WRITINGS AND SAYINGS (HIGHLIGHT)
Writings Sayings
On this page, you will find selected writings and sayings, which are the expressions of profound realizations of awakened or Self-realized ones. These words might dissolve illusions and self-identifications in you, impart profound insights into your own True Nature, etc.
These and all such types of words are always only meant for this moment. Nisargadatta Maharaj expresses this truth in this way, «You experience the effect of the words and then let them go,» and, «Words are pointers. They show the direction, but they will not come along with us.» If words take you to a space without words or silence in you, then they have served their purpose and can be left behind.
Call to Realization
Know (realize) yourself!
Oracle of Delphi
The supreme calling of every human being is to «aspire» to Self-realization. All other obligations are secondary.
It is the Self that calls Itself, and none other than the Self that realizes Itself.
Anandamayi Ma
Our true nature is always present. The only thing that comes and goes is our recognition of it.
Adyashanti
Your own Self-realization is the greatest service you could render the world.
The state we call «Realization» is simply being your Self; not knowing anything or becoming anything.
If you have realized, you are that which alone is and which alone has always been. One cannot describe that state, but only be That.
Of course, we talk loosely of «Self-realization» for want of a better term.
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 which are inside us. When all of them have been given up, the Self will shine alone.
There is no greater mystery than this — that we keep seeking the Real though, in fact, we are the Real! We think that there is something hiding the Real and that this must be destroyed before the Real is gained. How ridiculous!
A day will dawn when you will laugh at all your past efforts. That day when you will laugh is also here and now!
I am not the perishable body, but the eternal Self.
You and I are the same. What I have done is surely possible for all. You are the Self now and can never be anything else. Throw your worries to the wind. Turn within and find peace.
Ramana Maharshi (Sanskrit samskaras = conditioning, imprints from the past)
One who looks outside, dreams.
One who looks inside, awakens.
Carl Gustav Jung
A man with outward courage dares to die.
A man with inner courage dares to live.
Freely according to Lao Tzu
There are only two mistakes one can make along the «road» to Truth (Reality) — not going all the way, and not starting.
All it takes is already present in man’s consciousness. Man does not need to look up to the sky but in oneself!
Freely according to the Buddha
You shall realize the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free.
Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled, and when he becomes troubled, he will be astonished, and he will rule over the all.
Jesus Christ
What we are looking for is what is looking.
St. Francis of Assisi
Truth is a pathless land.
Jiddhu Krishnamurthy
Everybody is going fast nowhere.
Osho
I have been knocking on God’s door for eons,
and when it finally opened,
I realized that I have been knocking
from the inside!
At the center of your being,
you have the answer —
you know who you are
and you know what you want.
Let yourself be silently drawn
by the strange pull
of what you really love;
it will not lead you astray.
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you —
don’t go back to sleep!
You must ask for what you really want —
don’t go back to sleep!
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch;
the door is round and open —
don’t go back to sleep!
The «way of love»
is not a subtle argument.
The door there is devastation.
Birds make great sky-circles
of their freedom.
How do they learn it?
They fall . . .
And falling,
they are given wings.
Rumi
Reality is . . .
Reality is an illusion, albeit (although) a very persistent one.
(Man) experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest («the world» and «the others») — a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.
Albert Einstein
One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have christened «reality» is an even greater illusion than the world of dreams.
Salvador Dali
Truly, this earthly life is just a game and a joke.
Mohammed
The world is unreal. Only Brahman is real. The world is Brahman.
Shankara (Sanskrit Brahman = the Real, the Absolute, THIS)
Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists.
A Course in Miracles
The world is not illusory insofar as it is an expression of the unmanifest Absolute. What is indeed illusory is your mistaken identity as an independent entity.
Manifestation is like a movie.
Consciousness has written the script,
Consciousness has produced the movie,
Consciousness has directed the movie,
Consciousness has played all the roles,
and Consciousness is witnessing the movie
through billions of body-mind organisms.
You think you are seeing the movie.
Could you see the movie
if Consciousness was not there?
All there is is Consciousness.
Ramesh Balsekar
The whole movie is already in the box.
Alexander Trampitsch
Everything is Nothing, with a twist.
Kurt Vonnegut
Everyone is worried about how they will live; but life in every detail has already happened.
Make this your mantra, say it every moment: «Life has already happened in every detail.» And stop worrying. Be always happy.
Enjoy how Aliveness is dancing in your Space. Stand still and «feel». Mmmm… pure Bliss.
Like a movie that has already been filmed and you watch it, life is similar.
It is utterly stupid to think that by watching a film you will influence the script.
Enjoy Aliveness dancing in your Space.
Parabrahman Xuna
Things are not what they appear to be, nor are they otherwise.
Freely according to the Buddha
The Real is behind and beyond words, incommunicable, directly experienced, explosive in its effect on the mind. It is easily had when nothing else is wanted.
Parabrahman is without qualities and beyond consciousness.
The Real is beyond the subjective and the objective, beyond all levels, beyond every distinction. Most definitely, it is not their origin, source, or root. These come from ignorance of the Real, not from the Real itself, which is indescribable, beyond being and non-being.
Nisargadatta Maharaj (Sanskrit Parabrahman = the all-transcending Absolute, the Unmanifest, the Real, THIS)
That which can be perceived is not the timeless Tao.
That which can be named is not the nameless One.
The Source of heaven and earth is without form or substance.
Naming creates the ten thousand (countless) things.
When desire (or rather, craving) is absent, the mystery is obvious.
When desire occurs, creation unfolds.
Mystery and creation arise from the same Source.
The Source is Emptiness (Nothingness).
Void within void —
the realm of Tao.
Refrain from regarding the Tao as
extraordinary, sublime, or transcendental.
As the Tao, it is beyond all that.
It is simply the direct, everything underlying,
and perfect Truth (Reality).
Freely according to Lao Tzu (Chin. Tao, i.e., Dao = the «Way;» the Real, the Absolute, THIS)
Nothing really exists.
The Unmanifest — YOU — explosively expresses Its inexhaustible creative potential in the play or dance of countless life forms and experiences.
The Unmanifest is the Unknowable, Unthinkable, Unspeakable. It is what «is», «is not» and at the same time beyond and before both.
Elias
Reality is beyond speech and thought. Only that which can be expressed in words is being said. But what cannot be put into language is indeed THAT WHICH IS.
Anandamayi Ma
Unlearning is True «Learning»
Truth is very simple, don’t complicate it.
Whatever you understand is a concept only.
Papaji
Do not try to understand! It is enough if you don’t misunderstand.
The ultimate point of view is that there is nothing to understand. So when we try to understand, we are only indulging in the acrobatics of the mind. Whatever you have understood, you are not. Why are you getting lost in concepts? You are not what you know. You are the knower.
To live in the known is bondage. To live in the unknown is liberation.
Nisargadatta Maharaj
Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it — not even if I have said it — unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.
Freely according to the Buddha
The attachment to beliefs is the greatest shackle.
To be free is to know that you do not know.
Wu Hsin
Whenever you think that you know something, you live in poverty.
I’m living in such a way that I don’t need to know anything anymore, no more.
When you fall in love with the unknown, you are free.
Byron Katie
Along with thoughts, all things appear.
Along with thoughts, all things disappear.
Here it is — right now.
Start thinking about it and you miss it.
Not knowing is the most intimate.
Huang Po
You can only learn that what you are looking for is yourself. All learning is only remembering something that is already there and is only waiting for your discovery. All learning is only the clearing away of ballast until a luminous inner silence remains — until you realize that you yourself are the source of peace and love.
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
I know that I know nothing.
Socrates
What the Bleep Do We Know!?
Movie title
You never know.
Proverb
He who knows does not speak.
He who speaks does not know.
To know that you do not know is clarity.
To think that you know is a sickness.
Being sick of sickness,
you attain clarity.
Freely according to Lao Tzu
The students were absorbed in a discussion of Lao Tzu’s dictum, «Those who know do not say. Those who say do not know.»
When the master entered, they asked him exactly what the words meant. The master said, «Which of you knows the fragrance of a rose?»
All of them knew. Then he said, «Put it into words.»
All of them were silent.
Anthony de Mello
There is a great space in which this moment takes place. There is a great silence that is listening to the thoughts.
If you want to know something, go elsewhere. If you want to un-know everything, then sit and listen.
Start with, «I don’t know.» Why not just start where you’ll end up anyway?
Adyashanti
Eventually, all that one has learned will have to be forgotten.
There is neither creation nor destruction,
neither destiny nor free will,
neither path nor achievement.
This is the final truth.
Ramana Maharshi
Osho once mentioned an encounter of a German scholar with Ramana Maharshi:
«A man came to Ramana Maharshi and said, «I have come from very far, somewhere in Germany, and I have come to learn from you.»
Ramana replied, «Then you go elsewhere, because here we teach unlearning. Learning is not our way. You go elsewhere.»
He may have been a German scholar, he may have known the Vedas, Upanishads, it may have been because of his learning that he became interested in Ramana. Reading the Upanishads, the desire arises to find a man who knows. Moving through the pages of the Vedas one becomes enchanted, charmed, magnetized, hypnotized. One starts seeking a man who is a seer of whom the Vedas talk, a man of the caliber of the seers of the Upanishads — a man who knows. He may have come because of the scriptures.
But you don’t know the man who knows. He is always against scriptures. Scriptures may lead to him, but he will tell you to drop all scriptures. The ladder through which you have come — he will say, «Throw it! Now that you have reached me there is no need for Vedas and Upanishads and Korans; you drop them! Now I am here, alive.»
Jesus says: «I am truth, no need to bring scriptures here.»
Ramana said, «Then you go elsewhere, because here we teach unlearning. If you are ready to unlearn, be here. If you have come to learn more, then this is not the right place. Then go somewhere else.»
Universities exist for learning. When you come to me, come to unlearn. This is a university for unlearning, a university to create no-mind, a university where whatsoever you know will be taken away.
All your knowledge has to be dropped so that you become knowing, so you get a perfection, a clarity, so that your eyes are not filled with theses, or theories, with prejudices, concepts; so your eyes have a clarity, an absolute clarity and transparency, so that you can see.
The Truth is already there. It has always been there.»
In Silence lies the Truth.
Elias
«Die Before You Die»
Die before you die and be completely dead. Then do whatever you want — it’s all good.
Wu Men
If you don’t want to die in the future, you should die now. Because you die only once, not twice.
Hakuin Ekaku
Everything that comes from birth undoes itself in liberation.
Jen Smith
A thousand times we die in one life. We crumble, break and tear apart until the layers of illusion are burned away and all that is left is the truth of who and what we really are.
Teal Scott
Make no mistake about it. Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It’s seeing through the facade of pretense (self-deception, conception, illusion). It’s the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true.
Adyashanti
Realization is not the acquisition of anything new, nor is it a new faculty. It is only the removal of all camouflage.
Ramana Maharshi
Disillusion is the greatest gift I can give you. … The word «disillusion» is literally «freeing from illusion.»
Dan Millman
Who is thinking in terms of transformation, changing from one state to another, in terms of self-improvement? Surely, it is nothing other than an appearance in consciousness, a character in a movie, an individual in a dream — a dreamed pseudo-entity considering itself subject to the workings of «karma». How could such a dreamed character «perfect» itself into anything other than its dreamed self? How could a shadow «perfect» itself into its substance? How could there be any awakening from the dream, except for the dreamer to resolve the true identity of the Source of the dream, the «manifestation»?
Nisargadatta Maharaj
Enlightenment is the ego’s ultimate disappointment.
Disappointment results from the removal of illusion.
