Below is a growing collection of quotes from individuals and teachings close
to my heart and philosophy...any resonate with you?
“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.”
“Speaking isn’t neutral or passive. Every time we speak, we bring forth a reality. Each time we share words we give legitimacy to the distinctions that those words bring forth.”
“Every time we ask a question, we’re generating a possible version of a life.”
“To be real, to live a truthful life, we have to be ruthlessly honest with ourselves.”
“If you begin to understand what you are without trying to change it, then what you are undergoes a transformation.”
“Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.”
“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.”
“The effort to strive for truth has to precede all other efforts.”
“To ask the right question is already half the solution of a problem.”
“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”
“Practicing discipline involves continually working to find space in our patterns, to find the gaps in the images we hold about ourselves. It also means finding the gaps in our ideas about others, releasing images that we hold about a manager, a coworker, a friend, or a partner.”
“At the core of all anger is a need that is not being fulfilled.”
“All it takes is one person in any generation to heal a family’s limiting beliefs.”
“The last of human freedoms - the ability to chose one’s attitude in a given set of circumstances.”
"What separates privilege from entitlement is gratitude.”
“The universe doesn’t allow perfection.”
"Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace."
“To confront a person with their own shadow is to show them their own light.”
“There are no eternal facts, as there are no absolute truths.”
“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”
“Once you overcome the hatred within your mind, you will discover that in the world outside, there is no longer any such thing as even a single enemy.”
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
“Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today’s events.”
“Being at ease with not knowing is crucial for answers to come to you.”
“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”
“Compassion is not a virtue — it is a commitment. It's not something we have or don't have — it's something we choose to practice.”
“The human failing I would most like to correct is aggression. It may have had survival advantage in caveman days, to get more food, territory or partner with whom to reproduce, but now it threatens to destroy us all.”
“Treat everyone you meet as if they are God in drag.”
— Ram Dass
"But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you."
— Jesus
“If every 8 year old in the world is taught meditation, we will eliminate violence from the world within one generation.”
“Mindfulness is a form of mental activity that trains the mind to become aware of awareness itself and to pay attention to one’s own intention.”
“Glance at the sun. See the moon and stars. Gaze at the beauty of the green earth.... NOW think.”
“Meditation is like an oven that forces the truth out.”
“We can go through our whole lives worrying about our future happiness, and totally miss where true peace lives-right here, right now.”
"Relation is the essence of everything that exists.”
“Opening the heart is a beautiful expression. It is not conceptual.”
"My research has shown me that when emotions are expressed-which is to say that the biochemicals that are the substrate of emotion are flowing freely-all systems are united and made whole. When emotions are repressed, denied, not allowed to be whatever they may be, our network pathways get blocked, stopping the flow of the vital feel-good, unifying chemicals that run both our biology and our behavior."
“The truth will not necessarily set you free, but truthfulness will.”
“Drive all blames into one.”
“…feelings like disappointment, embarrassment, irritation, resentment, anger, jealousy, and fear, instead of being bad news, are actually very clear moments that teach us where it is that we’re holding back. They teach us to perk up and lean in when we feel we’d rather collapse and back away. They’re like messengers that show us, with terrifying clarity, exactly where we’re stuck. This very moment is the perfect teacher, and, lucky for us, it’s with us wherever we are.”
“We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.”
“Name it, don’t internalize it.”
“Unexpressed good thoughts aren’t worth squat!”
“Our life always expresses the result of our dominant thoughts.”
“If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.”
“Real liberation comes not from glossing over or repressing painful states of feeling, but only from experiencing them to the full.”
“Awakening is possible only for those who seek it and want it, for those who are ready to struggle with themselves and work on themselves for a very long time and very persistently in order to attain it.”
“Meanings are not determined by situations, but we determine ourselves by the meanings we give to situations.”
"Eternity is not ever-lasting time but the real, unfading, indestructible, and timeless Present, for, as Schroedinger said, the present is the only thing that has no end."
“Humor and paradox are often the only ways to respond to life’s sorrow with grace.”
“Give up the notion that you must be sure of what you are doing. Instead, surrender to what is real within you, for that alone is sure....you are above everything distressing.”
“Examine the nature of unborn awareness.”
“Quantum science suggests the existence of many possible futures for each moment of our lives. Each future lies in a state of rest until it is awakened by choices made in the present.”
“Man (and woman) has an infinite capacity for self-development. Equally, he has an infinite capacity for self-destruction. A human being may be clinically alive and yet, despite all appearances, spiritually dead.”
“Light must come from inside. You cannot ask the darkness to leave; you must turn on the light.”
“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”
“Underneath it all, we are wild and we know it.”
“Walk as if you are kissing the earth with your feet.”
“The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.”
“Love does not alter the beloved, it alters itself.”