Proper Role of Intelligence

Intelligence is not a license to trample.
The proper role of intelligence in a planetary
ecology is that of gardener, caregiver, and
maintainer of balance.

Terence McKenna

All Else is Madness

When you complain,
you make yourself a victim.
Leave the situation,
change the situation,
or accept it.
All else is madness.

Eckhart Tolle

Where the Difficulty Begins

It isn't simply that we are different.
It is that our differences incur judgments:
someone is better or worse; one person
is right and the other person is wrong.
To engage our differences is to engage
our judgments, and our judgments
usually pack an emotional punch, and
that is where the difficulty begins.

Diane Musho Hamilton

The Dark Side

Fear is the path
to the dark side.
Fear leads to anger.
Anger leads to hate.
Hate leads to suffering.

Yoda

Attempt the Absurd

In order to attain the impossible,
one must attempt the absurd.

Miguel de Cervantes

Aperture for the Universe

You are an aperture
through which the
universe is looking at
and exploring itself.

Alan Watts

Living Relentlessly

Part of what psychedelic means, I think, is
living relentlessly with unanswered questions.

Terence McKenna

Wanting What You Get

Success is getting what you want.
Happiness is wanting what you get.

Ingrid Bergman

First Heal Ourselves

In order to heal the world,
we must first heal ourselves.

Anita Moorjani

Less Needed

The less I needed,
the better I felt.

Charles Bukowski

Vibing

I don't have a type.
If we vibe, we vibe.

Unknown

The Moment

Not at the expense
of the moment.

Qui-Gon Jinn

Focus

Your focus
determines
your reality.

Qui-Gon Jinn

Sudden Thrill

You need to let the little things
that would ordinarily bore you
suddenly thrill you.

Andy Warhol

Our Own State of Mind

If we try to solve society's problems
without overcoming the confusion
and aggression in our own state of
mind, then our efforts will only
contribute to the basic problems,
instead of solving them.

Chogyam Trungpa

Real Fearlessness

Real fearlessness is the product of tenderness.
It comes from letting the world tickle your heart,
your raw and beautiful heart. You are willing to
open up, without resistance or shyness, and face
the world. You are willing to share your heart
with others.

Chogyam Trungpa

Love It

A flower falls, even though we love it.
A weed grows, even though we do not love it.

Dogen Zenji

Dōgen

A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it.

Dōgen

A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it.

Beginner's Mind

If your mind is empty,

it is always ready for anything,
it is open to everything.
In the beginner's mind
there are many possibilities.
In the expert's mind,

there are few.

Shunryu Suzuki

Perfect the Way You Are

Each of you is perfect the way you are ...
and you can use a little improvement.

Shunryu Suzuki

Accept Yourself

The most important point
is to accept yourself and
stand on your two feet.

Shunryu Suzuki

To Live is Enough

To live is enough.

Shunryu Suzuki

The Practice

Waves are the practice
of the water.

Shunryu Suzuki

All You Need

Love your client
until they learn
to love themselves.

Susan Pildes

Laugh at Yourself

When you laugh at yourself more often,
you will realize that you don't need to be
perfect to be accepted.

Sheba Leung

Good News

The bad news is you're falling
through the air, nothing to hang onto,
no parachute. The good news is
there is no ground.

Chogyam Trungpa

In Harmony

Suffering is how life tells you that
you are resisting or misperceiving
what is real and true. It is the way
life suggests that you are not in
harmony with what is.

Adyashanti

Liberation

This moving away from comfort and security,
this stepping out into what is unknown,
uncharted and shaky - that's called liberation.

Pema Chodron

No Way to Do It Right

We live in such a peculiar reality that
there may be no way to do it right.

Thaddeus Golas

I Don't Mind

Do you want to know my secret?
This is my secret:
I don't mind what happens.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Our Suffering

Our suffering
is believing
there is a way out.

Sojun Mel Weitsman

The Proper Response

Astonishment is
the proper response
to reality.

Terence McKenna

You

a petal falls
       you
across the table

Steve Sanfield

Ruthless Compassion

When we can see that life is already sacred as it is, we can live fully, allowing life to burn away the dross of our fears, our anger, our unkindness, and transform them into ruthless compassion. It is ruthlessness that is the mark of the spiritual warrior, a surrendering to love no matter how we are being tested in the trials of life.

Miruh

Pausing

pausing
halfway up the stair -
white chrysanthemums

Elizabeth Searle Lamb

Mind Doesn't Know

This awake silence is available
to anyone in this moment.
All you have to do is stop
using your mind to look for it.
It doesn't know where to find it.

Adyashanti

The Realest People

The realest people don't
have a lot of friends.

Tupac

Truth Will Make You Free

The saying is, the truth will make you free,
not that it will make you comfortable.

Thaddeus Golas

Not Thunder

Raise your words, not your voice.
It is rain that grows flowers,
not thunder.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Not Responsible

As we sit with that discovery,

that it is indeed hopeless, without

resorting to inquiry to try to chase

powerlessness away, we might find

that under the despair is relief - 

relief that we are not responsible

for something that we can't control,

relieved of responsibility to fix what

we cannot, relieved of the struggle

against powerlessness, relieved of

the struggle to maintain false identity.

Judy Cohen

Grow Out of That

Bow to the essence in a human being.
Do not be content with judging people
good and bad. Grow out of that.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Desire vs. Patience

Desires make slaves out of kings and
patience makes kings out of slaves.

Shams of Tabriz

Understanding Life

When you like a flower, you just
pluck it, but when you love a flower,
you water it daily. One who understands
this, understands life.

The Buddha

Without Attachment

An aware person is an instrument to
cease suffering, without an attachment
to how suffering ends.

Ram Dass

What is True

It is very easy to conform to
what your society or your
parents and teachers tell you.
That is a safe and easy way
of existing; but that is not living.
To live is to find out for yourself
what is true.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Teach Others

If you want to know where to
find your contribution to the world,
look at your wounds. When you learn
how to heal them, teach others.

Emily Maroutian

Leave Each Day Behind

It's good to leave each day behind,
like flowing water, free of sadness.
Yesterday is gone and its tale told.
Today new seeds are growing.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

The Limitation

The mind that
perceives the limitation
is the limitation.

The Buddha

Love Takes Off Masks

Love takes off masks
that we fear we cannot
live without and know
we cannot live within.

James Baldwin

No Content

What is anxiety?
It is just a sensation
of energy in the body.
It has no content,
really.

Sam Harris

Let It Go

The world is won by
those who let it go.

Zen Proverb

Never Learning

A real master
teaches unlearning,
never learning.

Osho

All There Ever Is

The only thing that is ultimately real
about your journey is the step that
you are taking at this moment. That's
all there ever is.

Eckhart Tolle

Already a Masterpiece

Drop the idea of becoming someone,
because you are already a masterpiece.
You cannot be improved. You have only
to come to it, to know it, to realize it.

Osho