Inspiring quotes from hinduism and other sources

What we call sin is nothing but the solidification, the condensation of wrong actions continuing for a long time; and punya, or merit, is the condensation of good actions that we have performed. To repeat once again what I said, a good action is that tendency in our consciousness which moves in the direction of larger and larger dimensions of itself, and a sin is a contraction of consciousness which moves more and more in the direction of the physical body; and the worst sin is to have consciousness lodged in the body itself, and think that one is only the body. -- Swami Krishnananda

 

Consciousness minus conceptualization is the eternal Brahman the absolute; consciousness plus conceptualization is thought. -- Yoga Vasistha


Thinking and consciousness are not synonymous. Thinking is only a small aspect of consciousness. Thought cannot exist without consciousness, but consciousness does not need thought. -- Eckhart Tolle

 

Vedanta contains eternal truths that are meant for the entire humanity. Their knowledge is neither emotional nor intellectual, but represents the actual reality that is. It teaches us that preoccupation with the past and the future makes for an agitated present. And as our actions are the greatest expression of our thoughts, it is not surprising that the world we live in is as turbulent as it is.

-- Swami Purushottamananda




If you don't take the lamp of awareness with you, you are going to create a hell around you. Light your lamp wherever you go -- courting, not courting, that is not the point. Wherever you go, whatsoever you do, always do it in the inner light, with awareness.


-- Osho




Bring awareness to each act. Walking on the road, walk fully alert; eating, eat with awareness. Whatsoever you are doing, don't let the past and the future interfere. Be in the present. That's what awareness is all about.


-- Osho

 

When you can bear your own emptiness, you are free. ~Mooji




Emptiness is effectively the absence of you. And where there is the absence of 'you', there shines the presence of God.~ Mooji



The emptiness I speak about is not the emptiness the mind imagines. It is not blank. Your body can continue expressing in a natural way. Intelligence is there. Emotions can come. Everything can play, but inside there is total serenity and peace. No planning, no strategising, no personal identity is there. Just the space of pure being. It is what we are, but we dream and believe we are not. ~Mooji




The fear of emptiness. This is humanity's most dark, and most dangerous, secret. Buried into everybody's collective subconscious, it is this fear that goads civilisations to run, to achieve, to desire, to declare war, in fact, to do anything but sit still and watch the clouds float in the sky. ~ Swami Chaitanya Niyam



Now, if you consider, you will see that one of the reasons for the desire to accept a belief, is fear. Because, if we had no belief, what would happen to us? Wouldn't we be very frightened of what might happen? If we had no pattern of action,based on a belief - either in God, or in Communism, or in Socialism, or in Imperialism, or in some kind of religious formula, some dogma in which we are conditioned - we would feel utterly lost, wouldn't we? And is not this acceptance of a belief, the covering up of that fear - the fear of being really nothing, of being empty? After all, a cup is useful only when it is empty; and a mind that is filled with beliefs, with dogmas, with assertions, with quotations, is really an uncreative mind, it is merely a repetitive mind. And, to escape from that fear - that fear of emptiness, that fear of loneliness, that fear of stagnation, of not arriving, not succeeding, not achieving, not being something, not becoming something - is surely one of the reasons, is it not? - Jiddu Krishnamurti




An addiction to knowledge is like any other addiction; it offers an escape from the fear of emptiness, of loneliness, of frustration, the fear of being nothing. The light of knowledge is a delicate covering under which lies a darkness that the mind cannot penetrate. The mind is frightened of this unknown, and so it escapes into knowledge, into theories, hopes, imagination; and this very knowledge is a hindrance to the understanding of the unknown. - Jiddu Krishnamurti

 

We are kept from our goal, not by obstacles, but by a clear path to a lesser goal. - Krishna

 

QUOTES OF BARRY LONG



THE STATE OF AWARENESS is the state in which you see things as they are: the precious facility that life has given man to escape the mastery of the robot. It is the habit of the mind to destroy the state of awareness as quickly as possible. It does this by judging, for judging is thinking.



There is only one thing in your life YOU can be sure of. That one thing is this moment, now. The last moment has gone forever. The next moment has not come. YOU can become fully conscious only when you are living in the moment. To begin to live in the moment you have to know it exists and understand it. To understand it you have to observe it in relation to yourself and in relation to life. When you understand it, when you become conscious, you will see it is all that exists. To see this is to glimpse reality.



It is the conscious man or woman who finds the secret of happiness and contentment; and that, surely, is the ultimate success.



The moment is your only duty. Your duty at any time in your life is to do what you have to do from moment to moment. What you have to do is what you cannot avoid doing. What you cannot avoid doing is what you do.


To be conscious is to be consciousness: Consciousness, the knower in you, cannot be known, although it can be experienced. You can experience consciousness now by experiencing the fact that you exist.



You think: you become that thought. And consciousness, or the state of pure awareness, is lost.



