The Path Itself

Our difficulties are not obstacles
on the path of self-realization -
they are the path itself.

Ezra Bayda

Every Moment is the Guru

Life always gives us exactly the teacher
we need at every moment. This includes
every mosquito, every red light, every traffic jam,
every obnoxious supervisor (or employee),
every illness, every loss, every moment
of joy or depression, every addiction,
every piece of garbage, every breath.
Every moment is the guru.

Charlotte Joko Beck

By Itself

Sitting quietly, doing nothing,
Spring comes and grass grows by itself.

Toyo Eichi

Nothing is Really Describable

Poetry is the great language because poetry
is the art of saying what can't be said.
Every poet knows this. They're trying to describe
the indescribable, and every poet also knows
that nothing is describable. Whether you take
some sort of ineffable mystical experience
at one extreme or whether you take an ordinary
rusty nail at the other, nothing is really describable.

Alan Watts

Be the Buddha

Don't quote the Buddha,

be the Buddha.

Eckhart Tolle

One Original Thought

One original thought is worth

a thousand mindless quotings.

Diogenes

Radical Freedom

Nirvana is a practical term for a life in which the fire inside
us is contained in an understanding of our innate freedom
which allows us in the next moment to drop our personal
history and narratives and become something completely
new and different. That is radical freedom.

Peter Coyote

An Awareness at Root

We like to say, well, I know myself. But, if that's the case,
your growth has stopped because you're a fixed entity. And
what the Buddha reminds us of is that we are an awareness
at root. We are fluid and formless and there's an absolute
freedom to that. And if there are things about yourself that
you don't like, they're not fixed, they're habits and they can
be resisted and unwound with suitable labor. So, we're all
in the same boat as far as that goes.

Peter Coyote

We Have No Defense

One of the problems that happens to humans is that from
the moment that adults talk to us when we're an infant,
we have no defense again their description of the world.

Peter Coyote

To Be Awake is to Be Alive

To be awake is to be alive. I have never yet met a man who was quite awake. How could I have looked him in the face? We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

Henry David Thoreau

Enlightenment

It's not that affliction ends.
It's that we get a better toolkit
for dealing with it.

Peter Coyote

Containing What Arises

What the Buddha taught was that by meditating and
by understanding that all things are impermanent and
changing, that you can contain whatever arises in you.
And it's the running from what arises within you that
gets us all into trouble.

Peter Coyote

Saved from the Effects of Suffering

The Buddha talked about saving people from suffering
and it took me a while to realize that when you save
somebody from drowning, you don't drain the ocean.
So, I think that really what's being said is he teaches us,
he saves us from the effects of suffering.

Peter Coyote

Impermanence

If the universe was fixed, we would have no choices.
But because the universe is always changing,
it's the source of our freedom. So, much as we might
want to be stubborn and keep this situation just as
it is because this is the way I like things, that's just
trying to take a photograph of a river.

Peter Coyote

The Story Within Our Soul

"Slow" and "down" are modes of the soul; they are connective modes, ways of keeping connected

to oneself and to one's environment. "Slowing downwards" refers to more than simply moving slowly, it meand growing down toward the roots of one's being. Instead of outward growth and upward climb, like at times must turn inward and downward in order to grow in other ways. There is a shift to the verticl down that re-turns us to root memories, root metaphors, and timeless things that shapr our live from within. Slowing downwards creates opportunities to dwell more deeply in one's life, for the home we are looking for in this world is within us all along. The lost home that we are seeking is ourselves;

it is the story we carry within our soul.

Michael Meade

The Things We Consider Problems

Most of the things we consider problems are
problems of the limited perceptions of the self.

Peter Coyote

My Pronouns

We, us, and ours
are my pronouns.

Dan Metevier

Dependent Origination

When there is this, that is.
With the arising of this, that arises.
When this is not, neither is that.
With the cessation of this, that ceases.

The Buddha

Two Ways of Looking

Things
as it is.

Shunryu Suzuki

The Perfect Man

The perfect man employs his mind as a mirror;
it grasps nothing; it refuses nothing;
it receives, but does not keep.

Chuang Tzu

We Are at Home

We do not have the life that we planned
or that was planned for us.
In the gaps between there is often sorrow,
yet there is also surprise and fierce wonder.
The original silent is always reappearing,
and when it does, we feel how we belong
in the world and are at home.

John Tarrant

Someone Else Altogether

For you to be always you would be an insufferable bore
and therefore it is arranged that you stop being you after
awhile and then come back as someone else altogether.

Alan Watts

They Stay the Same

The more things change,
the more they stay the same.

Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr

Mastery of the World

Mastery of the world is achieved by
letting things take their natural course.

Lao Tzu

Not Different

We are not made of difference stuff
from the people we might choose to scorn.

David Brazier

The Wrong Way Round

We call our pain our self.
We have things the wrong way round.

The Buddha

Just Listen

When our thoughts and emotions become overwhelming,
sometimes it's best to just stop and do nothing,
and just listen.

Alan Watts

Egoless Center

And so the whole practitioner is able to,
from the clarity of his egoless center,
observe all relevant forces in a certain situation
in their being, undistorted so that he can respond
to them flawlessly.

Woei-Lien Chong

The Road to Hell

The road to hell is paved
with good intentions.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

What It Is All About

We're so engaged in doing things to achieve purposes
of outer value that we forget the inner value, the rapture
that is associated with being alive, is what it is all about.

Joseph Campbell

For the Heart

Words are for the mind.
Silence is for the Heart.

Unknown

The World I Live In

I have refused to live
locked in the orderly house
of reasons and proofs.
The world I live in and believe in
is wider than that. And anyway,
what's wrong with Maybe?
You wouldn't believe what once or
twice I have seen. I'll just tell you this:
Only if there are angels in your head
will you ever possibly see one.

Mary Oliver

A Celebration of Itself

Life, as one looks at it,
is in fact a celebration
of itself.

Alan Watts

We Just Think We Are

We are never really in control.
We just think we are when things
happen to be going our way.

Byron Katie

It is Dangerous

It is dangerous to be right in matters
on which the established authorities
are wrong.

Voltaire

Only When You Stop

What you seek is seeking you,
but only when you stop seeking.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Praying

It doesn't have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch
a few words together and don't try
to make them elaborate, this isn't
a contest but the doorway
into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.

Mary Oliver

To Live in this World

You must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against you bones knowing
you own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to
let it go,
to let it go.

Mary Oliver

Where You Stumble

It is by going down into the abyss that
we recover the treasures of life.
Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.

Joseph Campbell

No One's Job But Mine

And one day I understood that

it is no one's job, but mine,

to take care of myself and

make myself happy.

Paulo Coehlo

Deep Intimate Relationship

When one loses the deep
intimate relationship with nature,
Then temples, mosques, and
churches become important.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

All Things Go Right

With no desire,
at rest and still,
all things go right
as of their will.

Lao Tzu

Your Own Cage

The soul doesn't know boundaries.
Only the mind does. You are the creator
of your own cage.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Flowing with the Stream

How do I become still?
By flowing with the stream.

Lao Tzu

What You Truly Love

Feel yourself being quietly drawn
by the pull of what you truly love.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Your Own Soul

Listen to your own voice, your own soul;
too many people listen to the noise
of the world instead of themselves.

Leon Brown

Be Here Now

Be here now.

Ram Dass

Like This Now

It's like this
now.

Lama Marut (aka Brian K. Smith)

All I Need

What I have is all I need,
and all I need is all I have
in this moment.

Byron Katie

Individual as Expression

Every individual is an expression
of the whole realm of nature,
a unique action of the total universe.
This fact is rarely, if ever, experienced
by most individuals. Even those who
know it to be true in theory do not sense
of feel it, but continue to be aware
of themselves as isolate "egos"
inside bags of skin.

Alan Watts

The Finest Medicine

To be silent the whole day long,
see no newspaper, hear no radio,
listen to no gossip, be thoroughly and
completely lazy, thoroughly and
completely indifferent to the fate
of the world is the finest medicine 
a man can give himself.

Henry Miller

Never Interrupt

Never interrupt your enemy
when he is making a mistake.

Napoleon Bonaparte

One of Two Things Will Happen

Faith is when you've come to the edge of
all the light you know and are about to
step off into the darkness of the unknown.
Faith is knowing one of two things will happen:
there will be something solid to stand on or
you will be taught how to fly.

Ram Dass

Just Another Moment

The ego is frightened by death, because ego is
part of the incarnation and ends with it.
That is why we learn to identify with our soul,
as the soul continues after death.
For the soul, death is just another moment.

Ram Dass

Bear the Unbearable

I think the game is to bear the unbearable with a giggle,
with your heart breaking, and then do what you do.

