Contemplation

"All men are interdependent. Every nation is an heir of a vast treasury of ideas and labor to which both the living and the dead of all nations have contributed. Whether we realize it or not, each of us lives eternally 'in the red.' We are everlasting debtors to known and unknown men and women. When we arise in the morning, we go into the bathroom where we reach for a sponge which is provided for us by a Pacific Islander. We reach for soap that is created for us by a European. Then at the table we drink coffee which is provided for us by a South American, or tea by a Chinese, or cocoa by a West African. Before we leave for our jobs we are already beholden to more than half of the world."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

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"Know Thyself"

- The Oracle at Delphi

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"Our general instinct to seek and learn will set us enquiring into the nature of the instrument with which we search"

- Plotinus, Neo-platonic philosopher

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"Everyone thinks of changing humanity; no one thinks of changing himself."

- Leo Tolstoy

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"What lies behind us and what lies before us are very tiny compared to what lies within us"

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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"If there were no beauty in the observer then he would not find beauty outside. The mere fact that beauty is seen proves that there is beauty already present in the state of being the observer"

- Shantanand Saraswati

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"He tastes nothing who has not tasted for himself"

- Marsilio Ficino, Renaissance philosopher

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"There is something more in man than is apparent in his ordinary consciousness, something which frames ideals and thoughts, a finer spiritual presence, which makes him dissatisfied with mere earthly pursuits.

"The one doctrine that has the longest intellectual ancestry is the belief that the ordinary condition of man is not his ultimate being, that he has in him a deeper self...soul, or spirit. In each being dwells a light which no power can extinguish, an immortal spirit, benign and tolerant, the silent witness in his heart.

"The greatest thinkers of the world unite in asking us to know the Self. Mencius declares: 'Who knows his own nature knows heaven.' St. Augustine writes: 'I, Lord, went wandering like a strayed sheep, seeking thee with anxious reasoning without, whilst thou was within me... I went round the streets and squares of the city of this world seeking thee, and I found thee not, because in vain I sought for him who was within myself.'"

-Radhakrishnan

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"Do not think that the world around you - your house, your money, your body - are insubstantial. Rather it is your feeling of attachment to them that is insubstantial."

- from GOOD COMPANY: An Anthology of sayings, stories and answers to questions by His Holiness Shantanand Saraswati

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"Better than viewing Him as other,
Indeed the noblest attitude of all,
Is to hold Him as the 'I' within,
The very 'I'."

- Sri Ramana Maharshi

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"The experience of beauty is pure, self-manifested, compounded equally of joy and consciousness, free from admixture of any other perception, the very twin brother of mystical experience, and the very life of it is supersensuous wonder."

- Visvanatha

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"The first step forward...will be to see that the attention is fastened on truth. Of course faith does not see truth clearly, but it has an eye for it, so to speak, which enables it to see that a thing is true even when it does not see the reason for it. It does not yet see the thing it believes, but at least it knows for certain that it does see it and that it is true none the less. The possession through faith of a hidden but certain truth is the very thing which will impel the mind to penetrate its content, and to give the formula, "believe that you may understand" (Crede ut intelligas) its full meaning."

- Saint Augustine

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"If by eternity is understood not endless temporal duration but timelessness, then he lives eternally who lives in the present."

- Wittgenstein

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"The one thing which we seek with insatiable desire is to forget ourselves, to be surprised out of our propriety, to lose our sempiternal memory, and to do something without knowing how or why; in short, to draw a new circle. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. The way of life is wonderful: it is by abandonment. The great moments of history are the facilities of performance through the strength of ideas, as the works of genius and religion. "A man," said Oliver Cromwell, "never rises so high as when he knows not whither he is going." Dreams and drunkenness, the use of opium and alcohol are the semblance and counterfeit of this oracular genius, and hence their dangerous attraction for men. For the like reason, they ask the aid of wild passions, as in gaming and war, to ape in some manner these flames and generosities of the heart."

- Emerson

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"Three great mysteries there are in the lives of mortal beings: the mystery of birth at the beginning, the mystery of death at the end, and greater than either, the mystery of love. Everything that is most precious in life is a form of love. Art is a form of love, if it be noble; labor is a form of love, if it be worthy; thought is form of love, if it be inspired."

- Benjamin Cardozo

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"The Self is one. Unmoving, it moves faster than the mind. The senses lag, but Self runs ahead. Unmoving it outruns pursuit. Out of Self comes the breath that is the life of all things. Unmoving it moves, is far away, yet hear; within all, outside all. Of a certainty, the man who can see all creatures in himself, himself in all creatures, knows no sorrow. How can a wise man, knowing the unity of life, seeing all creatures in himself, be deluded or sorrowful?"

- Eesha (Isa) Upanishad, Translated by W. B. Yeats and Purohit Swami

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"May obedience conquer disobedience within this house, and may peace triumph over discord here, and generous giving over avarice, reverence over contempt, speech with truthful words over lying utterance; may the righteous order gain the victory over the demon of the lie."

