Self-knowledge

Most people confuse "self-knowledge" with knowledge of their conscious ego personalities. Anyone who has any ego-consciousness at all takes it for granted that he knows himself. But the ego knows only its own contents, not the unconscious and its contents.

 

Carl Gustav Jung in "the Undiscovered Self" page 3

Technical hitch!

Apologies that there haven't been posts for the last couple of days. I've had a few problems accessing Blogger. I hope that normal service will soon be resumed!

November 11th

From Poppies

The earth on which we live is our earth - right? It is not the British earth, the French earth, or the German, Russian, Indian, Chinese, it is our earth on which we are all living. That is a fact. But thought has divided it racially, geographically, culturally, economically. That division is causing havoc in the world... It is our earth on which we are all living but we have divided it - for security, for various patriotic, political, illusory reasons, which eventually bring about war.

J. Krishnamurti in "On Nature and the Environment" page 73

God's home

Once upon a time there was a forest where the birds sang by day and the insects by night. Trees flourished, flowers bloomed and all manner of creatures roamed about in freedom.

And all who enterd there were led to Solitude which is the home of God who dwells in Nature's silence and Nature's beauty.

But then the Age of Unconsciousness arrived when it became possible for people to contruct buildings a thousand feet high and to destroy rivers and forests and mountains in a month. So houses for worship were built from the wood of the forest trees and from the stone under the forest soil. Pinnacle, spire and minaret ponted towards the sky; the air was filled with the sound of bells, with prayer and chant and exhortation.

And God was suddenly without a home.

Anthony de Mello in "The Prayer of the frog" page33

Freedom from Convention

To be free from convention is not to spurn it but not to be deceived by it. It is to be able to use it as an instrument instead of being used by it.

Alan Watts in "The Way of Zen" page 31

Showing Off

Showing off does not reveal enlighenment.

Boasting will not produce accomplishments.

He who is self-righteous is not respected.

He who brags will not endure.

All these ways of acting are odious, distasteful.

from the 24th verse of the Tao in Wayne Dyer's "Change your thoughts change your life"

Bad Taste

To be proud of our yoga positions is bad taste. To be able to do the poses "successfully" means nothing, nothing at all. Yoga should not become a circus. It must not be done as a refuge from life.

Vanda Scaravelli in "Awakening the Spine" page 41