As long as we follow a spiritual approach promising salvation, miracles, liberation, then we are bound by the «golden chain of spirituality.» Such a chain might be beautiful to wear, with its inlaid jewels and intricate carvings, but nevertheless, it imprisons us. People think they can wear the golden chain for decoration without being imprisoned by it, but they are deceiving themselves. As long as one’ approach to spirituality is based upon enriching ego, then it is spiritual materialism, a suicidal process rather than a creative one. All the promises we have heard are pure seduction. We expect the teachings to solve all our problems; we expect to be provided with magical means to deal with our depressions, our aggressions, our sexual hangups. But to our surprise we begin to realize that this is not going to happen. It is very disappointing to realize that we must work on ourselves and our suffering rather than depend upon a savior or the magical power of yogic techniques. It is disappointing to realize that we have to give up our expectations rather than build on the basis of our preconceptions. We must allow ourselves to be disappointed, which means the surrendering of «me-ness», my achievement. We would like to watch ourselves «attain» enlightenment, watch our disciples celebrating, worshiping, throwing flowers at us, with miracles and earthquakes occurring and gods and angels singing and so forth. This never happens. The «attainment» of enlightenment from ego’s point of view is extreme death, the death of self, the death of «me and mine», the death of the watcher. It is the ultimate and final disappointment. Treading the spiritual path is painful. It is a constant unmasking, peeling off of layer after layer of masks. It involves insult after insult.
Meditation is not a matter of trying to «achieve» ecstasy, spiritual bliss, or tranquillity, nor is it attempting to become a better person. It is simply the creation of a space in which we are able to expose and undo our neurotic games, our self-deceptions, our hidden fears and hopes.
Chögyam Trungpa
Hope is for fools. Dreams are for idiots. Drop your hopes. Kill your dreams. Live in the abyss (mystery, nothingness) of not knowing (only don’t know). That will bring a swift end to all that you know, to everything you hold dear.
As the Absolute rides through your town, it announces, «I bring a sword. I am not here to help you sleep. I am here to help you die. Behold, you are already dead. This is Nirvana.»
«I can guarantee that you will «attain» spiritual liberation in this lifetime. You must be willing to surrender unconditionally to me from this point forward. Anything less than total surrender is unacceptable.»
Ramaji in his book «1000» (Sanskrit Nirvana = to cease blowing; Nothingness, Reality, THIS)
«Kill» everything that you’re able to «kill» and be THAT which always remains, which isn’t able to «kill» Itself. That’s neti, neti, neti, neti, neti. That’s, in fact, always Kāli: Chop, chop, chop, chop … Chop until you drop!
Karl Renz (Sanskrit neti neti = not this, not this; Sanskrit Kāli = the Divine Mother in the form of the destroyer of ignorance or «the ego» and of the bestower of awakening or liberation)
«Kāli, the Destroyer» by Reimund Kästner:
Destruction is in the air… You only have to keep your eyes open… and see… Seeing, really looking is now called for… There is no need for questions, just watch… Whether you watch TV… go on the internet, read the newspaper… or otherwise let the media cater to you… It’s obvious… It will also be noticeable in your environment… if you are receptive to the power of Kali… Kali is always portrayed as so terrifying… so cruel… Yet she only takes away everything that doesn’t belong to you anyway…
What really belongs to you, she leaves you… She is merciful… You have to die, there is no way around it… Kali holds your hand and says, «Come, I’ll help you… but don’t be half-hearted… I don’t do things half-heartedly… With Me, you die completely or not at all…» But man is so attached to what he thinks he is… that his vision for what is essential is totally obscured… Kali cleans your glasses, so to speak… and provides you with the vision… of Truth… beyond all imagination… It is a destructive process full of pain and suffering… But this is inevitable… Having walked through this fire of pain and agony… you don’t cling to anything anymore… Life is a different one… I no longer live in my personal world… that I’ve made up as I went along…
No, this world of my personal story… it has to die… Kali makes this clear to you… She will not allow any compromise here… When you pay homage to the goddess Kali, it is about nothing more or less than «yourself»… You will have to leave behind everything you considered worthwhile… Everything… and much more… yourself… Sacrifice yourself to Her and She will eat you with skin and hair… Nothing will be left of you… nothing at all… When all your past is extinguished… what you thought was your life… your cherished ideas… your addiction to live… to dream… When all this is gone… nothing remains but THAT which has always been…
A life in its natural «form»… without any meaning… a meaningless life, if you will… When you unite with Kali, it will be a union of loss… you will lose everything you thought you possessed… Kali gives you nothing… She takes everything from you… The mind, in the form of the personal «thinker», promises you all sorts of things… Kali promises you nothing at all… she also takes away the last promise… and the last illusion… She wants you naked… more than any lover or beloved has ever seen you naked… Beyond thought is the real nakedness… a nakedness that is witnessed by those who let go of themselves… if they are destined to…
Kali is a jealous lover… She doesn’t tolerate anything besides Herself… Once you have revealed yourself to Her, She will not accept any postponement… You have no chance to escape Her… wherever you are… She will find you… because She knows your every move… She knows all your thoughts… every feeling… just everything about you… Kali… if she has chosen you, then be prepared… You have no choice… face this change joyfully… or suffer… You have already suffered enough, you «little person», who believed in having your own life, being able to decide for yourself… Kali laughs at you… She laughs at you and lets you know… Nothing, absolutely nothing is in your hands… You don’t even exist… When you receive the grace of Goddess Kali, you understand that this change, this destruction, is life itself… It renews itself in every moment… Tabula Rasa… the complete wiping clean of the slate of life is necessary to advance the evolution of life… The old cannot endure… this is not intended… Only constant change makes it possible for new life to emerge… It is an eternal cycle and new beginning… which is actually not a new beginning at all… It arises in this moment… again and again… it appears… and disappears again… But the mind, in the form of the thoughts of a «personal thinker», holds on to everything… and then takes itself for it… This is the illusion… the (self-)delusion, which we all are addicted to… We think that we are… yet we are only what we think… Just thoughts, nothing more… And these are not even personal…
Is Kali cruel just because she takes away our illusions? … No… She is the revelation of Truth… the blessing of everyone who wants to be freed from the burden of their sorrowful life… And those who believe in living a happy and contented life… for them it will be very painful to meet Kali… The touch of Kali is absolute liberation… The liberation from any illusion and imagination… the liberation from any belief…
Naked… and only perfectly naked… She wants You… goddess Kali… She loves to see You in perfect innocence… You look at Her… and You know nothing… nothing at all… and in that not-knowing, She smiles at You and says, «Take My hand… I will lead You… I love You…»
Enlightenment is disappointment … as long as there is anything left to be disappointed.
