Vedic wisdom says that there are many paths to one truth. It says that there is only one Divinity, but with many names, many forms, and many ways of worship
Saturday, December 31, 2022
Adi Sankaracharya
Neither by yoga, nor philosophy, nor by work, nor by learning but by the realization of one’s identity with Brahman is liberation possible, and by no other means.
Maharishi Santsevi Ji Maharaj
The Vedas are the source of all fundamental principles of Indian dharma, religion, philosophy, music, medicine and science. The knowledge expounded in the Vedas is limitless. Since ancient times Saints, Mahatmas (greats souls), Rishis (seers), Munis (ascetics), and scholars of India have considered the Vedas to be eternal and of divine origin (apaurusheya, without a human source). It is believed that the origin of the Vedas came about in the form of knowledge revealed by God. Therefore, just as God, the Vedas are also without beginning, infinite and eternal. The Upanishads describe the Vedas as the out-breath of God.
Buddha's final words to Ananda (well near the end anyway)
Therefore, Ananda, be ye lamps unto yourselves, be ye a refuge to yourselves. Betake yourselves to no external refuge. Hold fast to the Truth as a lamp; hold fast to the Truth as a refuge. Look not for a refuge in anyone besides yourselves. And those, Ananda, who either now or after I am dead shall be a lamp unto themselves, shall betake themselves to no external refuge, but holding fast to the Truth as their lamp, and holding fast to the Truth as their refuge, shall not look for refuge to anyone beside themselves—it is they who shall reach the very topmost height. But they must be anxious to learn. — Mahaparinabbana sutta
"Brahman is existence, consciousness, and happiness"
Thus, Brahman is conceived of as the very essence of existence and knowledge, which pervades the entire universe, including every living being. The goal of Hinduism is to somehow "wake up," and realize one's own connection to the divine reality that may be called Brahman or God. Because God is everywhere, God is also present within each living being.
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Soroosh Shahrivar, The Rise of Shams
“You are most beautiful in your purest form. You are a manifestation of God himself. Open your eyes and let the light flow right through to your core. All it takes is for you to notice a flicker of leaves, a momentary glance from a loved one, or for a wave to hit your toes and freeze you in that timeless place where you know with every cell in your body that God, indeed is real.”
Huineng
To meditate means to realize inwardly the imperturbability of the Essence of Mind. The reason why we are perturbed is because we allow ourselves to be carried away by the circumstances we are in. Those who are able to keep their mind unperturbed, irrespective of circumstances, have attained Inner Peace
Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
“Today most scientists would agree with the ancient Hindus that nothing exists or is destroyed, things merely change shape or form…the cosmic radiation that is thought to come from the explosion of creation strikes the earth with equal intensity from all directions, which suggests either that the earth is at the center of the universe, as in our innocence we once supposed, or that the known universe has no center.”
Alan Watts On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
And if I forget how many times I have been here, and in how many shapes, this forgetting is the necessary interval of darkness between every pulsation of light.
Songs of Kabir
The true guru teaches that He has neither limit nor infinitude. Kabir says: ‘Brahma suits His language to the understanding of His hearer.’
Albert Einstein
“A human being is part of the whole, called by us the “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts, and feelings, as something separated from the rest–a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
Gangaji
Be still. It takes no effort to be still; it is utterly simple. When your mind is still, you have no name, you have no past, you have no relationships, you have no country, you have no spiritual attainment, you have no lack of spiritual attainment. There is just the presence of Beingness with itself.
Nisargadatta Maharaj
The only way of knowing reality is to be it. The mind cannot reach it. To perceive it does not need the senses; to know it, does not need the mind.
Jac O'Keeffe
Without the projection of the mind, the world cannot exist. That world that appears to you in your dreams at night is just as unreal as the world that appears to you when you are awake. There is no difference whatsoever.
Carlos Castaneda and Don Juan
Silence is a passageway between worlds. When our mind stays silent, incredible aspects of our being emerge. Starting from that moment, a person becomes a vehicle of intent, and all his acts begin to ooze power
Ramana Maharshi
“God dwells in you, as you, and you don’t have to ‘do’ anything to be God-realized or Self-realized, it is already your true and natural state.” Just drop all seeking, turn your attention inward, and sacrifice your mind to the One Self radiating in the Heart of your very being. For this to be your own presently lived experience, Self-Inquiry is the one direct and immediate way.”
Mikhail Naimy, The Book of Mirdad
Love is the law of God. You live that you may learn to love. You love that you may learn to live. No other lesson is required of humanity. And what is it to love but for the lover to absorb forever the Beloved so that the twain be one?
Mikhail Naimy, The Book of Mirdad Blessed is the eye which is permeated with love. Without love it is like a pebble or stone. Like a gardener without a garden, the eye remains empty without love. What is the state of a human being without love? He is like one who is denied all delicacies, and whose mouth is filled only with dust. Without love one does not find the flow of the Sound Current. — Sant Dariya Sahib of Bihar
XX. The Path 279
“All things are not-self” — when one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering. This is the path to purification.
Swami Shraddhananda
If we want to understand the deeper truths of life, we have to understand that when we reach that infinite goal we will be satisfied. We will know that everything is inside us. How can we reach outside and grab it? It would be like trying to grab our own shadow. In this vast supermarket of life, everything on the shelves has been projected from our Self. The projections are one with us. They are already ours, so why should we try to grab them? The literal meaning of the word Brahman is the greatest, the all-inclusive. We have the ability to reach Brahman. When we are eating or sleeping, we are on the same level as a dog or a cat. But on the level of our understanding and reasoning, we are able to reach this highest goal of life. The supreme goal is higher than any other goal. All lesser goals, such as a goal for a bachelor’s degree, being the best secretary or the best cook, are included in that supreme goal. As long as we are connected with a body and a mind, we have to pursue these lesser goals, but ultimately there is no running away from the supreme goal.
