' The Key to Happiness '...
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
........................... Albert Schweitzer
' The Weak, the Wise, and the Intelligent '...
The weak are dominated by their ego, the wise dominate their ego, and the intelligent are in a constant struggle against their ego.
.............................. Hamza Yusuf
' Truth '...
Truth does not become more true by virtue of the fact that the entire world agrees with it, nor less so even if the whole world disagrees with it.
............................... Maimonides
' A Just City '...
A just city should favor justice and the just, hate tyranny and injustice, and give them both their just deserts.
............................. Al-Farabi
' Desires and Patience '...
Desires make slaves out of kings and patience makes kings out of slaves.
.............................. Al-Ghazali
' Speak from the Heart '...
People hear you on the level you speak to them from. Speak from your heart, and they will hear with theirs.
.............................. Marianne Williamson
' Perfect '...
Perfect love means putting up with other peoples shortcomings, feeling no surprise at their weaknesses, finding encouragement even in the slightest evidence of good qualities in them.
......................... Saint Therese of Lisieux
' Moral Issues '...
The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The Tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.
................................. Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
' Your Birthday '...
The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.
................................... Mark Twain
' Different Persons '...
All of us every single year, we're a different person. I don't think we're the same person all our lives.
........................... Steven Spielberg
' Your Own Path '...
Ultimately, you have to pursue your own path, not someone's idea of the right path. You need to stay on your path.
....................... Baz Luhrmann
' Never Too Late '...
For what it's worth, it's never too late to be whoever you want to be. I hope you live a life you're proud of and if you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start over.
................................. F. Scott Fitzgerald
' True Nobility '...
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.
................................ Ernest Hemingway
' Two New People '...
When two people meet, each one is changed by the other so you've got two new people.
...................................... John Steinbeck
' Liberty '...
Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves.
..................................... D. H. Lawrence
' Manifestation '...
Everything comes to us that belongs to us if we create the capacity to receive it.
............................... Rabindranath Tagore
' Kabbalah and Hasidism '...
Kabbalah is the most famous form of Jewish mysticism. It flowered in 13th century Spain with the writing of the Zohar, which was originally attributed to the 2nd century sage Shimon bar Yohai. The Zohar is a commentary on the Torah, concerned primarily with understanding the divine world and its relation to our world. According to
.....................................................
, God as God — also known as Ein Sof or “the Infinite” — cannot be comprehended by humans. However, God can be understood and described as revealed in ten mystical attributes, or sefirot.
......................................................
Much of all future Kabbalah, including the important 16th-century Kabbalah of Isaac Luria–whose intricate theology of creation describes how God contracted to make room for the world — concerns itself with the sefirot. Abraham Abulafia was the most important of the medieval intensive mystics. He tried to achieve a state of prophecy through methods of experiential Kabbalah. Hasidism, a religious movement that emerged in the 18th century, spread mystical thinking and living to the masses of European Jewry by teaching that all people could have an experiential connection with God.
' Good Decisions '...
Good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from making bad decisions.
............................. Mark Twain
' Defeating the Ego '...
I have conquered an empire but I have not been able to conquer myself
.............................. Peter the Great
' Burying Truth '...
If you shut up truth and bury it under the ground, it will but grow, and gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts through it will blow up everything in its way.
................................ Emile Zola
' Mind and Heart '...
Our mind is enriched by what we receive, our heart by what we give.
............................ Victor Hugo
' Doing Good '...
Do all the good you can and make as little fuss about it as possible.
........................ Charles Dickens
' Truth Haters '...
The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those who speak it.
................................ George Orwell
' The Person,, You Are '...
Sometimes, you have to step outside of the person you've been and remember the person you were meant to be. The person you want to be. The person you are.
.................................. H. G. Wells
' Surrender to Reality '...
The more you struggle to live, the less you live. Give up the notion that you must be sure of what you are doing. Instead, surrender to what is real within you, for that alone is sure....you are above everything distressing.
................................... Baruch Spinoza
' True Religion '...
Reader!.. To whatever visible church, synagogue, or mosque you may belong! See if you do not find more true religion among the host of the excommunicated than among the far greater host who excommunicated them.
........................... Moses Mendelssohn
' The Breath of Source '...
Everything the human being heard from the beginning, saw with its eyes, looked upon and touched with its hands was a living word; for God was the word.
............................... Johann Georg Hamann
Nature and Spirit '...
Nature is visible Spirit; Spirit is invisible Nature.
........................... Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling
' Public Opinion '...
To be independent of public opinion is the first formal condition of achieving anything great.
.................................. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
' The Journey of Awakening '...
