See the light we are to ourselves and to others
Recognize we are better than we know
Spirituality means waking up.
Most people, even though they don’t know it, are asleep
Most people never get to see that all is well because they are asleep. They are having a nightmare
My business is to do my thing, to dance my dance
The nature of rain is the same, but it makes thorns grow in the marshes and flowers in the gardens
Don’t expect me to be of help to anyone. Nor do I expect to damage anyone. If you are damaged, you did it; and if you are helped, you did it
You think people help you? They don’t. You think people support you? They don’t
Most of what we feel and think we conjure up for ourselves in our heads, including the business of being helped by people
You are never in love with anyone. You’re only in love with your prejudiced and hopeful idea of that person
You never trust anyone. You only trust your judgement about that person
You don’t like to say, “My judgement was lousy.” You prefer to say, “How could you have let me down?”
People don’t really want to grow up, people don’t really want to change, people don’t really want to be happy
Don’t try to make them happy, you’ll only get in trouble. Don’t try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it irritates the pig
Give up
Say your thing and get out of here. And if they profit, that’s fine, and if they don’t, too bad
If you really want to wake up, you don’t want to wake up
The first step to taking up is to be honest enough to admit to yourself that you don’t like it. You don’t want to be happy
We don’t want to be unconditionally happy
It’s only when you’re sick of your sickness that you’ll get out of it
If everyone agrees on something, you can r sure it’s wrong
Every new idea, every great idea, when it first began was s minority of one
Anytime you renounce something, you are tied forever to the thing you renounce
Don’t renounce it, see through it. Understand it’s true value and you won’t need to renounce it; it will just drop from your hands. But if you don’t see that, if you’re hypnotized into thinking that you won’t be happy without this, that, or the other thing, you’re stuck
If you understood, how our simply drop the desire for it
There has to be an attitude of openness, of willingness to discover something new
Truth is never expressed in words. Truth is sighted suddenly, as a result of a certain attitude
No one can speak the truth. Only about obstacles to the truth
The first step is a readiness to admit that you don’t want to wake up, that you don’t want to be happy
The second step is a readiness to understand, to listen, to challenge your whole belief system
There are two types of selfishness. The first type is one where I give myself the pleasure of pleasing myself. The second is when I give myself the pleasure of pleasing others
We’re surrounded by joy, happiness, and love
Don’t weep for your sins
Why weep for sins that you committed when you were asleep?
Take on a new way of looking at things
It’s not easy to listen, especially when you get emotional about an idea
You’re always listening from your programming, from your conditioning, from your hypnotic state
The most difficult thing in the world is to listen, to see
If you look, you lose control of the life that you are so precariously holding together
The one thing you need most of all is the readiness to learn something new
The chances that you will wake up are in direct proportion to the amount of truth you can take without running away
It’s not that we fear the unknown. You cannot fear something that you do not know. What you really fear is the loss of the known
Selfishness seems to come out of an instinct for self preservation, which is our deepest and first instinct
Stop feeling bad about being selfish; we’re all the same
The lovely thing about Jesus was that he was so at home with sinners, because he understood that he wasn’t one bit better than they were
We differ from others only in what we do or don’t do, not in what we are
I dare not stop to think, because if I did, I wouldn’t know how to get started again
Expect the worst, you’re dealing with selfish people
You’re the idiot
Drop your false ideas. See through people. If you see through yourself, you will see through everyone. Then you will love them
When you’re ready to exchange your illusions for reality, when you’re ready to exchange your dreams for facts, that’s the way you find it all. That’s where life finally becomes meaningful. Life becomes beautiful
That’s what enlightenment is like. When someone tells you, “There is nothing you can do about it,” you say, “There is, I can wake up.”
What does it matter
If you want anything too badly, you’re in big trouble
You forget that you have it all right now anyway, and you don’t know it
Why not concentrate on the now instead of hoping for better times in the future?
The only way someone can be of help to you is in challenging your ideas
What is the most important thing of all? It’s called self-observation
Self observation means watching everything in you and around you as far as possible and watching it as if it were happening to someone else
The reason you suffer from your depression and your anxieties is that you identify with them. You say, “I’m depressed.” But that is false. You are not depressed. If you want to be accurate, you might say, “I am experiencing a depression right now.”
Delight may be in you right now, but wait around, it will change; it won’t last: it never lasts; it keeps changing: it’s always changing
Clouds come and go: some of them are black and some white, some of them are large, others small. You are the sky, observing the clouds
Don’t interfere. Don’t “fix” anything. Watch. Observe.
The trouble with people is that they’re busy fixing things they don’t even understand. We’re always fixing things, aren’t we? It never strikes us that things don’t need to be fixed. They really don’t. This is a great illumination. They need to be understood. If you understood them, they’d change
Do you want to change the world? How about beginning with yourself? How about being transformed yourself first? But how do you achieve that? Through observation. Through understanding. With no interference or judgement on your part. Because what you judge you cannot understand
When there’s something within you that moves in the right direction, it creates its own discipline
There nothing so important in the world as awakening
There’s nothing so delightful as being aware
“The unaware life is not worth living” - Socrates
I’m an ass, you’re an ass
If you ever let yourself feel good when people tell you that you’re O.K., you are preparing yourself to feel bad when they tell you you’re not good
As long as you live to fulfill other people’s expectations, you better watch what you wear, how you comb your hair, whether your shoes are polished—in short, whether you live up to every damned expectation of theirs. Do you call that human?
You’re neither O.K. nor not O.K.
You’re not O.K. and you’re not not O.K., you’re you
Cut out all the O.K. stuff and the not-O.K. stuff; cut out all the judgements and simply observe, watch. You’ll make great discoveries. These discoveries will change you. You won’t have to make the slightest effort
It’s precisely the ones who don’t know what to do with this life who are all hot and bothered about what they are going to do with another life
One sign that you’re awakened is that you don’t give a damn about what’s going to happen in the next life
Understand, stop all the crying
If people knew who they were, there wouldn’t be wars
You think you are free, but there probably isn’t a gesture, a thought, an emotion, an attitude, a belief in you that isn’t coming from someone else
It’s going to take a lot of awareness for you to understand that perhaps this thing you call “I” is simply a conglomeration of your past experiences, of your conditioning and programming
Just look at it, period. Don’t try to change it
Just observe what is going on
Begin first with things, with awareness of things; then we move on to awareness of thoughts (that’s the “me”; and finally we get to awareness of the thinker
Am I my thoughts, the thoughts that I am thinking? No. Thoughts come and go; I am not my thoughts. Am I my body? They tell us that millions of cells in our body are changed or are renewed every minute, so that by the end of seven years we don’t have a single living cell in our body that was there seven years before. Cells come and go. Cells arise and die. But “I” seems to persist. So am I my body? Evidently not
When “I” does not identify with money, or name, or nationality, or persons, or friends, or any quality, the “I” is never threatened
All suffering is caused by my identifying myself with something, whether that something is within me or outside of me
Anytime you have a negative feeling toward anyone, you’re living in an illusion. There’s something seriously wrong with you. You’re not seeing reality
The worlds all right. The one who has to change is you
The “I” is never threatened; it’s only the “me” that is threatened
If you didn’t have negative feelings you’d be much more effective
When negative feelings come in, you go blind
We never feel grief when we lose something that we have allowed to be free, that we have never attempted to possess. Grief is a sign that I made my happiness depend on this thing or person, at least to some extent
Where there is love there are no demands, no expectations, no dependency. I do not demand that you make me happy; my happiness does not lie in you. If you were to leave me, I will not feel sorry for myself; I enjoy your company immensely, but I do not cling
Can you be said to love me if you cling to me and will not let me go? If you will not let me be? Can you be said to love me if you need me psychologically or emotionally for your happiness?
When your illusions drop, you’re in touch with reality at last, and you will never again be lonely, never again. Loneliness is not cured by human company. Loneliness is cured by contact with reality, dropping one’s illusions, making contact with the real
Think of the loneliness that is yours. Would human company ever take it away? It will only serve as a distraction. There’s an emptiness inside, isn’t there? And when the emptiness surfaces, what do you do? You run away, turn on the television, turn on the radio, read a book, search for human company, seek entertainment, seek distraction. Everybody does that. It’s big business nowadays, an organized industry to distract us and entertain us
You only change what you understand. What you do not understand you are not aware of, you repress. You don’t change. But when you understand it, it changes
If you’re lucky, you might suddenly understand who “I” is, and you’ll never be the same again, never. Nothing will ever be able to touch you again and no one will ever be able to hurt you again
You will fear no one and you will fear nothing
You fear no one because you’re perfectly content to be nobody. You don’t give a damn about success and failure. They mean nothing.
You’ll react less and act more. You see things you’ve never seen before
You’re much more energetic, much more alive. People think that if they had no cravings, they’d be like deadwood. But in fact they’d lose their tension. Get rid of your fear of failure, your tensions about succeeding, you will be yourself. Relaxed. You wouldn’t be driving with your brakes on. That’s what would happen
When you’re living for nothing, you’ve got all your skills, you’ve got all your energy, you’re relaxed, you don’t care, it doesn’t matter whether you win or lose
In awareness you will understand that honor doesn’t mean a thing. It’s a social convention, that all
I’m an ass, you’re an ass, so where’s the problem?
The three most difficult things for a human being are not physical feats or intellectual achievements. They are, first, returning love for hate; second, including the excluded; third, admitting that you are wrong
Go on with your life while it passes through you and disappears
There’s only one reason why you’re not experiencing bliss at this present moment, and it’s because you’re thinking or focusing on what you don’t have. Otherwise you would be experiencing bliss. You’re focusing on what you don’t have. But, right now you have everything you need to be in bliss
Love and fear are the only two things
There’s only one evil in the world, fear. There’s only one good in the world, love. It’s sometimes called by other names. It’s sometimes called happiness or freedom or peace or joy or God or whatever. But the label doesn’t really matter . And there’s not a single evil in the world that you cannot trade to fear
The person who is truly nonviolent, who is incapable of violence, is the person who is fearless
Watch everything inside of you and outside, and when there is something happening to you, see it as if it were happening to someone else, with no comment, no judgment, no attitude, no interference, no attempt to change, only to understand
The more you worry about it, the worse it’ll get
Be aware of what you’re saying, be aware of what you’re doing, be aware of what you’re thinking be aware of how you’re acting. Be aware of where you’re coming from, what your motives are. The unaware life is not worth living
The unaware life is a mechanical life. It’s not human, it’s programmed, conditioned
People go through life with fixed ideas; they never change. They’re just not aware of what’s going on
The worst thing you can do is forget yourself when you go out to others in the so-called helping attitude
What you are aware of you are in control of; what you are not aware of is in control of you. You are always a space to what you’re not aware of. When you’re aware of it, you’re free from it. It’s there but you’re not affected by it. You’re not controlled by it; you’re not enslaved by it. That’s the difference
Don’t seek the truth; just drop your opinions
If you’re suffering, you’re asleep
Suffering is a sign that you’re out of touch with the truth
True happiness is uncaused
Happiness is our natural state. Happiness is the natural state of little children, to whom the kingdom belongs until they have been polluted and contaminated by the stupidity of society and culture
You’ve got to drop illusions. You don’t have to add anything in order to be happy; you’ve got to drop something.
Life is easy, life is delightful. It’s only hard on your illusions, your ambitions, your greed, your cravings
The first thing you need to do is get in touch with negative feelings that you’re not even aware of. Lots of people have negative feelings they’re not aware of. You’re feeling gloomy and moody. You feel self-hatred or guilt. You feel that life is pointless, that it makes no sense; you’ve got hurt feelings, you’re feeling nervous and tense
The second step is to understand that the feeling is in you, not in reality. So stop trying to change reality
No person on earth has the power to disturb you or hurt you. No event, condition, situation, or person
Reality is not problematic. Problems exist only in the human mind
You created the problem. You are the problem. You identified with “me” and that is the problem. The feeling is in you, not in reality
The third step is to never identify with a feeling.
Feelings pass. Everything passes, everything. Let it pass
You don’t need to belong to anybody or anything or any group. You don’t even need to be in love. Who told you you do? What you need is to be free. What you need is to love. That’s it; that’s your nature
You don’t do anything to be free, you drop something. Then you’re free
The fourth step is to change yourself
When you awaken, when you understand, when you see, the world becomes right
Many people swing into action only to make things worse. They’re not coming from love, they’re coming from negative feelings. They’re coming from guilt, angers hate; from a sense of injustice or whatever. You’ve got to make sure of your “being” before you swing into action. Oh have to make sure of who you are before you act
We see people and things not as they are, but as we are
People are so busy accusing everyone else, blaming everyone else, blaming life, blaming society, blaming their neighbor. You’ll never change that way; you’ll continue in your nightmare, you’ll never wake up
Identify the negative feelings in you; understand that they are in you, not in the world, not in external reality; do not see them as an essential part of “I”; these things come and go; understand that when you change, everything changes
It is not selfish to live your life as you see fit. The selfishness lies in demanding that someone else live their life to suit your tastes, or your pride, or your profit, or your pleasure
Can you imagine the relief when you don’t have to impress anybody anymore?
