The realized man is awake in the light of the Self, while the ignorant is awake in the light of the senses. The realized man is awake in the light of absolute bliss, the ignorant in the light of relative joys of a perishable nature.

~ Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
[Commentary on Bhagavad Gita, Ch2, V69]

Life is this simple: we are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and the divine is shining through it all the time. This is not just a nice story or a fable, it is true.

~ Thomas Merton

The whole truth of life is that there is nothing substantial to bind the never-changing to the ever-changing sphere of life.

~ Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
[Commentary on Bhagavad Gita, Ch2, V15]

As the same sun appears as different when shining on different media, such as water and oil, so the same omnipresent Being, shining through different nervous systems, appears as different and forms the spirit, the subjective aspect of man's personality. When the nervous system is pure, Being reflects more and the spirit is more powerful, the mind more effective. When the nervous system is at its purest, then the Being reflects in all its fullness, and the inner individuality of the spirit gains the level of unlimited eternal Being. Thus it is clear that in its essential nature the spirit is undying and omnipresent. This explains the universality of individuality.

~ Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
[Commentary on Bhagavad Gita, Ch2, V17]

Mostly as a result of meditation, but sometimes during an unexpected glimpse, a mystical experience of an unusual kind may develop.  He feels transparent to the Overself; its light passes into and through him.  He then finds that his ordinary condition was as if a thick wall surrounded him, devoid of windows and topped by a thick roof, a condition of imprisonment in limitation and ordinariness.  But now the walls turn to glass their density is miraculously gone, he is not only open to the light streaming in but lets it pass on, irradiating the world around.

~ Paul Brunton 
[Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself; Chapter 6: Experiencing a Glimpse; # 166]

"If asleep awaken the mind; if distracted calm it; if neither asleep or distracted do not disturb it."

~ Devikalottara, Verse 39

The ruinous abdication by philosophy of its rightful domain is the consequence of the oblivion of philosophers to a great insight first beheld clearly by Socrates and re-affirmed by Kant as by no other philosopher. Science, concerned solely and exclusively with objective existents, cannot give answers to questions about meanings and values. Only ideas engendered by the mind and to be found nowhere but in the mind (Socrates), only the pure transcendental forms supplied by reason (Kant), can secure the ideals and values and put us in touch with the realities that constitute our moral and spiritual life. Twenty-four centuries after Socrates, two centuries after Kant, we badly need to re-learn the lesson.

~ D. R. Khashaba

[http://khashaba.blogspot.com]

Seduced by the spectacular theoretical and practical successes of the objective sciences into thinking that the methods and criteria of those sciences were the only means to truth, philosophers sought to apply those same methods and criteria to questions relating to the meaning of life and the values that give meaning to life. Philosophy, especially the Analytical species prevalent in the English-speaking world, was broken up into specialized disciplines and fragmented into particular problems, all swayed and impregnated by scientism, reductionism, and relativism. All questions of meaning and value were consigned to the rubbish heap of 'metaphysical nonsense'.

~ D. R. Khashaba ]

[http://khashaba.blogspot.com]

Unless you make tremendous efforts, you will not be convinced that effort will take you nowhere. The self is so self-confident that unless it is totally discouraged it will not give up. Mere verbal conviction is not enough. Hard facts alone can show the absolute nothingness of the self-image.

~ Sri Nisargadatta

Vain, boastful talk repels acts of kindness and tears the branch of
mercy from the trunk of the tree. Speak honestly or else be silent,
and then behold grace and delight in it.

~ Rumi

To describe the ego as "little" and the personality as "petty" is to look at it from outside, where it is lost among such a multitude of others; but to look at it from within the man himself is to find it vastly important, dominating his consciousness, a giant holding him down. It is there, and after all the verbal analyses which reduce it to nothing, its presence reasserts itself.

~ Paul Brunton

It is the presence of the physical ego in the wakeful state that paralyses all spiritual awareness therein. It is the absence of the personal and physical ego in the deep sleep state that paralyses all material awareness therein, too. By keeping it out and yet keeping in wakefulness, the transcendental consciousness is able to provide the requisite condition for an unbroken spiritual awareness that is not only superior to the three states but continues its own existence behind theirs.