Ram Dass

It's Just Change

While we don't invite suffering,
when it comes along you work with it.
The only reason you're suffering is because
your mind has attractions and aversions.
Otherwise it's just change.

Ram Dass

Contribute Happiness

If I would like to live in a happy world,
maybe what I could contribute is happiness.

Ram Dass

Loving the Distance

Once the realization is accepted that
even between the closest human beings
infinite distances continue, a wonderful
living side by side can grow, if they succeed
in loving the distance between them which
makes it possible for each to see
the other whole against the sky.

Rainer Maria Rilke

The Only Journey

The only journey is
the one within.

Rainer Maria Rilke

The Purpose of Life

The purpose of life is to be defeated
by greater and greater things.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Life is in the Right

Let life happen to you.
Believe me: life is
in the right, always.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Not Poet Enough

If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it;
blame yourself that you are not poet enough
to call forth its riches; for the creator,
there is no poverty.

Rainer Maria Rilke

The Art Form in Dying

It's the attraction and aversion that keep you
holding to form. The more you are aware of
the spiritual nature of life, the more you see
the moment of death as release or taking off
the tight shoe. And the art form in dying is that,
at the moment of death, you are neither grabbing
at life nor pushing it away. You are neither
pushing nor pulling. So to prepare for
the moment of death, know that the processes
that go on in consciousness are a dissolving
of boundaries.

Ram Dass

Take Off Your Mask

When you take off your mask,
it's easier for everybody else
to take off theirs.

Ram Dass

Just Witness It All

Everybody's playing with their stories,
who they think they are. It's more fun
to just witness it all, to be the environment
in which this stuff is happening.

Ram Dass

Zen Mind

The practice of Zen mind is beginner's mind.
The innocence of the first inquiry ... Who am I?
... is needed throughout Zen practice.
The mind of the beginner is empty,
free of the habits of the expert, ready to accept,
to doubt, and open to all the possibilities.
It is the kind of mind which can see things
as they are, which step by step in a flash
can realize the original nature of everything.

Shunryu Suzuki

How I Go Into the Woods

Ordinarily I go to the woods alone,
with not a single friend,
for they are all smilers and talkers
and therefore unsuitable.
I don't really want to be witness talking to the catbirds
or hugging the old black oak tree.
In have my ways of praying
as no doubt you have yours
Besides, when I am alone
I can become invisible.
I can sit on the top of a dune
as motionless as an uprise of weeds,
until the foxes run by unconcerned.
I can hear the almost unhearable sound

of the roses singing.
If you have ever gone to the woods with me,
I must love you very much.

Mary Oliver

Nothing is Left

When you find out that there was never
anything in the dark side to be afraid of ...
nothing is left but to love.

Alan Watts

Art is a Lie

We all know that Art is not truth.
Art is a lie that makes us realize truth,
at least the truth that is given us to understand.
The artist must know the manner whereby to
convince others of the truthfulness of his lies.

Pablo Picasso

One Family

Aiki is not a means to fight or defeat an enemy.
It is the way to reconcile the world and to make
human beings one family.

Morihei Ueshiba

The Art of Peace

To injure an opponent is to injure yourself.
Controlling aggression without hurting is
the art of peace.

Morihei Ueshiba

True Victory

True victory is
victory over oneself.

Morihei Ueshiba

Where Wisdom Lives

The mind usually says,
"I know, I know, I know."
But the "don't know mind"
is where wisdom lives.

Byron Katie

One Does Not Know

To be free is
To know that
One does not know.

wu'hsin

Open Mind Needed

Everyone knows an open mind
is needed for new info to enter.
Nothing can enter a closed door.

Judy Cohen

Tired of "But"

I'm tired of the change-of-subject word "but," as in
Well, yes, I suppose I do feel better but
this is incorrect anyway.

Judy Cohen

No Two People

No two people see the same tree.
No two people see the same world.

Byron Katie

Helping the Planet

There is nothing you can do
that doesn't help the planet.

Byron Katie

Only Peace

There's nothing that can
keep you from peace.

Byron Katie

What is God?

God is
what is.

Byron Katie

The Task of Liberated People

The task of liberated people is not
to scold the world and preach to it,
but to delight it back to its senses.

Alan Watts

We Need Silence

See how nature - trees, flowers, grass -
grows in silence?
See the stars, the moon, and the sun -
how they move in silence?
We need silence to be able to touch souls.

Mother Teresa

Small Acts of Kindness and Love

Some believe it is only great power
that can hold evil in check, but
that is not what I have found.
It is the small, everyday deeds
of ordinary folk that keep
the darkness at bay. Small acts

of kindness and love.

J.R.R. Tolkien

It Was Early

Sometimes I need
only to stand
wherever I am
to be blessed.

Mary Oliver

Simple Human Connection

In our darkest moments, we don't need solutions or advice.
What we yearn for is simply human connection - 
a quiet presence, a gentle touch. These small gestures are
the anchors that hold us steady when life feels like
too much. Please don't try to fix me. Don't take on my pain
or push away my shadows. Just sit beside me as I work
through my own inner storms. Be the steady hand I can
reach for as I find my way. My pain is mine to carry, 
my battles mine to face. But your presence reminds me
I'm not alone in this vast, sometimes frightening world.
It's a quiet reminder that I am worthy of love, even 
when I feel broken. So, in those dark hours when
I lose my way, will you just be here? Not as a rescuer,
but as a companion. Hold my hand until the dawn arrives,
helping me remember my strength. Your silent support
is the most precious gift you can give. It's a love that
helps me remember who I am, even when I forget.

Ernest Hemingway

Nothing More Confining

There is nothing more confining than
the prison we don't know we are in.

William Shakespeare

The Way

What stands in the way
is the way.

Marcus Aurelius

Be Kind

There are three ways to ultimate success:
The first way is to be kind.
The second way is to be kind.
The third way is to be kind.

Fred Rogers

Worried

I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers
flow in the right direction, will the earth turn
as it was taught, and if not how shall I correct it?
Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven,
can I do better?
Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows
can do it and I am, well, hopeless.
Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it,
am I going to get rheumatism, lockjaw, dementia?
Finally, I saw that worrying had come to nothing.
And gave it up. And took my old body
and went out into the morning,
and sang.

Mary Oliver

Joy Comes Back

When you finally realize that joy

is less fireworks
more firefly

less orchestra
more birdsong

she will come back much more often

for joy will not fight
with the fast pace of this life

she dallies not in the shiny or the new

she breathes in the basic
shimmers in the simple
and dances in the daily to-and-fro

joy has been beckoning you

for many a year my friend

you were just too busy doing, to see

the very next time joy wraps 

her quiet warmth around you

as the garden embraces your weary body

in its wildness

tip her a nod

you cannot force her to stay

but if you are a gracious host

joy comes back.

Donna Ashworth

The Patience of Ordinary Things

It is a kind of love, is it not?
How the cup holds the tea,
How the chair stands sturdy and foursquare,
How the floor receives the bottoms of shoes,
Or toes. How soles of feet know
Where they're supposed to be.
I've been thinking about the patience
Of ordinary things, how clothes
Wait respectfully in closets
And soap dries quietly in the dish,
And towels drink the wet
From the skin of the back.
And the lovely repetition of stairs.
And what is more generous than a window?

Pat Schneider

No Further Away

Peace dwells in the ordinary.
It's no further away than that.

Byron Katie

No Longer Free

The moment you want to be somebody,
you are no longer free

Jiddu Krishnamurti

The Only Step Possible

The only step necessary on your personal journey of
awakening is the one that is before you at this moment.
In fact, this is the only step possible for you.

William Martin

Whatever Way They Like

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes.
Don't resist them - that only creates sorrow.
Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally
forward in whatever way they like.

Lao Tzu

The Most Dangerous

The search for reality is the most dangerous
of all undertakings, for it destroys
the world in which you live.

Nisargadatta

We Are Connected

Just speak, do, act, make mistakes, correct them, go on.
You are connected. We are connected.
That's the fundamental nature of our being.
Let our practices, let our life emerge from that connection.

William Martin

No Argument

Cause and effect get mixed up. 
They must be in their proper alignment.
The assumption is that I am connected.
I may not feel it all the time, but when
I operate from that assumption and then
let my practices, whether it's Qigong
or meditation or prayer or service
or simply being and talking with people,
emerge from the understanding that
I am connected rather than trying to connect,
everything flows the way it's supposed to.
Argument never, ever enters into the question.

William Martin

An Expression of Connection

Assume that divinity flows
in every atom of your being. 
Assume you are connected.
Assume you are part of God,
the Tao, the Divine Source.
Then let your spiritual and
religious practices emerge from that,
be an expression of that connection
rather than a means to achieve
that connection.

