This is Where It Is

If there's a job to do, this is where it is. It's not later.

It's OK to plan. That's a beautiful thing. But you're

doing it now and this is where the wisdom is. You

don't have to wait for later.

Byron Katie

It's Given

You don't ever have to guess in this Work.
Get still. Ask. It's given.

Byron Katie

Ordinariness Loved

Enlightenment is
ordinariness loved.

David Richo

Suffering is Optional

Pain is inevitable.
Suffering is optional.

Haruki Murakami

The Truth

The truth does not change according

to our ability to stomach it.

Flannery O'Connor

Without Your Story

Just be here now
without your story.

Byron Katie

Just to be Alive

It is a serious thing
just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in the broken world.

Mary Oliver

The Best There Is

This right here is already, and has always been,

the very best we can be.
As is.
We can't be more than we are.
We can't do more than we can.
Luckily, existence doesn't, and hasn't ever,

needed a thing more from us.
Couch or boardroom - this is it.
Our best, fullest potential to be, to live, to exist

- right here, already.
Not later, Now.
We might enjoy it.
Because this simply is
the best
there is.

Judy Cohen

Here I Am

Maybe
Just maybe
Life unfolds
Relentlessly

With no holy plan

Maybe

It is sacred

Just as it is

Its power and innocence

Require no justification

Its perfection requires no meaning

Maybe nothing

Means anything

Other than what the Rose

Means

When it blooms

It means

Here I am

Here I am

Here I am

Maya Luna

Deep Sense of Who You Are

You rarely have time for everything
you want in this life, so you need to
make choices. And hopefully your choices
can come from a deep sense of who you are.

Fred Rogers

Inexpressible Comfort

Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort
of feeling safe with a person;
having neither to weigh thoughts
nor measure words,
but to pour them all out,
just as they are,

chaff and grain together,

knowing that a faithful hand

will take and sift them,

keep what is worth keeping,

and then,

with a breath of kindness,

blow the rest away.

Dinah Maria Mulock Craik

My Job

My job is just to be
comfortable where I am.

Byron Katie

All That Is There

Why should life have any meaning?
Why should there be any purpose to living?
Living itself is all that is there.
Your search for spiritual meaning has 
made a problem out of life.

U.G. Krishnamurti

Unique Individuals

By using the models of Jesus, Buddha, or Krishna,
we have destroyed the possibility of nature
throwing up unique individuals.

U.G. Krishnamurti

No Control

Just let it be. You may as well; it is.

Everything moves in and out at its

own time. You have no control.

You never did; you never will.

Byron Katie

Not Yet

In carrying on my own humble creative effort,
I depend greatly upon that which I do not yet know,
and upon that which I have not yet done.

Max Weber

It Doesn't Matter

It doesn't matter, and
it doesn't matter that
it doesn't matter.

Eastern Saying

Our Abundance

Not what we have,
but what we enjoy,
constitutes our abundance.

Epicurus

Walk Together

If you have come to help me,
you are wasting your time.
But if you have come because
your liberation is bound up
with mine, then let us walk together.

Lila Watson

Nature Will Do the Rest

My attempt is to destroy your mind.
Nature will do the rest.

U.G. Krishnamurti

Nothing to Prove

You alone are enough. You have
nothing to prove to anybody.

Maya Angelou

Triumph of Evil

All that is necessary for the triumph
of evil is that good men do nothing.

Edmund Burke

It Always Must Be Heard

While the tale of how we suffer,
and how we are delighted, and
how we may triumph is never new,
it always must be heard.

James Baldwin

Just Show Up

Sometimes the bravest and most important thing
you can do is just show up.

Brene Brown

No More, No Less

We are lutes, no more, no less.
If the soundbox is stuffed full
of anything, no music.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

The Strongest Men

The strongest men are the ones that
also understand their weaknesses.

Victor Pineda

Connected With Everything

I'll tell you what hermits realize.
If you go off into a far, far forest
and get very quiet, you'll come to 
understand that you're connected
with everything.

Alan Watts

The Future of Humanity

The future of humanity will be decided
not by relations between nations, but
by relations between women and men.