~ Paul Brunton

It is only through silent awareness that our physical and mental nature can change. This change is completely spontaneous. If we make an effort to change we do no more than shift our attention from one level, from one thing, to another. We remain in a vicious circle. This only transfers energy from one point to another. It still leaves us oscillating between suffering and pleasure, each leading inevitably back to the other. Only living stillness, stillness without someone trying to be still, is capable of undoing the conditioning our biologoical, emotional and psychological nature has undergone. There is no controller, no selector, no personality making choices. In choiceless living the situation is given the freedom to unfold. You do not grasp one aspect over another for there is nobody to grasp. When you understand something and live it without being stuck to the formulation, what you have understood dissolves in your openness. In this silence change takes place of its own accord, the problem is resolved and duality ends. You are left in your glory where no one has understood and nothing has been understood.

~ Jean Klein "I Am"

Although the aspirant has now awakened to his witness-self, found his"soul," and thus lifted himself far above the mass of mankind, he has not yet accomplished the full task set him by life. A further effort still awaits his hand. He has yet to realize that the witness-self is only a part of the All-self. So his next task is to discover that he is not merely the witness of the rest of existence but essentially of one stuff with it. He has, in short, by further meditations to realize his oneness with the entire universe in its real being. He must now meditate on his witness-self as being in its essence the infinite All. Thus the ultramystic exercises are graded into two stages, the second being more advanced than the first. The banishment of thoughts reveals the inner self whereas the reinstatement of thoughts without losing the newly gained consciousness reveals the All-inclusive universal self. The second feat is the harder.

~ Paul Brunton

[Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 6: AdvancedMeditation > # 88]

nāyamātmā pravacanena labhyo
na medhayā na bahunā śrutena
yamevaisha vrņute tena labhyas
tasyaisha ātmā vivrņute tanūm svām

This Self is not attained through much exposition or acquisitive knowledge. Nor by fixing meaning in memory through the power of the mind. Neither through much hearing or repetition alone. Indeed, that Self which the seeker longs for, by that is the Self attained. Then that seeker’s own Self reveals its own nature openly, with greater eloquence than words. This Self excels in describing itself.

~ Kaţha Upanişad 1.2.23

Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death.

~ Arthur Schopenhauer

Justice is conscience, not a personal conscience but the conscience of the whole of humanity. Those who clearly recognize the voice of their own conscience usually recognize also the voice of justice.

~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

One who knows and knows he knows is a wise man, Follow Him
One who knows and knows not he knows is asleep, Awaken him
One who knows not and knows he knows not is a child, Teach him
One who knows not and knows not he knows not is a Fool, Avoid him

~ Confucius (Analects)

Even if a particular doctrine is set forth in Buddha's scriptures, one must examine to determine whether or not it is damaged by reasoning. If there is damage by way of reasoning, it is not suitable to assert the literal reading of the passage.

~ The Dalai Lama (A Policy of Kindness)

A thing becomes an illusion only when its reality becomes inferior to a higher reality that has already been found. Until then, it is still a reality. Only the sage has the strict right to call this world an illusion. If anyone else does so, such talk is mere babble.

~ Paul Brunton

[Notebooks Category 19: The Reign of Relativity > Chapter 2: The Cosmosof Change > #43]

The higher your aims and vaster your desires, the more energy you will have for their fulfillment. Desire the good of all and the universe will work with you. But if you want your own pleasure, you must earn it the hard way. Before desiring, deserve.

~ Sri Nisargadatta

Plato located the soul of man in the head; Christ located it in the heart.

~ St Jerome

Idealism, though just in its premises, and often daring and honest in their application, is stultified by the exclusive intellectualism of its own methods: by its fatal trust in the squirrel-work of the industrious brain instead of the piercing vision of the desirous heart. It interests man, but does not involve him in its processes: does not catch him up to the new and more real life which it describes. Hence the thing that matters, the living thing, has somehow escaped it; and its observations bear the same relation to reality as the art of the anatomist does to the mystery of birth.

~ Evelyn Underhill

Each moment contains a hundred messages
from God: To every cry of "Oh Lord," He
answers a hundred times, "I am here."