William Martin

What is Love?

Love is wanting others
to be happy.

Dalai Lama

Lost Touch

We are most lost and feel most abandoned when
we have lost touch with our own souls.

Michael Meade

Let It Be What It Is

Life knows that the present moment is fabulous,
it is beautiful, it is perfect. Just let it be what it is
and be in awe that I exist at all and then I'm gone.

Wow! Wasn't that a ride!

Jill Bolte Taylor

The Most Important Relationships

I am a true believer that the most important relationships
we have are the ones that are being carried out inside
of our own head.

Jill Bolte Taylor

Wild Geese

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting - 
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Mary Oliver

Breathe to the Present Moment

Breath is the first thing we do when we're born
and the last thing we do when we die.
It's constant. It's always available for us
to bring our mind to the present moment.

Jill Bolte Taylor

Cogito, Ergo Sum

I think,
therefore I am

Rene Descartes

Our First Job

Our first job as human beings
in the world is to love one another.
Period.

Jill Bolte Taylor

The Taste of My Tea

I am not at all interested in immortality,
only in the taste of my tea.

Lao Tzu

Not Losing Yourself

Try to help in such a way that
you can be calm and at peace and
not lose yourself in the act of service.

Thich Nhat Hanh

God is ...

God is what nobody admits to being,
and everybody really is.

Alan Watts

Freeing You

Awakening cannot satisfy you,
it can only free you of the need
to be satisfied.

Matt Kahn

Be Yourself

Within you, there is a stillness and sanctuary
to which you can retreat at anytime and be yourself.

Hermann Hesse

Out of Your Mind

Going out of your mind at least once a day
is tremendously important, because by going
out of your mind you come to your senses.

Alan Watts

The Actual Vibrations of Life

As poets value the sounds of words 

above their meanings, and images
above arguments, I am trying to
get thinking people to be aware of
the actual vibrations of life as
they would listen to music.

Alan Watts

Stand Without Condition

You are never complete until you stand
where you stand without condition.

Byron Katie

Thoughts are About Nothing

Since the past is unreal
and the future is unreal,
all your thoughts
are about nothing.

Byron Katie

Most Common Form of Despair

The most common form of despair
is not being who you are.

Søren Kierkegaard

Meditation is ...

Meditation is the journey
from sound to silence,
from movement to stillness,
from a limited identity
to unlimited space.

Ravi Shankar

Not Live in Vain

If I can stop one heart
from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

Emily Dickinson

Comedy's Job

Life doesn't make any sense, and we all pretend it does.
Comedy's job is to point out that is doesn't make sense,
and that it doesn't make much difference anyway.

Eric Idle

The Strength We Show

I hope that either all of us, or none of us, are judged
by the action of our weakest moments, but rather
by the strength we show when, and if, we're ever
given a second chance.

Ted Lasso

Never Life

The burden is never life;
it's what you're thinking
and believing about life.

Byron Katie

You No Longer Care

When you want to hurry something,
that means you no longer care about it
and want to get on to other things.

Robert Pirsig

In No Other Way

A man who carries a cat by the tail learns
something he can learn in no other way.

Mark Twain

Time is a Companion

Someone once told me that time is a predator
that stalks us all our lives, but I rather believe
that time is a companion who goes with us
on the journey, reminds us to cherish every

moment, because they'll never come again.

What we leave behind is not as important

as how we lived. After all, Number One,

We're only mortal.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard, "Star Trek: Next Generation"

Already There

Home is where I want to be,
but I guess I'm already there.

Talking Heads

No One's Job But Mine

And one day I understood
that it is no one's job but mine
to take care of myself and 
make myself happy.

Paulo Coelho

A Way the Child Can Learn

If a child cannot learn in the way we teach,
we must teach in a way the child can learn.

Unknown 

Yet Another Depth of Listening

"Who am I?" Answer the question,
then slowly, silently ask yourself, "Is it true?"
as you drop into yet another depth of listening,
of being answered.

Byron Katie

Free to Be As It Is

Let everything be free to be just as it is.
Do not separate yourself from the world
and try to order it around.

Alan Watts

At War with Reality?

You can't empty your mind of thoughts.
You might as well try to empty the ocean of it water.
But, why would you even want to empty your mind,
unless you're at war with reality?

Byron Katie

Like a Drop of Water

The meaning of life is to take the interconnected oneness
and adventure out kind of like a drop of water adventures
away from the ocean for a little bit and then at some point
come home but have a really adventurous time and have
every moment be a suspenseful, fascinating surprise that
when you go back into the ocean you've got so much that
you could never have experience as the ocean.

Chris Niebauer

Stimulate and Be Stimulated

To me, the meaning of life is
to stimulate and be stimulated.

Neurons are living, thriving creatures

and they're like humans. They're social.

They want to be in a social network

where their meaning is to

be stimulated by others and

stimulate others.

Jill Bolte Taylor

The Hero's Adventure

The Hero's Adventure is not about
the ego taking a ride and developing.
It's more about the totality of all
of the different brain modules,
getting them all to realize their part,
the role they're playing in the totality
of our human existence.

Chris Niebauer

We Are Maturing

I think we are maturing. We have these
beautiful Eastern philosophies and
the philosophers have used beautiful words
to describe a part of who we are and to them,
that is the real part. To me, that is
the consciousness of the right brain.

Jill Bolte Taylor

The Ones Which Open for Us

When one door closes, another one opens,
but we so often look so long and so regretfully
upon the closed door, that we do not see
the ones which open for us.

Alexander Graham Bell

Never Again

The day you teach the child the name of the bird,
the child will never see that bird again.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Definition of Mindfulness

One of the more popular ones is purposely
being present in this moment without judgment. 
So, there's a couple of interesting elements there.
There's a little bit of effort because you're purposely
paying attention to whatever you're doing
at this moment and you're doing it
in a very non-judgmental way.

Chris Niebauer

So Much More Power

I just believe we have so much more power
over what's going on inside of our heads
than we have thus far been taught.

Jill Bolte Taylor

So Much to be Feared

Nothing is so much
to be feared
as fear.

Henry David Thoreau

The Only Thing We Have to Fear

So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that
the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -
nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror
which paralyzes needed efforts to convert
retreat into advance.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

A Great Many Catastrophes

I've suffered a great many catastrophes in my life.
Most of them never happened.

Mark Twain

Only Three Things Going On

At any moment in time, there's really only
three things going on inside of the head.
We're thinking thoughts, we're feeling emotions,
and we're running physiological responses
to what we're thinking and what we're feeling.
It's all cellular circuitry.

Jill Bolte Taylor

Sense Out of Nonsense

The universe has a tendency
to create order out of disorder
and to make sense out of nonsense.

Jill Bolte Taylor

The Power in the Human Brain

The power in the human brain is inhibition, not excitation.
Excitation brings you up to a level of threshold,
but inhibition keeps you right below.

Jill Bolte Taylor

Characters in Relation

If there's four of us inside of each one of us,
then there's eight of us inside of every relationship.

Jill Bolte Taylor

We're Wired for It

Every moment is a perfect and beautiful moment
when we allow ourselves to reduce all that
other chatter going on inside of our head.
And we can all attain it all the time because
we're wired for it.

Jill Bolte Taylor

Anything to Do with Anything

Everything that has anything
to do with anything is
our relationship between
the amygdala and the hippocampus.

Jill Bolte Taylor

Inside of Our Heads

Mindfulness if our ability to observe
the neurocircuitry we are running
inside of our heads.

Jill Bolte Taylor

We Are Neurocircuitry

We are neurocircuitry,
and every ability we have
is because we have cells 
that perform that function.

Jill Bolte Taylor

Feeling Creatures Who Think

At the neuroanatomical level,
at the level of brain anatomy,
we are feeling creatures who think,
not thinking creatures who feel.

Jill Bolte Taylor

Your True Nature

Time is carving you, Grasshopper.
Let yourself be shaped according

to your true nature.

Master Po ("Kung-Fu")

That's All

My religion is to stay present,
that's all.

Byron Katie

A New Stage

Aging is not lost youth but
a new stage of opportunity and strength.

Betty Friedan

Picking Up Speed

Just remember, once you're over the hill
you begin to pick up speed.

Charles Schulz

We Understand

In youth, we learn.
In age, we understand.

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

A Good Chance

Never miss
a good chance
to shut up.

Will Rogers

One Brain at a Time

We have so much more power over what's going on
inside our heads than we have ever been taught and
I do believe that sanity will come to the planet
one brain at a time.

Jill Bolte Taylor

Stay in the Center

Stay in the center and you will be ready
to move in any direction.

