“They were only the stimulus. The stimulus does not create my response. I am the creator of my response…I have a choice always, and with everyone….Every time my mind (blames and) says “they did it to me” I just need to withdraw, take that one moment of silence and remember “I created it”…Meditation means creating a very beautiful relationship, connecting with the source of unconditional love, our original nature of purity, peace and love.“
— BK Shivani
“I was exposed enough not just to my personal death but to the endings of fellow humans by the hundreds. And the consequence of that has been that I “long” after life even though I’m so very much alive…one way to be alive as a practice is to remember your death and to befriend it as an adversary and therefore, as an ally, not as an enemy. The presence of the adversary prompts better and deeper understanding in you.“
— Stephen Jenkinson
“See if you can articulate the same thing in half the number of words. Suddenly you will become extremely conscious of everything!“
— Sadhguru, The Importance of SILENCE
“The blurring of boundaries, moving self, changing space, are Japanese spatial concepts steeped in the framework of this mind-body-space relationship that explain why Japanese gardens, tea rooms, and temples seem to encourage us to feel contemplative.“
— Dr. Yoko Kawai (paraphrased from this complete talk)
“When looking at autumn mountains through mist, the view may be indistinct, yet have great. depth.“
— Kamo-No Chomei, 12th century
“Thought, when dissolving in understanding, leads to Truth, feeling leads to Love, and sensation leads to Beauty. The sole purpose of any object that evokes such truth, love, or beauty is to dissolve in fulfilling its function of taking us back to the Source.“
— Francis Lucille
“Just sitting, neither trying to think nor trying not to think, is the important aspect of Serene Reflection Meditation.”
— Dogen Zenji
“When we realize that something is missing, that’s exactly when we begin our spiritual journey.“
— Dogen Zenji
“Hello, darkness, my old friend
— Simon & Garfunkle, “The Sound of Silence”
I’ve come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence…
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
No one dared
Disturb the sound of silence…
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you.
The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence.“
“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