David Whyte on the Power of Listening


“All this petty worry while the great cloak of the sky grows dark and intense ‘round every living thing. What is precious inside us does not care to be known by the mind in ways that diminish its presence… Inside everyone is a great shout of joy waiting to be born… All those years listening to those who had nothing to say. All those years forgetting how everything has its own voice to make itself heard. All those years forgetting how easily you can belong to everything simply by listening.”

— David Whyte, The Winter of Listening

Rupert Spira on Going Back to Your Essential Nature


“When you feel depressed, what is to be done? Simply go back to your essential nature. Trace your way back, disentangle yourself from the content of experience in which you have lost yourself—in your own activity of thinking and perceiving, like an actor who temporarily loses himself in the part he is playing. What is to be done? He just needs to trace his way back to himself. That’s all you need to do right now. Even in the midst of a deep depression, the nature of your mind is clear.”

—Rupert Spira

Swami Sarvapriyananda on Being Awareness


Subhobrata Chakravorti, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

You are Awareness. In Awareness you are aware of the thoughts and feelings in the mind. Through the thoughts and feelings in the mind, you are aware of the body with the senses, and through that you are aware of the world. 

— Swami Sarvapriyananda

Rupert Spira on the Two Types of Silence


Awareness, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

“There are two types of silence: the absence of sound and thought, and the silence behind that absence, or the silence behind the silence. Rest as that. Notice the expectation: something will change and then you will be happy… An efficient teaching does not fulfil expectations, but dissolves them, revealing that we are already the happiness for which we long… When expectations come to an end, the great silence remains.”

— Rupert Spira

Vasant Lad on Listening


“Listen completely to the call of a bird, the cry of a child. Listen to every sound that comes to you, without liking it, disliking it or judging it. When peace listens to the sound, there is no judgement.”

Vasant Lad

Dogen Zenji on Just Sitting


Shii, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

“Just sitting, with no deliberate thought, is the important aspect of serene reflection meditation.”

— Dogen Zenji

Charlotte Joko Beck on What Life Gives Us


“Life always gives us exactly the teacher we need at every moment. This includes every mosquito, every misfortune, every red light, every traffic jam, every obnoxious supervisor (or employee), every illness, every loss, every moment of joy or depression, every addiction, every piece of garbage, every breath.”

— Charlotte Joko Beck

Yogatattvopanishad on Bee’s Breath


“The humming sound of Brāhmarī or Bee’s breath, unfolds the ether element in all bodily channels so life energy, prāna, can flow freely.  It soothes the nerves and calms the mind.”

— Yogatattvopanishad

A Lojong Practice Slogan on Not Comparing Yourself to Others


Don’t try to be the fastest —Don’t compete with others”

— Slogan from Lojong Practice

The “Six Precepts” of Tilopa


גלגל האש at he.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

“No thought, no reflection, no analysis, No cultivation, no intention; Let it settle itself.”

— “Six Precepts” of Tilopa