Alan Watts

The Power to Choose

We have the power to choose who and how

we want to be in world each and every moment,

regardless of what external circumstance

we find ourselves in.

Jill Bolte Taylor

No Mistake

There is no mistake
in nature.

Byron Katie

That's About It

We do only three things in life: we sit, we stand,

and we lie horizontal. That's about it. Everything else

is a story. Life is not difficult; it's your thinking

that makes it difficult. That's where your happiness

or misery comes from. There are two ways to sit

or stand or lie horizontal: you can do it comfortably,

or you can do it with stress.

Byron Katie

This is What We Throw

If we love everything we think,
we start to love ourselves.
And when we love ourselves,
this is what we throw at others.

Byron Katie

At Long Last

At fifteen, I was committed to learning.
At thirty, I took my rightful position.
At forty, I was no longer totally perplexed.
At fifty, I began to understand the unfolding

   of my true nature.
At sixty, I was in harmony with contradictions

   and ambivalence.
At seventy, at long last, I may follow my hearts' desire

   without going astray.

Confucius

It Doesn't Work

Taoist thought is for older people
because they have tried everything else
and found it doesn't work.

Alan Watts

Who You Were Meant to Be

Maybe the journey isn't about becoming anything.
Maybe it's about unbecoming everything that
isn't really you, so you can be who you were
meant to be in the first place.

Paulo Coelho

Their Own Masterpiece

Your children are not a masterpiece that you create.
They are their own masterpiece creating themselves,
and you have been given the privilege of
watching them be the artist.

J. Warren Welch

Your Own Salvation

Stand still and be
your own salvation.

Byron Katie

Nothing to Get

There is nothing to get!
Nothing to change!

U.G. Krishnamurti

Awareness Beyond Life and Death

There is an awareness beyond life and death.
The Buddha-mind, the questioned mind,
wakes up to itself, sees that it's nothing,
and thus is free to lead its infinite, unstoppable,
creative, brilliantly kind, unimaginable life.

Byron Katie

That Will Be Your Answer

It is nice of you to come here, but you have come
to the wrong place - because you want an answer,
and you think that my answer will be your answer.
But that is not so. I may have found my answer,
but that is not your answer. You have to find out
for yourself and by yourself the way in which
you are functioning in this world,
and that will be your answer.

U.G. Krishnamurti

At the Same Time

We have to accept the reality as it is imposed on us
by the culture, by society, or whatever you want to call it,
and at the same time understand that there is nothing
that we can do to experience the reality of anything.
Then you will not be in conflict with the society,
and the demand to be something other than what you are
will also come to an end.

U.G. Krishnamurti

A Flower Blooms

From the withered tree,
a flower blooms.

The Shoyo Roku

Great Happiness

There is great happiness in not wanting,
in not being something, in not going somewhere.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

The Only Important Thing

You don't need to know anything
about enlightenment, and you can't know.
The only important thing to know is this:
if a thought hurts, question it.

Byron Katie

Only a Result of Consciousness

You are not in the world,
but the world is in you.
It is only a result of consciousness.

Nisargadatta

The Ego

The ego is a social institution
with no physical reality.
The ego is simply your symbol
of yourself.

Alan Watts

Predominate Gratitude

I cannot pretend that I am without fear.
But my predominate feeling is one of gratitude.
I have loved and been loved; I have been given much
and I have given something in return.
Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal,
on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been
an enormous privilege and adventure.

Oliver Sacks, "Gratitude"

Humanity Awakened

When real trouble comes,
your humanity is awakened.

Joseph Campbell

Your Intuition Knows

Your intuition knows what to write,
so get out of the way.

Ray Bradbury

The Key to Everything

Intuition is the key to everything,
in painting, filmmaking, business - everything.
I think you could have an intellectual ability,
but if you can sharpen your intuition,
a knowingness occurs.

David Lynch

Form and Emptiness

Form is emptiness,
emptiness is form.
Emptiness is not separate from form.
Form is not separate from emptiness.
Whatever is form is emptiness.
Whatever is emptiness is form.

Heart Sutra of Mahayana Buddhism

Forget That You Are There

The ego is a monkey catapulting through the jungle.
Totally fascinated by the realm of the senses,
it swings from one desire to the next,
one conflict to the next,
on self-centered idea to the next.
If you threaten it, it actually fears for its life.
Let this monkey go. Let the senses go. Let desires go.
Let conflicts go. Let ideas go.
Let the fiction of life and death go.
Just remain in the center, watching.
And then forget that you are there.

Huahu Jing

Honest About Yes and No

Every no I say is a yes to myself.
It feels right to me. People don't
have to guess what I want or don't want,
and I don't need to pretend.
When you're honest about
your yes's and no's,
it's easy to live a kind life.

Byron Katie

More Like a Verb

The self is more like a verb than a noun.
It only exists when we think it does
because the process of thinking creates it.

Chris Niebauer

My World is Real

In your world, the unspoken has no existence.
In mine, the words and their contents have no being.
My world is real, while your is made of dreams.

Nisargadatta

If You Have to Ask

If you have to ask
what jazz is,
you'll never know.

Louis Armstrong

A Why to Live

He who has a why to live
can bear almost any how.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Are You Insane?

If you think that someone else
is the cause of your problem,
you're insane.

Byron Katie

No Such Thing

Generosity is what's left of you after you realize
that there's no such thing as a self.

Byron Katie

Seeing Through

The Buddha has seen through all the thoughts
that would override the experience of gratitude.

Byron Katie

Impossible Things

Alice laughed. "There's no use trying," she said.
"One can't believe impossible things."
"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen.
"When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour
a day. Why, sometimes I've believe as many as
six impossible things before breakfast."

Lewis Carroll

Game or Not

Life is a game,

the first rule of which
is that it is not a game.

Alan Watts

Hopelessly Inventive

Biography is fiction,
autobiography is

hopelessly inventive.

Michael Gazzaniga

Invented Self

The self is a fiction
invented by the brain.

Michael Gazzaniga

However Spurious

Our right brain behaves more like the rats.
It does not try to interpret its experience
to find the deeper meaning; it lives only
in the thin moment of the present.
But when the left brain is asked to explain
why it is attempting to psych out
the whole sequence, it always comes up
with a theory, however spurious.

Michael Gazzaniga

Implications of the Interpreter

To my knowledge, psychology has never considered
the real implications of the (left brain) interpreter
and this may be because most do not think
anything exists beyond it.

Chris Niebauer

A Strange Sort of Hope

A strange sort of hope emerges when
one resigns from clinging to hope.
Hope is like everything else, the less one
needs it the more one finds it in abundance.

Chris Niebauer

The Only Possible Chance

It is perfectly obvious the whole world is going to hell
and the only possible chance that it may not is that
we do not attempt to stop it from doing so.

Robert Oppenheimer

Nowhere Mind

Develop a mind
that abides nowhere.

The Buddha

Stand Still and Do Nothing

Having a goal to become enlightened is like

trying to lose weight by jumping up on a scale.

You may be lighter for a brief second in the air

but in the end you will hit much harder than

if you simply stood still and did nothing.

Chris Niebauer

That's Institutionalized

These walls are funny.
First you have 'em,
then you get used to 'em.
Enough time passes,
you get so you depend on them.
That's institutionalized.

Red, Shawshank Redemption

Further Away from Reality

Our modern mind would trade
intellectual puzzle solving for peace
and that is very strange as it takes us
further and further away from reality.

Chris Niebauer

Losing Touch with Reality

A person who thinks all the time has
nothing to think about except thoughts.
So he loses touch with reality,
and lives in a world of illusion.

Alan Watts

Rock It Back and Forth

Breaking up is like knocking over a coke machine.
You can't do it in one push, you got to rock it back
and forth a few times, and then it goes over.

Jerry Seinfeld

However Real

To believe a thought is to exist
in an imaginary world,
however real it may seem.

Byron Katie

We Are Free

In the presence of one who doesn't see a problem,
the problem falls away, which shows you there isn't
a problem. All our problems are from our imagination.
When we break through our imagination, we are free.

Byron Katie

Bonds Will Vanish

Although you appear in earthly form,
your essence is pure consciousness.
When you lose all sense of self,
the bonds of a thousand chains will vanish.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Somewhere Else

Listen: this world is the lunatic's sphere,
Don't always agree it's real,
Even with my feet upon it
And the postman knowing my door
My address is somewhere else.

Hafiz

It Never Occurs to You

Mostly what gets in the way are basic certainties,
certainties so completely assumed that it never
occurs to you to question them.

Judy Cohen

Rearranging Prejudices

A great many people think they are thinking when
they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

David Bohm

The Illusion

You do not exist to serve the illusion.
The illusion exists to serve you.