With the falling away of pretense in every possible area of life, the core of your being appears and shines forth ever more clearly with all its infinite facets, aspects, and possibilities. As painful as this disappointment may be, it’s your great happiness.
And goes deeper and deeper … There’s always something that doesn’t want to «die».
Gunnar Gressl
10000 times you may «die» … Until you’re able to love yourself absolutely nuts!
Alexander Trampitsch
Self-love, Happiness, and the Heart
All love of this world is built on self-love.
Meister Eckhart
All love can only begin with love for oneself.
Embracing yourself as you are is the first step and the last step. Whoever you are, you are unique. The universe has made you like that, God has made you like that.
Sri Bhagavan
No one deserves your love more than yourself.
The Buddha
The first step is to learn to love ourselves, make friends with ourselves and no more torture ourselves.
Chögyam Trungpa
Please be kind to yourself. Love yourself, even with your imperfections and your humanness. Let your guilt go, and you will see yourself in a completely new light. You will see others anew as well. And you will find love, and forgiveness, and compassion.
The biggest embrace of love you’ll ever make is to embrace yourself completely. Then you’ll realize you have just embraced the whole universe, and everything and everybody in it.
Adyashanti
He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.
Marcus Aurelius
Be kinder to yourself, and then let your kindness flood the world.
Pema Chödrön
Your ability to love another person depends on your ability to love yourself.
The moment you understand the importance of loving yourself, you will stop hurting others.
We have a tendency to think in terms of doing and not in terms of being. We think that when we are not doing anything, we are wasting our time. But that is not true. Our time is first of all for us to be. To be what? To be alive, to be peaceful, to be joyful, to be loving. And that is what the world needs most.
Smile, breathe and go slowly.
Breathe, you are online.
Breathe, you are alive.
Thich Nath Hanh
Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.
Chinese proverb
Calmness is good for the heart.
Elias
A heart at peace gives life to the body.
Proverbs 14:30
It may take a little self-discipline — be simple, be kind, stay rested. Attend to your own inner health and happiness.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Joy is the inevitable result of gentleness.
M-4 V.1
1. Love and embrace yourself as you are.
2. Love and embrace «others» as they are.
Self-love is not that much of a feeling but, first of all, is being mindful, kind and gentle in dealing with yourself.
Actually, you don’t need love from «others». Loving and accepting yourself completely is all that’s really needed.
Life loves you unconditionally anyway. How about you?
Elias
To be able to find peace, you must be at peace with yourself first, and to truly enjoy life, you must enjoy who you are.
Unknown
Don’t seek happiness. If you seek it, you won’t find it because seeking is the antithesis of happiness. Happiness is ever elusive, but freedom from unhappiness is «attainable» now, by facing what is — rather than making up stories about it. Unhappiness covers up your natural state of wellbeing and inner peace, the source of true happiness.
Eckhart Tolle
Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.
Chuang Tzu
Happiness is permanent. It is always there. What comes and goes is unhappiness.
Papaji
True happiness is uncaused, and this cannot disappear for lack of stimulation. It is not the opposite of sorrow, it includes all sorrow and suffering.
Nisargadatta Maharaj
We have tried everything to get rid of suffering. We have gone everywhere to get rid of suffering. We have bought everything to get rid of it. We have ingested everything to get rid of it. Finally, when one has tried enough, there arises the possibility of spiritual maturity with the willingness to stop the futile attempt to get rid of it and, instead, to actually experience suffering. In that momentous instant, there is the realization of that which is beyond suffering, of that which is untouched by suffering. There is the realization of who one truly is.
The willingness to suffer fully, even for an instant, without trying to escape or be safe, means that suffering is no longer an obstacle to the full surrender into the mystery of existence.
Gangaji
If you want the moon,
do not hide from the night.
If you want a rose,
do not run from the thorns.
If you want love,
do not hide from yourself.
This «being human» is a guesthouse.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness —
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice —
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
Those pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them.
Know that one day your pain will become your cure.
The cure for the pain is in the pain.
The wound is the place where the light enters you.
Rumi
Life has a way of finding the wound.
This is not to be hurtful, nor unkind,
but so that we may heal.
What could be more Loving than this!
Prudence Prajna
Our vulnerability will save us! Our wounds will heal us! The «Love and Light and Bliss» spirituality hasn’t a damn clue.
Jeff Foster
True healing is not a state where we become liberated from feeling, but freer and more flexible to experience it more fully.
Matt Licata
There is no such thing as a negative emotion. Every emotion contains a great light. An emotion is only «negative» as long as it gets stuck, and it is immediately «positive» if you use it as a stepping stone for transformation. Follow the full lesson of your most difficult emotions, and you will always see that they are essentially a source of liberation, growth, and happiness.
Shai Tubali
Grief, I’ve learned, is really just love. It’s all the love you want to give but cannot. All of that unspent love gathers in the corners of your eyes, the lump of your throat, and in the hollow part of your chest. Grief is just love with no place to go.
Jamie Anderson
Love is what remains when everything else goes.
If only because it was never absent. Conditional love is present or absent, but true love is. In the total disenchantment is love, and that love knows nothing at all. The word «love» is alien to it, as are all other words. It is beyond imagination. It is timeless, and in timelessness, it knows neither itself nor others.
All that love actually wants — to put it this way — is to be revealed. This is only possible by forgetting her unconditional nature. By forgetting it is looking for itself, and looking for itself, it creates one object after another and always encounters itself only without knowing it.