Reason does not need thinking. If you observe yourself making a plan you will notice that having fixed the object, the facts just keep coming, linking up into a chain of proposed action. Awareness is experiencing from moment to moment. Reason acts quickly in awareness, a thousand times faster than thought, and you do not even notice it is operating.



When the robot mind is mastered, undisciplined thinking ceases and is replaced by awareness. Awareness can know love. You can only experience the new when you are aware, when you are without thought.

 

All of spirituality is contained in that one word: Awareness. — Mata Amritanandamayi


Proceed on life’s journey with awareness. — Mata Amritanandamayi


If I were to summarize it ( Guruma's teachings) into one thing, it would be awareness. How to develop that awareness-insight. I am not referring to awareness at the level of the mind as seen in mountaineers or astronauts. A slip in awareness and the mountaineer can be buried alive under snow or the astronaut blasted away from his ship. But that awareness does not transform them or cause them to disassociate from the mind and its functions. To be an observer is to be totally neutral and to be a witness. And somewhere, I would add, the awareness of who I am, or what the truth is. -- Anandamurti Gurumaa


How to do meditation, many people ask me. Don't do anything, to just go into thoughtless awareness. Try to go to the thoughtless awareness. If you can get into that condition of thoughtless awareness you've done your job, because that's the point where you are with the truth, with the reality, with the joy, with everything that is so fundamental.-- Nirmala Devi


When you are in thoughtless awareness, you must know that you are in the kingdom of God and His people, His arrangements, His consciousness, is going to look after you."-- Nirmala Devi


Awareness is the background for all of our experiences, and yet in our ordinary day-to-day lives, it is often obscured by habituated thoughts and emotions.
Most teaching and meditation practices are designed to cut through this habituated seeing into the Background of Awareness which is our innate nature and which is, in and of itself, Clear Seeing. -- Metta Zetty


Awareness is the constant
throughout all experience.

Recognizing this is the key
to abiding Satisfaction. -- Metta Zetty

 

The Self, our Being, is awareness. - Sri Muruganar


Nearly all mankind is more or less unhappy because nearly all do not know the true Self. Real happiness abides in Self-knowledge alone. All else is fleeting. To know one’s Self is to be blissful always. - Ramana Maharshi


“Man’s search for happiness is an unconscious search for his true Self. The true Self is imperishable; therefore when a man finds it, he finds a happiness which does not come to an end.” - Ramana Maharshi


This world is trapped in the well of suffering. What is this suffering due to? This suffering stems from ignorance of the Self. All suffering in this world is because of ignorance. This ignorance leads to raag (attachment) and dwesh (abhorrence) relentlessly and suffering is experienced as a consequence. Only Gnan can cure this suffering. There is no other remedy. Gnan insulates you from suffering. -- Ambalal Muljibhai Patel


Purpose of suffering is to connect you to your Self (Awareness). It indicates that you got carried away by all the transient things around you. - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar


To invest one’s identity and security in something that appears, moves, changes and disappears is the cause of unhappiness. – Rupert Spira

 

“I am that I am” - Jehovah. [Exodus 3:14].



' I am’ is the name of God. Of all the definitions of God, none is so well put as the biblical statement ‘I am that I am’ in Exodus chapter three. There are other statements such as brahmavaiham [Brahman am I], aham brahmasmi [I am Brahman] and soham [I am He]. But none is so direct as Jehovah [which means] ‘I am’.

The essence of mind is only awareness or consciousness. When the ego, however, dominates it, it functions as the reasoning, thinking or sensing faculty. The cosmic mind, being not limited by the ego, has nothing separate from itself and is therefore only aware. That is what the Bible means by ‘I am that I am’. - Ramana Maharshi



Be content with what you are sure of. And the only thing you can be sure of is "I am". Stay with it and reject everything else. This is Yoga.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj

 

Prajñanam brahma - Brahman is pure consciousness (Aitareya Upanishad 3.3 of the Rig Veda)


"God is love." - Jesus Christ (John 4:8)


"Pure consciousness is pure love, and love is the highest healer on the planet - you can say, it is your natural Self." - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

 

Brahmavit brahmaiva bhavati -- 'The knower of Brahman becomes Brahman'. (Mundaka Upanishad 3.2.9)


I and the Father are one. ~ Jesus Christ (John 10:30)


Aham Brahmasmi . ~ I am Brahman (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad )


Ana 'l-Ḥaqq. -- "I am the Truth" ( Mansur Al Hallaj, Sufi enlightened sage )

 

“There is One unchanging indivisible Reality which, though unmanifest, reveals Itself in infinite multiplicity and diversity.” ~ Anandamayi Ma


It is through the multiplicity of name and form that one can arrive at the One. It is from this One that this Infinite Variety has manifested. In the end all return to that effulgent One.~ Shivayogini Matha (1923-1981)

 

