“To live a contemplative life means to consciously put aside the thousand demands of the world and offer ourselves the gift of being in the present moment, alert to the signs of the sacred that are breaking through everywhere, always. ”
“When you plant seeds in the garden, you don’t dig them up every day to see if they have sprouted yet. You simply water them and clear away the weeds; you know that the seeds will grow in time. Similarly, just do your daily practice and cultivate a kind heart. Abandon impatience and instead be content creating the causes for goodness; the results will come when they’re ready”
“The tremendous danger is that this belief - that genuine happiness comes only from pleasant feelings - becomes a strong motivation to stay closed to anything unpleasant. But by staying closed to all unpleasantness, we also stay closed to our own wellspring of compassion”
“The fundamental obstacle is that the individual is glorified in our society. Yet the individual is a figment. None of us are truly individuals. We are all part of a collective whole. Even our uniqueness is part of the collective shuffle and deal. A common DNA is combined to make each unique one of us. We are all the same energy. We are all bits of the same Stars. Individuality is such a sad alter to pray at. What we truly are is a unique aspect of a singular Consciousness. Our unique qualities, our differences, are easy to see (and so occupy our attention). What is far more rare to glimpse is our underlying Unity, this Nothing which we all are.
“We don’t need to wait until we are enlightened before we act in the world, and we don’t need to withdraw from the world to become enlightened. Conscious social action can be our own work on ourselves that becomes the vehicle for our awakening”
“All that is necessary to awaken to yourself as the radiant emptiness of spirit is to stop seeking something more or better or different, and to turn your attention inward to the awake silence that you are”
“The art of living is neither careless drifting on the one hand or fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being completely sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive ”
“A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual at all. No man can serve two masters. Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire.”