Lauren Zimmerman

I Seem to Be a Verb

I know that I am not a category.
I am not a thing, a noun.
I seem to be a verb,
an evolutionary process,
an integral function of the universe.

Buckminster Fuller

No More Thinking

You can't solve a thinking problem
with more thinking. It's doing. It's action.

Chris Niebauer

All One Being

All forms of life and being are simply variations
on a single theme: we are all in fact one being doing
the same thing in as many different ways as possible.

Alan Watts

What You Say About Reality

It's not reality that matters, but
what you're saying to yourself about it.

Anthony de Mello

A Willingness to Unlearn

That's what learning is all about
where spirituality is concerned:
unlearning, unlearning almost
everything you've been taught.
A willingness to unlearn, to listen.

Anthony de Mello

The Greatest Learning

The greatest learning of the ages
lies in accepting life exactly
as it comes to us.

Anthony de Mello

Absolute Cooperation

Enlightenment is:
absolute cooperation
with the inevitable.

Anthony de Mello

Beyond Words and Thoughts

Silence means going beyond words and thoughts.
What's wrong with words and thoughts?
You know what's wrong with them?
They're very wonderful.
But God is nothing like what we say He is.
And He is nothing like what we imagine or think He is.
That is what is wrong with words and thoughts.

Anthony de Mello

Sick of Your Sickness

What was I doing as a psychotherapist?
People were coming to me
with their relationship problems,
with their communication problems, etc.,
and sometime what I did was a help.
But sometimes, I'm sorry to say,
it wasn't, because it kept people asleep.
Maybe they should have suffered a little more.
Maybe they ought to touch rock bottom
and say, "I'm sick of it all." It's only when
you're sick of your sickness that you'll get out of it.

Anthony de Mello

Psychology or Spirituality?

Is psychology more practical than spirituality?
Nothing is more practical than spirituality.
What can the poor psychologist do?
He can only relieve the pressure.
I'm a psychologist myself, and
I practice psychotherapy, and
I have this great conflict within me
when I have to choose sometimes
between psychology and spirituality.

Anthony de Mello

When They're Ready

No one changes unless they want to.
Not if you beg them. Not if you shame them.
Not if you use reason, emotion, or tough love.
There's only one thing that makes someone change;
their own realization that they need to do it.
And there's only one time when it will happen:
when they're ready.

Lori Deschene

Fear Keeps You

Fear keeps you alive, but it also keeps you from
letting go into your soul, your true inner self.

Ram Dass

Obstacles to the Truth

I can speak to you, not of the truth,
but of obstacles to the truth.
Those I can describe.
I can not describe the truth.
No one can. All I can do
is give you a description
of your falsehoods so
that you can drop them.

Anthony de Mello

The Job of Comedy

Comedy should be a means of exposing and
ridiculing the follies and failings of mankind.
That's what it's for. The job of comedy is to offend.
If there's no offense, there's probably little true comedy.

Rowan Atkinson

The Entire Ocean

You are not a drop in the ocean.
You are the entire ocean in a drop.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Where You Are Caught

Conscious dying is really
no different from conscious living.
Dying brings to awareness those things 
that we have a difficult time with and push away.
Your fear of death is almost an exact outline
of where it is you are caught.

Dale Borglum

You Forget

That is why you are so moody
and not fully alive because
you forget you are to die;
you live as if you were 
going to live forever.

Carlos Castaneda's Don Juan

What Not to Do

As a teacher, I always use my life experiences as
a lesson plan, often as an example of what not to do.

Ram Dass

Home Now

If you lived in your heart,
you'd be home now.

Bumper Sticker

For the Good

See everything
in the universe
for the good.

Neem Karoli Baba ("Maharaj-ji")

The Bees Come

When the flowers bloom,
the bees come uninvited.

Ramakrishna

You Have to Come Back

A trip is just that, a trip,
and you have to come back.
At the end of the day,
for all your new insight,
you still have to take
out the garbage.

Ram Dass

Our Job

Our job is not to comprehend or control everything,
but to learn which story we are in and which of
the many things calling out in the world is calling to us.
Our job is to be fully alive in the life we have,
to pick up the invisible thread of our own story
and follow where it leads.

Michael Meade

The Character of a Man

You can easily judge
the character of a man
by how he treats those
who can do nothing
for him.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Reality"

There is no way you can use the word "reality"
without quotation marks around it.

Joseph Campbell

See Everyone

See everyone
as God.

Neem Karoli Baba ("Maharaj-ji")

Constant Practice

Healing is a constant practice,
not the conclusion of a problem.

Michael Meade

It's All Perfect

Don't you see
it's all perfect?

Neem Karoli Baba ("Maharaj-ji")

Based on Love

It's this reality that all healing

comes from within us and
all healing is based on love.

Gladys McGarey

There is No Doer

As the mind sees things are getting done,
it concludes that there must be a someone
who does them, otherwise doing would not occur.
But the vastness has never waited for the mind
to recognize that there is no doer for doing to occur.

Suzanne Segal

Also the Sufferer

He who thinks he is the doer
is also the sufferer.

Ramana Maharshi

Getting Out of the Way

Getting ourselves out of the way
just might allow action to be taken.
Things might just begin to get done.
Without us. Allowing a Doer that
does know how to get things done,
to do its job, unharassed.
What a relief. It could just be that
we deserve that gift.
Just for being alive.

Judy Cohen

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

The Teaching

This is the teaching:
Pay attention.
Be here now.

Anne Lamott

Grace Always Meets Us

Grace always meets us exactly where we are
and does not leave us where it found us.

Anne Lamott

You Need to Remember

You need to remember your Buddha nature
and your social security number.

Ram Dass

Become One

Love until you
and the beloved
become one.

Ram Dass

Use It!

Everything in your life
is there as a vehicle
for your Transformation.
Use it!

Ram Dass

No There There

When you get there,
you'll realize there's
no there there.

Lama Sumati Marut

Contentment

The man of contentment
seeks nothing that
he doesn't have and
understands that
whatever he has
isn't his to own.

Wu Hsin

The Mystery is in the Background

The preoccupation with
The foreground, the sights,
The smells,
The sounds,
Takes the attention away from
The background.
Yet, it is in this very background that
The Mystery resides.

Wu Hsin

The Final Step

For many,
the first step on
a spiritual journey
is to become lost.
The final step is
losing one's self.

Wu Hsin

Protect Your Peace

We can't change what other people say or do.
Our power lies in how we react to it.
Protect your peace.

Barb Schmidt

Play Like Yourself

Sometimes you have to
play a long time to be able
to play like yourself.

Miles Davis

Your Source of Power

Always stick to what makes you
weird, odd, strange, different.
That's your source of power.

Robert Greene

No One Can Help You as Much

Your worst enemy cannot harm you
as much as your thoughts, unguarded.
But once mastered, no one
can help you as much.

The Buddha

Going Slow

In an age of speed,
I began to think,
nothing could be
more invigorating
than going slow.

Pico Iyer

Love Yourself First

If you have the ability to love,
love yourself first.

Charles Bukowski

Become the Ocean

If you don't become the ocean,
you'll be seasick every day.

Leonard Cohen

Carried Along

We are all afloat
in The Great River.
All are carried along.
Some swim against the flow.
They, too, are carried along.

Wu Hsin

Wanting Nothing

Expectation is the grandfather of disappointment.
The world can never own a man who wants nothing.

Wu Hsin

Patience as Action

Patience is also
a form of action.

Auguste Rodin

Going With It

Surrender is like a fish
finding the current
and going with it.

Mark Nepo

One More Teacher?

I keep looking for one more teacher,
only to find that fish learn from the water
and birds learn from the sky.

Mark Nepo

Love Keeps You Safe

People think that fear keeps you safe.
That's actually not true.
Love keeps you safe.

Anita Moorjani

The Thrust to Evolve

I feel that we are supposed to evolve but I do feel
that you need the occasional constraint and fear
to provide the thrust for you to evolve because
we all know that we grow tremendously
through our adverse situations.

Anita Moorjani

Seeing the Angel

I saw the angel in the marble
and carved until I set him free.

Michelangelo

At State of Being

I was overwhelmed by the realization
that God isn't a being, but a state of being.

Anita Moorjani

We're Skeptical

I don't believe in astrology.
I'm a Sagittarius and
we're skeptical.

Arthur C. Clarke

Imagination Encircles the World

I am enough of an artist to draw
freely upon my imagination.
Imagination is more important
than knowledge. Knowledge is limited.
Imagination encircles the world.

