Great Throughts Treasury

"When a man becomes steadfast in his abstention from harming others, then all living creatures will cease to feel enmity in his presence."

"When even one virtue becomes our nature, the mind becomes clean and tranquil. Then there is no need to practice meditation; we will automatically be meditating always. "

"When the mind withdraws attention from sense experience, the senses receive no impressions from sense objects, and awareness rests in its essential nature."

"We don’t exhaust the Bible even after reading it hundreds of times. Each time we read it we see it in a new light. That is the greatness of the holy scriptures. They are that way because they were created by holy prophets who experienced the truth. Each time we read these works we elevate ourselves to see a little more. "

"What is it that dies? A log of wood dies to become a few planks. The planks die to become a chair. The chair dies to become a piece of firewood, and the firewood dies to become ash. You give different names to the different shapes the wood takes, but the basic substance is there always. If we could always remember this, we would never worry about the loss of anything. We never lose anything; we never gain anything. By such discrimination we put an end to unhappiness. "

"When a gifted team dedicates itself to unselfish trust and combines instinct with boldness and effort, it is ready to climb. "

"Where the heart is full of kindness which seeks no injury to another, either in act or thought or wish, this full love creates an atmosphere of harmony, whose benign power touches with healing all who come within its influence. Peace in the heart radiates peace to other hearts, even more surely than contention breeds contention."

"Yoga says instinct is a trace of an old experience that has been repeated many times and the impressions have sunk down to the bottom of the mental lake. Although they go down, they aren’t completely erased. Don’t think you ever forget anything. All experiences are stored in the chittam; and, when the proper atmosphere is created, they come to the surface again. When we do something several times it forms a habit. Continue with that habit for a long time, and it becomes your character. Continue with that character and eventually, perhaps in another life, it comes up as instinct. "

"Yoga is the cessation of the movements of the mind. Then there is abiding in the Seer's own form. "

"Yoga is the practice of quieting the mind. "

"When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bounds. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be."

"A further differentiation (arises) by reason of the mild, medium and intense (nature of means employed)."

"Abhyasa is the effort for being firmly established in that state (of Citta-Vrtti-Nirodha)."

"Accomplishment of Samadhi from resignation to Isvara."

"A need for approval lies behind all efforts of evangelism. If someone else can be convinced, that will show us that we are on the right path. The attempt to convince someone of anything is a mark of insecurity."

"A mind free from all disturbance is Yoga."

"Abhinivesa is the strong desire for life which dominates even the learned (or the wise)."

"Action is of two kinds, dormant and fruitful. By self-control on such action, one portends the time of death."

"All is misery to the wise because of the pains of change, anxiety, and purificatory acts."

"Activity of the higher senses causes mental steadiness."

"All phenomena of which we are aware take place in our own minds, and therefore, the only thing we have to look at is the mind: which is a more constant quantity over all the aspects of humanity than is generally supposed."

"Although Creation is discerned as not real for the one who has achieved the goal, it is yet real in that Creation remains the common experience to others."

"All jewels approach him who is confirmed in honesty."

"Although destroyed for him who has attained liberation, it [the seen] still exists for others, being common to them."

"Although it becomes non-existent for him whose purpose has been fulfilled it continues to exist for others on account of being common to others (besides him)."

"All the five measures discussed so far are the external means of practicing Yoga. Now, a practitioner is ready to enter the state of reconciliation. But before that, he has to perfect two more parts of Yoga."

"Also (the mind) depending upon the knowledge derived from dreams or dreamless sleep (will acquire steadiness)."

"An image conjured up by words without any substance behind it is fancy."

"An object is known or not known by the mind, depending on whether or not the mind is colored by the object."

"Artificially created minds (proceed) from `egoism' alone."

"And if an object known only to a single mind were not cognized by that mind, would it then exist?"

"As a result of contentment there is purity of mind, one-pointedness, control of the senses, and fitness for the vision of the self."

"As long as the root is there it must ripen and result in lives of different class, length and experiences."

"As spiritual searchers we need to become freer and freer of the attachment to our own smallness in which we get occupied with me-me-me. Pondering on large ideas or standing in front of things which remind us of a vast scale can free us from acquisitiveness and competitiveness and from our likes and dislikes. If we sit with an increasing stillness of the body, and attune our mind to the sky or to the ocean or to the myriad stars at night, or any other indicators of vastness, the mind gradually stills and the heart is filled with quiet joy. Also recalling our own experiences in which we acted generously or with compassion for the simple delight of it without expectation of any gain can give us more confidence in the existence of a deeper goodness from which we may deviate."

"As improper thoughts, emotions (and actions) such as those of violence etc., whether they are done (indulged in) caused to be done or abetted, whether caused by greed, anger or delusion, whether present in mild, medium or intense degree, result in endless pain and ignorance; so there is the necessity of pondering over the opposites."

"Attachment is that (modification) which follows remembrance of pleasure."

"Asmita is the identity or blending together, as it were, of the power of consciousness (Purusa) with the power of cognition (Buddhi)."

"As the Yogin becomes established in non-injury, all beings coming near him (the Yogin) cease to be hostile."

"Avidya is the source of those that are mentioned after it, whether they be in the dormant, attenuated, alternating or expanded condition."

"Beauty, fine complexion, strength and adamantine hardness constitute the perfection of the body."

"Because of the magnetic qualities of habitual mental patterns and memory, a relationship of cause and effect clings even though there may be a change of embodiment by class, space and time."

"Aversion is that (modification) which results from misery."

"Attachment is that magnetic pattern which clusters in pleasure and pulls one towards such experience."

"Austerity, the study of sacred texts, and the dedication of action to God constitute the discipline of Mystic Union."

"Austerity, self-study and resignation to Isvara constitute preliminary Yoga."

"Avidya is taking the non-eternal, impure, evil and non-Atman to be eternal, pure, good and Atman respectively."

"Aversion is the magnetic pattern which clusters in misery and pushes one from such experience."

"Avidya consists in regarding a transient object as everlasting, an impure object as pure, misery as happiness and the non-self as self."

"Being bound together as cause-effect, subtractum-object, they (effect i.e., Vasanas) disappear on their (cause i.e., Avidya) disappearance."

"Before beginning any spiritual text it is customary to clear the mind of all distracting thoughts, to calm the breath and to purify the heart."