James Low on Finding Clarity

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“If you put something in front of a mirror it looks like the reflection is in the mirror but the mirror is uncontaminated. Similarly we want to have the clarity of our mind which is uncontaminated by the many provocations that arise….difficulties always occur in life & there are many different kinds of provocations. We cannot control the outer forms of the world. What we can do is not be caught by them. The one who is caught is your ego. Your awareness has never been caught, is not now being caught and never will be caught.“

— James Low, Dzogchen teacher

James Low on the Freshness of a Moment

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“If you have less of a menu in your mind, if you’ve got less of an agenda and lesser fixed ways of doing things, then the freshness of the moment is the potential of all that can be utilized to bring forward and manifest, bring forward and manifest, whatever that would be. So…thoughts, sensations and feelings become in the service of illumination. They are the blossoming or the rays of energy arising out of the infinite spaciousness of the mind…like a mirror, always showing radiant display.”

— James Low, Dzogchen teacher

Paul Hedderman on Liberation

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“Liberation from the need to be Liberated.“

— Paul Hedderman

Paul invites us to notice how the mind’s irritability, restlessness, and discomfort arise from the false notion of what’s not happening; a notion that creates the sense of a false self. His clear pointers are a simple and profound invitation that once considered can instantly break this addiction and enable one to travel lighter through life. 

Rumi on Being in a Relationship with Love

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“You are never in a relationship with your beloved, you are always in a relationship with love. You cannot lose the love except by shutting it down yourself.“

— Rumi, quoted by Netanel Miles Yepez

Dr. Joseph Barry Martin on the Raven

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“Raven comes from West Coast Major Mythology. Raven is the Hero-Trickster, and stories abound… Raven helps humanity evolve and solve conflicts to bring balance. Raven brings the Light. In today’s world, embodying Raven medicine brings courage in times of trouble, change of consciousness, messenger from the Void, the Great Mystery and magic worldwide, introspection, self-knowledge, healing, creation, rebirth, mysticism…the ultimate shape-shifter.”

— Dr. Joseph Barry Martin, Spiritual Teacher, Storyteller

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on Love

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“You should know love is not just an emotion. It is your very being, it is the core of your existence. So there is not a single being on this planet who is devoid of love. Because you are made up of it.”

— Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

In tribute to Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh who died last week at 95

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“A Buddha is someone who is enlightened, capable of loving and forgiving. You know that at times you’re like that. So enjoy being a Buddha.”

— Thích Nhất Hạnh, “Your True Home”

Rupert Spira on Peace and Happiness

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“If we were to design an AI program to read all the texts and scriptures of all the great religious and spiritual traditions over the last 3000 years or so and were to ask it to distill the essence of all these texts into a single sentence, one of its versions would read something like this: peace and happiness are the very nature of our being and we share our being with everyone and everything.“

— Rupert Spira on World Religion Day, 3rd Sunday of January

Pema Chödrön on Being Just as We Are

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“The wonderful irony about the spiritual journey is that we find it only leads us to become just as we are. That the exalted state of enlightenment is nothing more than fully knowing ourselves and our world just as we are. In other words the ultimate fruition of this path is simply to be fully human and the ultimate benefit we can bring to others is to welcome them to also realize their full humanity, just as they are.“

— Pema Chödrön, Welcoming the Unwelcome

Jiddu Krishnamurti on the New Year

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“I wonder what we mean by a new year.

Is it a fresh year, a year that is totally afresh, something that has never happened before?…

This is rather an important question, if you will follow it – to turn all the days of our life into something which you have never seen before. That means a brain that has freed itself from its conditioning, from its characteristics, from its idiosyncrasies and the opinions, and the judgements, and the convictions.

Can we put all that aside and really start a new year? It would be marvelous if we could do that…

Can we change the whole direction of our lives? Is that possible?…

Can we drop all that and start anew with a clean slate and see what comes out of that, with our hearts and minds?“

— Jiddu Krishnamurti on the New Year, Madras, 1st January, 1985