Fortunately, some are born with spiritual immune systems that sooner or later give rejection to the illusory worldview grafted upon then from birth through social conditioning. They begin sensing that something is amiss, and start looking for answers. Inner knowledge and anomalous outer experiences show them a side of reality others are oblivious to, and so begins the journey of awakening. Each step of the journey is made by following the heart instead of the crowd, and by choosing knowledge over veils of ignorance.
.............................. Henri Bergson
' Keep Trying '...
It is better to try something and fail than to try nothing and succeed. The result may be the same, but you won't be. We always grow more through defeats than victories.
................................... Soren Kierkegaard
' True Jnana '...
“In a heart that has drowned itself in the awareness of true jñāna, which is wholly love, bliss in its fullness will surge forth. Tormenting desires that arise through delusion do not exist there. That life, existing as the extremely pure svarūpa, is wholly peace.”
................................ Muruganar, Guru Vachaka Kovai
' The Pure Mind '...
“The pure mind is itself Brahman; it therefore follows that Brahman is not other than the mind of the sage.”
................................ Ramana Maharshi
' OM '...
“Om is not just a sound or vibration. It is not just a symbol. It is the entire cosmos, whatever we can see, touch, hear and feel. Moreover, it is all that is within our perception and all that is beyond our perception. It is the core of our very existence. If you think of Om only as a sound, a technique or a symbol of the Divine, you will miss it altogether. Om is the mysterious cosmic energy that is the substratum of all the things and all the beings of the entire universe. It is an eternal song of the Divine. It is continuously resounding in silence on the background of everything that exists.”
............................... Amit Ray, Om Chanting and Meditation
' Illumination '...
“The union of the mind and intuition which brings about illumination, and the development which the Sufis seek, is based upon love.”
........................... Idries Shah
' I will speak of Love '...
“I will speak of love
until you go mad
and join me
in my mad worship
of love.”
.................... Kamand Kojouri
' Listen,, O' Drop '...
“Listen, O drop, give yourself up without regret,
and in exchange gain the Ocean.
Listen, O drop, bestow upon yourself this honor,
and in the arms of the Sea be secure.
Who indeed should be so fortunate?
An Ocean wooing a drop!
In God's name, in God's name, sell and buy at once!
Give a drop, and take this Sea full of pearls.”
........................... Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi
' The Beloved '...
“I have loved in life and I have been loved.
I have drunk the bowl of poison from the hands of love as nectar,
and have been raised above life's joy and sorrow.
My heart, aflame in love, set afire every heart that came in touch with it.
My heart has been rent and joined again;
My heart has been broken and again made whole;
My heart has been wounded and healed again;
A thousand deaths my heart has died, and thanks be to love, it lives yet.
I went through hell and saw there love's raging fire,
and I entered heaven illumined with the light of love.
I wept in love and made all weep with me;
I mourned in love and pierced the hearts of men;
And when my fiery glance fell on the rocks, the rocks burst forth as volcanoes.
The whole world sank in the flood caused by my one tear;
With my deep sigh the earth trembled, and when I cried aloud the name of my beloved,
I shook the throne of God in heaven.
I bowed my head low in humility, and on my knees I begged of love,
"Disclose to me, I pray thee, O love, thy secret."
She took me gently by my arms and lifted me above the earth, and spoke softly in my ear,
"My dear one, thou thyself art love, art lover,
and thyself art the beloved whom thou hast adored.”
.......................................... Hazrat Inayat Khan, The Dance of the Soul:
' Reaching Freedom '...
Upon Surrender of all Desires, especially the false self called Ego... the Spirit of Divine Consciousness will Awaken You to the First Reality of Source, called Love and Wisdom... Upon the Surrender of even this Personality of God,, You will dissolve into the Creator of Love called Pure Awareness, which contains no personalities or ego and Is Complete Freedom................... namaste, thomas
' Practicing Yoga '...
Practicing yoga does not eliminate life’s challenges, and neither does it provide us with a convenient trap-door to escape from life’s distractions. Instead, Yoga gives us the skills to meet life head-on with dignity and poise.
............................... Donna Farhi
' Indian Vedic Doctrines '...
An examination of Indian Vedic doctrines shows that it is in tune with the most advanced scientific and philosophical thought of the West.
............................. Sir John Woodroffe
' Absolute Consciousness '...
Absolute consciousness is manifest here in every circumstance of daily life because it is everywhere full and perfect. Consciousness is said to be the cause of all things because it is everywhere emergent as each manifest entity.
................................ Abhinavagupta
' The Greatest Art of Progress '...
