Quote collection
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"There is nothing that strengthens the ego more than being right. Being right is identification with a mental position - a perspective, an opinion, a judgement, a story. For you to be right, of course, you need someone else to be wrong, as so the ego loves to make wrong in order to be right."
"It is not uncommon for people to spend their whole life waiting to start living."
"Suffering begins when you mentally label a situation as bad. That causes an emotional contraction. When you let it be, without naming it, enormous power is available to you. The contraction cuts you off from that power, the power of life itself."
"To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness."
"I call animals "guardians of Being," especially animals that live with humans. Because, for many humans, it's through their contact with animals they get in touch with that level of being."
"The human condition: lost in thought."
"I have lived with several Zen masters -- all of them cats."
"Is there a difference between happiness and inner peace? Yes. Happiness depends on conditions being perceived as positive; inner peace does not."
"Pay more attention to the silence than to the sounds. Paying attention to outer silence creates inner silence: the mind becomes still. A portal is opening up."
"Pain is inevitable as long as you are identified with your mind."
"All you need to know and observe in yourself is this: Whenever you feel superior or inferior to anyone, that's the ego in you."
"True salvation is freedom from negativity."
"To stay present in everyday life, it helps to be deeply rooted within yourself; otherwise, the mind, which has incredible momentum, will drag you along like a wild river."
"Since ancient times, spiritual masters of all traditions have pointed to the Now as the key to the spiritual dimension. Despite this, it seems to have remained a secret."
"There is a fine balance between honoring the past and losing yourself in it."
"Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."
"Rather than being your thoughts and emotions, be the awareness behind them."
"A true spiritual teacher does not have anything to teach in the conventional sense of the word, does not have anything to give or add to you, such as new information, beliefs, or rules of conduct. The only function of such a teacher is to help you remove that which separates you from the truth of who you already are and what you already know in the depth of your being"
"Prejudice of any kind implies that you are identified with the thinking mind. It means you don't see the other human being anymore, but only your own concept of that human being. To reduce the aliveness of another human being to a concept is already a form of violence."
"When you are in the present moment, you break the continuity of your story, of past and future. Then true intelligence arises, and also love."