Albert Einstein

Silence is Essential

Silence is essential. We need silence,
just as much as we need air,
just as much as plants need light.
If our minds are crowded with words
and thoughts, there is no space for us.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Connect to the Silence

When you connect to the silence within you,
that is when you can make sense of the disturbance
going on around you.

Stephen Richards

Leading Nowhere

All paths are the same,
leading nowhere.

Carlos Casteneda's Don Juan

Controlled Folly

A warrior must know he is unimportant.
That's a shaman's controlled folly.
Nothing being more important than
anything else, a warrior chooses any act,
and acts it out as if it mattered to him.

Carlos Castenada's Don Juan

What You Are Seeking

You will never be satisfied 
until you find out that
you are what you are seeking.

Nisargadatta

Mysteries, Yes

Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous
to be understood.
How grass can be nourishing in the mouths of the lambs.
How rivers and stones are forever
in allegiance with gravity
while we ourselves dream of rising.
How two hands touch and the bonds will never be broken.
How people come, from delight or the scars of damage,
to the comfort of a poem.
Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they have the answers.
Let me keep company always with those who say "Look!"
and laugh in astonishment and bow their heads.

Mary Oliver

The Next Note

When you hit a wrong note,
it's the next note that
makes it good or bad.

Miles Davis

As We Are

We don't see things as they are.
We see them as we are.

Anais Nin

I Know Nothing

The more I read,
the more I acquire,
the more certain I am
that I know nothing.

Voltaire

We Can Just Watch

You know what I love about this world?
No control. No control. Oh my goodness!
What could be better than that?
We are not the doer. We can just watch.

Byron Katie

Use It to Free You

All life has drudgery to it. In Zen, however,
even while you're washing the dishes,
that's a meditation, that's an act of life.
Sometimes the drudgery itself can
become part of the hero deed.
The point is not to become stuck
in the drudgery, but to use it to free you.

Joseph Campbell

No Sadness Without a Story

Until we know that death is as good as life,
and that it always comes at just the right time,
we're going to take on the role of God without
awareness of it, and it's always going to hurt.
Whenever you mentally oppose what IS, you're going
to experience sadness and apparent separation.
What is IS. You are it.

Byron Katie

We Lost Our Center

Our culture made a virtue of living only as extroverts.
We discouraged the inner journey, the quest for a center.
So we lost our center and have to find it again.

Anais Nin

Want Nothing

When you want nothing from anyone else,
you are safe for anyone to be with,
including yourself.

Byron Katie

Everything We Wanted

Everything we wanted is right there in front of us

but when we believe our thoughts, we can't see it.

Byron Katie

Your Guide

In my life I have done all I can to demonstrate
that the way of peace, the way of love and
non-violence is the more excellent way.
Now it is your turn to let freedom ring.
So I say to you, walk with the wind,
brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace
and the power of everlasting love be your guide.

John Lewis

There Isn't Any Other

The prison is of the mind -
there isn't any other.

Byron Katie

They Didn't Use Reason

You can't use reason to convince
anyone out of an argument that
they didn't use reason to get into.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Nobody is in Control

Nobody is in control. This stuff is ruled

by the equations of dynamics and chaos.

Now, there may be entities seeking control -

the world bank, the communist party, the rich,

the somebody-or-others - but to seek control is

to take enormous aggravation upon yourself.
Because this process that is underway will take
the control-freak by the short and curly and
throw them against the wall. It's like trying to
control a dreams, you see. The global destiny
of the species is somehow unfolding
with the logic of a dream.

Terence McKenna

Love Without Condition

If your job is to love without condition,
we're all here to push your buttons.

Byron Katie

Wise for the Rest of Your Life

If you don't know, ask.
You will be a fool for the moment,
but a wise man for the rest of your life.

Seneca

The Meaning of Life

The one who plants trees,
knowing he will never sit in their shade,
has at least started to understand
the meaning of life.

Rabindranath Tagore

The Value of an Education

Don't just teach your children to read.
Teach them to question what they read.
Teach them to question everything.
The value of an education is not
the learning of many facts but
the training of the mind to think.

George Carlin

Overwhelming Uncanny Fact of Mere Existence

There is no mission, nor interest to convert, and
yet I believe that if this state of consciousness
could become more universal, the pretentious nonsense
which passes for the serious business of the world
would dissolve in laughter. We should see at once
that the high ideals for which we are killing
and regimenting each other are empty and
abstract substitutes for the unheeded miracles
that surround us - not only in the obvious wonders
of nature but also in the overwhelming uncanny fact
of mere existence.

Alan Watts

Our Brain's Best Guess

We realize with a jolt that what we perceive
is never the world directly, but rather
our brain's best guess at what that world is like,
a kind of internal simulation of an external reality.
Still we bank on the fact that our simulation
is a reasonably decent one.

Amanda Gefter

Insanity

Insanity, in clinical practice as in the popular imagination,

is seen as a state of believing things that are not true and
perceiving things that do not exist.

Louis Sass

You're Just Wondering

When you're having a thought,
there's really nothing wrong with that,
but you can be curious whether
it's true or not. You're not trying
to get rid of it or contradict it,
you're just wondering about it.

John Tarrant

Reality is More Profound and Beautiful

Reality is more profound and beautiful than
my maps of reality and my thoughts about reality.

John Tarrant

The Art of Living

The art of living is neither careless drifting
on the one hand nor fearful clinging
to the past on the other. It consists in being
sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as
utterly new and unique, in having
the mind open and wholly receptive.

Alan Watts

I Don't Know

The most spiritual part of you
is "I don't know."

Byron Katie

It Does Not Exist

You have your way. I have my way.
As for the right way, the correct way,
and the only way, it does not exist.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Be Nothing

When everyone is
trying to be something,
be nothing.

Shams of Tabriz

You Get Better

Listen. I wish I could tell you it gets better.
But, it doesn't get better. You get better.

Joan Rivers

No Obligation

The universe is under no obligation
to make sense to you.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

The Best Preparation

All my training in how to die
leads me to understand that
what I must do now is to quiet my mind
so I can hear most clearly,
open my heart deeply so
that quality of compassion
and feeling is at its optimum,
and be fully in the present moment.
That's the best preparation I can do
for the moment of death.

Ram Dass

Grace Serves a Purpose

Grace means all your mistakes
now serve a purpose
instead of serving shame.

Brene Brown

Powerful Silence

What could be
a more powerful experience
than silence?

Byron Katie

Forgive What You Do

Here's to the few who forgive what you do,
and the fewer who don't even care.

Leonard Cohen

The Ecstasies of Ordinary Life

As soon as we free ourselves

from the mirage of hurrying time,

we are alive again, as in childhood,

to the ecstasies of ordinary life.

Alan Watts

In Order to Be Understood

Men who think deeply appear to be comedians
in their dealings with others because they always
have to feign superficiality in order to be understood.

Friedrich Nietzsche

The World Inside

The world inside
is larger than
the world outside.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

That's Nirvana

It's only in the moment, you see,
when you fully understand that
your situation as a human being
is completely insoluble -
that there is no answer,
and that you give up looking
for an answer - that's whew!
That's nirvana.

Alan Watts

I Like My Dog

The more I know about people,
the better I like my dog.

Mark Twain

What You Don't Play

Don't play everything
(or every time);
let somethings go by.
What you don't play
can be more important
than what you do.

Thelonius Monk

Self vs. No Self

When there is no self,
you have absolute freedom.
Because you have a silly idea of self,
you have a lot of problems.

Shunryu Suzuki

Truth in Me

I have no desire
to fit in.
No plans
to walk with the crowd.
I have my own mind,
heart
and soul.
I am me
and it
has taken years
to realize
how important that is.

Robert M. Drake

What Is, Is

What is, is.
You don't get a vote.

Byron Katie

That's All

You are the effect of your story,
that's all.

Byron Katie

The Very Few

The only thing that could spoil a day was people.
People were always the limiters of happiness
except for the very few that were as good as spring itself.

Ernest Hemingway

Right Where You Are

The next message you need
is always right where you are.

Ram Dass

Be Good

And now that you don't have to be perfect,
you can be good.

John Steinbeck

Not the Truth

It was not the truth they wanted,
but an illusion they could bear to live with.

Anais Nin

From "Dogfish"

You don't want to hear the story
of my life, and anyway
I don't want to tell it, I want to listen
to the enormous waterfalls of the sun.
And anyway it's the same old story;
a few people just trying
one way or another,
to survive.
Mostly, I want to be kind.

Mary Oliver

I Am Something

I am something that
I remember or anticipate.

Byron Katie

Imagine What They Mean

We don't really hear what people say;
we imagine what they mean.

Byron Katie

Nearly Impossible

One of the most beneficial traits in love and in life:
Be nearly impossible to offend.

