Mind is the master power

Mind is the master power that moulds and makes;
And man is mind and evermore he takes
The tool of thought and, shaping what he wills,
Brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills.
He thinks in secret and it comes to pass -
Environment is but his looking glass.

Author unknown

Caged animal

We look at animals in cages - but each one of us is caged within an animal. Do we look at ourselves?

Happiness is...

Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but your manner of travelling.

The one to be scrutinised is yourself

It is futile to waste time over what another is thinking, or what you imagine he is thinking - because you can never know. The one to be scrutinised is yourself. 

J. Krishnamurti Early Works, circa 1930

Forget about technique

Ultimately, you must forget about technique. The further you progress, the fewer teachings there are. The Great Path is really No Path.

Morihei Ueshiba trans. John Stevens

Life is a benediction

When the wants are few and desires nil;
When time does not weigh on us;
When the mind stops comparing, complaining, fighting;
When forgiveness, cheerfulness and spontaneity become the nature;
When there is nothing to look forward to
And nothing to be tired of;
When there is no friend to favour and no enemy to avenge;
When there are no shouts of jubilation
And no cries of lament - 
Life is a benediction, life is fulfilment.

Author unknown

It's all in the state of mind

If you think that you are beaten, you are;

If you think you dare not, you don't;

If you like to win but think you can't

It's almost sure you won't.

If you think you'll lose, you've lost,

For out in the world you find 

success begins with a fellow's will.

It's all in the state of mind.

Author unknown

 

Even a small star shines in the darkness.

Finnish Proverb

A disappointment may lead to a liberation

If you know how to "look" you will "see" that sometimes a disappointment may lead to a new road.
The same happens to the body: if something goes wrong physically, or after an illness, you may discover a different approach or a different perception in the way of doing certain poses, which may even solve other problems. Therefore, do not worry, do not get upset, but keep your eyes and your mind wide open. A disappointment, a loss, may lead you to a liberation.

Vanda Scaravelli in "Awakening the Spine" page 109

Begin it now

Whatever you dream you can do begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.

Goethe

Freedom

Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the feedom to make mistakes.

Mahatma Gandhi

Meditation

Meditation is about changing patterns within yourself by bringing your mind to a still point over and over again.

Swami Chetanananda

Worry

Worry will not rob tomorrow of its sorrow - it only robs today of its strength.

 

Life has no system

Life itself has no system, for it is always in movement; always growing and striving. To systemise it, therefore, is to bind it and so negate its vital quality. For this reason pure reason can never understand; nor can its anti-thesis, which is pure sentiment, ever understand. Strength is needed for understanding, but sentimentality is always weak. 

J. Krishnamurti

Judge a man by the way he treats those who can do nothing for him.

Teach and discover your own ignorance

No-one has the right to remain idle on the excuse that he knows too little to teach. For he may always be sure that he will find others who know still less than himself. It is not until a man begins to try to teach others that he discovers his own ignorance and tries to remove it.

H.P.Blavatsky

Good and Ill

When anyone offends against you, let your first thought be, Under what conception of good and ill was this committed? Once you know that, astonishment and anger will give place to pity. For either your own ideas of what is good are no more advanced than his, or at least bear some likeness to them, in which case it is clearly your duty to pardon him; or else, on the other hand, you have grown beyond supposing such actions to be good or bad, and therefore it will be so much the easier to be tolerant of another's blindness.

Marcus Aurelius trans. Maxwell Staniforth

There are already enough names

Once the whole is divided, the parts need names.

There are already enough names;

Know when to stop.

From 32nd verse of Tao te ching.

Wayne Dyer in "Change your thoughts change your life" page 156

Can we stop war by praying for peace?

Question: Can we stop war by praying for peace? Krishnamurti: I do not think that war can be stopped by prayer. Isn't praying for peace merely a particular form of emotional release? We think that we are incapable of preventing war and so we find in prayer a release from this horror. Do you think that by merely praying for peace you are going to stop violence in the world? Prayer only becomes an escape from actuality. That emotional state which results in prayer can also be worked upon by propagandists for the purposes of war, hatred. As one eagerly prays for peace, so, equally enthusiastically, one is persuaded about the beauties of nationalism and the necessity of war. Prayer for peace is utterly useless. The causes of war are manufactured by man, and it is of no value to appeal to some outside force for peace. War exists because of psychological and economic reasons. Until those causes are fundamentally altered, war will exist, and praying for peace is of no value.

Ojai 8th Talk in the Oak Grove 24th May, 193

Words

People feed on words,

live by words, would fall apart without them.

Anthony de Mello in "The Prayer of the frog" page 81

True forgiveness

True forgiveness is a willingness to change your mind about your Self.

Robert Holden

Explanations

As humans, we wish to find an explanation for every occurrence that transpires in the world around us. All of these conclusions, however, are simply rationalizations of the thinking mind. Therefore, they are influenced by the science and accepted knowledge of the present time.

Scott Shaw in "Zen O'clock" page 49

Concentration

You know what concentration is - from childhood, we are trained to concentrate. Concentration is the narrowing down all our energy to a particular point, and holding to that point. A boy in school looks out of the window at the birds and the trees, at the movement of the leaves, or at the squirrel climbing the tree. And the teacher says: "You are not paying attention, concentrate on the book", or "Listen to  what I am saying." This is to give far more importance to concentration than to attention. If I were the teacher I would help him to watch; I would help him to watch that squirrel completely; watch the movement of the tail, how its claws act, everything. Then if he learns to watch that attentively, he will pay attention to the book.

Krishnamurti in "Questions and Answers" p 43

The greatest gift

Yesterday's entry on my Brahma Kumaris calendar...

Self-transformation is the greatest gift you can give the world.