Swami Shraddhananda2
The Upanishad tells us that our experience of brokenness is ignorance. Really speaking, reality cannot be broken. Knowledge cannot be broken. Bliss cannot be broken. We have to discover this great fact. All the time we experience reality, but because the experience seems broken, we do not reach the experience of unity. In a moment this insight can come, but it quickly goes. It has to be stabilized. If we develop our understanding we will see that at the back of change there is unchanging reality, unchanging knowledge and unchanging joy. That is Brahman. Brahman is truth, a reality that does not change, that does not end. Brahman is an unchanging reality that is satyam jnanam anantam—eternal truth and knowledge. To find Brahman does not seem to be impossible because it is here all the time. We experience Brahman all the time, because Brahman is reality.
~Hafiz
Even after all this time the Sun never says to the Earth “You owe me”. Look what happens with a love like that. It lights up the whole sky.
The Rig Veda (10:16:3)
May the divine light of the Supreme Being illuminate our intellect, to lead us along a path of righteousness.
Henry David Thoreau
“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 even in our soundest sleep. To be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.”
Bryant McGill
“There is something divine, mystical, magical and unexplainable in the universe that is listening and responding to each of us.”
Miya Yamanouchi
“Our soul is like a soft and gentle flower, it needs to be nurtured, cared for, tended to, with sufficient sunlight, fresh air and freedom to bloom into its most precious and beautiful form. This, my friend, is self-love.”
Amma, Sri Mata Amritananda Mayi
"To awaken spiritual unity-and to spread to others the love that is our inherent nature-is the true goal of human life." —Amma
The Tao
Buddha
"Drop by drop is the water pot filled. Likewise, the wise man, gathering it little by little, fills himself with good
Atharva Veda Samhita, 7.52.1
Let us have concord with our own people, and concord
with people who are strangers to us. Aßvins, create
between us and the strangers a unity of hearts.
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
We have all but forgotten that life is a rich and mysterious coming together of many worlds. We have lost sight of what the ancient priestesses and shamans knew, that the forms of our visible world have their roots in unseen dimensions, and that it is in these unseen dimensions that the primal energies of life lie. In our forgetting, we have lost the wholeness of life, and we have cut ourselves off from the real forces that shape our world. But when we are present in life, free from demands or agendas, when we allow life to unfold according to its own inner principles, we open up a doorway again between the worlds. Within our consciousness the inner and outer, the visible and the unseen worlds, can come together and speak to each other, and our split-apart world can become whole again.
Wei Wu Wei
"THIS which is seeking is THAT which is sought, and THAT which is sought is THIS which is seeking."
D.T. Suzuki
The ultimate standpoint of Zen is that… the peace we are seeking so eagerly has been there all the time.
Teresa of Avila
Let nothing Disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you, Though all things pass, God does not change. Patience wins all things. But he lacks nothing who possesses God; For God alone suffices.
Ram Dass
If you feel a sense of social responsibility, first of all, keep working on yourself. Being peaceful yourself is the first step if you want to live in a peaceful universe.
Apache Blessing.
May the sun bring you new energy by day
May the moon softly restore you by night May the rain wash away your worries May the breeze blow new strength into your being May you walk gently through the world and know it’s beauty all the days of your life.
Henry Miller
Imagination is the voice of daring.
If there is anything godlike about God, it is that. He dared to imagine everything.
Christopher Isherwood
A few times in my life I’ve had moments of absolute clarity. When for a few brief seconds the silence drowns out the noise and I can feel rather than think, and things seem so sharp and the world seems so fresh. It’s as though it had all just come into existence.
I can never make these moments last. I cling to them, but like everything, they fade. I have lived my life on these moments. They pull me back to the present, and I realize that everything is exactly the way it was meant to be.
Robert Adams
“I remind you again, the only difference between the sage and yourself is you see the world and you identify with it. You think it’s real.
A sage sees the world and he knows it’s a superimposition upon Consciousness. So he identifies with Consciousness.”
Lao Tsu ~ Tao Te Ching
Empty your mind of all thoughts. Let your heart be at peace. Watch the turmoil of beings, but contemplate their return. Each separate being in the Universe returns to the common source. Returning to the source is serenity.
Naropa
A natural knowing that is free of thought.
This self-knowing cannot possibly form thoughts. Without conceptualizing 'a mind,' Since it is not something to be conceived, This original wakefulness, cognizant yet thought-free, Is like the wisdom of the Tathagata. Therefore, it is taught, "Realize that luminous mind Is the mind of original wakefulness, And don't seek an enlightenment separate from that."
Nisargadatta Maharaj
To know itself the self must be faced
with its opposite - the not-self. Desire leads to experience. Experience leads to discrimination, detachment, self-knowledge - liberation. Liberation is to know that you are beyond birth and death
Hazrat Junaid Baghdadi
" He who does ... not complain
... and patiently bears hardships ... is noble. "
This world is cosmic show
Do not leave it with material desires, if you die with unfulfilled desires you will have to incarnate again to satisfy them. if you could but realize the amount of trouble that goes attachments, you wouldn't burden your self with them
Paramahansa Yogananda
God is consciousness. There is essentially nothing in the universe but mind or consciousness.
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