Millions of people never analyze themselves. Mentally they are mechanical products of the factory of their environment, preoccupied with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, working and sleeping, and going here and there to be entertained. They don't know what or why they are seeking, nor why they never realize complete happiness and lasting satisfaction. By evading self-analysis, people go on being robots, conditioned by their environment. True self-analysis is the greatest art of progress.
................................. Paramahansa Yogananda
' My Greatest Desire '...
My greatest desire is that I may perceive the God whom I find everywhere in the external world, in like manner also within and inside myself.
................................ Johannes Kepler
' Discover Truths '...
All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.
............................. Galileo Galilei
' Communication '...
It's a very important thing to learn to talk to people you disagree with.
............................ Pete Seeger
' Goodness '...
There is always more goodness in the world than there appears to be, because goodness is of its very nature modest and retiring.
................................ Evelyn Beatrice Hall
' Always Hope '...
There is always hope when people are forced to listen to both sides.
........................... John Stuart Mill
' The Evil of Power '...
If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him.
........................................... Cardinal Richelieu
' The Nectar of Life '...
The nectar of life is sweet only when shared with others.
............................ Adam Mickiewicz
' Reason '...
Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves.
................................. Lord Byron
' Justice '...
Justice is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake the character of men as you cannot fake the character of nature, that you must judge all men as conscientiously as you judge inanimate objects, with the same respect for truth, with the same incorruptible vision, by as pure and as rational a process of identification-that every man must be judged for what he is and treated accordingly.
........................................ John Galt
' Evil is Impotent '...
Evil is impotent and has no power but that which we let it extort from us.
...................... John Galt
' De-termination,,, Without End '...
If you set goals and go after them with all the determination you can muster, your gifts will take you places that will amaze you.
....................................... Les Brown
' The Gospel of Thomas '...
These are the secret words which the living Jesus spoke, and Didymus Judas Thomas wrote them down.
.............................................
1 And he said: He who shall find the interpretation of the words shall not taste of death.
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2 Jesus said: He who seeks, let him not cease seeking until: finds; and when he finds he will be troubled, and if he is troubled, he will be amazed, and he will reign over the All.
...............................................
3 Jesus said: If those who lead you say unto you: Behold, the Kingdom is in heaven, then the birds of the heaven will be before you. If they say unto you: It is in the sea, then the fish will be before you. But the Kingdom is within you, and it is outside of you. When you know yourselves, then shall you be known, and you shall know that you are the sons of the living Father. But if ye do not know yourselves, then you are in poverty, and you are poverty.
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4 Jesus said: The man aged in his days will not hesitate to ask a little child of seven days about the place of life, and he shall live. For there are many first who shall be last, and they shall become a single one.
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5 Jesus said: Know what is before thy face, and what hidden from thee shall be revealed unto thee; for there is nothing hidden which shall not be made manifest.
..................................................
6 His disciples asked him and said unto him: Wilt thou that we fast? And how shall we pray? Shall we give alms? And what rules shall we observe in eating? Jesus said: Do not lie; and that which you hate, do not do. For all things are revealed before heaven. For there is nothing hidden which shall not be manifest, and there is nothing covered which shall remain without being uncovered.
' The Absurdity '...
Man frees himself from the world,
its ills,
its suffering, its chaos,
simply by seeing
the absurdity of it all.
.............. Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
' The Deterioration of Government '...
The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded.
.............................. Baron de Montesquieu
' Intellectual Daring '...
Most men use their knowledge only under guidance from others because they lack the courage to think independently using their own reasoning abilities. It takes intellectual daring to discover the truth.
............................ Immanuel Kant
' I Was in Darkness '...
I was in darkness, but I took three steps and found myself in paradise. The first step was a good thought, the second, a good word; and the third, a good deed.
............................. Friedrich Nietzsche
' I Had to Philosophize '...
I had to philosophize. Otherwise, I could not live in this world.
.............................. Edmund Husserl
' Two Ways to be Fooled '...
There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.
............................. Soren Kierkegaard
' A Human Experience '...
We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.
............................... Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
' A Free Thinker '...
Be a free thinker and don't accept everything you hear as truth. Be critical and evaluate what you believe in.
.................................... Aristotle
' Return to Source '...
The source from which existing things derive their existence is also that to which they return at their destruction.
..................................... Anaximander
' Know Thyself '...
The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself.
........................ Thales
' Your Troubles '...
But this I know: if all mankind were to take their troubles to market with the idea of exchanging them, anyone seeing what his neighbor's troubles were like would be glad to go home with his own.
........................... Herodotus
' Worrying '...
Happy is the man who has broken the chains which hurt the mind, and has given up worrying once and for all.
