Beyond the mind

We in the West think that the mind is everything, but all Eastern practice is to get beyond the mind to the point of the silent witness, where you’re witnessing yourself, where you’ve gone beyond the ego, beyond the self. The Indian tradition rests on what the West has largely lost: that there are three levels. There is the level of the body and the level of the mind, which the Western world thinks is the end. But beyond the body is the spirit. It’s the Atman, the pneuma of St. Paul, another dimension where we go beyond the mind, the senses, and the feelings, and we’re aware of the transcendent reality. And that is the goal of life, to get to that

Bede Griffiths, 1906 – 1993, Catholic Benedictine/ Camaldolese monk who lived in the ashrams of South India.

The starting place

You are looking everywhere except within you,

and that is the only place where you are going to find the treasure,

the truth,

the beauty.

Osho

What wishes to grow?

Whatever wishes to grow within you —a curiosity, a talent, an interest —

is life seeking its expression through you. Our old desire for comfort, even happiness,

may prove an impediment. We are here a very short time.

Let us make it as luminous and as meaningful as we can.

Time to stop being afraid, and time to show up as yourself.

James Hollis, Living an Examined Life: Wisdom for the Second Half of the Journey

Sunday Quote: Every ending is a beginning

We arrive and we start again

Hazak, Hazak, Venithazzek [חֲזַק חֲזַק וְנִתְחַזֵּק ]

Be strong,

be strong,

Let us be strengthened

[or Let us strengthen one another]

The words traditionally chanted at the end of the reading of the books of the Torah

Comings and goings

Does not just apply to people but to all experiences

When you do not block people from coming to you, when you do not stop people from leaving, and when your mind transcends both their coming and leaving, your spiritual practice is indeed accomplished.

Kim Jae Woong, Polishing the Diamond, Enlightening the Mind: Reflections of a Korean Buddhist Master

The wisest choice

If you must look back, do so forgivingly.

If you will look forward, do so prayerfully.

But the wisest course would be to be present

in the present gratefully.

Maya Angelou