The Theosophical Society was founded in
New York on November 17, 1875.
The
San Francisco Lodge was founded on August 10, 1901.
"Look for the flower to bloom in the silence that follows the storm; not till then. It shall grow, it will shoot up, it will make branches and leaves and form buds, while the storm continues, while the battle lasts. But not till the whole personality of the man is dissolved and melted -- not until it is held by the divine fragment which has created it, as a mere subject for grave experiment and experience -- not until the whole nature has yielded, and become subject unto its higher self, can the bloom open. Then will come a calm such as comes in a tropical country after a heavy rain, when Nature works so swiftly that one may see her action. Such a calm will come to the harassed spirit. And, in the deep silence, the mysterious event will occur which will prove that the way has been found. Call it by what name you will, it is a voice that speaks where there is none to speak, it is a messenger that comes -- a messenger without form or substance -- or it is the flower of the soul that has opened. It cannot be described by any metaphor. But it can be felt after, looked for, and desired, even amid the raging storm. The silence may last a moment of time, or it may last a thousand years. But it will end. Yet you will carry its strength with you. Again and again the battle must be fought and won. It is only for an interval that Nature can be still." -- Mabel Collins, Light on The Path
"In the present circumstances, no one can afford to
assume that someone else will solve their problems.
Every individual has a responsibility to help guide
our global family in the right direction. Good wishes
are not sufficient; we must become actively engaged."
(The Path to Tranquility: Daily Wisdom, Snow Lion
Publications)
"I find that because of modern technological evolution
and our global economy, and as a result of the great increase in
population, our world has greatly changed: it has
become much smaller. However, our perceptions have
not evolved at the same pace; we continue to cling to
old national demarcations and the old feelings of 'us'
and 'them'. "War seems to be part of the history of
humanity. As we look at the situation of our planet
in the past, countries, regions and even villages were
economically independent of one another. Under those
circumstances, the destruction of our enemy might have
been a victory for us. There was a a relevance to
violence and war. However, today we are so
interdependent that the concept of war has become out
dated. When we face problems or disagreements today,
we have to arrive at solutions through dialogue.
Dialogue is the only appropriate method. One-sided
victory is no longer relevant. We must work to
resolve conflicts in a spirit of reconciliation and
always keep in mind the interests of others. We
cannot destroy our neighbors! We cannot ignore their
interests! Doing so would ultimately cause us to
suffer. I therefore think that the concept of
violence is now unsuitable. Nonviolence is the
appropriate method." (An Open Heart: Practicing
Compassion in Everyday Life, Snow Lion Publications)
The everyday practice of dzogchen is simply to develop a complete carefree
acceptance, an openness to all situations without limit.
We should realize openness as the playground of our emotions and relate to
people without artificiality, manipulation or strategy.
We should experience everything totally, never withdrawing into ourselves as
a marmot hides in its hole. This practice releases tremendous energy which
is usually constricted by the process of maintaining fixed reference points.
Referentiality is the process by which we retreat from the direct experience
of everyday life.
Being present in the moment may initially trigger fear. But by welcoming the
sensation of fear with complete openness, we cut through the barriers
created by habitual emotional patterns.
When we engage in the practice of discovering space, we should develop the
feeling of opening ourselves out completely to the entire universe. We
should open ourselves with absolute simplicity and nakedness of mind. This
is the powerful and ordinary practice of dropping the mask of
self-protection.
We shouldn't make a division in our meditation between perception and field
of perception. We shouldn't become like a cat watching a mouse. We should
realize that the purpose of meditation is not to go "deeply into ourselves"
or withdraw from the world. Practice should be free and non-conceptual,
unconstrained by introspection and concentration.
Vast unoriginated self-luminous wisdom space is the ground of being - the
beginning and the end of confusion. The presence of awareness in the
primordeal state has no bias toward enlightenment or non-enlightenment. This
ground of being which is known as pure or original mind is the source from
which all phenomena arise. It is known as the great mother, as the womb of
potentiality in which all things arise and dissolve in natural
self-perfectedness and absolute spontaneity.
All aspects of phenomena are completely clear and lucid. The whole universe
is open and unobstructed - everything is mutually interpenetrating.