.............................. Ovid
' Grim Death '...
How mad it is to summon grim death by means of war!
.......................... Tibullus
' Divine Awakening '...
No man ever reached to excellence in any one art or profession without having passed through the slow and painful process of study and preparation.
........................................ Horace
' We Are Asleep '...
Impossible to believe as we stare at this screen before us.. We awoke this morning from the nothingness and into the illusion of materiality.. All of this time, we firmly believe that we are awake in reality..... We pass through this day wondering why we are here.. Perhaps, instead of crying at our unknowing, We should laugh at our ignorance.... As all of the Mystic Masters have told you, " The answer is within".. Within what?.. The Heart and Mind.. This is why you are here......The mind will lead you to the 'Door' The heart will open the 'Door'.. As the Nazarene said; " Knock and the Door shall be opened".... The mind is the ego that desires to exist but still seeks freedom.... The Heart is Divine Consciousness that offers freedom to the mind..... The mind is troubled by this decision between annihilation of it's existence and the freedom that is promised by this sacrifice of existence..... Reality is beyond the mind (ego), To view Reality, the mind (ego) must dissolve into nothingness... Courage is the name given to those that fear and yet still proceed.. Are you Courageous?.. ......................namaste, thomas
' Zen '...
Zen was a reaction. Just as Buddha came into the world and spoke against the fall of Vedanta, so Buddhism lost its essence and became ritual. Zen was a reaction to that.
.............................. Frederick Lenz
' The Upanishads '...
When I read the Upanishads, which are part of Vedanta, I found a profundity of worldview that made my Christianity seem like third grade.
................................... Huston Smith
' Success in Enlightenment '...
To succeed, you must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will.
....................... Swami Vivekananda
' Two Symptoms of Enlightenment '...
According to Vedanta, there are only two symptoms of enlightenment, just two indications that a transformation is taking place within you toward a higher consciousness. The first symptom is that you stop worrying. Things don't bother you anymore. You become light hearted and full of joy. The second symptom is that you encounter more and more meaningful coincidences in your life, more and more synchronicities. And this accelerates to the point where you actually experience the miraculous.
....................................... Deepak Chopra
' Service to Others '...
Service is the highest spiritual discipline. Prayer and meditation, or knowledge of scripture and Vedanta (holy scriptures of India), cannot help you reach the goal as quickly as service can. Service has a double effect, it extinguishes the ego and gives bliss.
................................ Sathya Sai Baba
' Consciousness is Singular '...
Vedanta teaches that consciousness is singular, all happenings are played out in one universal consciousness and there is no multiplicity of selves.
.............................. Erwin Schrodinger
' Finding Happiness '...
The process of finding happiness within one's own Self may be difficult and slow but it cannot be found anywhere else.
............................... Swami Parthasarathy
' The Essence of Vedanta '...
The essence of Vedanta is that there is but one Being and that every soul is that Being in full, not a part of that Being.
.............................. Swami Vivekananda
' Solving Problems '...
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
............................. Albert Einstein
' Amazing things will Happen '...
Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen.
.......................... Conan O'Brien
' Do not Envy '...
Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others. He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind.
.......................... Gautama the Buddha
' Ears of Tolerance '...
Listen with ears of tolerance! See through the eyes of compassion! Speak with the language of love
......................... Rumi
' Worth Suffering For '...
If she's amazing, she won't be easy. If she's easy, she won't be amazing. If she's worth it, you wont give up. If you give up, you're not worthy. ... Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.
............................ Bob Marley
' Your Inner Smile ...
In ancient China, the Taoists taught that a constant inner smile, a smile to oneself, insured health, happiness and longevity. Why? Smiling to yourself is like basking in love: you become your own best friend. Living with an inner smile is to live in harmony with yourself.
.............................. Mantak Chia
' Where Time Does Not Exist '...
We see Time as the space between Darkness and Light..
When there is Only Light,
the weight of Time does not Exist..
................... thomas
' Stop All Wars Procedure '...
I would like to see every single soldier on every single side, just take off your helmet, unbuckle your kit, lay down your rifle, and set down at the side of some shady lane, and say, nope, I aint a gonna kill nobody. Plenty of rich folks wants to fight. Give them the guns.
.................................. Woody Guthrie
' Fame Dissolves '...
You're going to die. You're going to be dead. It could be 20 years, it could be tomorrow, anytime. So am I. I mean, we're just going to be gone. The world's going to go on without us. All right, now. You do your job in the face of that, and how seriously you take yourself, you decide for yourself.
........................... Bob Dylan
' Love '...
Love isn't about when you first meet. It's about the many, many years you spend together, when you're trying to keep that flame burning.
......................... Kazuo Ishiguro
' Narration '...
Narration is as much a part of human nature as breath and the circulation of the blood.... storytelling is intrinsic to biological time, which we cannot escape. Life, Pascal said, is like living in a prison from which every day fellow prisoners are taken away to be executed. We are all, like Scheherazade, under sentence of death, and we all think of our lives as narratives, with beginnings, middles and ends.
........................... A. S. Byatt
' A Fantasy World '...
We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality.
............................. Iris Murdoch
' The Important Questions '...
The most important questions in life can never be answered by anyone except oneself.
......................John Fowles
' Ashes and Dust '...
I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
............................. Jack London
' The Profound of Awakenings '...
Sometimes, the most profound of awakenings come wrapped in the quietest of moments.
................................ Stephen Crane
' Relieving Stress '...
The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.
............................. William James
' Own the Day '...
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety. Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in. Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.
...................... Ralph Waldo Emerson
' Read a Little '...
“Throw everything out of your mind. Read a little, sleep. The world will still be here when you wake up, and there'll still be everything left to do.”
........................... James Baldwin
' Truth '...
The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself. ................Saint Augustine
' Someone Loved Me '...
When I got enough confidence, the stage was gone. When I was sure of losing, I won. When I needed people the most, they left me. When I learnt to dry my tears, I found a shoulder to cry on. And when I mastered the art of hating, somebody started loving me.
..................................... William Shakespeare
' The Manifestation of the Absolute '...
A person is neither a thing nor a process but an opening through which the Absolute can manifest.
................................ Martin Heidegger
' Thoughts '...
The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Think only on those things that are in line with your principles and can bear the light of day. The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you choose, what you think, and what you do is who you become. Your integrity is your destiny ... it is the light that guides your way.
....................................... Heraclitus
' Recognition of Wisdom '...
It takes a wise man to recognize a wise man.
........................... Xenophanes
' The Source of Creation '...
The source from which existing things derive their existence is also that to which they return at their destruction.
................................. Anaximander
' Conquering the World '...
Man conquers the world by conquering himself.
....................... Zeno of Citium
' Cultivate Truth and Justice '...
There is but one thing of real value - to cultivate truth and justice, and to live without anger in the midst of lying and unjust men.
.................... Emperor Marcus Aurelius
' The Color of your Thoughts '...
The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.
.................................... Marcus Aurelius
' Creation is Endless '...
The creation of the world did not take place once and for all time, but takes place every day.
.............................. Samuel Beckett
' My Destination '...
My destination is no longer a place, rather a new way of seeing.
.............................. Marcel Proust
' A Cowardly Escape '...
War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace.
............................ Thomas Mann
' Be True to Self '...
I have no right to call myself one who knows. I was one who seeks, and I still am, but I no longer seek in the stars or in books; I'm beginning to hear the teachings of my blood pulsing within me. My story isn't pleasant, it's not sweet and harmonious like the invented stories; it tastes of folly and bewilderment, of madness and dream, like the life of all people who no longer want to lie to themselves.
............................... Hermann Hesse
' True Happiness '...
Most true happiness comes from one's inner life, from the disposition of the mind and soul. Admittedly, a good inner life is difficult to achieve, especially in these trying times. It takes reflection and contemplation and self-discipline.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, William Shirer
' Being Truthful '...
American traditions and the American ethic require us to be truthful, but the most important reason is that truth is the best propaganda and lies are the worst. To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful. It is as simple as that.
......................................... Edward R. Murrow
' My Philosophy '...
My philosophy is:...
"What people say about me, is none of my business.
I am who I am and do what I do.
I expect nothing and accept everything.
And that makes life easier.--
We live in a world where funerals are more important than the deceased, marriage is more important than LOVE, looks are more important than the SOUL.
We live in a packaging culture that despises content."
....................... Sir Anthony Hopkins
' The Soldier Prays '...
The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.
.................... General Douglas MacArthur
' The Measure of a Man '...
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
.......................... Reverand Martin Luther King, Jr.
' Negative or Positive Thoughts '...
Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results.
............................... Willie Nelson
' Total Security '...
If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom.
...................... President Dwight D. Eisenhower
' A Happy Marriage '...
A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers.
......................... Ruth Graham
' A Wonderful Play '...
I think of life itself now as a wonderful play that I've written for myself, and so my purpose is to have the utmost fun playing my part.
...................................... Shirley MacLaine
' The Fountain of Youth '...
To find joy in work is to discover the fountain of youth.
