Words

People feed on words,

live by words, would fall apart without them.

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

The body has its own intelligence

When some difficulty arises we can always find a different movement, since the body is suprisingly able to adjust itself. It has its own intelligence and is willing to cooperate in finding a solution to any problem. One has only to approach problems with patience, care and attention.

Vanda Scaravelli in "Awakening the Spine" page 41

Stay Centred

Stay centred, do not overstretch. Extend from your centre, return to your centre.

Jack Kornfield in "Buddha's Little Instruction Book" page 69

To be aware of inattention

Attention is this hearing and this seeing, and this attention has no limitation, no resistance, so it is limitless. To attend implies this vast energy: it is not pinned down to a point. In this attention there is no repetitive movement; it is not mechanical. There is no question of how to maintain this attention, and when one has learnt the art of seeing and hearing, this attention can focus itself on a page, a word. In this there is no resistance which is the activity of concentration. Inattention cannot be refined into attention. To be aware of inattention is the ending of it: not that it becomes attentive. The ending has no continuity. The past modifying itself is the future - a continuity of what has been - and we find security in continuity, not in ending. So attention has no quality of continuity. Anything that continues is mechanical. The becoming is mechanical and implies time. Attention has no quality of time. All this is a tremendously complicated issue. One must gently, deeply go into it. 

J. Krishnamurti Letters to the Schools vol II, p 31

Light of the world

Let those who have no light in themselves light candles!...

You are the light of the world, you are the tree ever green...

Tertullian

Just be aware

Just be aware; that is all you have to do, without condemning, without forcing, without trying to change what you are aware of. Then you will see that it is like a tide that is coming in. You cannot prevent the tide from coming in; build a wall, or do what you will, it will come with tremendous energy. In the same way, if you are aware choicelessly, the whole field of consciousness begins to unfold. And as it unfolds, you have to follow; and the following becomes extraordinarily difficult—following in the sense to follow the movement of every thought, of every feeling, of every secret desire. It becomes difficult the moment you resist, the moment you say, "That is ugly", "This is good", "That is bad", "This I will keep", "That I will not keep."

J. Krishnamurti The Collected Works vol XV, p 85

Meditation helps release patterns of behaviour

We all have deeply embedded patterns of behaviour that we act on unconsciously. We tense when the telephone rings, eat without tasting our food, or jog through the park while our mind is back in the office replaying the conversation we had with our boss or coworker. Meditation is a way of bringing these habitual behaviours to consciousness so that we can, if it's appropriate, gently release them. It helps us relax into our bodies more fully so that we are more aware of what we do and how we feel while we're doing it.

Pragito Dove in "Lunchtime Enlightenment" page 18

The Great Saints Were Eccentric

Many of the great saints were eccentric in the extreme. The fact of the matter, however, is that this has nothing to do wth anything. From all great beings you learn that personality is irrelevant. You're not with them to understand why they do the things they do, but to tap into the power from which they do them. If you try to figure out what they're doing or why, your brain will just get broken - which is not entirely a bad thing, of course. This, too, can be a stage in the process, if you keep going.

Swami Chetanananda in "The Breath of God" page 200

Liberation

It is bondage, when the mind desires anything or grieves about anything, rejects or welcomes anything, feels angry or happy about anything. Liberation is attained when the mind does not desire or grieve or reject or accept or feel happy or angry. It is bondage when the mind is attached to any particular sense organ. It is liberation when the mind is not attached to any sense organ. When there is no 'I' there is liberation; when there is 'I' there is bondage. Considering this, refrain from accepting or rejecting anything.

Kashyapa in the Ashtakavra Samhita, VIII quoted in "Forgiveness" by Gillian Stokes, page 31

The Silence of Supreme Intelligence

So in meditation there is no controller, there is no activity of will, which is desire. Then the brain, the whole movement of the brain apart from its own activity, which has its own rhythm, becomes utterly quiet, silent. It is not the silence cultivated by thought. It is the silence of intelligence, silence of supreme intelligence. In that silence that which is nameless comes, nameless is. That is sacred, immovable, it is not touched by thought, by endeavour, by effort. It is the way of intelligence which is the way of compassion. Then that which is sacred is everlasting. That is meditation. Such a life is a religious life. In that there is great beauty.

J. Krishnamurti in "Mind Without Measure"

Silence

If we can end the swing of thoughts collected by memories in the past, and the ones that have been shaped through fantasy and projected by imagination into the future, we will find silence. Invite silence, welcome silence, and slowly silence will become part of you.

In that silence we will be able to recieve hints of intuitions and sparks of perceptions from which creativity can arise.