Equanimity is a perfect, unshakable balance of mind.- Nyanaponika Thera


Maintaining equanimity of mind in all situations should be our focus. It verily is the goal. - Mata Amritanandamayi


Equanimity of Mind is Yoga . ~ Krishna (BG 2:48)


Equanimous mind gives rise to a heightened awareness. - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar


Your mindfulness will only be as robust as the capacity of your mind to be calm and stable. Without calmness, the mirror of mindfulness will have an agitated and choppy surface and will not be able to reflect things with any accuracy. - Jon Kabat-Zinn

 

Awareness is who we are and forgetting that leads to suffering. -Vicki Woodyard


Being unconscious means you’re lost in thought, in the pictures and stories your mind is producing. You have entered the made-up content of your mind and are occupying it as if it were reality itself. Your ego is invested in this content as being real and important, and very likely as a result you are experiencing some kind of emotion (stirred up by the thinking). You have forgotten that all of it is the product of your mind (even if its content appears to be true or important). As a result, you are missing actual reality, what’s happening in the now — including that you are inventing the thoughts. - JAN FRASIER


Your true nature is awareness and not what your mind is producing. - Burt Harding

 

The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it. ~ Eckhart Tolle


If you don't have very strong emotions or very intense thoughts about something, you cannot get depressed. ~ Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev


Life is rooted in reality, not in your thoughts and emotions. ~ Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev


Rather than being your thoughts and emotions, be the awareness behind them. ~ Eckhart Tolle


The most beautiful moments in your life – moments of bliss, moments of joy, moments of ecstasy, moments of utter peace – were moments when you were not thinking about anything. You were just living. ~ Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev

 

No one is a stranger, we all are children of one Father. ~ Dadi Prakashmani (Prajapita Brahmakumaris)


We must change first, not wait for others to do so. Once we become masters of our own minds again, there will be no further sorrow. ~ Dadi Prakashmani ( Prajapita Brahmakumaris)

 

With the changing of seasons and the integrity of matter, the external form of the earth changes over time. The driving force behind this devolution is the human mind. The higher, pure consciousness manifests in a robust, verdant planet, while the lowest, impure consciousness produces a polluted, corroded state of existence. ~ Prajapita Brahmakumaris


“The pollution of the planet is only an outward reflection of an inner psychic pollution: millions of unconscious individuals not taking responsibility for their inner space.” ~ Eckhart Tolle


I don’t want to tell anyone how much water they should use or shouldn’t use. But whatever you do – make it as conscious as possible. If you become conscious, you will only use as much as you need to. This will make a world of difference. Right now, we are behaving as if we’re the last generation on the planet. ~ Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev


When you live consciously, your response to situation that arise will be agile and appropriate. ~ Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev

 

Thought alone, when it is no longer connected with the much vaster realm of consciousness, quickly becomes barren, insane, destructive. ~ Eckhart Tolle


When scientific or rational thinking is grounded in presence it has a completely different outcome. It can never be monstrous. ~ Dr. Jean Klein


Once you are corrupted by thought you have no sense of life, simply your own psychological process is more important than the whole cosmic dimension of the existence. ~ Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev

 

Thinking is good, but excessive thinking is not. Between thoughts if there is a period of thoughtlessness, thoughts will be fresh and pathbreaking. A thinker will be able to cultivate a strain of healthy thoughts only when he pays attention to thoughtlessness also. ~ Acharya Mahapragya


While doing work if the mind continues to be active let it be so, but there must be at the same time a capacity for silence. ~ Sri Aurobindo


Reason does not need thinking. If you observe yourself making a plan you will notice that having fixed the object, the facts just keep coming, linking up into a chain of proposed action. Awareness is experiencing from moment to moment. Reason acts quickly in awareness, a thousand times faster than thought, and you do not even notice it is operating. ~ Barry Long


I do not know if you have noticed that there is understanding when the mind is very quiet, even for a second; there is the flash of understanding when the verbalization of thought is not. Just experiment with it and you will see for yourself that you have the flash of understanding, that extraordinary rapidity of insight, when the mind is very still, when thought is absent, when the mind is not burdened with its own noise. So, the understanding of anything—of a modern picture, of a child, of your wife, of your neighbor, or the understanding of truth, which is in all things—can only come when the mind is very still. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

 

Under the obsessive thoughts and plans, under the emotions, positive and negative, there is an ocean of peace. ~Gangaji


To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment. ~ Eckhart Tolle


We are completely unaware of our true nature because we identify ourselves with our body, our emotions and our thoughts, thus losing sight of our unchanging centre, which is pure consciousness. ~ Dr. Jean Klein


You are so accustomed to think of yourselves as bodies having consciousness that you just cannot imagine consciousness as having bodies. Once you realize that bodily existence is but a state of mind, a movement in consciousness, that the ocean of consciousness is infinite and eternal, and that, when in touch with consciousness, you are the witness only, you will be able to withdraw beyond consciousness altogether. ~Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj