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 looking 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