D.H. Lawrence

A Certain Type of Relationship

If I can provide a certain type of relationship,
the other will discover within himself
the capacity to use that relationship for growth,
and change and personal development will occur.

Carl Rogers

Yes or No

Let what you say be simply "Yes" or "No;"
anything more than this comes from evil.

Matthew 5:37

Only This Exists

We don't wake up forever. We wake up only now.
People have the wonderful experiences of
spiritual opening, and that's not it. As soon as
they think, "I want this to last forever," 
they've moved into a future and lost the reality.
This is it, right now. It's that simple.

Only this exists.

Byron Katie

Let It Run

If you try to capture running water in a bucket,
you will always be disappointed, for in the bucket
the water does not run. To "have" running water
you must let go of it and let it run.

The same is true of life.

Alan Watts

Be It

I've come to the realization that
the only way to find it is to BE it.

Alan Watts

No Center

Since the universe has no center,
you can't be it.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Exploring Our Hearts

I challenge you to see if you can use the same qualities
that you feel make you a man to go deeper into yourself.
Your strength, your bravery, your toughness: can we
redefine what those mean and use them to explore our hearts?

Justin Baldoni

True Masculine Power

True masculine power happens when courage, integrity,
vulnerability, compassion, awareness, and the capacity
to take strong action are all functioning together.

Robert Augustus Masters

Two Wings

The world of humanity is possessed of two wings:
the male and the female. So long as these two wings
are not equivalent in strength, the bird will not fly.

Abdu'l Baha

More a Man Than Anything

While my dad may not have taught me how to use
my hands, he did teach me how to use my heart,
and to me that makes him more a man than anything.

Justin Baldoni

Built-in Fear

If we can't eliminate fears, then what do we do with them? Well, we live with them. Like 'em or not. Because low-level or high, some degree of fear comes with the human package. It is built in. It is not going anywhere.

Judy Cohen

The Ultimate Fear

The fear of no-self is the mother
of all fears, the one upon which
all others are based. No fear is
so small or petty that the fear
of no-self isn't at its heart.
All fear is ultimately fear of no-self.

Jed McKenna

Show You Fear

I will show you fear
in a handful of dust.

T.S. Eliot

Life is the Great Teacher

I am so appreciative that the insights that come my way do not turn me into an emotionless thing with no personality. I enjoy all the facets of being a so-called "person" even though I know it is just a play of the elements. The ups and downs. The crazy intellectual games. The spiritual types, so careful with their catchphrases and jargon. I would trade all the spiritual nonsense for two French hens any day of the week. Enjoy. Life is the great teacher.

Gilbert Schultz

Ego As Is

None of them transcended personality. Escaping ego is not an option. So we may as well make friends with it. As is. And ironically that ego, and the mundane, and the disapproved-off, and the everyday trivialities just might be where freedom has lived all along, anyway.

Judy Cohen

Begin from the Inside

If an egg is broken by an outside force, life ends.
If broken by an inside force, life begins.
Great things always begin from the inside.

Jim Kwik

Always On the Verge

A man who is ill-adjusted to the world
is always on the verge of finding himself.

Herman Hesse

Speaking for God

I never told you there was anything wrong with you. If I made you, I filled you with passions, limitations, pleasures, feelings, needs, inconsistencies. How can I punish you for being the way you are, if I'm the one who made you? What kind of god would do that? My beloved, this life is not a test, not a step on the way, not a rehearsal, nor a prelude to paradise, This life is the only thing here and now and it is all you need.

Baruch de Spinoza (speaking for God)

A Series of Errors

My style of therapy is a series of errors,
from which I recover, that results in
clients saying, "I got helped."

Scott Miller

Rigorous Training

(Psychotherapy is) an undefined technique
which is applied to unspecified problems
with a non-predictable outcome. For this
technique, we recommend rigorous training.

George Lehner

It's a Mess!

Develop your own technique. Don't try to use someone else's technique. Don't try to imitate my voice or my cadence. Just discover your own. Be your own natural self. It's the individual responding to the individual. I've experimented with trying to do something the way someone else would do it. It's a mess!

Milton Erickson

If Not Now

If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
But if I am only for myself, what am I?
If not now, when?

Rabbi Hillel

Actions Just Happen

The freest of my actions just happen

like hiccups inside me or

like a bird singing outside me.

Alan Watts

The Same Power

Who grows the oranges in the orange tree? Who grows
the grass? Who takes care of the world and the earth?
The same power that takes care of all the things on this planet.

Robert Adams

Succeed or Learn

You either succeed or you learn.
Take failure off the table.

John Jacobs

Heaven and Earth

There are more things in heaven and earth,
Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

William Shakespeare, "Hamlet"

Someone

I always wanted to be someone. Now
I think I should have been more specific.

Lily Tomlin

Much Too Slow

Thought can never capture
the movement of life,
it is much too slow.

U.G. Krishnamurti

A Bird Outside

Thoughts in your head
are really no different from
the sound of a bird outside.

Adyashanti

Plaything of Thought

If I were the plaything of every thought,
I would be a fool, not a wise man.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

No Other Tool

Thoughts cannot be a tool
to deliver us from thought.
And there is no other tool.

U.G. Krishnamurti

Something Unnatural

No matter in which culture you were born you have scriptural doctrines handed down to tell you how to behave. You are told that through due practice you can even come into the state attained by the sages. And so you try to control your behavior, to control your thoughts, to be something unnatural.

U.G. Krishnamurti

Be One See One

Souls love. That's what souls do.
Egos don't, but souls do. Become a soul,
look around, and you'll be amazed.
All the beings around you are souls.
Be one, see one.

Ram Dass

Escaping the Suffering

A wise man, recognizing that
the world is but an illusion,
does not act as if it is real,
so he escapes the suffering.

The Buddha

Liberate Yourself

I am not out to liberate anybody. You have to liberate yourself. What I have to say will not do it. I am only interested in clearing away the occultation and mystification in which those people in the "holy business" have shrouded the whole thing. Maybe I can convince you not to waste a lot of time and energy, look for a state which does not exist except in your imagination.

U.G. Krishnamurti

Let Everything Go

The true purpose of Zen is
to see things as they are,
to observe things as they are,
and to let everything go as it goes.

Shunryu Suzuki

Have You Asked You?

Have you asked you?

Byron Katie

Each Go Their Own Way

You seek the path? I warn you away from my own.
It can be the wrong way for you. May each go
their own way. I will be no savior, no lawgiver,
no master teacher unto you. You are no longer
little children. One should not turn people into sheep,
but sheep into people.

C.G. Jung

Useless Master

There is nothing you can learn
from me or anyone. What then
is a Master for? To make you see
the uselessness of having one.

Anthony de Mello

No One Perfect Awakening

It seems consciousness does not find
one perfect awakening experience and
then pump out replicas and stop being
so infinitely creative from here on out.

Judy Cohen

Probably Not

The person who says,
"I'm enlightened,"
probably isn't.

Ram Dass

Epitaph

When I die
Give what's left of me away
To children

And old men that wait to die.

And if you need to cry,

Cry for your brother

Walking the street beside you.

And when you need me

Put your arms

Around anyone

And give them

What you need to give to me.

I want to leave you something,

Something better

Than words

Or sounds.

Look for me

In the people I've known

Or loved,

And if you cannot give me away,

At least let me live on your eyes

And not on your mind.

You can love me most

By letting

Hands touch hands,

By letting

Bodies touch bodies,

And by letting go

Of children

That need to be free.

Love doesn't die,

People do.

So, when all that's left of me

Is love,

Give me away.

Merrit Malloy

Perfect Reality

Right there in the imperfection
is perfect reality.

Shunryu Suzuki 

The Ass of Humanity

The belief that something is wrong
is the fire under the ass of humanity.

Jed McKenna

You Cannot Be Improved

Drop the idea of becoming someone,
because you already are a masterpiece.
God has himself created you, 
you cannot be improved.

Osho

Being Alive

Suddenly you're ripped into being alive.
And life is pain, and life is suffering,
and life is horror, but my god you're alive
and it's spectacular.

