"The traveler has to knock at every alien door to come to his own, and he has to wander throug all the outer worlds to reach the innermost shrine at the end." Rabindranath Tagore
"Some knowledge comes from a place beyond the mind." 3
"To be hopeful, to embrace one possibility after another--that is surely the basic instinct...If the whole world of the living has to turn on the single point of remaining alive, that pointed endurance is the poetry of hope. The thing with feathers." Barbara Kingsolver 18
"Dwarfed by unknown nature, the monkey ego beats a chattering retreat." 34
"You are more than you think." 52
"We cannot ask if the part is creating the whole, or if the whole is creating the part because the part is the whole." Michael Talbot 57
"A would-be seeker asked a Sufi:
'How long will it take to arrive at the point of true understanding?'
The Sufi answered:
'As soon as you get to the stage where you do not ask how long it will take...." Idries Shah 61
"The heart cannot fly with a monkey on its back." 67
"This is our mind. Constantly seduced by the aspiration fr divine wisdom, only to discover it is not something to be attained but is inherent in our own stillness. Yet the paradox remains that in the stillness "we" no longer exist, and the fear of absorption into this nothingness fuels the endless chain of forgetfulness. Our ambition is self-defeating; letting go is our only hope." 87
"When we are not clinging to life, we enter the continuous experience of the present moment... it is only when we let go completely that we can be fully alive." 89
"Creativity and love come from the same source." 91
"This existence of ours is as transient as autumn clouds. To watch the birth and death of beings is like looking at the movements of a dance. A lifetime is like a flash of lightning in the sky. Rushing by, like a torrent down a steep mountain." Diamond Sutra 110
"Suzuki Roshi once said about questioning our life, our purpose, "It's like putting a horse on top of a horse and then climbing on and trying to ride. Riding a horse by itself is hard enough. Why add another horse? Then it's impossible. We add that extra horse when we constantly question ourselves rather than just live out our lives, and be who we are at every moment." Natalie Goldberg 113
"What gives value to travel is fear. It is the fact that, at a certain moment, when we are so far from our own country we are seized by a vague fear, and an instinctive desire to go back to the protection of old habits. ...At that moment we are feverish but also porous, so that the slightest touch makes us quiver to the depths of our being. We come across a cascade of light, and there is eternity. This is why we should not say that we travel for pleasure." Albert Camus 129
"Remember...don't compromise your vision." 137
"We're not human beings that have occasional spiritual experiences--it's the other way around: we're spiritual beings that have occasional human experiences." Deepak Chopra 141
"Since the only real geography is consciousness, it is not where we are but what we have become that makes the difference." PMH Atwater 149
"I am continuously discovering how difficult it can be to be simple." 161
"Nearly all the best things that came to me in life have been unexpected, unplanned by me." Carl Sandburg 171
"To let understanding stop at what cannot be understood, is a high attainment. Those who cannot do it will be destroyed on the lathe of heaven." Chuang Tzu 189
"Whatever it takes to break your heart and wake you up is grace." Mark Matousek 193
"You are what your deep, driving desire is.
As your desire is, so is your will.
As your will is, so is your deed.
As your deed is, so is your destiny." Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 198
"Perhaps fate is a Borgesian labyrinth. We are perfectly free to wander through it at will, but the paths we tread are wholly determined by the walls of the maze. We can select any route we please, even change routes from time to time, but we still must follow the corridors wherever they may lead." 205
"Bohn's interpretation of quantum physics indicated that at the subquantum level...location ceased to exist. All points in space became equal to all other points in space, and it was meaningless to speak of anything as being separate from anything else." Michael Talbot 257
"To me, the word 'co-incidence' means that something that is happening on this plane reflects what is happening on another plane as well." 258
"You have a very big ego sometimes. She has a very small one. Both of these are illusions. They are the ego trickster game. Too big, too small, they both cripple you and make you stumble. This is all a big joke, it doesn't exist!" 265
"The wildest places of all are deep within and there's no end to the exploration and enjoyment of their mysteries and magic." David Yeadon 266
"Whether we know it or not, we transmit the presence of everyone we have ever known, as though by being in each others' presence we exchange our cells, pass on some of our life force, and then we go on carrying that other person in our body...This is how we survive long after we are dead. This is why it is important who we become, because we pass it on." Natalie Goldberg 288
"I am not I
I am this one
Walking beside me, whom I do not see,
Whom at times I manage to visit,
And at other times I forget.
The one who forgives, sweet, when I hate,
The one who remains silent when I talk,
The one who takes a walk when I am indoors,
The one who will remain standing when I die." Juan Ramon Jimenez 290
"The power that Mother imparts is foreign to logic but completely familiar to the soul." 303
"True happiness, we are told, consists in getting out of one's self, but the point is not only to get out--you must stay out; and to stay out you must have some absorbing errand." Henry James 312
"Crime represents a choice based upon a certain lack of optimism, the absence of the feeling of infinite potentiality." Colin Wilson 331
"It is not power that corrupts but fear." Aung San Suu Kyi 377
"All stories are about love. What else is there?" 380
"I have lived on the lip of insanity, wanting to know reasons, knocking on a door. It opens. I've been knocking from the inside." Rumi 381
"The word "enthusiasm" --en theos--a god within. The grandeur of human actions is measured by the inspiration from which they spring. Happy is he who bears a god within, and who obeys it. The ideals of art, or science, are lighted by reflection from the infinite." Louis Pasteur 390
"I must remember
to go down to the heart cave
& sweep it clean; make it warm
with a fire on the hearth,
& the candles in their niches,
the pictures on the walls
glowing with a quiet light
I must remember
to go down to the heart cave
& make the bed
with the quilt from home,
screw
rushes on the floor
& hang
lavender and sage
from the corners
I must go down
to the heart cave & be there
when you come"
--Geoffrey Brown 414
Lastly some recommended reading:
