A Lover of What Is

The more clearly you understand yourself
and your emotions, the more you become
a lover of what is.

Baruch Spinoza

Disturbing Thoughts

We are disturbed not by what happens to us,
but by our thoughts about what happens.

Epictetus

What You Have Found is Your Own

To realize your true nature, you must wait
for the right moment and the right conditions.
When the time comes, you are awakened
as if from a dream. You understand that
what you have found is your own and
doesn't come from anywhere outside.

Buddhist Sutra

Heaven's Will

Considering that, all hatred driven hence,
The mind recovers radical innocence
And learns at last that it is self-delighting,
Self-appeasing, self-affrighting,
And that its own sweet will is Heaven's will.

William Butler Yeats

Who of Right Mind?

The grain of sand gives itself entirely. Even though I may be totally unaware of it, it waits for the opportunity to show me itself and how it exists through me. It's patient, solid in its purpose, unchanging in its present identity; it doesn't pretend; it doesn't mind if I step on it, praise it, or belittle it; it remains what it is, without disguise or deceit; it is perfectly allowing, doesn't resist the name I give it, lets itself be whatever I call it. Who of right mind wouldn't bow to such a consciousness?

Byron Katie

Nothing But a Mess

Teachers and the teachings are responsible for this mess in this world. All those messiahs have created nothing but a mess in this world. And the politicians are the inheritors of that culture. There is no use blaming them and calling them corrupt. They (the spiritual teachers) were corrupted. The man who taught love was corrupt because he created a division in his consciousness. The man who spoke of "Love thy neighbor as thyself" was responsible for this horror in the world today. Don't exonerate those teachers. Their teachings have created nothing but a mess in this world, progressively moving in the direction of destroying not only man, but every species on this planet today.

U.G. Krishnamurti

It Goes On

In three words I can sum up
everything I've learned about life:
it goes on.

Robert Frost

Entirely Your Own

Just like Jesus never came to his truth by listening
to some other Jesus and the Buddha didn't have
his realization by listening to some other Buddha,
whatever truths you will come to and whatever
realizations you will have must be entirely your own.

Shiv Sengupta

No One Ever

No one ever went broke
underestimating the intelligence
of the American public.

P.T. Barnum

The Way of Freedom

Be free. Be who you are.
See that everything is already
resolved, here and now.
That is the way of freedom.

Salvadore Poe

Why Would I?

Why would I trade in my happiness
for some cash?

David Byrne

Be You

Be you.
They'll adjust.

Polo Mars

None of My Business

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

like 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

Believe Them

When someone shows you who they are,
believe them the first time.

Maya Angelou

Bending Toward Justice

The arc of the moral universe is long,
but it bends toward justice.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Effing the Ineffable

Let's think the unthinkable,
let's do the undoable.
Let us prepare to grapple
with the ineffable itself, and see
if we may not eff it after all.

Douglas Adams

The Only Zen

The only Zen you'll find on mountain tops
is the Zen you bring up there with you.

Alan Watts

Acting vs. Thinking

It is a lot more powerful, efficacious, and simple
to act your way into a new way of thinking than
it is to think your way into a new way of acting.

George Simon

Better Than Silence

Be silent or say something
better than silence.

Pythagoras

Planting a Tree

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.
The second best time is now.

Chinese Proverb

At a Deeper Level

The best that most of us can hope to achieve in physics
is simply to misunderstand at a deeper level.

Wolfgang Pauli

Our Souls Play Their Music

We are slowed down sound and light waves, a walking bundle of frequencies tuned into the music of the cosmos. We are souls dressed up in sacred biochemical garments, and our bodies are the instruments through which our souls play their music.

Albert Einstein

No Character

It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.

Joseph Heller, "Catch-22"

Permission Granted

My teaching, if that is the word you want to use,
has no copyright. You are free to reproduce, distribute,
interpret, misinterpret, distort, garble, do what you like,
even claim authorship without my consent or
the permission of anybody.

U.G. Krishnamurti

Pretty Good Tote Bag

You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
But sometimes you can make a pretty good tote bag.

Augmented Proverb

Won't Get Fooled Again

Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.

Anthony Weldon

Don't Waste Your Time

Never try to teach a pig to sing.
You waste your time and
you annoy the pig.

Mark Twain

Nothing is Lacking

Human refinement will never make a more beautiful,
simple, or direction invention than nature, for in her
inventions nothing is lacking, nothing is superfluous.

Leonardo da Vinci

Find Out for Yourself

Nobody is going to pour truth into your brain.
It's something you have to find out for yourself.

Noam Chomsky

Arguing with a Fool

Never argue with a fool.
Onlookers may not be able
to tell the difference.