Seeing all things as naked, clear and free from obscurations, there is
nothing to attain or realize. The nature of phenomena appears naturally and
is naturally present in time-transcending awareness. Everything is naturally
perfect just as it is. All phenomena appear in their uniqueness as part of
the continually changing pattern. These patterns are vibrant with meaning
and significance at every moment; yet there is no significance to attach to
such meanings beyond the moment in which they present themselves.
This is the dance of the five elememts in which matter is a symbol of energy
and energy a symbol of emptiness. We are a symbol of our own enlightenment.
With no effort or practice whatsoever, liberation or enlightenment is
already here.
The everyday practice of dzogchen is just everyday life itself. Since the
undeveloped state does not exist, there is no need to behave in any special
way or attempt to attain anything above and beyond what you actually are.
There should be no feeling of striving to reach some "amazing goal" or
"advanced state."
To strive for such a state is a neurosis which only conditions us and serves
to obstruct the free flow of Mind. We should also avoid thinking of
ourselves as worthless persons - we are naturally free and unconditioned. We
are intrinsically enlightened and lack nothing.
When engaging in meditation practice, we should feel it to be as natural as
eating, breathing and defecating. It should not become a specialized or
formal event, bloated with seriousness and solemnity. We should realize that
meditation transcends effort, practice, aims, goals and the duality of
liberation and non-liberation. Meditation is always ideal; there is no need
to correct anything. Since everything that arises is simply the play of mind
as such, there is no unsatisfactory meditation and no need to judge thoughts
as good or bad.
Therefore we should simply sit. Simply stay in your own place, in your own
condition just as it is. Forgetting self-conscious feelings, we do not have
to think "I am meditating." Our practice should be without effort, without
strain, without attempts to control or force and without trying to become
"peaceful."
If we find that we are disturbing ourselves in any of these ways, we stop
meditating and simply rest or relax for a while. Then we resume our
meditation. If we have "interesting experiences" either during or after
meditation, we should avoid making anything special of them. To spend time
thinking about experiences is simply a distraction and an attempt to become
unnatural. These experiences are simply signs of practice and should be
regarded as transient events. We should not attempt to reexperience them
because to do so only serves to distort the natural spontaneity of mind.
All phenomena are completely new and fresh, absolutely unique and entirely
free from all concepts of past, present and future. They are experienced in
timelessness.
The continual stream of new discovery, revelation and inspiration which
arises at every moment is the manifestation of our clarity. We should learn
to see everyday life as mandala - the luminous fringes of experience which
radiate spontaneously from the empty nature of our being. The aspects of our
mandala are the day-to-day objects of our life experience moving in the
dance or play of the universe. By this symbolism the inner teacher reveals
the profound and ultimate significance of being. Therefore we should be
natural and spontaneous, accepting and learning from everything. This
enables us to see the ironic and amusing side of events that usually
irritate us.
In meditation we can see through the illusion of past, present and future -
our experience becomes the continuity of nowness. The past is only an
unreliable memory held in the present. The future is only a projection of
our present conceptions. The present itself vanishes as soon as we try to
grasp it. So why bother with attempting to establish an illusion of solid
ground?
We should free ourselves from our past memories and preconceptions of
meditation. Each moment of meditation is completely unique and full of
potentiality. In such moments, we will be incapable of judging our
meditation in terms of past experience, dry theory or hollow rhetoric.
Simply plunging directly into meditation in the moment now, with our whole
being, free from hesitation, boredom or excitement, is enlightenment.
The Core of the Teachings According to Krishnamurti
[The following statement was written by Krishnamurti himself on October 21,
1980. It may be copied and used provided this is done in its entirety. No
editing or change of any kind is permitted. No extracts may be used.]
³The core of Krishnamurti's teaching is contained in the statement he made
in 1929 when he said: 'Truth is a pathless land'. Man cannot come to it
through any organization, through any creed, through any dogma, priest or
ritual, not through any philosophic knowledge or psychological technique. He
has to find it through the mirror of relationship, through the understanding
of the contents of his own mind, through observation and not through
intellectual analysis or introspective dissection.