............................ Pearl S. Buck
' Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de La Motte Guyon '...
Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de La Motte Guyon (born April 13, 1648, Montargis, France—died June 9, 1717, Blois) was a French Roman Catholic mystic and writer, a central figure in the theological debates of 17th-century France through her advocacy of Quietism, an extreme passivity and indifference of the soul, even to eternal salvation, wherein she believed that one became an agent of God.
.........................................................
At age 15 she married Jacques Guyon, lord du Chesnoy, and began to raise a family, but, at the death of her husband in 1676, she turned completely toward the mystical experiences she had long felt. Led through a long cycle of personal religious developments by Barnabite Friar François Lacombe, she left her children and began travels with Lacombe to Geneva, Turin, and Grenoble (1681–86). In these cities she began to write on the suppression of individual desire and self-awareness. She also began to offer informal spiritual instruction to visitors in her home. Moreover, she claimed personal apostolic authority, an assertion that frequently aroused the suspicions of local bishops, forcing her to move on. During this period she published the most important of her many writings, Moyen court et très facile de faire oraison (1685; “Short and Very Easy Method of Prayer”), and began to write her autobiography and an extensive biblical commentary.
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In 1687 Madame Guyon moved to Paris. There her teachings faced even stronger criticism after the issuance by Pope Innocent XI of Coelestis pastor, a bull rejecting as heretical the Quietism associated with the Spanish priest Miguel de Molinos. Guyon’s detractors claimed that her writings exhibited several of the positions condemned in this bull; however, she denied any familiarity with Molinos’ teachings. Meanwhile, Lacombe was imprisoned. Guyon was arrested in 1688 but was released after a few months at the intervention of Madame de Maintenon, second wife of King Louis XIV. Maintenon also secured a teaching position for her at Saint-Cyr, a prestigious school for young noblewomen. There she began to teach her methods of silent contemplative prayer and of passive acceptance of God’s initiative in one’s moral transformation, which was in stark contrast to the traditional emphasis on the active cultivation of piety and morals.
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About the same time, Guyon attracted her greatest disciple, the influential writer (and later archbishop) Franƈois de Salignac de La Mothe-Fénelon (1651–1715). Fénelon, having found in her teachings the answers to some of his own spiritual dilemmas, became her regular correspondent. In 1693, however, Guyon lost both her position at Saint-Cyr and the favour of Maintenon after some of her students claimed that they had acquired exalted spiritual states and declared a preference for their own moral judgment, shaped by God in prayer, over obedience to conventional rules. By 1694 Fénelon’s writings, coloured by Quietism, had generated a great alarm. In the midst of complicated political and religious maneuvers, a conference met at Issy the following year, at which Fénelon defended Guyon’s teachings. Her leading critic at Issy was the prominent bishop of Meaux, Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, who preferred a more intellectual approach to theology. Bossuet also emphasized the monastic ideal of enduring hardship en route to spiritual perfection over the noncloistered, universally available mysticism that Guyon championed. Whereas Guyon’s characterization of the highest spiritual states emphasized the annihilation of the individual’s will in an act of sustained submission to the will of God, Bossuet argued that such exalted states as Guyon had taught were only rarely achievable, and he doubted that Guyon herself had experienced them. The Articles of Issy (1695) that resulted from the conference did not formally condemn Guyon’s views but rather expressed a conservative position on mystical theology that Bossuet took to be incompatible with her published writings.
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Seeking to distance herself from Guyon’s teachings, Maintenon lobbied the king to issue a warrant for Guyon’s arrest. Guyon was accordingly arrested and imprisoned again in December 1695 on the authority of the king. She remained confined in various prisons, including the Bastille, until 1703. The final part of her autobiography (which was discovered in an archive in the 1980s and published for the first time in 1992) describes her ordeals during this period, which included verbal and physical abuse, poor living conditions, denial of the sacraments, and attempted poisonings. Fénelon continued to defend her against Bossuet’s attacks but was himself officially condemned by the Roman Catholic Church in 1699.
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After she was released from prison, Guyon lived and wrote quietly at Blois. She began to correspond with an international following of like-minded mystics, especially in England, Scotland, the Netherlands, and Germany. Although she continued to correspond with Catholics, many of whom were friends and supporters (including Fénelon, with whom she communicated in secret), she also gained a following among Protestants. Her biblical commentary influenced German Pietism, and her mystical writings were widely translated and anthologized by other Protestant groups, particularly the Society of Friends (Quakers). Her writings were originally published from 1712 to 1720 (45 vol., reprinted 1767–90)......................................................... from Britannica
' Education '...
Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.
