The light is the same

The lamps are different but the light is the same.

Rumi

A kind heart

A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles.

Washington Irving

All day's are god's

Whenever, in the course of the daily hunt the red hunter comes upon a scene that is strikingly beautiful or sublime - a black thundercloud with the rainbow's glowing arch above the mountain; a white waterfall in the heart of a green gorge; a vast prairie tinged with the blood-red of a sunset - he pauses for an instant in the attitude of worship. He sees no need for setting apart one day in seven as a holy day, since to him all days are God's.

Ohiyesa

The only concern of religion is the total transformation of man

Religion has become superstition and image-worship, belief and ritual. It has lost the beauty of truth; incense has taken the place of reality. Instead of direct perception there is in its place the image carved by the hand or the mind. The only concern of religion is the total transformation of man. And all the circus that goes on around it is nonsense. That's why the truth is not to be found in any temple, church or mosque, however beautiful they are. Beauty of truth and the beauty of stone are two different things. One opens the door to the immeasurable and the other to, the imprisonment of man; the one to freedom and the other to the bondage of thought. Romanticism and sentimentality deny the very nature of religion, nor is it a plaything of the intellect. Knowledge in the area of action is necessary to function efficiently and objectively, but knowledge is not the means of the transformation of man; knowledge is the structure of thought and thought is the dull repetition of the known, however modified and enlarged. There is no freedom through the ways of thought, the known.

Krishnamurti Journal Brockwood Park 13th Entry 27th September 1973

Intuition is direct and immediate

How then do we know? By the intuition. This intuition is direct and immediate in experience. By it we know, as immediately as a hand that picks up a red-hot instrument knows pain.

Christmas Humphreys

Do the real work

Hasan of Basra was given to extreme ascetic practices. Through these, he won certain occult powers which he took great pride in flaunting.
One day he saw Rabia on the bank of the river. He threw his prayer rug onto the water and shouted to her, "Rabia, come! Let's pray together!"
Rabia replied, "Is it really necessary for you to sell yourself like this? If it is, it is because you are weak."
Then, Rabia ascended into the air on her prayer rug and called down, "Hasan, come up here! Everyone will see us!" Hasan, who was not as advanced as she, stayed silent.
Rabia said to him. "What you did a fish can do. What I did a fly can do. The real work is beyond either of our tricks. The only thing necessary is to do the real work."

in "Perfume of the Desert" page 121

Wisdom doesn't belong to anyone

Wisdom does not belong to one person. We need to act in accord with wisdom, but it does not belong to anyone. It is the illumination of old and proven ideas through generation after generation of discovering natural law.

Hunbatz Men

No secrets

I have no secrets to teach you, and if I tried you may well make fun of me. Anyway, how could any understanding that I have become your understanding.

Kuei-shan

The sweetness of sugar

When Zen wants you to taste the sweetness of sugar it puts the required article in your mouth and no further words are said.

D.T.Suzuki

Life is growth

Life is growth. If we stop growing, technically and spiritually, we are as good as dead. The Art of Peace is a celebration of the bonding of heaven, earth, and humankind. It is all that is true, good and beautiful.

Morihei Ueshiba in "The Art of Peace" page 20. Trans. John Stevens

Listen to the body

So first try to be more and more sensitive about your body. Listen to it; it goes on saying many things, and you are so head oriented you never listen to it. Whenever there is a conflict between your mind and your body, your body is almost always going to be right more than your mind, because the body is natural, your mind is societal; your body belongs to this vast nature, and your mind belongs to your society, your particular society, age, time. Body has deep roots in existence, mind is just wavering on the surface. But you always listen to the mind, you never listen to the body. Because of this long habit contact is lost.

Osho in "Body Mind Balancing" page 48

Questions

It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.

James Thurber

Pay attention

Pay attention, be aware, be present in life.

David Williams

Why are we such snobs?

Why is it that we crave to be recognized, to be made much of, to be encouraged? Why is it that we are such snobs? Why is it that we cling to our exclusiveness of name, position, acquisition? Is anonymity degrading, and to be unknown despicable? Why do we pursue the famous, the popular? Why is it that we are not content to be ourselves? Are we frightened and ashamed of what we are, that name, position and acquisition become so all-important? It is curious how strong is the desire to be recognized, to be applauded. In the excitement of a battle, one does incredible things for which one is honoured; one becomes a hero for killing a fellow man. Through privilege, cleverness, or capacity and efficiency, one arrives somewhere near the top - though the top is never the top, for there is always more and more in the intoxication of success. The country or the business is yourself; on you depend the issues, you are the power. Organized religion offers position, prestige and honour; there too you are somebody, apart and important. Or again you become the disciple of a teacher, of a guru or Master, or you co-operate with them in their work. You are still important, you represent them, you share their responsibility, you have and others receive. Though in their name, you are still the means. You may put on a loincloth or the monk's robe, but it is you who are making the gesture, it is you who are renouncing.

Krishnamurti in "Commentaries on Living Series I" Chapter 22

Find yourself by getting lost

To enter a wood is to pass into a different world in which we ourselves are transformed. It is no accident that in the comedies of Shakespeare, people go into the greenwood to grow, learn and change. It is where you travel to find yourself, often, paradoxically, by getting lost.

