Theragatha

If your mind becomes firm like a rock

And no longer shakes

In a world where everything is shaking,

Your mind will be your greatest friend

And suffering will not come your way.

Prajnaparamita

Empty and calm and devoid of self
Is the nature of all things.
No individual being
In reality exists.
There is no end or beginning,
Nor any middle course.

All is an illusion,
As in a vision or a dream.
All beings in the world
Are beyond the realm of words.
Their ultimate nature, pure and true,
Is like the infinity of space.

Prajnaparamita

The eye of clarity is so called
Because it brings sight to everyone.
It enables every single one to enter
The uncreated and unconditioned reality,
Each in his own way.

Deepak Chopra on Second Attention

Through second attention, you can perceive yourself
As awareness itself,
Not as one of its products and creations.
There are many ways to catch such glimpses:
Meditating to reach inner silence;
Sensing the purity of nature;
Sudden flashes of innocence; an impulse of love;
An intuitive connection to your muse;
Sensing inner guidance, a source of wisdom;
A feeling that you belong in the larger scheme of life.

Consider if you have ever experienced such things;
Begin to notice them now, and be on the lookout
For those moments when you can sense
Something lies behind the veil of appearances.

Even though we all live by first attention
And therefore lose our selves in constant activity,
We are also equipped to perceive the world
Through second attention.

Whenever you have a flash of love,
Innocence, inspiration, awe, wonder, or joy,
Remind yourself: This is the real me.
Don’t let such moments simply pass you by.
Stop and appreciate them,
And ask that you receive more in the future.

In this way you open a feedback loop
Between first and second attention.
You will continue to view the physical world as such,
But its significance will change.
You will start to see consciousness at work,
Being in motion.

In this way, the realms of change and non-change
Begin to merge.
Light starts to enter the world,
Until the world is eventually seen as made of light
And nothing else.

Hsueh-yen

One moon appears everywhere in all bodies of water;
The moons in all bodies of water are contained
In one moon.
This is a metaphor for one mind producing
Myriad things
And myriad things producing one mind.

This refers to dream illusions, flowers in the sky,
Half-seeming, half empty.

Releasing Shadow Enegies, Deepak Chopra

To find your shadow energy,
You have to be dedicated to a journey of descent.
Think of this journey as going back to retrieve parts
Of your life that have been abandoned because
You felt so ashamed or guilty about them.

The anger that erupts from the shadow
Is attached to past events that were never resolved.
Now those events are over and gone,
But their emotional residue isn’t.

Shame, guilt, and fear cannot be accessed by thinking.
The shadow isn’t a region of thoughts and words.
Even when you have a flash of memory
And recall such emotions,
You are using a part of the higher brain–the cortex–
That cannot touch the shadow.

The journey of descent begins only when you find
The doorway to the lower brain,
Where experience is sorted out
Not according to reason
But according to intense feelings.

No matter how free you feel from shadow energies,
They exist inside you. If they didn’t,
You would be in a state of total freedom, joy,
And unboundedness.
You would be in unity, the state of innocence regained
When the hidden energy of the shadow
Has been purified.

Shadow energies make themselves known
Whenever a controlled situation
Turns unexpectedly anxious
Or causes unexpected anger or dread.
If you feel guilty or ashamed of yourself
After you experience these,
Then you have touched, however briefly,
On the shadow.

An eruption of irrational feeling isn’t the same
As releasing them.
Venting is not purification.
So don’t mistake an outburst for catharsis.
When a shadow energy truly leaves,
There is no resistance anymore,
And you see something you didn’t see before.

Milindapanha

The king said: 'Venerable Nagasena,
Where does wisdom dwell?
''Nowhere, O king.''
Then, Sir, there is no such thing as wisdom?
''Where does the wind dwell, O king?''
Not anywhere, Sir.
''So there is no such thing as wind?''
Well answered, Nagasena!'

Ashtavakra Gita 15:5

Desire and aversion are of the mind.
The mind is never yours.
You are free of its turmoil.
You are awareness itself,
Never changing.

Wherever you go,
Be happy.

Mundaka Upanishad

The ego and the Self
Dwell as intimate friends in the same body,
Like two golden birds perched in the same tree.
The ego eats the sweet and sour fruits of the tree,
While the Self looks on detached.

For as long as you identify with the ego,
You will feel joy and sorrow.

Deepak Chopra on Unity and Duality

If duality is an illusion,
Then unity will not be established.
Both have their values, and without duality,
Unity has no substance.
Both are natural, both are true.