- The Yasna

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"The watchword of all well-being, of all moral good, is "Not I but thou." Who cares whether there is a heaven or a hell, who cares if there is a soul or not, who cares if there is an Unchangeable or not? Here is the world, and it is full of misery. Go out into it as Buddha did and struggle to lessen its misery or die in the attempt. Forget yourselves - this is the first lesson to be learnt, whether you are a theist or an atheist, whether you are an agnostic or a Vedantist, a Christian or a Mohammedan. The one lesson taught by all is the destruction of the little self and the building up of the Real Self."

- Vivekananda

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I was regretting the past and fearing the future. Suddenly God was speaking. "My name is ‘I am.’ I waited. God continued.

"When you live in the past, with its mistakes and regrets, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not ‘I was.’

When you live in the future, with its problems and fears, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not ‘I will be.’

When you live in the moment, it is not hard. I am here. My name is ‘I am.’

- On the kitchen wall of the Ranch Guesthouse, St. Benedict’s Monastery, Snowmass, CO.

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The Baal Shem Tov used to go to a certain place in the woods and light a fire and pray when he was faced with an especially difficult task and it was done.

His successor followed his example and went to the same place but said: "The fire we can no longer light, but we can still say the prayer." And what he asked was done too.

Another generation passed, and Rabbi Moshe Leib of Sassov went to the wood and said: "The fire we can no longer light, the prayer we no longer know; all we know is the place in the woods, and that will have to be enough." And it was enough.

In the fourth generation, Rabbi Israel of Rishin stayed at home and said: "The fire we can no longer light, the prayer we no longer know, nor do we know the place. All we can do is tell the story."

And that, too, proved sufficient.

-From A Big Jewish Book, Poems & Other Visions of the Jews from Tribal Times to Present. Edited by Jerome Rothenberg with Harris Lenowitz and Charles Doria.

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"O God who has revealed Thyself to us not only as Truth but as Reality, restrain us from that rude and careless haste which disregards the manifold and incessant beauty of Thy creation, whereby Thou art revealing Thyself to us: grant us the recollectedness whereby we may look on these manifest and unceasing revelations of the loveliness of Thy nature and, so looking upon these reflections of Thee, may begin to learn what Thy unveiled splendour must be, Thy formless beauty, of which all beauty of form is but a shadow."

- Gerald Heard

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"Do not think that the knowledge you presently possess is changeless, absolute truth. Avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views. Learn and practice non-attachment from views in order to be open to receive others' viewpoints. Truth is found in life and not merely in conceptual knowledge. Be ready to learn throughout your entire life and to observe reality in yourself and in the world at all times."

- Thich Nhat Hanh

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"When the heart is hard and parched up, come upon me with a shower of mercy.

"When grace is lost from life, come with a burst of song.

"When tumultuous work raises its din on all sides shutting me out from beyond, come to me, my Lord of silence, with thy peace and rest.

"When my beggarly heart sits crouched, shut up in a corner, break open the door, my king, and come with the ceremony of a king.

"When desire blinds the mind with delusion and dust, O thou holy One, thou wakeful, come with thy light and thy thunder."

- Rabindranath Tagore

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"Only because people don't have faith, they allow others to use violent force and they cause violence to be done, and they do violent deeds themselves.

"In the beginning this little bit of doubt seems to be a small, harmless thing, but if we encourage it, it grows and grows until it fills the whole mind.

"Then anger and lust and selfishness come pouring out, until finally there is nothing left but endless stupidity and suffering.

"Therefore seek refuge in the opposite of doubt. Seek refuge In Faith."

- from The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

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"The more you understand our thinking, the more you feel it difficult to talk about. The purpose of my talking is to give you some idea of our way, but actually, it is not something to talk about, but something to practice. The best way is just to practice without saying anything."

- Shunryu Suzuki; from ZEN MIND, BEGINNER'S MIND

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"What is life? God's being is my life, but if it is so, then what is God's must be mine and what is mine is God's. God's is-ness is my is-ness, and neither more nor less. The just live eternally with God, on a par with God, neither deeper nor higher. All their work is done by God and God's by them. Thus St. John says: "The Word was with God" - it is completely like him - neither deeper nor higher, but only like him.

"When God made people, he made women from the man's side, so that she might be equal to him. He did not make her from the head or the foot, to be neither man nor woman, but to be like him. Thus the just soul is to be like God, by the side of God, exactly his equal and neither above nor beneath."

- Meister Eckhart. Translated by Raymond B. Blakney.

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"Can you walk on water? You have done no better than a straw. Can you fly in the air? You have done no better than a bluebottle. Conquer your heart; then you may become somebody."

- Ansari of Herat

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"Be patient towards all that is unresolved in your heart, and try to love the questions themselves ...

Do not now seek the answers which cannot be given. You will not be able to live them, and the point is to live everything."

- Rainer Maria Rilke

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"The great secret is to have recourse to the ever-present blessings of the great master teachings. Drink at that fountain and you will never run dry."

- Leon MacLaren (1910-1994). British philosopher, economist and composer.

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