Nobody was mean to you. Somebody was mean to what he or she thought was you, but not to you. Nobody ever rejects you; they’re only rejecting what they think you are
Until people come awake, they are simply accepting or rejecting their image of you
You’re never so full of yourself as when you’re in pain. You’re never so centered in yourself as when you’re depressed. You’re never so ready to forget yourself as when you are happy. Happiness releases you from self
Pleasant experiences make life delightful. Painful experiences lead to growth. Suffering points up an area in you where you have not yet grown, where you need to grow and be transformed to change
Don’t suppress desire, understand it. Don’t seek to fulfill desire so much as to understand desire
If you attempt to renounce the object of your desire, you are likely to be tied to it. Whereas if you look at it and see it for what it is really worth, if you understand how you are preparing the grounds for misery and disappointment and depression, your desire will then be transformed into what I call a preference
Every time you are unhappy, you have added something to reality. It is that addition that makes you unhappy
Reality provides the stimulus, you provide the reaction
When you cling, life is destroyed; when you hold on to anything, you cease to live
Until somebody told you you wouldn’t be happy unless you were loved, you were perfectly happy
You become happy by contact with reality
Life is something that happens to us while we’re busy making other plans
People don’t bring delinquency with them; they become delinquent when they’re faced with certain situations. We’ve got to understand them. If you want to cure the situation, it’s useless reacting from prejudice. You need understanding, not condemnation
That is how you bring about change in yourself. Not by condemnation, not by calling yourself names, but by understanding what’s going on
Reality is whole, but words and concepts fragment reality
One never quarrels about reality; we only quarrel about opinions, about concepts, about judgments. Drop your concepts, drop your opinions, drop your prejudices, drop your judgements, and you will see that
The beauty of an action comes not from its having become a habit but from its sensitivity, consciousness, clarity of perception, and accuracy of response
Don’t carry over experiences from the past. Learn what it means to experience something fully, then drop it and move on to the next moment, I influenced by the previous one
We never set about the task of freeing ourselves, of dropping the baggage, of being ourselves
The root of sorrow is craving. Craving distorts and destroys perception. Fears and desires haunt us
We are brought up to need people. For what? For acceptance, approval, appreciation, applause—for what they call success. Those are word that do not correspond to reality. They are conventions, things that are invented, but we don’t realize that they don’t correspond to reality
An attachment is a belief that without something you are not going to be happy
You only change through awareness and understanding
Reality is lovely; it is an absolute delight. Eternal life is now. We’re surrounded by it, like the fish in the ocean, but we have no notion about it at all. We’re too distracted by attachments
If you’re attached to appreciation and praise, you’re going to view people in terms of their threat to your attachment or their fostering of your attachment
An attachment destroys your capacity to love
Love is sensitivity, Love is consciousness
A loving hear is sensitive to the whole of life, to all persons; a loving heart doesn’t harden itself to any person or thing. But the moment you become attached, then you’re blocking out many things
When you’re hellbent on getting this or the other thing, you become ruthless, hard, and insensitive
The only tragedy there is in the world is ignorance; all evil comes from that
Don’t ask the world to change—you change first
Till you are aware of yourself, you have no right to interfere with anyone else or with the world
Wisdom occurs when you drop barriers you have erected through your concepts and conditioning. Wisdom is not something acquired; wisdom is not experience; wisdom is not applying yesterday’s illusions to today’s problems. Wisdom is to be sensitive to this situation, to this person, uninfluenced by any carryover from the past, without residue from the experience of the past
If you really enjoy life and the simple pleasures of the senses, you’d be amazed
An animal will never overeat. Left in it’s natural habitat, it will never be overweight. It will never drink or eat anything that is not good for its health. You are always exercises as much as it needs. We’ve lost that. We’re lost in our minds, in our ideas and ideals and so on, and it’s always go, go, go. And we’ve got an inner self-conflict which animals don’t have. And we’re always condemning ourselves and making ourselves feel guilty
When you have enjoying something intensely, you need very little
You can do anything you want with your life, provided you don’t interfere with the freedom of someone else
Nourish yourself on wholesome food, good wholesome food. Sunsets, nature, a good movie, a good book, enjoyable work, good company