That is the nature of the world.
Like light and darkness, the contradictions exist,
They are there.
The North Pole is there, and so is the South Pole.
“The two fullnesses” complement each other.
There is 100 percent diversity and 100 percent unity,
Both performing their work at the same time.

That is the nature of the work of creation–
This is true reality.
To us, one seems real and the other unreal.
The reality is that both are real at the same time.
As water is true, so ice is true.
Both are quite opposed to each other,
And yet their affinity is so great
That the ice cannot exist without the water–
It is water and nothing but water.
So unity and diversity are there
Together and at the same time.

The highest goal of existence, then,
Is to achieve “200 percent of life.”
Life is a field of unlimited possibilities.
Such is the glory of total flexibility
In the human nervous system.
This is a tremendously important point.
It says that we can bypass
The limited, bounded choices
That we are used to making and go directly
Tto the solution of any problem.
The basis for this assertion is that nature
Has already structured
The solution in our consciousness.

The problems are in the field of diversity,
While the solutions are in the field of unity.
Going straight to the field of unity
Automatically hits upon the solution,
Which the mind-body system then carries out.

Deepak Chopra on Projection

Vedic rishis said that projection is the mechanism
By which consciousness created reality.
Our entire culture has been built upon projection,
And at this moment you and I
Are continuing the process.
Projection creates meaning.

By themselves, events are meaningless
Until we give them value.
While we are creating in the material world,
We are affecting every level of consciousness
And therefore
Every level of creation.
Meaning is never isolated.

For instance, angels exist because
They have been projected in consciousness.

Projection can get complicated.
A society that feels endangered
Can project wild fantasies.
Muslim fundamentalists project a West
That is corrupt, unholy, and decadent,
While Christian fundamentalists project an Islam
That is barbaric, fanatical, and godless in return.

Projection is “successful” when we no longer
Can see reality, but have created a false version
Based on fear, hostility, anxiety, or insecurity–
Any negative emotion
For which we refuse to take responsibility.

Projection can also be positive,
As it is when a smitten lover
Sees perfection in the object of his love,
Although to friends and family the beloved remains
An ordinary creature of flesh and blood.

Sutta Nipata 226

What the great Buddha has praised as pure,
The state that is called immediate,
There exists nothing equal to that state.

Prajnaparamita

Subhuti, how does a person first feel a need to save beings?
He becomes aware of that kind of wise insight
Which shows him beings as on their way to destroying themselves.
Great compassion then takes hold of him.
He surveys the world, and what he sees fills him with agitation.

So such a person radiates great friendliness
And compassion over all these beings
And gives his attention to them, thinking,
"I would like to save these beings,
I would like to release them from all their sufferings."
But he does not make this desire into an attachment,
For even he never turns his back on full enlightenment.

Ramakrishna

Live in the world like a waterfowl.
The water clings to the bird,
But the bird shakes it off.
Live in the world like a mudfish.
The fish lives in the mud,
But its skin is always bright and shiny.

H.H., The Dalai Lama

Wars arise from a failure to understand
One another's humanness.
Instead of summit meetings,
Why not have families meet for a picnic
And get to know each other
While the children play together?

H.H.,The Dalai Lama

Never give up.
No matter what is going on,
Never give up.
Develop the heart.
Too much energy in your country is spent
Developing the mind instead of the heart.
Be compassionate not just to your friends,
But to everyone.
Be compassionate.
Work for peace in your heart and in the world.
Work for peace and I say again,
Never give up.
No matter what is happening,
No matter what is going on around you,
Never give up

Bhagavad Gita 3:8-9

Fulfill all your duties; action is better than inaction.
Even to maintain your body, Arjuna,
You are obliged to act.

Selfish action imprisons the world.
Act selflessly, without any thought of personal profit.

Ashtavakra Gita 2:21

I see only one.
Many men, One wilderness.

Then to what may I cling?

Chopra on the Unified Field

Everything in nature is evolving
To a higher level of existence.
Even without trying or thinking,
Just by virtue of our existence itself,
We are evolving to a higher level of awareness.
When we are aware of this, we evolve even faster.
The unified field balances everything in creation–
The ecology of nature, the physiology of the human body,
The evolution of a human fetus into a baby.

The unified field is not constrained by
Boundaries, conceptual notions,
Or premature cognitive commitments.
The field is unbounded in space and time.
It has no limits in time;
It is beyond the outer edges of space.
The field is indestructible. Fire cannot burn it,
Water cannot wet it, Wind cannot dry it,
And weapons cannot cleave it.
It is ancient, it is unborn, it never dies.

