“It is false to speak of realization. What is there to realize? The real is as it is always. We are not creating anything new or achieving something which we did not have before. The illustration given in books is this. We dig a well and create a huge pit. The space in the pit or well has not been created by us. We have just removed the earth which was filling the space there. The space was there then and is also there now. Similarly we have simply to throw out all the age-long samskaras [innate tendencies], which are inside us. When all of them have been given up, the Self will shine alone.”
–Ramana Maharshi
(Indian Hindu Mystic and Spiritual Teacher, 1879-1950)
“Thoughtful seekers among the ancients and Orientals found fitter temples in Nature, in open desert spaces with the sky overhead and the sand underneath, than in elaborate structures resounding to the chants of professional men who had exhausted their divine mandate.”
–Paul Brunton (a.k.a. Raphael Hurst, English Philosopher, Traveler, Spiritual Teacher and Author, 1898-1981)
“Life has always seemed to me like a plant that lives on its rhizome. Its true life is invisible, hidden in the rhizome. The part that appears above the ground lasts only a single summer. Then it withers away – an ephemeral apparition. When we think of the unending growth and decay of life and civilizations, we cannot escape the impression of absolute nullity. Yet I have never lost the sense of something that lives and endures beneath the eternal flux. What we see is blossom, which passes. The rhizome remains. In the end the only events in my life worth telling are those when the imperishable world irrupted into the transitory one.”
–Carl G. Jung (Swiss Psychologist and Psychiatrist, 1875-1961)
“The Logos connects everything in the interdependent web of being.”
–Richard Leviton (American Writer, Editor and Mystic, 1950-)
“Everything can collapse. Houses, bodies, and enemies collapse when their rhythm becomes deranged.
In large-scale strategy, when the enemy starts to collapse you must pursue him without letting the chance go. If you fail to take advantage of your enemies’ collapse, they may recover.”
–Miyamoto Musashi (a.k.a. Shinmen Takezō, a.k.a. Miyamoto Bennosuke, a.k.a Niten Dōraku, Japanese Samurai, Swordsman and Founder of the Hyōhō Niten Ichi-ryū or Niten-ryū style of Swordsmanship and Author of The Book of Five Rings (五輪書 Go Rin No Sho), on Strategy, Tactics, and Philosophy, c.1584-1645)
The Book of Five Rings
“Nothing is less in our power than the heart, and far from commanding we are forced to obey it.”
–Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Swiss-born French Philosopher, 1712-1778)
“Each field of awareness in its boundaries constitutes a prison, and…the objective of all work of liberation, is to release the consciousness, and expand its field of contacts. Where there are boundaries of any kind, where a field of influence is circumscribed, and where the radius of contact is limited, there you have a prison. Ponder on this statement for it holds much truth.”
–Alice A. Bailey (English Writer, Spiritual Teacher and Founder of the Arcane School, 1880-1949)
“Each one of us is dependent on others and nature to be. Everything is interdependent…. we are intrinsically and fundamentally related to everyone and everything else.”
–Wayne Teasdale (American Catholic Monk and Proponent of Interfaith Dialogue, 1945-2004)
“The Mystic Hours: A Daybook of Inspirational Wisdom and Devotion” (Wayne Teasdale)
“A man may have intelligence enough to excel in a particular thing and lecture on it, and yet not have sense enough to know he ought to be silent on some other subject of which he has but a slight knowledge; if such an illustrious man ventures beyond the bounds of his capacity, he loses his way and talks like a fool.”
–Jean de la Bruyère (French Essayist and Moralist, 1645-1696)
“God realization does not begin in a cave high atop the Himalayas. It begins in the pots and pans of the kitchen. treat all your tasks, however small, as opportunities to see God and serve him.”
–Sri Swami Sivananda (Indian Physician and Spiritual Teacher, 1887-1963)
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