W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor’s Edge

“Nothing in this world is permanent, and we’re foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we’re still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it.”

— The Razor’s Edge

Jafree Ozwald

 

“Repeat the words, Quiet Mind, Open Heart, and Relaxed Being throughout your day, feeling these messages open up a space inside every part of your body. A quiet mind, open heart and a deeply relaxed core are the most potent manifesting qualities we can have.”

Dōgen

“Studying the Buddha way is studying oneself. Studying oneself is forgetting oneself. Forgetting oneself is being enlightened by all things. Being enlightened by all things is to shed the body-mind of oneself, and those of others. No trace of enlightenment remains, and this traceless enlightenment continues endlessly.”

 

Ramana Maharshi

“Bliss is not something to be got. On the other hand you are always Bliss. This desire [for Bliss] is born of the sense of incompleteness. To whom is this sense of incompleteness? Enquire. In deep sleep you were blissful. Now you are not so. What has interposed between that Bliss and this non-bliss? It is the ego. Seek its source and find you are Bliss.”

 

(Taittiriya Upanishad 1:4:2)

 

“Thou art the source of all happiness and of all prosperity. Do thou come to me as the goddess of prosperity and shower thy blessings upon me. May the seekers after truth gather round me, may they come from everywhere, that I may teach them thy word.”

Light and Sound Form the Very Basis of Life

“If we look at the universe we will appreciate that light and sound form the very basis of the whole of the universe surrounding us including our own bodies…the creation… If these two elements are somehow removed from the universe, the universe would collapse or get dissolved or even more appropriately put, would simply cease to exist. This process is known as involution or ‘laya’ (in Sanskrit), as opposed to evolution. Light and sound form the very basis of life…

From Swetasvatara Upanishad:

"Thou art the Primal Being. Thou appearest as this universe Of illusion and dream. Thou art beyond time. Indivisible, infinite, the Adorable One. Let a man meditate on thee Within his heart. Let him consecrate himself to thee, And thou, infinite Lord, Wilt make thyself known to him."

First Mundaka chapters 4 through 6

 

To him he said: Two kinds of knowledge must be known-that is what the knowers of Brahman tell us. They are the Higher Knowledge and the lower knowledge.

5 Of these two, the lower knowledge is the Rig-Veda, the Yagur-Veda, the Sama-Veda, the Atharva-Veda, siksha (phonetics), kalpa (rituals), vyakaranam (grammar), nirukta (etymology), chhandas (metre) and jyotis (astronomy); and the Higher Knowledge is that by which the Imperishable Brahman is attained.

6 By means of the Higher Knowledge the wise behold everywhere Brahman, which otherwise cannot be seen or seized, which has no root or attributes, no eyes or ears, no hands or feet; which is eternal and omnipresent, all-pervading and extremely subtle; which is imperishable and the source of all beings.

Shulamit Elson

  "This higher reality is multidimensional in nature, standing in sharp contrast to the narrowness of everyday life. Once awakened, the human experience becomes vast and boundless, as the awakened individual participates in a universal consciousness as broad, deep, and wide as the universe itself."