At Odds With What Is

If you think that people should be nice
to one another, then by all means be nice.
But when you project that belief onto the
people and the world around you as if
it were an objective reality, or worse still,
as if it were their job to be nice to you,
you put yourself at odds with what is,
and suffering will surely follow.

Adyashanti

The Silence Behind

We're fascinated by the words,
but where we meet is
in the silence behind them.

Ram Dass

Giving Up Trying

We may discover that giving up trying brings
exactly what has been sought all this time.
It lives in the giving up, in the acceptance.
In seeking, we're not present.
Giving up, where else is there to go?
And with that giving up, we can relax
and enjoy the weather rolling in and out.

Judy Cohen

We Are Already

No inquiry or teaching can wake us up
because we are already what we are seeking:
Experience.

Judy Cohen

Freedom

The important thing is allowing
the whole world to wake up.
Part of allowing the whole world
to wake up is recognizing that
the whole world is free -
everybody is free to be as they are.
Until the whole world is free to agree
with you or disagree with you,
until you give the freedom to everyone
to like you or not like you, to love you
or hate you, to see things as you see them
or see things differently - until you have
given the whole world its freedom -
you'll never have your freedom.

Adyashanti

Letting Go

By letting go, everything gets done.
The world is won by those who let it go.
But when you try and try,
the world is beyond winning.
Through cultivation of the witness,
we move out of the melodrama and
into the place of pure perspective
and peaceful awareness.

Ram Dass

Two Ways of Being Unhappy

There are two ways of being unhappy.
Not getting what you want is one.
Getting what you want is the other.

Eckhart Tolle