Help comes from within, from the spirit, the formless unknown, rather than from the intellectual ego.

A third party is necessary, an impartial observer who "notices" the looker and the seen.

"Seers aim to be free, to be unbiased witnesses incapable of passing judgment;... " - Carlos Castaneda

To be free from fear and desire is true freedom, and cannot be had through that which is trapped in duality, in good and bad, up and down, sage and mortal.

"He who seeks Liberation must examine his mind by his own efforts, and once the mind is purified by such introspection Liberation is obtained and appears obvious and natural." Shankara's Crest Jewel of Discrimination

Above the ancient temple at Delphi were inscribed the words, "Know Thyself". Realization can occur in a clear mind, free from concepts. Once you come Home, you realize you never really left.

"Life is not complex. We are complex. Life is simple, and the simple thing is the right thing." - Oscar Wilde

We are simple awareness. The mind is complex. We become lost in thought and its never ceasing associative pattern. Nothing is so simple and 'right' as who we really are.

" Use the "Who am I?". Focus the attention on sensation and feeling, not on thoughts. Do not focus the attention on emotions per se, but on the sensation of having the feeling – both the sensation of having the feeling and the source of the feeling. Thoughts generated by this attempt are the reaction to this "direct looking," and the "looking away" is experienced as a rush of ensuing thoughts." - Bob Cergol

Listen. Pay attention to yourself directly, without thought, by simple perception. The thoughts are the reactions of the mind to the direct seeing. They have become so important, we have forgotten how to listen.

" When I want to understand, look at something, I don't have to think about it - I look at it." - J. Krishnamurti

" Most people don't know how to listen because the major part of their attention is taken up by thinking." - Eckhart Tolle

" Meditation will provide material for meditation, if we just observe the observer." - Richard Rose

" You learn sooner or later that you are not running the show and that if you relax, the show runs better, Things will happen better if you just relax; many things are under control in many respects. You quit and things happen, you let the door open, you stop the obstructin, you eliminate the ego. The ego is one of the biggest obstructions to the achievement of anything." - Richard Rose

" Truth may be experienced, but it cannot be intellectualized. This is one of the great traps that contain and hold so many sincere seekers; life is not an intellectual journey! " - Michael Roads

" Allow the Source of Being to maintain contact with you: ignore the impressions and opinions of your customary self. If this self were of value in your search, it would have found realization for you. But all it can do is to depend upon others. " - Amin Suhrawardi