Wisdom Quotes
[With some
comments by Rolf Sattler in brackets]
Philosophy
Whitehead,
Chopra
For Quotes by and
on Korzybski see
Korzybski
Quotes
Seek simplicity
and distrust it (A. N. Whitehead. The Concept
of Nature. Cambridge).
There is no such thing as one and only one correct
perspective...You see the world as you are. Others see the
world as they are, too (Chopra, D. 2009. The Ultimate
Happiness Prescription. New York:
Harmony Books, p. 75).
[see also Complementarity
of Different Maps and Mandalas]
Conflicts arise as a result of not understanding that there
are as many points of view as there are people (Ibid., p.
76).
Know that the outer world reflects you inner reality (Ibid.,
p. 107).
Religion and Spirituality
J. Krishnamurti,
Adyashanti, Rajneesh, Ken Wilber, Jan Kersschot, Chuck Hillig
We are not God’s
creation. God is our creation (J. Krishnamurti).
[We created the word ‘God’ that may refer to many different
aspects of reality. What we say (s)he is, (s)he is not (see
quotes 9-16)]
There are four
major stages or phases of spiritual unfolding: belief, faith,
direct experience, and permanent adaptation: you can belief
in Spirit, you can have faith in Spirit, you can directly
experience Spirit, you can become Spirit (Ken Wilber.
2000.
One Taste.
Boston: Shambhala, p. 290)
When you really laugh, suddenly mind disappears. And the
whole Zen methodology is how to get into no-mind – laughter
is one of the beautiful doors to get into it (Bhagwan Shree
Rajneesh. 1984. The
Book. Series II.
Rajneeshpuram, OR: Rajneesh Foundation International, p.111).
[see also Laughter
Quotes]
When you are whole, you are healthy. When you are fragmented,
divided, split, you are unhealthy… When you are really whole,
you are holy, you are pure, innocent (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.
1984. The
Book. Series I.
Rajneeshpuram, OR: Rajneesh Foundation International, p.626).
[see also Quotes on Health and
Healing]
Return to that which is not definable [the unnamable]
(Adyashanti. 2006. Emptiness
Dancing. Boulder, CO:
Sounds True, p. 41).
[see also Beyond
Thinking, Writing, and Speaking - the
Unnamable]
The golden flower blooms if you are ready to die to the past,
if you are utterly in the present. And you can be utterly in
the present only if you have no desire to be anywhere else in
the future, if you have no desire to be somebody else. This I
call enlightenment (Osho. 1982. The Secret of
Secrets. Talks on the Secret of the Golden
Flower. The Rebel
Publishing House.
The cosmic joke, of course, is that the ego is caught on a
self-generated treadmill because it already ‘is’ what it is
looking for (Chuck Hillig in Kersschot, J. 2004.
This Is It.
Dialogues on the Nature of Oneness. London: Watkins
Publ., p. 164).
Awakening reflects the knowing that there are no borders,
that everything is-as-it-is, and that no amount of seeking or
understanding can ever change that. It is not about changing
the quality of the images on the screen, it is more about
recognizing the Light in these images – no matter what kind
of images are appearing on the screen (Kersschot, J.
2004. This Is It.
Dialogues on the Nature of Oneness. London: Watkins
Publ., pp. 48-49).
When I rest as the timeless Witness, the Great Search is
undone…
Precisely because the ultimate reality is not anything seen
but rather the Seer [Witness], it doesn’t matter in the least
what is seen in any moment. Whether you see peace or turmoil…
happiness or sadness, matters not at all: it is not those
states but the Seer of those states that is
already
Free.
Changing states is thus beside the point; acknowledging the
ever-present Seer is the point (Ken Wilber. 2001. The Eye of
Spirit. Boston: Shambhala, p. 300).
Love and Relationships
Eckhart Tolle,
Georg Feuerstein, Thich Nhat Hanh, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
(Osho)
In an instant,
loving tenderness can turn into a savage attack or dreadful
grief…Was it love in the first place, or just an addictive
grasping and clinging? (Eckhart Tolle. 1999.
The Power of
Now. Novato, CA: New
World Library, p. 149).
It seems that most “love relationships” become love/hate
relationships before long… The relationship then
oscillates…between the polarities of “love” and hate, and it
gives you as much pleasure as it gives you pain… I am
speaking here of what are commonly called romantic
relationships – not of true love, which has no opposite
because it arises from beyond the mind. Love as a continuous
state is as yet very rare – as rare as conscious human
beings. Brief and elusive glimpses of love, however, are
possible whenever there is a gap in the stream of mind
(Eckhart Tolle. 1999. The Power of
Now. Novato, CA: New
World Library, p. 148).
romance... is self-centered and self-indulgent. Even as the
romantic lover worships his beloved, he only worships himself
(Georg Feuerstein. 2006. A Little Book
for Lovers. Boulder, CO:
Sounds True, p. 51)
romantic love... is of the ego and hence can never reach
across space and time to delight in the other's true being.
Only in genuine love, which is free from all idealization,
are the ego's distortions of truth overcome (Ibid. p. 54).
To love means to listen [to oneself and others] (Thich Nhat
Hanh).
All [?] relationships are damaged by a confrontation between
right and wrong...To give up the need to be right doesn't
mean that you don't have a point of view. But you can give up
your need to defend your point of view (Chopra, D.
2009. The Ultimate
Happiness Prescription. New York:
Harmony Books, p. 73).
When you give in to your need to be right, you are turning
your back on love, communion, and ultimately unity. Unity is
the realization that at the deepest level everyone shares the
same consciousness, which is the source of all love and joy
(Chopra, D. 2009. The Ultimate
Happiness Prescription. New York:
Harmony Books, p. 77).
Love is the most healing force in the world. Nothing goes
deeper than love: it heals not only the body, not only the
mind, but also the soul. If one can love, then all one’s
wounds disappear. Then one becomes whole – and to be whole is
to be holy (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. 1984. The
Book. Series I.
Rajneeshpuram, OR: Rajneesh Foundation International, p.624).
[see also Quotes on Health and
Healing]
Happiness
Dalai Lama,
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho), Ken Wilber, Chuck Hillig
the very motion
of life is towards happiness (H.H. The Dalai Lama and H. C.
Cutler.1998. The Art of
Happiness. New York:
Riverhead Books, p. 13).
[However, if happiness is dependent on conditions, it cannot
last because conditions change. True happiness is independent
of conditions]
Our contentment depends only on our willingness to hold the
content of our life within a context that is absolutely
limitless (Chuck Hillig. 2007. Seeds for the
Soul. Boulder CO:
Sentient Publications, p. 188).
Unhappiness is only the ego-mind insisting that this
should not
be
so.
True happiness of the heart, however, always lies in not
‘minding’ anything (Chuck Hillig. 2007. Seeds for the
Soul. Boulder CO:
Sentient Publications, p. 189).
[In other words, true happiness requires acceptance or, as
Byron Katie put it, Loving What
Is]
The end of suffering is the fruit of unconditional
acceptance, rather than of chasing pleasure and avoiding pain
(Ardagh, A. 2007. Awakening
into Oneness. Boulder, CO:
Sounds True, p. 162).
The [thinking] mind is the root cause of unhappiness and
whenever you are happy you are mindless. Watch a moment of
tremendous happiness. Suddenly there are no thoughts. You are
simply happy (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. 1984.
The
Book. Series 1.
Rajneeshpuram, OR: Rajneesh Foundation International, p.611).
total freedom…- complete liberation from the ignorance that
grasps onto the self-existence of things - is the only true,
lasting state of happiness (Tenzin Gyatso, The Fourteenth
Dalai Lama. 2005. Essence of
the Heart Sutra. Boston: Wisdom
Publications, p. 97).
Abide as Emptiness, embrace all Form. The liberation [true
happiness] is in the Emptiness, never in the Form, but
Emptiness embraces all forms as mirror all its objects (Ken
Wilber. 2007. A Brief
History of Everything. Boston:
Shambhala, p.240)
And so, when I
rest as the Witness, all things arise in me, so much so that
I am all things. There is no subject and object because I do
not see the clouds, I am the clouds (Ken Wilber. 2001. The
Eye of Spirit. Boston: Shambhala, p. 300).
[For more quotes from Ken Wilber see Quotations from the Work of Ken
Wilber]