~ Rumi

Finding the center of strength within ourselves is in the long run the best contribution we can make to our fellow men. ... One person with indigenous inner strength exercises a great calming effect on panic among people around him. This is what our society needs — not new ideas and inventions; important as these are, and not geniuses and supermen, but persons who can be, that is, persons who have a center of strength within themselves.

~ Rollo May

"Oh, if only it were possible to find understanding,” Joseph exclaimed. “If only there were a dogma to believe in. Everything is contradictory, everything tangential; there are no certainties anywhere. Everything can be interpreted one way and then again interpreted in the opposite sense. The whole of world history can be explained as development and progress and can also be seen as nothing but decadence and meaninglessness. Isn’t there any truth? Is there no real and valid doctrine?”

The master had never heard him speak so fervently. He walked on in silence for a little, then said: “There is truth, my boy. But the doctrine you desire, absolute, perfect dogma that alone provides wisdom, does not exist. Nor should you long for a perfect doctrine, my friend. Rather, you should long for the perfection of yourself. The deity is within you, not in ideas and books. Truth is lived, not taught. Be prepared for conflicts, Joseph Knecht - I can see that they already have begun.

~ Hermann Hesse (The Glass Bead Game)

Certainly it is correct to say: Conscience is the voice of God.

~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Make sure that your religion is a matter between you and God only.

~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Self-righteous morality is not a means for experiencing higher consciousness. Higher consciousness, spontaneously leads to moral and ethical behavior.

~ Deepak Chopra

All desires are bad, but some are worse than others.
Pursue any desire, it will always give you trouble.
Why desire at all? Desiring a state of freedom from
desire will not set you free. Nothing can set you
free, because you are free. See yourself with
desireless clarity, that is all.

~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

The only offering you can make to God
is your increasing awareness.

~ Lalla

All that we read and think does not get assimilated into the feeling of the heart. That is why a post-graduate scholar who is dead is not reborn with the same amount of knowledge. That which has gone deep into the heart becomes a part of our life. The rest is only a wind that blows over the surface of our minds.

~ Swami Krishnananda

Narayana and Nara meditate together and are inseparables; which means that God and man coalesce in every action and form a union in which karma becomes Karma Yoga, and that spiritual meditation is not merely a human effort but involves Divine interference. Though we may lift our arms to touch a magnetic field, when once we raise it near it is pulled by the force of the field, and here our effort ceases and we are under the influence of another power altogether.

~ Swami Krishnananda

You are alone with your God, and there is no one around you. This is the truth. Rest your mind on this, and attain peace.

~ Swami Krishnananda

When we get irritated or annoyed in the midst of work, for any reason, it is to be taken as a caution that our personality has entered into it, and the ‘unselfishness’ of the work has been adulterated with that undesirable and vitiating factor, the ego. When the work is ‘not mine’, there is no reason for internal disturbance.

~ Swami Krishnananda

If you want it [realization], it will come. There is no qualification necessary, except wanting it. That is the only qualification. If it is not wanted, it will not come. It comes when it is wanted, but wanted wholly, not a little.

~ Swami Krishnananda

Truth is the capacity to visualise things as they are in themselves, and untruth is that which obstructs this vision.

~ Swami Krishnananda

To attach oneself to a guru, an avatar, one religion, one creed, is to see the stars only. To put one's faith in the Infinite Being and in its presence within the heart, is to see the vast empty sky itself. The stars will come and go, will disintegrate and vanish, but the sky remains.

~ Paul Brunton

[Notebooks Category 28: The Alone > Chapter 2: Our Relation To the Absolute> # 104]

When we are empty of ego we, too, can carry on in calm acceptance of life's varying events. When we cease making prejudicial distinctions - gentle or harsh, beautiful or ugly, good or bad - a peaceful stillness will permeate our mind. If there is no ego, there is no agitation.

~ Master Han Shan

Although the pure truth has never been stated, nevertheless it has never been lost. Its existence does not depend upon human statement but upon human sensitivity. In this it is unlike all other knowledge.

~ Paul Brunton

[Notebooks Category 20: What Is Philosophy? > Chapter 5: The Philosopher ># 191]