How great is the joy when the veil of illusion lifts and love falls back to itself. This is the case every time neither the person nor the form is seen, but their foundation. This Self-realization is so delicate, so fulfilling — you never want to leave this place. Once you have sniffed it, there is no stopping for love — until what is not real is completely annihilated. Only when everything that is not love is destroyed true love emerges, and it shines brighter than any star.
Love in its absolute unconditional nature is so appealing that all objects in it burn like moths in a flame. You become this love, whether you like it or not. With skin and hair, she burns you until nothing is left of you. Just this love is real. Anything else are the games and ideas of a mind that only believes to know itself and nothing else.
When all masks have fallen, nothing but love is seen.
ReiMo
To free your heart from all burdens, would that not be wonderful? In any case, it sounds wonderful, and yet it is nothing but another miserable attempt to heal something that is already intact.
It is not the heart that has built up the walls that have impeded the heart. The heart has nothing to do with it.
The belief that there is something that needs release creates an invisible wall. And with every other belief, we also believe that we need to barricade even more.
… Every heartbreak undoes something. So I gladly let my heart break, for it is not my heart that breaks, but the walls and burdens.
Sandra Sarah Devi
The broken heart is a widespread myth. The heart cannot break. What can break is the «ego,» and when the «ego» actually collapses, something miraculous happens — the heart receives much more love than before.
To conclude — you may suffer a lot, but not a broken heart. The very term implies an impossibility.
Anssi Antila
Do not try «to open your heart» now. That would be a subtle movement of aggression towards your immediate embodied experience. Never tell a closed heart it must be more open. It will shut more tightly to protect itself, feeling your resistance. A heart unfurls only when conditions are right. Your demand for openness invites closure. This is the supreme intelligence of the heart.
Instead, bow to the heart in its current state. If it’s closed, let it be closed. Sanctify the closure. Make it safe, safe even to feel unsafe. Trust that when the heart is ready, and not a moment before, it will open — like a flower in the warmth of the sun. There is no rush for the heart.
Trust the opening and the closing too, the expansion and the contraction. This is the heart’s way of breathing — safe, unsafe, safe, unsafe — the beautiful fragility of being human. And all is held in the most perfect love.
Jeff Foster with Maria de la Noval
Remember, your heart is not your heart. It’s simply a door to something far beyond «you».
God Dieux
Call it by any name — «God,» «Self,» «the Heart,» or «the seat of consciousness» — it’s all the same. The point to be grasped is this, that «Heart» means the very core of one’s being — the center, without which there is nothing whatsoever.
The whole universe is within the body, the whole body is within the Heart. Thus the Heart is the core of the whole universe. And again — the world is nothing but the mind, the mind is nothing but the Heart. Therefore, the Heart encompasses everything.
Ramana Maharshi
The Boundless Heart is the Heart that’s associated more with our deeper True Nature.
The human heart is that part of us that can go into protection or feel closed.
Adyashanti
What You Are is (by far) beyond what appears, so that you can’t make Its becoming Self-evident dependent on a so-called «heart-opening» or on any other physical or psychic phenomenon.
Werner Ablass
Tip: More on this subject is available in the blog posts here, here, here, here, here, and here, among others.
The Natural «State»
The ultimate Truth (Reality) is so simple. It is nothing more than being in the pristine (natural) state. This is all that needs to be said.
Although it (the «I» or «ego») sets out for this great adventure (of Self-realization), it does so only to get lost on the journey.
Ramana Maharshi
When you realize Who You Are, all your attempts to get something better so that you can be something better are seen in all their absurdity. A great, deep release follows. This is the exquisite release of finally surrendering to the Truth of Yourself, the Truth of Your Being.
Gangaji
Tat Tvam Asi — You are THIS.
Om So Ham — I am THIS.
Om Tat Sat — THIS IS IT.
The Upanishads
I am what I’ve been looking for.
Elias
I Am That I Am.
Moses
I am the Light that stands above all things. I am the all — the all has come out of me and has come to me. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up a stone and you will find me there.
I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
I and the Father are one.
Jesus Christ
There is oneness and no more.
Not Christian or Jew or Muslim,
not Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi, or Zen.
Not any religion or cultural system.
I am not from the East
or the West,
not out of the ocean
or up from the ground.
I am not natural or ethereal,
not composed of elements at all.
I do not exist,
am not an entity in this world
or in the next.
I did not descend from Adam and Eve
or any origin story.
My place is placeless,
a trace of the traceless.
Neither body nor soul.
I belong to the Beloved,
have seen the two worlds as one
and that one call to and to know:
First, last, outer, inner —
what is left is only this
breath-breathing human being.
My scarf, my coat and my turban:
A penny was offered to me for them.
My name, praised all over the world —
no one, no one, no one —
for a penny it’s yours.
Rumi
In fact, «you» are never there.
Freely according to Narasimha Kumar
There is pain, but no owner of it.
There are actions, but no doer thereof.
There is salvation, but no one to be redeemed.
There is the Way, but no one walking to be found.
By «attaining» unexcelled perfect enlightenment, I haven’t attained a single thing.
Gate Gate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha! — Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone beyond going, awakened! What a blessing!
How wonderful! How wonderful! All things are perfect just the way they are!
Freely according to the Buddha
For me, enlightenment is the dropping off of imagination. The future is unknown. The natural state is not knowing. In it, everything appears as it is — perfect.
Gunnar Gressl
Without all these ideas of how it should be, you find an inner freedom that you can’t even imagine in your wildest dreams.
World Wanderer
Since everything is just an apparition, having nothing to do with good or bad, with acceptance or rejection, one might as well burst out laughing!
Longchenpa
«The End of Spirituality» by Jeff Foster:
«My yoga mat has disappeared into the ground under my feet.
My ashram has become the coffee counter, a bad joke exchanged with the barista, a friendly smile creeping over a frozen face, and the whole world willing us along.
My temple is the shopping mall, the dentist’s waiting room, the empty meadow in the morning with its soft yellow light and virginal air.
My guru is the incubating roar in the belly, the melancholy of the evening and the hope and despair of raw existence itself.