............................... Bertrand Russell
' Truth '...
Every man is fully satisfied that there is such a thing as truth, or he would not ask any question.
..................................... Charles Sanders Peirce
' The Greatest Revolution '...
The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.
...................................... William James
' Freedom '...
Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.
.......................................... Sigmund Freud
' Perfection '...
Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.
............................ Salvador Dali
' Follow your Path '...
Follow your path, and let the people talk.
................................. Dante Alighieri
' Politicians '...
What a terrible era in which idiots govern the blind.
........................... William Shakespeare
' Human '...
When you say Human,, you really mean the false belief that You are Separate from the Consciousness that Creates the Atomic Illusion of Solidity... We call this false belief... Ego................................thomas
' The Divine Creator '...
Consciousness does not just passively reflect the objective material world; it plays an active role in creating reality itself.
........................................ Stanislav Grof
' Authentic Spirituality '...
Authentic spirituality is revolutionary. It does not legitimate the world, it breaks the world; it does not console the world, it shatters it. And it does not render the self content, it renders it undone.
.................................... Ken Wilber
' Non-Duality '...
You are not separate from the whole. You are one with the sun, the earth, the air. You don’t have a life. You are life.
................................. Eckhart Tolle
' You Exist '...
When you are not happy with your life, always think that someone is happy simply because you exist
............................. Friedrich Schiller
' One who Knows '...
I have no right to call myself one who knows. I was one who seeks, and I still am, but I no longer seek in the stars or in books; I'm beginning to hear the teachings of my blood pulsing within me. My story isn't pleasant, it's not sweet and harmonious like the invented stories; it tastes of folly and bewilderment, of madness and dream, like the life of all people who no longer want to lie to themselves.
.................................. Hermann Hesse
' The Dragons in our Lives '...
Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.
................................... Rainer Maria Rilke
' My Lover and the Sky '...
My lover asks me: “What is the difference between me and the sky?” The difference, my love, Is that when you laugh, I forget about the sky
........................................ Nizar Qabbani
' Changing Opinion '...
The wise man can change his mind; the stubborn one, never.
............................... Immanuel Kant
' Continue '...
“I know you're tired but come, this is the way.”
....................... Jalalu'l-din Rumi
' The Undisturbed Balance '...
Love is the undisturbed balance that binds this universe together.
............................... Mahavatar Babaji
' Observation of Mind '...
Do not allow yourself to suppress your thoughts. Instead, let the thoughts come before you and become a sort of observer. Start observing your own mind. Do not try to escape; do not be afraid of your thinking.
................................ Rama Swami
' The Highest Yoga '...
The mind is responsible for the feelings of pleasure and pain. Control of the mind is the highest Yoga.
.................................... Sivananda
' Surrender to Reality '...
Inhale, and God approaches you. Hold the inhalation, and God remains with you. Exhale, and you approach God. Hold the exhalation, and surrender to God.
........................................... Tirumalai Krishnamacharya
' A Calm Mind '...
When the mind is calm, how quickly, how smoothly, how beautifully you will perceive everything.
............................. Paramahansa Yogananda
' Be Sincere in Thought '...
Be sincere in your thoughts, Be pure in your feelings. You will not have to run after happiness. Happiness will run after you.
.............................. Sri Chinmoy
' There is only Eternity '...
There is no end and there is no beginning. There is only eternity. Eternity can be warm. eternity can be cold and ruthless.
............................................. Frederick Lenz
' A Real Seeker After Truth '...
If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.
................................... Rene Descartes
' What is Life ? '...
What is life but an unpleasant interruption to a peaceful nonexistence.
................................. Jean-Paul Sartre
' Acknowledge Death '...
If I take death into my life, acknowledge it, and face it squarely, I will free myself from the anxiety of death and the pettiness of life - and only then will I be free to become myself.
.................................... Martin Heidegger
' Seeking Truth '...
When you seek truth, you seek God whether you know it or not.
............................... Edith Stein
' We Become What We Love '...
We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become. If we love things, we become a thing. If we love nothing, we become nothing. Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ, rather it means becoming the image of the beloved, an image disclosed through transformation. This means we are to become vessels of God's compassionate love for others.
.................................. Saint Clare of Assisi
' Divine Grace '...
If only mortals would learn how great it is to possess divine grace, how beautiful, how noble, how precious. How many riches it hides within itself, how many joys and delights! No one would complain about his cross or about troubles that may happen to him, if he would come to know the scales on which they are weighed when they are distributed to men.