Mark Twain

Everything is Accomplished

Nature does not hurry, yet
everything is accomplished.

Lao Tzu

How Strange

How strange that Nature does not knock,
and yet does not intrude.

Emily Dickinson

Small Seed

From a small seed
a mighty trunk may grow.

Aeschylus

Making Art Inevitable

The object isn't to make art,
it's to be in that wonderful state
which makes art inevitable.

Robert Henri

Rooted in Being

Being always feels uncomfortable to
those who are addicted to becoming.
And the self-image generated by
perpetual becoming feels like an artifice
to those who know their true nature
to be rooted in being.

Shiv Sengupta

Find Their Own Way

When they think that they know the answers,
people are difficult to guide.
When they know that they don't know,
people find their own way.

Lao Tzu

Every Place is Paradise

Nothing outside ourselves can make us suffer.
Except for our unquestioned thoughts,
every place is paradise.

Byron Katie

What We Haven't Undone

Life will bring us everything we need,
to show us what we haven't undone yet.

Byron Katie

Everything is Now

Everything
is Now.

Alan Watts

Immersed In It

The fish, searching for water,
can never find it, although
it is immersed in it.

Rupert Spira

It Is

When I allow it, it is.
When I avoid it, it is.

Tony Parsons

The Whole is Greater

The whole is greater than
the sum of its parts.

Aristotle

Like Curious Children

Do not grow old, no matter how long you live.
Never cease to stand like curious children
before the great mystery into which we were born.

Albert Einstein

Unhappy with What We've Got

We've made happiness a requirement and that
has made us unhappy with what we've got.

Judy Cohen

Seeking the Seeker

Those who search for happiness do not find it
because they do not understand that the object
of the search is the seeker.

Alan Watts

Grateful for What We Have

There's eight billion people on this planet right now
and what happens to Robert one way or another
doesn't really amount to much in the face of that.
If we could only see that for one moment,
a lot of this striving would come to an end
immediately and we'd just be grateful
for what we have.

Robert Saltzman

Just the Way They Are

What are the odds that the mind
wants to be transcended?
Why would it want that?
Doesn't it like things 
just the way they are?

Judy Cohen

What's the Problem?

How do you know you have a problem
and what's not OK with you as you are?

Judy Cohen

A Light to Yourself

To be a light to yourself,
not to lean on the insights
and truths of others,
no matter how profound
the teaching, no matter
how great the teacher.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Truth

Truth doesn't feel bad.

Judy Cohen

Experience is the Highest Authority

Experience is, for me, the highest authority. The touchstone of validity is my own experience. No other person's ideas, and non of my own ideas, are as authoritative as my experience. It is to experience that I must return again and again, to discover a closer approximation to truth as it is in the process of becoming me. Neither the bible nor the prophets - neither Freud nor research - neither the revelations of God nor man - can take precendence over my own direct experience. My experience is not authoritation because it is fallible. It is the basis of authority because it can always be checked in new primary ways. In this way it's frequent error or fallibility is always open to correction.

Carl Rogers

If Not Now, When?

Later never comes.
Now is all we have.
So, if not now, when?
I love that question!

Robert Saltzman

We Are Swimming

Having been born in water,
a fish never even notices water.
Likewise, we may fail to notice
the atmosphere of mental conditioning
in which we are swimming.

Robert Saltzman

Only Notice

The skills and drive needed for making a living -
which often requires postponing gratification
in the present in exchange for rewards to be
enjoyed later - are not useful in discerning
the peace of mind that, without striving,
is always here in this moment, and never later.
That peace does not need to be earned or deserved,
only noticed.

Robert Saltzman

A Sacred Gift

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift,
and the rational mind is a faithful servant.
We have created a society that honors
the servant and has forgotten the gift.

Albert Einstein

Where the Fruit Is

Why not go out on a limb?
That's where the fruit is.

Mark Twain

The Noblest Pleasure

The noblest pleasure is
the joy of understanding.

Leonardo da Vinci

The Master and His Emissary

Over the centuries of history, the Master
(the right hemisphere) has seen his empire
and powers usurped and betrayed
by his Emissary (the left hemisphere).

Iain McGilchrist

That's About It

Freedom is very simple.
You understand that in
each moment what is, is,
and cannot be any different.
So, if you feel sad, you feel sad.
If you feel happy, you feel happy.
These tend to alternate and
we surf the waves and that's about it.

Robert Saltzman

Never Ends

Awakening
never ends.

Robert Saltzman

True Elegance

True elegance is for me
the manifestation of
an independent mind.

Isabella Rossellini

Your Best Season

Spring comes with its flowers,

autumn with the moon,
summer with breezes,

winter with snow;

when useless things
don't stick in the mind,

that is your best season.

Wu-men Huai-kai

It's Your Mind

It's not the wind that's moving.
It's not the flag that's moving.
It's your mind that's moving.

Hui Ming

Unto Yourself

Be a light
unto yourself.

The Buddha

Put Into a Trance

Often, those in the role of teacher
are only self-hypnotized believers
themselves who were put into a trance
long ago by their teachers.

Robert Saltzman

Excessive Imagination

We miss What-Is due to a lack of attention.
Instead, we create something else
using excessive imagination.

Wu Hsin

What Is, Is

Freedom arises with the understanding that in
each moment what is, is, and cannot be different,
including whatever "myself" sees, feels, thinks, or does.

Robert Saltzman

Peace in the Present

No one can get to "a better place"
and be here at the same time.
Ironically, the contradiction of
fixing and striving results in exactly
what we do not want: a not-presence.
Peace in the present cannot be found
by seeking it in the future.

Judy Cohen

A Moment Unto Itself

For a mind free of beliefs, what is, is,
regardless of interpretations others may
try to impose upon this aliveness.
Each instant is a once-upon-a-once,
never-to-be-repeated sui generis -
a moment unto itself - a clean slate.

Robert Saltzman

The "I" of Enunciation

The "I" of enunciation never thinks
just what it thinks it thinks, and
never simply is what it thinks itself to be.

Barnaby Barratt

Something Really Simple

Don't let people sell your own mind back to you
by telling you what they think you need. Find out what
you need, and it might be something really simple.
I know in my case, it really is simple. I just want to be
at peace. Simple as that. I want to wake up in the morning
and say here I am, it's another day. I won't always be here
and I'm going to enjoy what I can and deal with the rest
as best I can.

Robert Saltzman

I Don't Know Why

Try to separate everything you believe and set it aside
and say, I don't know why I came to believe those things.
I'm going to set them aside and try to find my own mind,
as pure a mind as I can find and then I'll find out what
I want and need and not what I'm being told I should
want or need.

Robert Saltzman

A Real Human Life

Equanimity, in my experience, occurs when you stop
trying to get out of this moment and just live
from moment to moment without great expectations
and just take things as they come and deal with them
moment by moment, step by step, and that will be
a life that will not be transcendental, of course,
but it will be a real human life in the way that I see it.

Robert Saltzman

Struggle Between Belief and Doubt

Honesty about not knowing is, in my experience,
where equanimity is to be found. What we actually
know is precious little. So, many of us fill
the apparent emptiness by pretending that believing
is the same as knowing. When one believes without
actually knowing, then there is always lingering doubt
to deal with, even if only unconsciously, and there is
never peace in the struggle between belief and doubt.

Robert Saltzman

I Didn't Ask

I didn't ask
to be this way.

Robert Saltzman

No Answers

I have no need in concluding on any questions
about ultimate metaphysics because I don't think
those questions have answers and since they don't,
I just ignore them. They're meaningless to me.

Robert Saltzman

A Normal Person

Definition of a normal person:
"Someone you don't know very well."

Anonymous

Part of the Change

The world changes by itself,
and I'm part of that change.

Byron Katie

Your Work Is Done

How do you know when your work is done?
When they attack you and you notice that
you love them with all your heart, 
your work is done.

Byron Katie

Just Be

The real teaching
about being is
just be.

Robert Saltzman

Noticer vs. Chooser

I am the noticer of this flow,
not the chooser.

Robert Saltzman

The Ten Thousand Things

To study the self is to forget the self.
To forget the self is to be enlightened
by the ten thousand things.

Eihei Dogen

A Fully Human Experience

When you lose interest in spiritual pipe dreams,
your craving for a pain-free life will weaken.
Then you attention will remain where it belongs -
not in some fanciful trouble-free future, but in
this moment, which is the only moment one ever has,
the only moment one must deal with, and
the only moment on actually can deal with.
Seeing that simplifies matters considerably,
I find. The wise among us enjoy and suffer
a fully human experience with an equanimity
that they are powerless to explain,
albeit countless ones have tried.

Robert Saltzman

I Find Myself

Whenever I think about it or notice it,
I find myself here.

Robert Saltzman

When You Don't Follow

Following others will not lead to seeing myself and
the world as the mystery they are. Quite the opposite.
Awakening is when you don't follow.

Robert Saltzman

Sufficient Unto Itself

I have not a flyspeck of interest in beliefs, conjectures,
or faith of any stripe, not because one belief or another
has been proven wrong or because I am an atheist or
a materialist, but because this moment is sufficient
unto itself without my needing to believe anything.