Mark Manson

A Unique Phenomenon

You enter the forest
at the darkest point,
where there is no path.
Where there's a way or path,
it is someone else's path;
each human being is
a unique phenomenon.

Joseph Campbell

The One in Front of Me

The teacher I need is always
the one in front of me.

Byron Katie

Teaching You

Anything you can't control
is teaching you how to let go.

Zen Saying

Self-Aware in Humans

Consciousness sleeps in minerals,
dreams in plants, wakes up in animals,
and becomes self-aware in humans.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

The Religion of Solitude

The more powerful and original a mind,
the more it will incline towards
the religion of solitude.

Aldous Huxley

No Escape

Knowing how to be solitary
is central to the art of loving.
When we can be alone,
we can be with others without them
as a means of escape.

bell hooks

Only in the Taste

I am not at all interested in immortality,
only in the taste of my tea.

Lao Tzu

Joy Enough

Find ecstasy in life;
the mere sense of living
is joy enough.

Emily Dickinson

Make Me Everything

Make me nothing
and from nothing,
make me everything.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Wedding with Eternity

Our death is

our wedding
with eternity.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Three Things

Zen pretty much comes down
to three things:
everything changes,
everything is connected,
pay attention.

Jane Hirshfield

No Suffering Can Hold the Truth

If a person would experience their beliefs and say,

Is it true? Who would I be without the belief?

then we would surely see the end of suffering.

No suffering can hold the truth.

Byron Katie

You Don't Need It

The definition of insanity is thinking
that you need something you don't have.
The mere fact that you exist right now
without that which you think you need
is proof that you don't need it.

Byron Katie

Truth, in Yourself

Why do you run around looking for the truth?
Be still, and there it is - in the mountain, in the pine,

in yourself.

Lao Tzu

Deal with the Mind

You deal with the mind and
everything else falls into place.

Byron Katie

Everything is Interdependent

If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you come to understand that you're connected with everything. That every little insect who comes buzzing around you is a messenger. And that little insect is connected with human beings everywhere else. You can hear: you become incredibly sensitive in your ears and you hear far-off sounds. And just by the very nature of isolating yourself and getting quiet, you become intensely aware of your relatedness to everything else that's going on. So, if you really want to find out how related you are, try a little solitude off somewhere, and let it begin to tell you how everything is interdependent.

Alan Watts

You'll Lose

You can argue with the way things are.
You'll lose. But only 100% of the time.

Byron Katie

Hold on to Nothing

Peace is the absence of holding on to anything.
Peace holds on to nothing.

Jon Bernie

By Oneself

By oneself, evil is done;
by oneself, one suffers;
by oneself, evil is undone;
no one can purify another.

The Buddha

Rumi's Tomb

Do not look for him here, but rather
in the hearts of those who loved him.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi's Tomb

Don't Know

Whatever you do not know is perfect.
Whatever you know is imperfect, fraudulent.

Zen Saying

That's the Fun

Don't be afraid. You're going to make it,
but it's always going to feel as if you're not. 
That's the fun, you see.

Alan Watts

Resistance to What Is

The separate self is "the resistance to what is."
This resistance takes two forms:
1) I want such-and-such to take place in order to be happy,

or
2) I don't want what is present and need it to disappear

in order to be happy.

Rupert Spira

Simple Directions

Follow the simple directions.

Byron Katie

Know the Truth

The only freedom we've got
is not to react to anything,
but to turn within and
know the truth.

Robert Adams

It Is Enough

At some point in life
the world's beauty becomes enough.
You don't need to photograph,
paint, or even remember it.
It is enough.

Toni Morrison

Tremendous Energy

Nobody realizes that some people
expend tremendous energy
merely to be normal.

Albert Camus

Understanding a Person

You never really understand a person until
you consider things from his point of view ...
until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.

Atticus Finch of "To Kill a Mockingbird"

Expanded Present

Life is like music for its own sake.
We are living in an eternal now
and when we listen to music,
we are not listening to the past,
we are not listening to the future,
we are listening to an expanded present.

Alan Watts

I Worried

I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers
flow in the right direction, will the earth turn
as it was taught, and if not how shall
I correct it?
Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven,
can I do better?

Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows

can do it and I am, well,

hopeless.

Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it,

am I going to get rheumatism,

lockjaw, dementia?

Finally, I saw that worrying had come to nothing.

And gave it up. And took my old body

and went out into the morning,

and sang.

Mary Oliver

The Mysterious Ground of Now

Whatever it is, stop trying to figure it out now.
Let it remain unresolved a little while. Stop trying
to fast-forward to the "answer" scene in the movie
of your life; trust the present scene of "no answer yet."
Allow the question itself space to breathe and be fertilized.
Relax into the mysterious ground of Now.

Jeff Foster

More in Imagination

We suffer more
in imagination
than in reality.

Seneca

To Help Each Other

We are here to help each other
get through this thing,
whatever it is.

Kurt Vonnegut

The Greatest Frontier

Dying is the greatest frontier.
Loving is the art of living
as preparation for dying.

Ram Dass

The Afternoon Knows

The Afternoon knows
what the Morning
never expected.

Robert Frost

Improv Class

Forget kindergarten. I learned everything
I needed to know in life from an improv class.

Jenna Baddeley

Let Reality Decide

When I go out to take pictures,
I let reality decide what to do.

Louis Stettner

Say Yes

Well, you are about to start the greatest improvisation
of all. With no script. No idea what's going to happen,
often with people and places you have never seen before.
And you are not in control. So say "yes." And if you're
lucky, you'll find people who will say "yes" back.

Stephen Colbert
(2006 Commencement Address at Knox College)

Fired from Church Comedy

I'm like a wild animal in bed,
way more afraid of you
than you are of me.

Taylor Tomlinson

Build Laughter

It was her habit to build laughter
out of inadequate materials.

John Steinbeck ("Grapes of Wrath")

The Truth Goes On

However much you deny the truth,
the truth goes on existing.

George Orwell

It's Both/And

My challenge to you as fellow pilgrims 
on the journey is to cultivate the stability
of living on two planes of consciousness -
as Christ said, "In the world but not of the world,"
to be fully passionately involved in life and
also be totally equanimous and centered.
This is not an either/or, it's both/and.

Ram Dass

No Secret

The secret is that
there is nothing to get,
nowhere to arrive, and,
indeed, no secret!

Alan Watts

A Beautiful Instrument

You gotta remember that the ego is built on fear.
It's not built on love; it's built on fear.
It's built on the fear of non-survival,
and so you build a structure in order to
make you safe. And it's a beautiful instrument,
but if you're identified with it,
you're fearful all the time.

Ram Dass

The Four Laws of a Shaman

The person who comes into our life is the right person.
What happens is the only thing that could have happened.
Anytime it starts is the right time.
When something ends, it ends.

Only Interpretations

There are no facts,
only interpretations.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Good Enough

Why isn't this, as it is, good enough?
Because what if this is it and it's
never been good enough for a lifetime?

Judy Cohen

Own Best Friend

When a woman becomes
her own best friend,
life is easier.

Diane Von Furstenberg

My Best Friend

"He was my best friend; I have no one to talk to now"
  became
"I am my best friend; I have me to talk to now."

Byron Katie

Loving Myself

As I began to love myself,
my relationship with everyone else changed.

Charlie Chaplin

Only Love Them

You cannot save people,
you can only love them.

Anais Nin

You're the One

I can only show you the door.
You're the one that has to walk through it.

Morpheus, The Matrix

Now is Where

Now is where
love breathes.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Spell It Nature

I believe in God,
only I spell it Nature.

Frank Lloyd Wright

Only Your Mind

You've never met another person.
You've only met your mind.

Byron Katie

The Beginning

An open mind
is the beginning
of freedom.

Byron Katie

Do You Think That I Know?

Do you think that I know what I'm doing?
That for one breath or half-breath I belong to myself?
As much as a pen knows what it's writing,
or the ball can guess where it's going next.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

100 Percent

The world you live in is
100 percent your responsibility.

Byron Katie

Camera vs. Philosophy

I don't have a philosophy.
I have a camera.

Saul Leiter

Don't Pretend Yourself

Don't pretend yourself
beyond your evolution.

Byron Katie

Believe Nothing

Believe nothing you hear,
and only one half that you see.

Edgar Allan Poe (or maybe Ben Franklin)

Something Gets Provided

When you relax into what's here,
without telling what it should be,
something gets provided.

John Tarrant

Not Worth Living

An unexamined life
is not worth living.

Socrates (Plato)

Don't Stop Questioning

The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Curiosity has its own reason for existence.
One cannot help but be in awe when
he contemplates the mysteries of eternity,

of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.

