Thoughts

In my experience,

we don’t make thoughts appear,

they just appear.

One day, I noticed that their appearance

just wasn’t personal.

~Byron Katie

(1942 to pres., American Philosopher and Author)

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Part of God

We, who are a part of God,

are full of the love of God.

God is an ocean of all love.

Our soul being of the same essence as that of God

Is love.

The great saints have said

that the way back to God is also through love.

Since we are full of the love of God,

our soul is always enraptured;

it is always in bliss.

In its original state

it is always far, far removed

from any sorrow.  

It is far removed from hatred, jealousy,

or any other kind of feelings

that put us in a state of sorrow.

~Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj

(1946 to pres., Author, Scientist,

Mystic Adept of Light and Sound Current Yoga,

Leader of Science of Spirituality and

International Movements for World Peace)

Values

In comparison to emotions,

which come and go

and sometimes mistakenly lead us

into thinking there is danger,

values provide a steady hand

that reminds us about the kind of person

we want to be.

~Yael Schonbrun

(Psychologist and family therapist)

Interconnection

Interconnection

is the tree at the atomic level,

bird at the atomic level,

us at the atomic level.

There is no atom that we haven’t breathed,

drunk, or eaten from the planet.

We’re walking, talking Earth.

We’re not separate.

We are the Earth

that has figured out how to communicate

with itself.

~Neil Theise

(Professor of pathology at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine)

Let Go

For ages now you’ve been
Beguiled, entranced, and fooled by appearances.
Are you aware of that? Are you?
Right this very instant, when you’re
Under the spell of mistaken perception
You’ve got to watch out.
Don’t let yourself get carried away

by this fake and empty life.

Your mind is spinning around
About carrying out a lot of useless projects:
It’s a waste! Give it up!
Thinking about the hundred plans

you want to accomplish,
With never enough time to finish them,
Just weighs down your mind.
You’re completely distracted
By all these projects, which never come to an end,
But keep spreading out more, like ripples in water.
Don’t be a fool: for once, just sit tight. . . .

If you let go of everything—
Everything, everything—
That’s the real point!

~Patrul Rinpoche

(1808-1887, Tibetan Buddhist Teacher)

Last Wolf

The last wolf hurried toward me

through the ruined city

and I heard his baying echoes

down the steep smashed warrens

of Montgomery Street and past

the ruby-crowned highrises

left standing

their lighted elevators useless

Passing the flicking red and green

of traffic signals

baying his way eastward

in the mystery of his wild loping gait

closer the sounds in the deadly night

through clutter and rubble of quiet blocks

I hear his voice ascending the hill

and at last his low whine as he came

floor by empty floor to the room

where I sat

in my narrow bed looking west, waiting

I heard him snuffle at the door and

I watched

He trotted across the floor

he laid his long gray muzzle

on the spare white spread

and his eyes burned yellow

his small dotted eyebrows quivered

Yes, I said.

I know what they have done.

~Mary TallMountain

(1918-1994, Native Alaskan writer and elder)

Vehicle of Consciousness

The problem in middle life,

when the body has reached its climax of power

and begins to decline,

is to identify yourself, not with the body,

which is falling away,

but with the consciousness of which it is a vehicle.

This is something I learned from myths.

What am I?

Am I the bulb that carries the light?

Or am I the light of which the bulb is a vehicle? 

One of the psychological problems in growing old

is the fear of death.

People resist the door of death.

But this body is a vehicle of consciousness,

and if you can identify with the consciousness,

you can watch this body go like an old car.

There goes the fender, there goes the tire,

one thing after another— but it’s predictable.

And then, gradually, the whole thing drops off,

and consciousness, rejoins consciousness.

It is no longer in this particular environment.

~Joseph Campbell

(1904–1987, Mythologist and Philosopher)

We Are One

We are essentially social beings,

and I am only one part

of the reflection of the great mystery of God.

We are each of us simply

one fingerprint or footprint of God.

We are essentially connected with one another.

The pattern of the universe is

that we are one.

~Richard Rohr

(1943 to pres., Spiritual writer, and Franciscan priest)

Cosmic Consciousness

It is said that God is an Ocean of All consciousness;

and our soul, being of the same essence of God,

is also consciousness.

Unfortunately, ever since the soul was separated

from its source and imprisoned in the physical body,

it has been lost in mind, matter and illusion.

We all know that in this world

everything is transitory,

and most of the possessions and achievements

that we take pride in are not lasting.

We are constantly seeking happiness,

but we are unable to find it.

The reason is that no amount of material comfort

or material gain can give happiness to our soul

which is a conscious entity.

If we want peace and bliss for our soul

saints and seers from the dawn of history

have emphasized the necessity

of developing greater and greater consciousness

until we achieve cosmic consciousness.

And we can attain cosmic consciousness

only when we are able to concentrate at the eye-focus

with single minded attention.

~ Sant Darshan Singh Ji Maharaj

(1921–1989, founder and head of Sawan Kirpal Ruhani Mission,

Indian mystic Urdu poet, Master Saint of Surat Shabd Yoga)

Wish of Love

To receive a simple wish of love

quietly opens our minds

to an innate wisdom

that recognizes the essential goodness of being,

the intrinsic goodness of experience itself,

the joy of being alive.

It brings out the natural wisdom

that was hidden in our minds.

~Lama John Makransky

(American professor of Buddhism and comparative theology)