Robert Saltzman

Find Your Own Mind

Don't let someone sell your own wisdom back to you.
You have the secret to being you. They have the secret
to being them. You don't want to take someone's head
and put it on top of the one you already have.
Find your own mind.

Robert Saltzman

There Isn't One

Why are you unhappy? Because 99.9 percent
of everything you think, and everything you do,
is for yourself - and there isn't one.

Wu Wei Wu

What's Eating You

It's not what you're eating.
It's what's eating you.

Janet Greeson

Not in Your Head

The pain is not in your head, but
the solution is not in your body.

Nicole Sachs, LCSW

Only Mental Ones

There are no physical problems -
only mental ones.

Byron Katie

Haven't Healed

If I feel fear,
I haven't healed yet.

Byron Katie

Match Your Heartbeat

Match your heartbeat
to the beat of the universe.

Joseph Campbell

I Am Home

I am here with myself.
I am home with myself.
I am home.

Dan Metevier

A Beautiful Thing

It's a beautiful thing
to love what we think
in this moment.

Byron Katie

Be Kind

Three things in human life are important.
The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind.
And the third is to be kind.

Henry James

Not Appreciably Helped

Every educated physician knows that
most diseases are not appreciably helped
by medicine.

Richard Clarke Cabot

Peace Inside

Peace is found on the inside.
Where have you been looking?

Byron Katie

They Let Go

I don't let go of my thoughts,
I meet them with understanding,
then they let go of me.

Byron Katie

The Ultimate Addiction

The ultimate addiction is
the mind believing itself.

Byron Katie

This is It

This is it.
There's nothing to get.

Tony Parsons

Someone We Are Not

Most of our tensions and frustrations
stem from compulsive needs to 
act the role of someone we are not.

Janos (Hans) Selye

Happiness Imagined

Happiness may look entirely different
from the way you imagine it.

Byron Katie

Trauma is ...

Trauma is not what happened to you,
but what happened inside you as a result.

Gabor Mate

The Greatest Calamity

The fundamental thing that happened,
and the greatest calamity, is not that there
was no love or support. The greater calamity,
which is caused by the first calamity is that
you lost the connection to your essence.
That is much more important than whether
your mother or father loved you or not.

A.H. Almaas (A. Hameed Ali)

The Limitation

The mind that sees the limitation
is the limitation.

The Buddha

All I Have

I want to understand this river
but all I have is a bucket.

Michael Markham

Wisdom and Foolishness

Wisdom and foolishness are practically the same.
Both are indifferent to the opinions of the world.

Joseph Campbell

Follow Your Bliss

If you follow your bliss,
you will always have your bliss,
money or not.
If you follow money,
you may lose it
and you'll have nothing.

Joseph Campbell

No Reality

There is no such thing
as reality.

U.G. Krishnamurti

One Mind Phasing

The total number of minds in the universe is one. In fact,

consciousness is a singularity phasing within all beings.

Erwin Schrodinger

Nothing Like It

There's nothing like psychology to ruin
what people experience in the moment.

Scott Miller

The Son Wishes

The son wishes to remember
what the father wishes to forget.

Yiddish Proverb

Cultural Rewards

Our culture rewards adaptive children.
Our culture does not reward functional adults.
It's actually afraid of them.

Terence Real

Two Wings

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

Abdu'l-Baha

Who Am I?

The question "who am I?"

is not really meant to get an answer.
The question "who am I?"

is meant to dissolve the questioner.

Ramana Maharshi

Including Everything and I Am

A lot of people try to counteract the "I am not good enough" with "I am good enough." In other words, they take the opposite and try to invest it. That still keeps the world at the level of polarities. The art is to go behind the polarities. So the act is to go not to the world of "I am good" to counteract "I am bad" or "I am lovable" as opposed to "I am unlovable." But to go behind it to "I am." I am. I am. And I am includes the fact that I do crappy things and I do beautiful things and I am. That includes everything and I am.

Ram Dass

Horrible Beauty of Suffering

Once you see the way it is,
you won't really wish to change it.
It's just the horrible beauty of suffering.

Ram Dass

Simply Love

Everyone discusses my art
and pretends to understand,
as if it were necessary to understand,
when it is simply necessary to love.

Claude Monet

Imagination is Everything

Imagination is everything
and everything is imagined.

Byron Katie

Slow is Fast

Slow is smooth.
Smooth is fast.

U.S. Navy Seals

Prejudice vs. Wisdom

It's in the mechanics of inheritance
to make prejudice available to you.
And it's in the mechanics of prejudice
to not make wisdom available to you.

Stephen Jenkinson