It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend
a little of this mystery each day.

Albert Einstein

Not Necessarily So

Just because you put a name on it
doesn't make it so.

Byron Katie

Slow Down

If you're in a hurry,
slow down.

Byron Katie

Be With It All

The art of life is to stay wide open and be vulnerable,
yet at the same time to sit with the mystery and the awe
and with the unbearable pain - to just be with it all.

Ram Dass

The Body Mirrors

The body mirrors back to us
our unquestioned thinking.

Byron Katie

What Love Is

Love is the absence
of all expectation.

Byron Katie

You Have the Power

The misunderstanding is always
on your part, and that is good news.
You have the power to take care of it.

Byron Katie

This Too Was a Gift

Someone I loved once gave me
a box full of darkness.
It took me years to understand that
this, too, was a gift.

Mary Oliver

Also Mischief

I believe in kindness.
Also in mischief.

Mary Oliver

What We Notice

Life is a garden, not a road.
We enter and exit through the same gate.
Wandering, where we go matters less
than what we notice.

Kurt Vonnegut

It Is

It is what it is
until it's not.

Byron Katie

Degree of Presence

Stop measuring days by degree of productivity and
start experiencing them by degree of presence.

Alan Watts

Life However

I love life
however

it shows up.

Byron Katie

Life is Internal

All life
is internal.

Byron Katie

Nothing So Simple

There is nothing so simple
as being the Self.
It requires no effort, no aid.
One has to leave off
wrong identity and be
in one's eternal, natural,
and inherent state.

Ramana Maharshi

The Whole Point of Zen

The whole point of Zen
is to suspend the rules
we have superimposed
on things and to
see the world as it is.

Alan Watts

We Don't Like It

What we have to discover is that there is no safety,
that seeking is painful, and that when we imagine
that we have found it, we don't like it.

Alan Watts

My Only Problem

I was the only problem
in my world.

Byron Katie

What I Want

When I'm perfectly clear
what is is what I want.

Byron Katie

It Is What It Is

Truth is not what you want it to be; it is what it is.
And you must bend to its power or live a lie.

Miyamoto Musashi

Just Keep Going

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

Rainer Maria Rilke

Be Alive Now

Your entire education has deprived you
of the capacity for living in the moment
because it was preparing you for the future,
instead of showing you how to be alive now.

Alan Watts

Bullshit Does

The truth does not require
your participation to exist.
Bullshit does.

Terence McKenna

Quietly Like Earth

I am smiling at myself today.
There's no wish left in this heart.
Or perhaps there is no heart left.
Free from all desire,
I sit quietly like Earth.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Asked in the Wrong Way

Problems that remain persistently insoluble
should always be suspected as questions
asked in the wrong way.

Alan Watts

The Truth is Revealed

The truth is revealed by removing things
that stand in its light, an art not unlike sculpture,
in which the artist creates, not by building,
but by hacking away.

Alan Watts

Who Would I Be?

I love that you listen closely to your thoughts
anytime you are under stress and that you
mindfully become aware of this sweet question:
"Who would I be, just in this moment now,
without my story?"

Byron Katie

I Was New

I saw nothing
that day on my forest walk
I hadn't seen before
yet everything was new
And I was new
as I stepped forward
into presence.

Carol Dickey

Photography is Unique

Photography is unique in that it asks for both
an inward look and outward gaze simultaneously.

David Ulrich

Age Doesn't Matter

Age is an issue of mind over matter.
If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.

Mark Twain

Far Greater Power

Sometimes letting things go
is an act of far greater power
than hanging on.

Alan Watts

Let Go and Let God

Let go and let God
have his way in your life,
and he will bless you exceedingly,
abundantly, above all that

you can ask or think.

Jeremiah 29:11

Answers to the Emperor's Questions

No merit.
Vast emptiness.
Nothing holy.
I don't know.

Bodhidharma

What Do You Have to Do?

What does the orange tree
Have to do
To grow oranges?
What does the sky
Have to do
To be blue?
What do you
Have to do
To be?

Wu Hsin

Being Effortlessly Aware

The brain can only assume its proper behavior

when consciousness is doing what it is designed for:
not writhing and whirling to get out of present experience,
but being effortlessly aware of it.

Alan Watts

The Clearest, Simplest Advice

If you're looking for the clearest, simplest advice about
how to stay in peace, this sentence would do very well:
"Develop a mind that abides nowhere."

Byron Katie

What is Essential

Here is what is essential:
All bodhisattvas should
develop a pure, lucid mind
that doesn't depend upon
sight, sound, touch, taste, smell,
or any thought that arises in it.
A bodhisattva should develop
a mind that abides nowhere.

Diamond Sutra

It Doesn't Matter!

Fall in love with some activity, and do it!
Nobody every figures out what life is all about,
and it doesn't matter. Explore the world.
Nearly everything is really interesting
if you go into it deeply enough.
Work as hard and as much as you want to
on the things you like to do the best.
Don't think about what you want to be,
but what you want to do. Keep up some kind
of a minimum with other things so that
society doesn't stop you from doing
anything at all.

Richard Feynman

Creating Real Art

Solitude is the only way
to create real art.

Renuka Gavrani

Never Lonely

You cannot be lonely
if you like the person
you're alone with.

Renuka Gavrani

Be the Soul

Wherever you stand,
be the soul of that place.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Be Undefinable

If you want to know yourself,

you have to be interested in yourself

for the rest of your life. And

you must remember one thing, 

you are beyond a particular tag.
You cannot be labeled.

Be undefinable.
Let them wonder who you are while
you create a personality for yourself

that makes you fall in love

with yourself every day.

Renuka Gavrani

Who Are You?

If you cannot figure out who you are,
figure out who you are not and
who you don't want to be.

Renuka Gavrani

Never Lost

Having no destination,
I am never lost.

Ikkyu

Learn to Keep Quiet

It takes two years to learn to speak
and sixty to learn to keep quiet.

Ernest Hemingway

Never Without You

If you live to be a hundred,
I want to live to be a hundred
minus one day so I never
have to live without you.

A.A. Milne

Sufficient Unto Itself

The wisest among us are those who live
without answers to ultimate questions,
understanding that each moment is
sufficient unto itself.

Robert Saltzman

That's It

In each moment, you see what you see, and
you understand what you understand, and that's it.
Someone else's understanding, no matter how convincing,
cannot be substituted for that.

Robert Saltzman

Become the Ocean

If you don't become the ocean,

you'll be seasick every day.

Leonard Cohen

How Much Alive

It matters not where or how far you travel -
the farther commonly the worse -
but how much alive you are.

Henry David Thoreau

Experience as Exploration

In wisdom gathered over time,
I have found that every experience
is a form of exploration.

Ansel Adams

Being Cut Free

There's a lot of freedom
in being cut free from
the need to like things.

Judy Cohen

Be Human

These spiritual people who are always saying,
"This isn't good enough. I want to go to the top
of the mountain," to me they're just so foolish.
They just haven't lived. They really haven't lived yet.
They have to get over the spirituality thing and
be human and then they'll get it.

Robert Saltzman

Open Mind Needed

If we truly don't want to hurt,
we need to do something different
and that requires an open mind.
Otherwise, we're locked into
what we've always been doing
and there's no option but pain.

Judy Cohen

Quite the Opposite

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

No Need to Know

Awakening means the end of "spirituality" in the face
of the undeniable understanding that all conjecture
on the subject of "myself" falls short - must fall short -
of actually explaining anything. In each moment,
I find myself here as an apparent focus of awareness
without ever having chosen to be here, without knowing
what I "really" am, and without needing to know.

Robert Saltzman

Whatever the Moment Brings

The adept gives himself up
to whatever the moment brings.
He knows that he is going to die,
and he has nothing left to hold on to:
no illusions in his mind,
no resistances in his body.
He doesn't think about his actions;
they flow from the core of his being.
He holds nothing back from life;
therefore he is ready for death,
as a man is ready for sleep
after a good day's work.

Lao Tzu

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

Doorway In

I am of the school that suffering comes
from the reification of self, the making this 
sense of self solid, and so anything that
holds it in place hurts on one level or another
and that's essentially one of my doorways in.

Judy Cohen

Stubbornly Persistent Illusion

People like us who believe in physics know that
the distinction between past, present, and future,
is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

Albert Einstein

It's Kind

If there is no self, then what is there?
If I feel into that a little bit, it's kind.
That's my experience. That doesn't
mean that's your experience.

Judy Cohen

Life Doesn't Need Your Trust

Whether you trust it or not, 
is life happening?
It doesn't need your trust.

Judy Cohen

A Sense of Existence

The mind creates a sense of existence
with this "something is wrong" business.

Judy Cohen