............................... Saint Rose of Lima
' Jean-Paul Sartre................ French philosopher and author
Sartre took over the phenomenological method, which proposes careful, unprejudiced description of the phenomena of conscious experience, from the German philosopher Edmund Husserl and used it with great skill in three successive publications: L’Imagination (1936; Imagination: A Psychological Critique), Esquisse d’une théorie des émotions (1939; Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions), and L’Imaginaire: Psychologie phénoménologique de l’imagination (1940; The Psychology of Imagination).................. But it was above all in L’Être et le néant (1943; Being and Nothingness) that Sartre revealed himself as a philosopher of remarkable originality and depth............ Sartre places human consciousness, or no-thingness (néant), in opposition to being, or thingness (être)......... Consciousness is not-matter and by the same token escapes all determinism................... The message, with all the implications it contains, is a hopeful one; yet the incessant reminder that human endeavour is and remains useless makes the book tragic as well........................ from Britanica
' The mind is Trained '...
The mind is trained from a very young age to think that life moves from one worry to the other or from one pain to another, never from one joy to another. If you feel there is something wrong with what you are seeing, then you should look back in at yourself because what you see outside is only a reflection of what is inside you.
................................... Swami Nithyananda
' True Self-Analysis '...
Millions of people never analyze themselves. Mentally they are mechanical products of the factory of their environment, preoccupied with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, working and sleeping, and going here and there to be entertained. They don't know what or why they are seeking, nor why they never realize complete happiness and lasting satisfaction. By evading self-analysis, people go on being robots, conditioned by their environment. True self-analysis is the greatest art of progress.
................................... Paramahansa Yogananda
' The Quality of Life '...
The quality of our lives depends on the quality of our minds.
........................ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
' The Greatest Healing Energy '...
Love one another and help others to rise to the higher levels, simply by pouring out love. Love is infectious and the greatest healing energy.
...................................... Sai Baba
' Three Identities '...
You are not one person, but three: The one you think you are; The one others think you are; The one you really are.
........................... Sathya Sai Baba
' When the Ego Dies '...
All troubles come to an end when the ego dies
....................... Ramakrishna
' Never say NO '...
Never say NO, Never say, 'I cannot', for you are INFINITE. All the power is WITHIN you. You can do anything.
............................ Swami Vivekananda
' Knowledge and Wisdom '...
Knowledge is telling the past. Wisdom is predicting the future.
............................... W. Timothy Garvey
' Conflicted '...
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.
.................................... Upton Sinclair
' Humor '...
If you can be funny, it means you're intelligent. Your brain is working fast.
................................. Amber Valletta
The Source of Knowledge '...
The only source of knowledge is experience.
............................... Albert Einstein
' A New Nation '...
We have staked the whole future of our new nation, not upon the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments.
................................... President James Madison
' Kindness '...
There's a saying I read recently; I painted it on the fireplace and in my studio: "Be kind to everyone you meet, for everyone is fighting a great battle." We all are. Everyone.
........................................ Gloria Vanderbilt
' Silence '...
A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence.
................................... Leopold Stokowski
' My Own World '...
Whatever way you put it, I am here only because my world is here. When I took my first breath, my world was born with me. When I die, my world dies with me. In other words, I wasn't born into a world that was already here before me, nor do I live simply as one individual among millions of other individuals, nor do I leave everything behind to live on after me. People live thinking of themselves as members of a group or society. However, this isn't really true. Actually, I bring my own world into existence, live it out, and take it with me when I die.
.................................................... Kosho Uchiyama
' The Ultimate Truth '...
Meditation is not a way to enlightenment, Nor is it a method of achieving anything at all. It is peace itself. It is the actualization of wisdom, The ultimate truth of the oneness of all things.
........................................... Dogen
' Nobody is Normal '...
Nobody today is normal, everybody is a little bit crazy or unbalanced, people's minds are running all the time. Their perceptions of the world are partial, incomplete. They are eaten alive by their egos. They think they see, but they are mistaken; all they do is project their madness, their world, upon the world. There is no clarity, no wisdom in that!
............................................ Taisen Deshimaru
' Separation '...
Separation is the absence of Love, and Love is the absence of separation.
.................................. Ramesh S Balsekar
' Love is Always Present '...
The love that you search for everywhere is already present within you. It may be evoked by any number of people or events. But finally, you must realize you are this love. The source of all love is within you.
.......................................... Gangaji
' The Highest Understanding '...
The one who follows the thought is also a thought! The one who follows the thought IS in thought. When you know that both are thoughts, you are home. You are not at home, you ARE home. Then allow thoughts to arise and allow them to be followed. You remain as That unmoved and unconcerned Being. This is the highest understanding.
.......................................... H. W. L. Poonja
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