Nothing needs to be added.
My enlightenment is the ordinary moment, this mundane experience drenched in the sweet nectar of my own attention.
My origin is the breath and the breath is my destination.
My lineage is the hungry cat greeting me on my evening walk, ambling beside me awhile, rubbing her fur against my shin. Her fur soft like the cashmere blanket grandma used to wrap around us as the nights came in early, fur becoming skin, and the cat nonchalantly moving on to peruse a discarded sandwich wrapper, and me walking on.
My spirituality is deep in the earth; it is in the mud, the heat, the bowels, the awkward and the inconvenient, the cry for mother and the courage to penetrate unexplored regions of the psyche. It is the yearning for home and the happily exhausted return.
My bliss is nothing the mind could ever grasp, not in a billion years of searching.
My joy is simple, like those who have lived a full life and are ready to die.
I lie down in the meadow, my backpack my pillow, my hands entering into the silky, sticky grass. My entire life reduced to a single thought and memory and momentary vision; and then that is gone too, and I am gone with it all, replaced by the meadow itself, its soft yellow light and its clean invigorating air, its hope and its promise, its fullness and its mercy.
Do not look for me. You will not find me here, or recognize me if you do. I am invisible because I have become all that is seen and all that is known and unknown still.
I do not practice spirituality. I have been destroyed, deconstructed, de-boned and born again, reconstituted as man, formless as form. I have been recreated inseparable from this ordinariness, resurrected with the birds belly laughing on the electric wires at dawn.»
Self-realization or enlightenment is nothing more than the deepest possible understanding that there is no individual doer of any action, neither you nor anyone else! Also, you are not the thinker of any thought, nor the experiencer of any experience. It all happens!
Ramesh Balsekar
Everything just happens automatically, and this is the last thing that the mind wants to hear. The whole thing is all spontaneous.
What is this loyalty to your time-bound identity when you could rest in your timelessness with joy?
Just stay quiet and empty. Let life play.
Mooji
Stop trying to define who you are and just be.
Cara Delevingne
Just be, whatever is going on.
Poornima
When you throw out all the concepts, including your primary concept («I am»), then whatever is, is. Stay put in quietude (stillness).
Once you are quiet, things will begin to happen spontaneously and quite naturally without any interference on your part.
All will happen by itself. You need not do anything. Only don’t prevent it.
There is no doer. There is no creator of the manifest world and the universe. There is no enjoyer. Everything is happening spontaneously.
The final answer is this: Nothing is. All is a momentary appearance in the field of the universal consciousness. Continuity as name and form is a mental formation (imagination) only, easy to dispel (to see through).
I don’t ask anybody to follow any particular path. I just tell them to be what they are — in their natural, spontaneous state.
Whatever you may hear, see or think of, I am not that.
My state is that which never felt the creation and dissolution of the universe. I have not yet expounded on this part. I remain untouched through the creation and dissolution of the universe.
Nisargadatta Maharaj
Whatever is destined not to happen will not happen — try as you may. Whatever is destined to happen will happen — do what you may to prevent it. This is certain. The best course, therefore, is to remain silent.
Remain still, with the conviction that the Self shines as everything yet nothing — within, without, and everywhere.
Abide as the Self at all times.
Be still.
Ramana Maharshi
Forget what can be forgotten and know yourself to be that which can never be forgotten!
You are already THAT — not the physical, emotional, or mental. Put those forms aside, and find out what remains and what it needs.
Nothing ever happened.
… So stay with (in) the Unknown, the Unchanging, the Truth (Reality).
Keep quiet.
Papaji
When you are in deep sleep, you are in your Real Nature. When you are in deep sorrow, you are in your Real Nature. When you are in extreme dispassion, or when you are terror-stricken, you are in your Real Nature. When you are in a heated logical argument, you are in your Real Nature. When you come to the end of all activity (what is called «death»), you are in your Real Nature. In all these experiences you stand divested of even the idea of a body or mind, and when you transcend the mind, you are always in your Real Nature.
Atmananda
«Father, there is little to tell.» She spread her graceful hands in a deprecatory gesture. «My consciousness has never associated itself with this temporary body. Before I came on this earth, father, I was the same. As a little girl, I was the same. I grew into womanhood, but still, I was the same. When the family in which I had been born made arrangements to have this body married, I was the same … And, father, in front of you now, I am the same. Ever afterward, though the dance of creation changes around me in the hall of eternity, I shall be the same.»
Anandamayi Ma
I don’t know who I am anymore. I don’t know what I am anymore. I wanted to be a lot, all my life. Sometimes this, sometimes that. Now I am nothing anymore, and in this Nothingness, I find that I am everything.
Regina Bergelt
To see that I am nothing is wisdom. To see that I am everything is love. Between the two my life moves.
The Real is simple, open, clear and kind, beautiful and joyous. It is completely free of contradictions. It is ever new, ever fresh, endlessly creative. Being and non-being, life and death, all distinctions merge in it.
… Life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple, in itself an ecstasy.
You can know It in action only. Express It in daily life and Its light will grow ever brighter.
Nisargadatta Maharaj
Live 200% in life: 100% inner fulfillment of the silent, absolute level of life and 100% abundance of achievement and happiness in the outer field of relative life.
We do not think of life, we live it! We do not think of ourselves too much; we do not think of others too much. We just behave in a natural way.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
When life asked for a thousand years, «Why do you live?» If it answered at all, it would simply say, «I live to live!» That is because life is living for its own sake, welling out of its own. That is why it lives without reason — it lives only itself! And if you ask a true human being who works for his own reason, «Why do you work your works?» If he answered correctly, he would merely say, «I work to work.»
Meister Eckhart
… To return to a normal, free life.
Margarita Rothhaar
Greatness is always
built on this foundation —
the ability
to appear, speak and act
as the most common man.
Hafiz
Nothing is. Everything is.
Cheers! Enjoy life.
… And then there is nothing to do.
Giving, giving, giving —
this is living!
Madhukar
Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.
After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.
