This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
The good man should be a lover of self (for he will both himself profit by doing noble acts, and will benefit his fellows), but the wicked man should not; for he will hurt both himself and his neighbors, following as he does evil passions.
On realizing one’s true Self one does not change into a different being but simply realizes that one is not a being at all but simply “Being”; one attains freedom from identification with this or any other body-mind complex. The speeding arrow of karma may hit the body, but one is not the body. The body is subject to karma but the pure being of one’s Self is not... A Realized Man sees repercussions that could be called destiny overtaking the body that he occupies, but it does not occur to him that they concern him, and therefore he feels no emotion towards them. His body is subject to destiny, but he is not.
Many have declared the ultimate truth openly: that only the self is, that you are nothing other than the Self, that the universe is a mere manifestation of the Self, without inherent reality, existing only in the Self. This can be understood by the analogy of a dream. The whole dream-world with all its people and events exist only in the mind of the dreamer. Its creation or emergence takes nothing away from him, and its dissolution or reabsorption adds nothing to him; he remains the same before, during, and after. God, the conscious Dreamer of the cosmic dream, is the Self, and no person in the dream has any reality apart from the Self of which he is an expression. By discarding the illusion of otherness, you can realize that identity with the Self which always was, is, and will be, beyond the conditions of life and time. Then, since you are One with the Dreamer, the whole universe, including your life and all others, is your dream and none of the events in it have more than a dream reality. You are set free from hope and desire, fear and frustration, and established in the unchanging Bliss of Pure Being.
Desire | Events | Fear | God | Hope | Illusion | Life | Life | Mind | Nothing | People | Reality | Self | Time | Truth | Universe | Will | World |
To realize self as universal is the equivalent of immortality - a timeless state. The empirical ego then ceases like a ripple on the ocean.
Ego | Immortality | Self |
A complete life may be one ending in so full an identification with the not-self that there is no self left to die.
Bhagavad Gītā, simply known as Gita NULL
A man's own self is his friend, a man's own self is his foe.
Ramana Maharshi, fully Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi
Self-enquiry leads directly to Self-realization by removing the obstacles which make you think that the Self is not already realized.
Self | Self-realization | Think |
Bhagavad Gītā, simply known as Gita NULL
He who has conquered himself by the Self, he is a friend of himself; but he whose self is unconquered, his self acts as his own enemy like an external foe.
As a goldsmith, taking a piece of gold, turns it into another, newer, and more beautiful shape, even so does the Self after throwing away this body and dispelled its ignorance, making unto himself another, newer and more beautiful shape like that of the gods.
The Self is to be described as not this, not that. It is incomprehensible, for it cannot be comprehended.
Self |
This body is mortal, forever in the clutch of death. But within it resides the Self, immortal, and without form. This Self, when associated in consciousness with the body, is subject to pleasure and pain; and so long as this association continues, no man can find freedom from pains and pleasures. But when the association comes to an end, there is an end also of pain and pleasure. Rising above physical consciousness, knowing the Self as distinct from the sense-organs and the mind., knowing Him in his true light, one rejoices and one is free.
Association | Body | Consciousness | Death | Freedom | Knowing | Light | Man | Mind | Mortal | Pain | Pleasure | Self | Sense | Association |
Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscrib'd in one self place, for where we are is hell, and where hell is, must we euer be.
Confucius, aka Kong Qiu, Zhongni, K'ung Fu-tzu or Kong Fuzi NULL
The perfecting of self implies virtue; the perfecting of others, wisdom. These two, virtue and wisdom, are the moral qualities of the hsing, or nature, embodying the Tao, or Right Way.
Nature | Qualities | Right | Self | Virtue | Virtue | Wisdom |
Humility is just as much the opposite of self-abasement as it is of self-exultation. To be humble is not to make comparisons. Secure in its reality, the self is neither better nor worse, bigger nor smaller, than anything else in the universe. It is – is nothing, yet at the same time, one with everything.
Better | Humility | Nothing | Reality | Self | Time | Universe |
Confucius, aka Kong Qiu, Zhongni, K'ung Fu-tzu or Kong Fuzi NULL
What is God-given is called nature; to follow nature is called Tao (the Way); to cultivate the way is called culture. Before joy, anger, sadness and happiness are expressed, they are called the inner self; when they are expressed to the proper degree, they are called harmony. The inner self is the correct foundation of the world, and the harmony is the illustrious Way. When a man has achieved the inner self and harmony, the heaven and earth are orderly and the myriad of things are nourished and grow thereby.
Anger | Culture | Earth | God | Harmony | Heaven | Joy | Man | Nature | Sadness | Self | World | Happiness |
Dennis Genpo Merzel, aka Genpo Merzel Roshi
The whole world is created from Mind. How we perceive it is the whole story. If we see everything from our ego-centered view, everything is too much to handle. Always we feel limited, unable to cope with situations. We feel small, helpless, and out of control. If we go beyond the egoistic view of the self as separate, then we can enjoy a more magnanimous, panoramic perspective that we call Limitless Mind (dai shin), infinite capacity and complete faith in things just the way they are. It all depends on how we choose to view life. Dropping the ego-centered self we discover the real self, which is none other than no fixed self, completely open to each moment of life.
Capacity | Control | Ego | Faith | Life | Life | Mind | Self | Story | World |
The surest way to be deceived is to think one's self more clever than others.
It is as easy to deceive one’s self without perceiving it as it is difficult to deceive others without their finding out.
Self |