Great Throughts Treasury

"If you think you are free, there is no escape."

"Why are we here? To take “Life 101,” a curriculum of life experiences through which we can awaken into the fullness of our being... Spirit once again manifest truly in form."

"In the ultimate depth of being, we find ourselves no longer separate but, rather, part of the unity of the universe. That unity includes the sufferer and the suffering, and the healer and that which heals. Therefore, all acts of healing are ultimately our selves healing our Self."

"At the beginning of the spiritual journey, many of us pushed away our humanity in an attempt to embrace our divinity... we've been learning to accept rather than reject our human qualities, creating a new partnership between the mundane and transcendent parts of ourselves."

"Every time we suffer, we grow."

"You can either be wise or you can have knowledge. But you can't "know" wisdom. You have to "be" it."

"A feeling of aversion or attachment toward something is your clue that there's work to be done."

"A moment comes when "other" is no longer other."

"A Oneness of all. An evolution in consciousness of us all that isn"

"Across planes of consciousness, we have to live with the paradox that opposite things can be simultaneously true."

"All my life up to that point was like, mind going blindly, thinking that worldly ecstasy was divine."

"All spiritual practices are illusions created by illusionists to escape illusion."

"As long as you have certain desires about how it ought to be you can't see how it is."

"As one individual changes, the system changes."

"As you look at many people's lives, you see that their suffering is in a way gratifying, for they are comfortable in it. They make their lives a living hell, but a familiar one."

"Be here now."

"Be open to all teachers And all teachings, And listen with your heart."

"Be patient. You'll know when it's time for you to wake up and move ahead."

"Before the stroke I was on a very spiritual plane. I ignored my body, took it for granted."

"By acting compassionately, by helping to restore justice and to encourage peace, we are acknowledging that we are all part of one another."

"Caring is a reflex. Someone slips, your arm goes out. A car is in the ditch, you join the others and push. You live, you help."

"Compassion refers to the arising in the heart of the desire to relieve the suffering of all beings."

"Death has such great importance in this society that it affects everything. I learned from my guru that death is not the enemy. I see it as another moment. Yet it's the end of an incarnation and means going on to other incarnations."

"Do not alter your innate wakefulness"

"Do what you can on this plane to relieve suffering by constantly working on yourself to be an instrument for the cessation of suffering. To me, that's what the emerging game is all about."

"Every religion is the product of the conceptual mind attempting to describe the mystery."

"Every time I went to a family gathering, I was the boy who made it. I was a Professor at Harvard and everybody stood around in awe and listened to my every word, and all I felt was that horror that I knew inside that I didn't know. Of course, it was all such beautiful, gentle horror, because there was so much reward involved."

"Everything changes once we identify with being the witness to the story, instead of the actor in it."

"Everything in your life is there as a vehicle for your transformation. Use it!"

"For a long time I"

"Healing does not mean going back to the way things were before, but rather allowing what is now to move us closer to God."

"I always avoid prophesying beforehand, because it is much better to prophesy after the event has already taken place."

"I am embarrassed to admit what drew me to psychology. I didn't want to go to medical school. I was getting good grades in psychology and I was charismatic and people in the psychology department liked me. It was as low a level as that."

"I am exploring my own dictum. "

"I am not this body. I am in this body, and this is part of my incarnation and I honor it but that isn't who I am."

"I finally awakened to the distinction between getting high and becoming free. Highs are part of the world of polarities: What goes up must come down. The deeper requirement would be to pursue the middle course and be at peace, free form whatever may happen, whether high or low."

"I had plenty of LSD, but why take it? I knew what it was going to do, what it was going to tell me. It was going to show me that garden again and then I was going to be cast out and that was it."

"I have incredible empathy for their perception of reality, partly because of what I"

"I hear me. I mean you! Only that in you which is me can hear what I'm saying."

"I help people as a way to work on myself, and I work on myself to help people.... To me, that's what the emerging game is all about."

"I honor the place in you where the entire Universe resides. I honor the place of love, of light, of truth, of peace. I honor the place within you where if you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, there is only one of us."

"I see my life as an unfolding set of opportunities to awaken."

"I started my spiritual journey in this lifetime with hallucinogenic mushrooms. That plus Maharaj-ji [my guru] is enough for one incarnation!"

"I think it"

"I used to have a sign over my computer that read OLD DOGS CAN LEARN NEW TRICKS, but lately I sometimes ask myself how many more new tricks I want to learn. Wouldn"

"I was saying to shift your identification, because the only motive a soul has is to satisfy God"

"I would like my life to be a statement of love and compassion - and where it isn't, that's where my work lies."

"I would like to invite the populace to look within, to a place where they are peaceful and they"

"I would say that the thrust of my life has been initially about getting free, and then realizing that my freedom is not independent of everybody else. Then I am arriving at that circle where one works on oneself as a gift to other people so that one doesn't create more suffering. I help people as a work on myself and I work on myself to help people."

"I"