Before seeking enlightenment, mountains were mountains and rivers were rivers.
When seeking enlightenment, mountains were no longer mountains and rivers no longer rivers.
Now that enlightenment has been realized, mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers again.
When you get there, there isn’t any «there» there.
There is really nothing you should be
and there is nothing you should do.
There is really nothing you should have
and there is nothing you should know.
There is really nothing you should become —
but it helps to understand that fire burns,
and when it rains, the earth gets wet.
When you are hungry, eat.
When you are tired, sleep.
… Coping with life in peace.
Freely according to the Zen masters
My daily activities are not unusual,
I am just naturally in harmony with them.
Grasping nothing, discarding nothing.
Supernatural power and marvelous activity —
drawing water and carrying firewood.
When the mind is at peace,
the world, too, is at peace.
Nothing real, nothing absent.
Not holding on to the world,
not getting stuck in the void,
you are neither holy nor wise —
just an ordinary guy
who has completed his work.
Layman Pang
To come in harmony with «Suchness»,
see everything as «not-two».
In this «not-two», nothing is separate,
nothing is left out.
In all places and times,
enlightenment means becoming
this single Truth.
Words! The Tao is beyond words.
Yesterday never happened.
Tomorrow never will.
Today does not exist.
Seng Tsan in «Hsin Hsin Ming» (or «Sinjinmei» or «Faith Mind Sutra;» Chin. Tao, i.e., Dao = the «Way»; the Real, the Absolute, THIS)
Many words are quickly exhausted. Hold fast to the core.
Freely according to Lao Tzu
… Thereafter, «the pure speech about the Self» which has taken place before appears almost blasphemous … and is sheer ignorance and unknowingness.
Alexander Trampitsch
Ultimate Truth is wordless, the silence within the silence.
Pirke Avot
… What then remains is soooo without words.
Gunnar Gressl
Where can I find a man who has forgotten words? I’d like to have a word with him.
Chuang Tzu
Death and Dying
The question shouldn’t be, «Is there a life after death?», but, «Is there a life before death?»
Kate Miller
Birth is not a beginning;
death is not an end.
There is an existence without limitation;
there is a continuity without a starting point.
Chuang Tzu
Beings were unmanifest in the beginning;
they become manifest between birth and death;
on death, they again become unmanifest.
Bhagavad Gita
Nobody dies; death means finished. For example, a drop of water when it evaporates has become infinite.
There is no death for anything. Everything finishes to become infinite.
There is no personality, so there is no question of birth, life, or death. What remains is just consciousness without name or form.
The ignorant one will get very frightened at the moment of death — he is struggling — but for the gyani it is the happiest moment.
Nisargadatta Maharaj (Sanskrit Gyani = awakened one, sage)
Maharaj rejects the idea of re-birth or re-incarnation out of hand, and the basis for such rejection is so simple that it humbles us — «The entity which is supposed to be re-born does not exist,» except as a mere concept! How can a concept be re-born?
Maharaj, in all innocence, asks the protagonist of re-birth, «Please, I want to know, who is it that would be re-born?» The body «dies», and, after death, is demolished — buried or cremated — as quickly as possible. The body, in other words, has been irreparably, irretrievably, irrevocably destroyed. That body, therefore, which was an objective thing, cannot be re-born. How then can anything non-objective like the life-force (the breath), which, on the death of the body, merged with the air outside, or the consciousness which merged with the Impersonal Consciousness, be re-born either?
Perhaps, says Maharaj, you will say that the entity concerned will be re-born. But that would be utterly ridiculous. You do know that the «entity» is nothing but a concept, a hallucination that arises when consciousness mistakenly identifies itself with a particular form.
How did the idea of re-birth arise at all? It was perhaps conceived as some sort of an acceptable working theory to satisfy the simpler people who were not intelligent enough to think beyond the parameters of the manifested world.
Ramesh Balsekar in «Pointers From Nisargadatta Maharaj»
Life is a dream, and death means waking up.
For the awakened one, death is a celebration.
On death, you leave behind your mortal garment and remain as the unknowable Mystery that you are.
Death is bliss.
All things appear from Nothingness, play and dance for a while, and vanish back into Nothingness.
Elias
From Nothing comes everything
and returns to Nothing.
Alex
Blessed is he who stands in the beginning! He shall know the end, and shall not taste death.
Jesus Christ
After your death, you will be what you were before your birth.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Once a disciple came to a Zen master and asked, «Master, when our time to die has come, how should we act?» The Zen master replied, «When you die, just die.»
There is this beautiful story about a Zen master. He was talking to his disciples about how beautiful death is. After finishing his talk he just leaned back on his chair and died.
Death ends everything and there is no suffering.
Parabrahman Xuna
At death, there is only liberation. It’s just more «chic» to see liberation while you are alive.
Max Furlaud
Here. You are there already. You are in Nirvana. You are like a fish claiming it is thirsty. You are right in the middle of it. Here. Here.
Janwillem van de Wetering (Sanskrit Nirvana = to cease blowing; Nothingness, Reality, THIS)
Empty yourself of everything. Let the mind rest at peace.
The ten thousand (innumerable) things rise and fall
as the Tao watches their return.
They grow and flourish and then return to Source.
Returning to Source is Silence, which is the way of nature.
Freely according to Lao Tzu (Chin. Tao, i.e., Dao = the «Way»; the Real, the Absolute, THIS)
Your nature is to keep quiet. You came from Silence, and you have to return to Silence.
You are dancing for just a little while, you see? For just a little while you are dancing.
Papaji
We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love … And then we return home.
Aboriginal proverb
Life is a mystery to be lived — not a riddle to be solved or understood. That’s all there is to it.
All things emerge from that Silence and return to that Silence. You too would eventually merge into that Silence from which you emerged in the first instance.
If you are awakened, the same mountains, the same stars you saw earlier would look very different. You could enjoy the world and simply pass away from this world. This is the game of life.
The awakened one embraces death, for there is no death for the awakened one.
The awakened one is ready to die.
Sri Bhagavan
If you are ready to die, you will live for the rest of your life. If you are not ready to die, you will die for the rest of your life.
Samarpan
The fear of death is really the fear of the unknown.
Freely according to Narasimha Kumar
If people knew what death was, they would no longer be afraid of it.
Michael Ende in «The Neverending Story»
Death, where is thy sting?
Corinthians
Most people are not afraid of death, they are afraid of life.
Ananda Devi
Fear does not prevent death, it prevents life.
Naguib Mahfouz
The fear of death follows the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.
Mark Twain
Life begins where fear ends.
Osho
Live! Don’t wait until tomorrow, because tomorrow never comes. When you are dead, you won’t have any time left.
Elias
I have learned that every mortal will taste death, but only some will taste life.
Death is just a mirror.
Your own true nature
is reflected in it.
Look what the mirror reveals —
it takes just one glimpse to die!
Rumi
Death is a favor to us,
but our scales have lost their balance.
The impermanence of the body
should give us great clarity,
deepening the wonder in our senses and eyes
of this mysterious existence we share
and are surely just journeying through.
If I were in the tavern tonight
Hafiz would call for drinks
and as the master poured,
I would be reminded
that all I know of life and myself is that
we are just a midair flight of golden wine
between His pitcher and His cup.
If I were in the tavern tonight,
I would buy freely for everyone in this world
Because our marriage with the cruel beauty
of «time and space» cannot endure very long.
Death is a favor to us,
but our minds have lost their balance.
The miraculous existence and impermanence of «form»
always makes the illumined ones laugh and sing!
Hafiz
This body is not me.
I am not limited by this body.
I am life without boundaries.
I have never been born,
and I shall never die.
Look at the ocean and the sky filled with stars —
manifestations from my wondrous true mind.
Since before time, I have been free.
Birth and death are only doors through which we pass,
sacred thresholds on our journey.
Birth and death are a game of hide-and-seek.
So laugh with me,
hold my hand,
let us say good-bye,
say good-bye, to meet again soon.
We meet today.
We will meet again tomorrow.
We will meet at the Source every moment.
We meet each other in all forms of life.
Thich Nath Nanh
«Message From A Dying Friend» by Jeff Foster:
«I don’t want your answers, your good advice. I don’t want your theories about «why» or «how». I don’t need your pity. Your attempts to make me feel better only make me feel worse. I am human, just like you, and crave realness.
Just be present with me. Listen. Give me space. Hold my trembling hand, sometimes. Your attention is so precious to me. Your being speaks volumes.
If you feel uncomfortable, don’t be ashamed. If you don’t know what to say to me, that’s okay. I feel that way, too, sometimes. If you feel disgusted, angry, uncertain, fearful, that’s okay. I love you for it. You are human, too.
Put your textbook learning to one side now. Don’t try to have «unconditional positive regard.» It feels so false to me. Forget «empathy» — I want you to come closer than that.
See, I am you, in disguise. These are your broken bones, your shallow breaths, your twisted limbs. I am your mirror. You are seeing yourself.
Don’t try to be strong for me. I am not a victim. Fall apart, if you must. Weep, if you need to weep. Mourn those shattered dreams, those lost futures. Let the past slip away too. Meet me here, now, in the fire of presence, with the fullness of your being.
I speak in an ancient language now.
I want you to be a witness.»
Osho once said about Ramana Maharshi’s dying process:
«It happened, Maharshi Ramana was dying. On Thursday, April 13th, a doctor brought Maharshi a palliative to relieve the congestion in the lungs, but he refused it. «It is not necessary, everything will come right within two days,» he said. And after two days he died.
At about sunset, Maharshi told the attendants to sit him up. They knew already that every movement, every touch, was painful, but he told them not to worry about that. He was suffering from cancer; he had a throat cancer, very painful. Even to drink water was impossible, to eat anything was impossible, to move his head was impossible. Even to say a few words was very difficult.
He sat with one of the attendants supporting his head. A doctor began to give him oxygen, but with a wave of his right hand he motioned him away.
Unexpectedly, a group of devotees sitting on the verandah outside the hall began singing «Arunachala Shiva» — a bhajan that Maharshi liked very much. He liked that spot, Arunachala, very much; the hill he used to live upon — that hill is called «Arunachala». And the bhajan was a praise, a praise for the hill.
On hearing it, Maharshi’s eyes opened and shone. He gave a brief smile of indescribable tenderness. From the outer edges of his eyes tears of bliss rolled down.
Somebody asked him, «Maharshi, are you really leaving us?»
It was hard for him to say, but still he uttered these few words: «They say that I am dying, but I am not going away. Where could I go? I am always here.»
One more breath, and no more. There was no struggle, no spasm, no other sign of death — only that the next breath did not come.
What he says is of immense significance, «Where could I go? I am always here.»
There is nowhere to go. This is the only existence there is; this is the only dance there is. Where can one go? Life comes and goes, death comes and goes. But where can one go? You were there before life.»
Life — still, soft and crystal clear,
dies laughing as it finds its Source.
Death — smiling, sheds a happy tear,
discovering that it’s life, of course.
Liz Jones
So now you can let go, my darling… Let go… Let go of this poor old body. You don’t need it anymore. Let it fall away from you. Leave it lying there like a pile of worn-out clothes… Go on, my darling, go on into the Light, into the peace, into the living peace of the Clear Light.
Aldous Huxley in «Island»
Dying is easy,
believe me, it is like
blissful dreaming.
The space becomes vast —
in boundless flowing happiness
you give yourself back
to the primordial ocean . . .
Ephides
Tip: 1. More writings and sayings by Nisargadatta Maharaj, Ramana Maharshi, etc. are available in the videos and books via the buttons below.
Tip: 2. Thousands of profound writings and sayings by Parabrahman Xuna aka Zuñanândo Zeroprem aka Georgios Kalantzis can be found here.
Tip: 3. More sayings on «Death and Dying» can be found here, among others.
Tip: 4. More sayings on «the game of life» can be found in this blog post.