Vanda Scaravelli in "Awakening the Spine" page 125

Smile

A smile costs nothing, but gives much. It enriches those who recieve, without making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts for ever.

Some people are too tired to give you a smile; give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give.

Author unknown

Words are indicators

Words (and concepts) are indicators,

not reflections, of reality.

But, as the mystics of the East declare,

When the sage points to the moon

all that the idiot sees is the finger!

Anthony de Mello in "The Prayer of the frog" page 80

Just Listen

Just listen, because if you are capable of listening and seeing the truth of what is being said, then thought will not act. If you are in that state of listening, the fact, the truth, will act. If a seed is planted in the earth and has vitality, it will grow. In the same way, the act of listening is the soil. The act of listening is only possible when there is attention, and attention does not exist if there is interpretation, evaluation, condemnation, or judgement of that to which you are listening. If you listen completely, attentively, without any observer who is the thinker, then that very act of listening will put away what is false, and you will listen only to what is true. The act of listening is the field. In that field every kind of seed is sown, and only the seed that has vitality, energy, strength, will come up, will flourish. That’s what we are doing now. We’re actually listening, neither accepting nor disagreeing nor judging. We’re actually listening so completely that the very act of listening destroys what is false and lets the seed of truth take root.

J. Krishnamurti  The Collected Works vol XVI, pp 146-147

Words of the Buddha

Do not believe a thing simply because it has been said.
Do not put your faith in traditions only because they have been honoured by many generations.
Do not believe a thing because the general opinion believes it to be true or because it has been said repeatedly.
Do not believe a thing because of the single witness of one of the sages of antiquity.
Do not believe a thing because the probabilities are in its favour, or because you are in the habit of believing it to be true.
Do not believe in that which comes into your imagination, thinking that it must be the revelation of a superior Being.
Believe nothing that binds you to the sole authority of your masters or priests.
That which you have tried yourself, which you have experienced, which you have recognised as true, and which will be beneficial to you and to others; believe that, and shape your conduct to it.

World is a mental contruct

We almost never see reality.

What we see is a reflection of it

in the form of words and concepts

which we then proceed to take for reality.

The world we live in

is mostly a mental construct.

Anthony de Mello in "The Prayer of the frog" page 80

Do it now

Do not think about doing it, but actually do it now. That is, be aware of the trees, the palm tree, the sky; hear the crows cawing; see the light on the leaf, the colour of the sari, the face; then move inwardly. You can observe, you can be aware choicelessly of outward things. It is very easy. But to move inwardly and to be aware without condemnation, without justification, without comparison is more difficult. Just be aware of what is taking place inside you—your beliefs, your fears, your dogmas, your hopes, your frustrations, your ambitions, and all the rest of the things. Then the unfolding of the conscious and the unconscious begins. You have not to do a thing.

J. Krishnamurti The Collected Works vol XV, p 85

The power of observation

A famous Viennese surgeon told his students that a surgeon needed two gifts: freedom from nausea and the power of observation.

Then he dipped a finger into some nauseating fluid and licked it, requesting each of the students to do the same. They steeled themselves to it and managed it without flinching.

With a smile, the surgeon then said, "Gentlemen, I congratulate you on having passed the first test. But not, unfortunately, the second, for not one of you noticed that the finger I licked was not the one I dipped into the fluid."

Anthony de Mello in "The Prayer of the frog" page55

Watching

You learn a great deal by watching, watching the things about you, watching the birds, the tree, watching the heavens, the stars, the constellation of Orion, the Dipper, the Evening star. You learn just by watching not only the things around you but also by watching people, how they are dressed. You not only watch that which is outside but also you watch yourself, why you think this or that, your behaviour, the conduct of your daily life, why parents want you to do this or that. You are watching, not resisting. If you resist you don’t learn. Or if you come to some kind of conclusion, some opinion you think is right and hold on to that, then naturally you will never learn. Freedom is necessary to learn, and curiosity, a sense of wanting to know why you or others behave in a certain way, why people are angry, why you get annoyed.Learning is extraordinarily important because learning is endless. Learning why human beings kill each other for instance. Of course there are explanations in books, all the psychological reasons why human beings behave in their own particular manner, why human beings are violent. All this has been explained in books of various kinds by eminent authors, psychologists and so on.  But what you read is not what you are. What you are, how you behave, why you get angry, envious, why you get depressed, if you watch yourself you learn much more than from a book that tells you what you are.

J. Krishnamurti Letters to the Schools vol II, pp 75-76

Theory

Before you've practiced, the theory is useless. After you've practiced, the theory is obvious.

David Williams