Roger Deakin in "Wildwood"

Our efforts are the problem

People go on making unnecessary efforts. Sometimes their efforts are their barriers; their efforts are the problems that they are creating.

There was a lot of confusion downtown during the big snowstorm. Mulla Nasruddin went over to help a fat lady get into a taxi cab. After rushing and shoving and slipping on the ice, he told her he did not think he could get her in.

She said, "In? I am trying to get out!"

Osho in "Body Mind Balancing" page 55

Self-sacrifice is an extension of the self

Renunciation to gain an end is barter; in it there is no giving up, but only exchange. Self-sacrifice is an extension of the self. The sacrifice of the self is a refinement of the self, and however subtle the self may make itself, it is still enclosed, petty, limited. Renunciation for a cause, however great, however extensive and significant, is substitution of the cause for the self; the cause or the idea becomes the self, the "me" and the "mine." Conscious sacrifice is the expansion of the self, giving up in order to gather again; conscious sacrifice is negative assertion of the self. To give up is another form of acquisition. You renounce this in order to gain that. This is put at a lower level, that at a higher level; and to gain the higher, you "give up" the lower. In this process, there is no giving up, but only a gaining of greater satisfaction; and the search for greater satisfaction has no element of sacrifice. Why use a righteous sounding word for a gratifying activity in which all indulge? 

Krishnamurti in "Commentaries on Living Series I" Chapter 63

The highest knowledge of God

The highest knowledge of God is to know God as unknowable. There is far too much God talk; the world is sick of it. There is too little awareness, too little love, too little happiness, but let's not use those words either There's too little dropping of illusions, dropping of errors, dropping of attachments and cruelty, too little awareness. That's what the world is suffering from, not from a lack of religion. Religion is supposed to be about a lack of awareness, of waking up. Look what we've degenerated into.

Anthony de Mello in "Awareness" page 102

A hunch is...

A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something.

Frank Capra

Creativity

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.

Scott Adams

An attentive mind remembers

Memory is connected with attention. An attentive mind remembers. A distracted mind forgets. Attention is energy and produces energy when we use it. It is like the battery in a car, that recharges itself in the running of the motor.

Vanda Scaravelli in "Awakening the Spine" page 77

Learn as if you were to live forever

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

Mahatma Gandhi

As soon as you concern yourself with the "good" and "bad" of your fellows, you create an opening in your heart for maliciousness to enter. Testing, competing with, and criticizing others weaken and defeat you.

Morihei Ueshiba Trans. John Stevens in "The Art of Peace" page 33

Kind words

Wise sayings often fall on barren ground, but a kind word is never thrown away.

Arthur Helps

Don't You Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit-
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a fellow turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow -
You may succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man;
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup;
And he learned too late when the night came down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out -The silver tint in the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

Ralph Acosta

We want an answer

The difficulty with most of us is that we want a definition, a conclusion, an answer; we have an end in view.

Krishnamurti

Mistakes are our friends

There are those that are of the opinion that mistakes are bad. They are afraid to try anything new for fear of messing it up. Making the same mistake over and over might be a little dumb, but especially while you are learning, don't be afraid to screw everything all up. Mistakes are our friends :-) If you are not screwing something up then you are not learning anything and probably not doing anything. Remember, messing things up is a perfectly acceptable part of learning!

Joe Barta www.pagetutor.com lesson 9

We cannot direct the wind

We cannot direct the wind but we can adjust our sails.

Back Nature

In a conflict between Nature and your brain, back Nature; if you fight her, she will eventually destroy you. The secret therefore is to improve on Nature in harmony with Nature.

Anthony de Mello in "The Way to Love" page 77

The body is your friend

Listen to the body. The body is not your enemy, and when the body is saying something, do accordingly, because the body has a wisdom of its own. Don't disturb it, don't go on a mind trip...
The body is your friend; it is not your enemy. Listen to its language, decode its language, and by and by, as you enter into the book of the body and you turn its pages, you will become aware of the whole mystery of life.

Osho in "Body Mind Balancing" page 43

Attention becomes more efficient

Just observe what you are. What you are is the fact: the fact that you are jealous, anxious, envious, brutal, demanding, violent. That is what you are. Look at it, be aware; don't shape it, don't guide it, don't deny it, don't have opinions about it. By looking at it without condemnation, without judgement, without comparison, you observe; out of that observation, out of that awareness comes affection. Now, go still further. And you can do this in one flash. It can only be done in one flash—not first from the outside and then working further and deeper and deeper and deeper; it does not work that way, it is all done with one sweep, from the outermost to the most inward, to the innermost depth. Out of this, in this, there is attention—attention to the whistle of that train, the noise, the coughing, the way you are jerking your legs about; attention whereby you listen to what is said, you find out what is true and what is false in what is being said, and you do not set up the speaker as an authority. So this attention comes out of this extraordinarily complex existence of contradiction, misery and utter despair. And when the mind is attentive, it can then give focus, which then is quite a different thing; then it can concentrate but that concentration is not the concentration of exclusion. Then the mind can give attention to whatever it is doing, and that attention becomes much more efficient, much more vital, because you are taking everything in. 

J. Krishnamurti in The Collected Works vol XIV, pp 301-302