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