The unified field requires nothing from the outside
Because everything is contained in the inside of the field.
Curving back within itself, it creates again and again.
This means all possibilities–
Anything that you can imagine, and more.
Therefore you have the ability to acquire anything
That falls within the realm of your imagination,
And even those things
That are currently outside the limits of your imagination.
The more you acquire,
The more your imagination will expand.
What is unimaginable today
Might become imaginable tomorrow.
But there will always be new realms
That have yet to be explored.

The effects of mediation last into our daily activity,
And soon our activity becomes saturated and influenced
By the qualities of the unified field.
This is because by experientially knowing something
We become it. Once we become it,
We begin to embody all its properties.

Tirukkural 81:803-804

Of what purpose is longstanding fellowship
If friends' familiar actions are not accepted
As one's own?
Familiar with familiarity, the wise are not annoyed
When friends do things without asking.

From the Prajnaparamita Sutra

Subhuti said: "If I understand correctly,
One who wishes to reach perfect wisdom
Should study the way things are in the world
And should practice the perfections fully and in depth
But should not believe them to be ultimately real,
Nor should he make concepts and doctrines out of them."

The Buddha replied: "Just so, Subhuti.
The one who contemplates existence in this way
Knows the nature of the conditioned and of the unconditioned
And makes himself an expert in pointing out the truth to others,
Both with words and without words."

Subhuti asked: "But is this just for the wise and the intelligent?"
"No, indeed," replied the Buddha. "This is open to all,
Even to the dull witted and to those who can't pay attention.
The door is open to anyone who wants to tread this path-
-but not to the person who is lazy and indifferent."

Diamond Sutra

Never think that I believe I should set out
A "system of teaching" to help people
Understand the way.
Never cherish such a thought.

What I proclaim is the truth as I have discovered it
And "a system of teaching" has no meaning
Because the truth can’t be cut up into pieces
And arranged in a system.

From the Yoga Vasishtha

Even as rock remains rock, carved or uncarved,
Consciousness remains consciousness
Whether the world appears or not.
The world-appearance is but an empty expression;
Its substance is nothing but consciousness.
In fact, even these manifestations and modifications
Are but Brahman, the cosmic consciousness—
Though not in the sense of manifestation or modification.
Even this distinction—modification in the sense of modification,
Or any other sense—is meaningless in Brahman.
When such expressions are used in relation to Brahman,
The meaning is quite different, like water in the mirage.-

Digha Nikaya

Sakka asked the Buddha:

"Do different religious teachers
Head for the same goal
Or practice the same disciplines
Or aspire to the same thing?"

"No, Sakka, they do not. And why?
This world is made up of
Myriad different states of being,
And people adhere to one or another of these states
And become tenaciously possessive of them,
Saying, 'This alone is true, everything else is false.'
It is like a territory that they believe is theirs.
So all religious teachers do not teach the same goal
Or the same discipline,
Nor do they aspire to the same thing.
But if you find truth in any religion or philosophy,
Then accept that truth without prejudice."

Pema Chodron

The dharma that is taught
And the dharma that is experienced
Are descriptions of how to live,
How to use your life to wake you up
Rather than put you to sleep.
And if you choose to spend the rest of your life
Trying to find out what awake means
And what asleep means,
I think you might attain enlightenment.

Sai Baba

"Before you speak, ask yourself,
Is it kind, is it necessary, is it true,
Does it improve on the silence?"

Adept Godrakpa, "Hermit of Go Cliffs"

Body impermanent like spring mist;
Mind insubstantial like empty sky;
Thoughts unestablished like breezes in space.
Think about these three points over and over.-

Dhammapada, 6.

Everywhere, truly, those of integrity stand apart.
They, the good, don't chatter in hopes
Of favor or gains.
When touched now by pleasure, now pain,
The wise give no sign of high or low.

Diamond Sutra Passage

There are some who wish to perfect themselves
And who train themselves in this way:
"One single self we shall tame,
One single self we shall pacify,
One single self we shall lead
To final nirvana."

But those with compassion
Should not train themselves in such a way.
On the contrary, they should say this:
"My own self I will place into Suchness,
And so that all the world may be helped,
I will place all beings into Suchness,
And I will lead to nirvana
The whole immeasurable world of beings."

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Whenever you hear that someone else
Has been successful, rejoice.
Always practice rejoicing for others,
Whether your friend or your enemy.
If you cannot practice rejoicing,
No matter how long you live,
You will not be happy.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Ashtavakra Gita 18:41

The fool tries to control his mind.
How can he ever succeed?
Mastery always comes naturally
To the man who is wise
And who loves himself.

Ashtavakra Gita 18:41