Joseph Campbell

Let Everything Happen

Let everything happen to you.
Beauty and terror.
Just keep going.
No feeling is final.

Rainer Maria Rilke

You've Made a Discovery

There are two possible outcomes:
If the result confirms the hypothesis,
then you've made a discovery.
If the result is contrary to the hypothesis,
then you've made a discovery.

Enrico Fermi

Such Faith in the World

Where the path closed
down and over,
through the scumbled leaves,
fallen branches,

through the knotted catbrier,

I kept going. Finally

I could not

save my arms

from thorns; soon

the mosquitos

smelled me, hot

and wounded, and cam

wheeling and whining.

And that's how I came

to the edge of the pond:

black and empty

except for a spindle

of bleached reeds

at the far shore

which, as I looked,

wrinkled suddenly

into three egrets -

in a shower

of white fire!

Even half-asleep they had

such faith in the world

that had made them - 

tilting through the water,

unruffled, sure,

by the laws

of their faith not logic,

they opened their wings

softly and stepped

over every dark thing.

Mary Oliver

Between Theory and Practice

In theory, there is no difference
between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.

Walter J. Savitch

Friendly Facts

The facts are always friendly.
Every bit of evidence one can acquire
leads one that much closer to what is true.

Carl Rogers

Driving for a Solution

Every separate person lives in suffering
and that drives them for a solution.

Tony Parsons

Truth!

The truth will set you free,
but first it will piss you off.

Joe Klaas

Reality Doesn't Go Away

Reality is that which, when
you stop believing in it,
doesn't go away.

Philip K. Dick

Listen to Your Heart

Be a witness, not a judge.
Focus on yourself, not on others.
Listen to your heart, not to the crowd.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Foremost a Sheep

In order to be a perfect member
of a flock of sheep, one has to be,
foremost, a sheep.

Albert Einstein

Be Quiet

Stop your search,
simply be Quiet.

Papaji

Do Not Get Stuck

The funny thing about enlightenment is that there

is no one to claim it. Enlightenment is very ordinary;
it is nothing special. When you are enlightened
the whole notion of someone who is enlightened

is a big joke. Do not get stuck in enlightenment.

Adyashanti

The Real Life

The search for the unknown is absurd.
How can I search for what I do not know?
Whatever I seek is a thing which I have
already known or experienced. So seeking
is running away from the actual, real life.
This is the real life, THAT is the unreal.

U.G. Krishnamurti (slightly edited by Judy Cohen)

Seekers

Seekers gotta seek.

Judy Cohen

Effort Will Take You Nowhere

Unless you make tremendous efforts,
you will not be convinced that effort
will take you nowhere.

Nisargadatta

In Plain Sight

Reality and completeness are in plain sight.
Absolute completeness surrounds you
wherever you go. We humans have long ago
deceived ourselves into such a confined tangle
of confusion and disarray that we scarcely
even consider, much less experience for ourselves,
the divinity within and all around us.

Adyashanti

Only Here and Now

The Truth is only Here and Now,
but the search says it is tomorrow.

Papaji

You're Free

Aging gives you a new curriculum.
It gives you creative space, because
to the culture, you're becoming irrelevant
and as soon as you become irrelevant,
you're free.

Ram Dass

Not Contented

He who is not contented
with what he has, would
not be contented with what
he would like to have.

Socrates

Like a Lion

The truth is like a lion.
You don't have to defend it.
Let it loose; it will defend itself.

Augustine of Hippo

The Ground for Existence

Space is not empty. It is full,
as opposed to a vacuum, and
is the ground for the existence
of everything, including ourselves.

David Bohm

Make Them Laugh

If you want to tell people the truth,
make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.

Oscar Wilde

Empty Existence

A life filled up with being somebody
is an empty existence.

Wu Hsin

The End of All Drama

When you live in complete acceptance of what is,
that is the end of all drama in your life.

Eckhart Tolle

When You Say Yes

When you say yes to others, make sure
you're not saying no to yourself.

Paulo Coelho

Do Not Stand At My Grave and Weep

Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning's hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry;

I am not there. I did not die.

Mary Elizabeth Frye

That Is All

Being nothing, you are everything.
That is all.

Kalu Rinpoche

When There's Nothing

When there's nothing,
there's nothing to be afraid of.
You project something onto
nothing and that's what's fearful.

Byron Katie

Seeing the Separate Self Clearly

To see the separate self clearly
is to see its non-existence.

Rupert Spira

Kindness

Be loving. And if you don't feel loving, be kind.
Kindness is simply love in her daily clothes.

Alexandra K. Trenfor

The Best Teachers

The best teachers are those who
show you where to look but
don't tell you what to see.

Alexandra K. Trenfor

Life Has Gone On

If there's no self, then
there's never been one.
If we're nothing, 
we've always been nothing.
And life has gone on.

Judy Cohen

Already Around Your Neck

You wander from room to room
hunting for the diamond necklace
that is already around your neck.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Whatever You Do

Whatever you do to be free
from the self also is
a self-centered activity.

U.G. Krishnamurti

In the Pocket

I laugh when I think how I once sought paradise
as a realm outside of the world of birth. It is
the laughter of one who, after having painfully
searched for something for a long time,
finds it one morning in the pocket of his coat.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Having Never Gone to Sleep

Try to imagine what it will be like
to go to sleep and never wake up ...
now try to imagine what it was like
to wake up having never gone to sleep.

Alan Watts

Voice With No Words

There is a voice that
doesn't use words.
Listen.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

This Trip Is Theirs

You can't heal the people you love.
You can't make choices for them.
You can't rescue them.
You can promise that
they won't journey alone.
You can loan them your map.
But this trip is theirs.

Laura Jean Truman

Paradoxical Compassion

The deepest feeling of a compassion
that does not seek to alter anything,
paradoxically, alters everything.

Adyashanti

Contentment

Contentment is just being complete in the moment.
In the moment, there is just presence. There's no future
or past. I am just here, happy to be here in the moment.

Ram Dass

One and the Same

All insides have outsides. You, as you feel yourself,
are the inside, the animate being inside the skin.
But the inside of the skin goes with the outside

of the skin. And the outside of the skin is

the whole darn cosmos. The two are one

and the same identity, one and the same Self.

Alan Watts

Always Imagined

The duality between the inside self
and the outside object, world, or
other is never actually experienced.
It is always imagined.

Rupert Spira

The Past Has No Power

Nothing ever happened in the past that can prevent you
from being present now, and if the past can't prevent you
from being present now, what power does it have?

Eckhart Tolle

Wish Them Healing

Never wish them pain.
That's not who you are.
If they caused you pain,
they must have pain inside.
Wish them healing.

Najwa Zebian

No Difference

There is no difference between
spirituality and psychotherapy.

Dan Siegel

Where All Battles Should Be Fought

The only devils in this world
are those running around
inside our own hearts,
and that is where
all our battles should be fought.

Mahatma Gandhi

Shed Our Past

Just as a snake sheds its skin, we must
shed our past over and over again.

Buddha

Still and Still Moving

We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union
In my end is my beginning.

T.S. Eliot

Time to be Slow

This is the time to be slow,
Lie low to the wall
Until the bitter weather passes.
Try, as best you can, not to let
The wife brush of doubt
Scrape from your heart
All sense of yourself
And your hesitant light.
If you remain generous,
Time will come good;
And you will find your feet
Again on fresh pastures of promise,
Where the air will be kind
And blushed with beginning.

John O'Donohue

Education Par Excellence

The education of attention would be
an education par excellence.

William James

Infinite Expansiveness

The equivalent of uncertainty
is infinite expansiveness.

Dan Siegel

Medication to Meditation

Remove the "c"
and add a "t."

Dan Siegel

In Our Response

Between stimulus and response, there is a space.
In that space is our power to choose our response.
In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

Viktor Frankl

Completely Newborn

Imagine that the present moment is completely fresh
and new and unrelated to any past experience, as if
it just popped out of nowhere. Feel the freshness of
the current moment when it is not being filtered
through the past. It is a completely newborn moment.

Adyashanti