Got this book as a Christmas gift from Andrew. Finished reading it a couple of days ago and I'm posting some of the lines that I liked.
"whatever can run can also stand still" - p170
"How can freedom be taught except by someone who is free?" - p170
"Imitating the guru was the main path for a disciple... Yet the greatest teachers... taught in complete silence." - p171
"This is how things will be. If you want praise and smiles, go to someone else. I'm not here to flatter you" - p172
"There is one thing Mara (the Devil) can never let you find out: the truth about who you really are." - p178
"And always there was the pall of age and sickness, the endless worry over money, the unceasing doubts about the future." - p183
"Own nothing. Give everything." - p184
"Learn to use your memories... Don't let them use you." - p185
"Merely avoiding violence shows virtue, but it shows much more virtue to help end the fight and bring the combatants to a state of peace." - p187
"What the mind has created, only the mind can undo." - p187
"Every person has two selves, a lower self that is born of flesh and tied to the illusions of the material world, and a higher self that is eternal and unborn, with no attachments at all. The lower self craves pleasure, the higher self knows only bliss. The lower self cringes from pain, the higher self has never felt pain." - p188
"Never mind that ordinary people are wasting their lives in foolish dreams of finding happiness. To the ignorant, pleasure and pain appear to be different, but wisdom tells us they are the right and left hands of the lower self." - p188
"Your soul is just as invisible as God, but it belongs to you. It's your divine spark, hidden and disguised by restless desires. Your atman is always watching you, but you do not notice it. You notice your next meal, your next argument, your next fear. It is always drawing you closer to the divine, but you do not heed it. You heed a thousand desires instead. Be still and know your soul. Seek it, and when you meet your soul, seize it for yourself, because it's woth far more than gold." - p191
"Dharma is worthless unless it teaches one how to be free." - p194
"When all else fails, whatever is left must be right." - p194
"Be wise. Believe in nothing." - p206
"Unhappiness is born of expectations that don't come true... Even to expect nothing can be a trap." - p206
"Face the wall like a statue and give them nothing." - p209
"Two journeys had to be made without companions: the journey to your death and the one to enlightenment." - p209
"I've known fear... And fear is death's chief weapon. Let me experience the worst torment, and then fear will lose its hold over me." - p210
"You are not the separate self. You have a name that you answer to, but you have also answered to ten thousand other names. Which one is the real you? None of them." - p241
"You set your sights on a goal that you cherish." - p241
"A saffron robe doesn't make you free of desire, and desire is what has kept you a prisoner." - p241
"What if there is no holy life?... even holiness has become food for your ego to feed on. You want to be different. You want to be safe. You want to have hope." - p242
"...you can be whole, but only if you see yourself that way. There is no holy life. There is no war between good and evil. There is no sin and no redemption. None of these things matter to the real you. But they all matter hugely to the false you, the one who believes in the separate self. You have tried to take your separate self, with all its loneliness and anxiety and pride, to the door of enlightenment. But it will never go through, becuase it is a ghost." - p243
"Every particle of soil, every plant and animal, is constantly changing. You cannot be enlightened as the separate person you see yourself to be because that person has already disappeared, along with everything else from yesterday" - p243.
"All of you are Buddha." - p244
"When you dig a well, there is no sign of water until you reach it, only rocks and dirt to move out of the way. You have removed enough; soon the pure water will flow." - p245
"Some people can be reached by speaking to their conscience. Those are the ones who already know that they want to find an end to suffering. Through conscience, guilt and shame, they will recognize their wrong when it is told to them." - p254
"Sometimes you must show yourself as you really are. People who are lost in the struggle of existence have become prisoners of illusion. Just remember one thing: you are made of light, and when it is fitting, you may have to prove it." - p255
"...a warrior; his nature is conflict." - p257
"Love sometimes weeps; don't be ashamed of it. With some people, an appeal to love prevails." - p257
"(Have faith)...when nothing seems to work... Don't preach faith the way it's usually preached, to keep people quiet and forbid them to think on their own. That kind of faith is blind, and being blind, it is useless. Call on faith only when the mind has given up." - p258
"Winning and losing are the same thing. Both are nothing." - p258
"Every single life is woven into the web of karma, which has no beginning or end. Until you accept that every life is woven into every other, you will never know who you really are." - p261
"The fire of passion burns out eventually. Then you dig through the ashes and discover a gem. You pick it up; you look at it with disbelief. The gem was inside you all the time. It is yours to keep forever. It is Buddha." - p264
"Buddha shunned ceremony. He wanted each individual to look inside and find liberation through a personal journey that began in the physical world and ended in Nirvana, a state of pure, eternal consciousness. Nirvana is present in everyone... but Nirvana is like pure water lying deep beneath the earth. Reaching it requires concentration, devotion, and diligent work." - p267
1 comment:
Thank your for the collection. They are wonderful. I recently read the book and have read it again :)
Pravin
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