Man has built in himself images as a fence of security-religious, political,
personal. These manifest as symbols, ideas, beliefs. The burden of these
images dominates man's thinking, his relationships and his daily life. These
images are the causes of our problems for they divide man from man. His
perception of life is shaped by the concepts already established in his
mind.
The content of his consciousness is his entire existence. This content is
common to all humanity. The individuality is the name, the form and
superficial culture he acquires from tradition and environment. The
uniqueness of man does not lie in the superficial but in complete freedom
from the content of his consciousness, which is common to all mankind. So he
is not an individual
Freedom is not a reaction; freedom is not a choice. It is man's pretence
that because he has choice he is free. Freedom is pure observation without
direction, without fear of punishment and reward. Freedom is without motive;
freedom is not at the end of the evolution of man but lies in the first step
of his existence. In observation one begins to discover the lack of freedom.
Freedom is found in the choiceless awareness of our daily existence and
activity. Thought is time. Thought is born of experience and knowledge which
are inseparable from time and the past. Time is the psychological enemy of
man. Our action is based on knowledge and therefore time, so man is always a
slave to the past. Thought is ever-limited and so we live in constant
conflict and struggle. There is no psychological evolution.
When man becomes aware of the movement of his own thoughts he will see the
division between the thinker and thought, the observer and the observed, the
experiencer and the experience. He will discover that this division is an
illusion. Then only is there pure observation which is insight without any
shadow of the past or of time. This timeless insight brings about a deep
radical mutation in the mind.
Total negation is the essence of the positive. When there is negation of all
those things that thought has brought about psychologically, only then is
there love, which is compassion and intelligence.²
Source: www.JidduKrishnamurti.net
"Theosophy postulates the existence of an eternal Principle, known only
through its effects. No words can describe It, for words imply
discriminations, and This is ALL. We murmur, Absolute, Infinite,
Unconditioned, - but the words mean naught. SAT, the Wise speak of: BE-NESS,
not even Being nor Existence. Only as the Manifested becomes can language be
used with meaning; but the appearance of the Manifested implies the
Un-manifested, for the Manifested is transitory and mutable, and there must
be something that eternally endures. This Eternal must be postulated, else
whence the existences around us? It must contain within Itself That which is
the essence of the germ of all possibilities, all potencies: space is the
only conception that can even faintly mirror It without preposterous
distortion, but silence least offends in these high regions where the wings
of thought beat faintly and lips can only falter, not pronounce."
"Never forget that life can only be nobly inspired and rightly lived if you
take it bravely and gallantly, as a splendid adventure in which you are
setting out into an unknown country, to meet many a joy, to find many a
comrade, to win and lose many a battle."
"An attempt to grasp, however feebly, the nature of the sacrifice of the
LOGOS may prevent us from falling into the very general mistake that
sacrifice is an essentially painful thing; whereas the very essence of
sacrifice is a voluntary and glad pouring forth of life that others may
share in it; and pain only arises when there is discord in the nature of the
sacrificer, between the higher whose joy is in giving and the lower whose
satisfaction lies in grasping and holding. It is that discord alone that
introduces the element of pain, and in the supreme Perfection, in the LOGOS,
no discord could arise; the One is the perfect chord of Being, of infinite
melodious concords, all tuned to a single note, in which Life and Wisdom and
Bliss are blended into one keynote of Existence....Hence the sign of the
spirit is giving, for spirit is the active divine life in every form."
Excerpts from Writings of Annie Besant
All knowledge is like the son of a barren woman. Presently there are only
beingness and functioning. The individuality and personality are thrown
overboard. There is no personality, so there is no question of birth, life, or death.
What remains is only the consciousness without name or form. The form needs a
name, but when both are not there, then the consciousness remains only for so
long as the body is there, but without any individuality. The body is of as much
use now as it was prior to birth and after death. How do you know me? You
know me only the acquisition of body form, name and form. Do you really see
me as I am? I doubt it. Now the conclusion is that the unborn is enjoying the
birth-principle. That principle that is born took so much time to understand this,
and is it is the unborn only which prevails. It took so much time for the Self to
understand the Self. We have tied around our necks so many concepts; death,
this "I AM",etc. Similarly, Concepts, of good and evil are unnecessary. We have
developed these concepts and are caught in them. How does one think about
Self-knowledge? Do you abide in the Self or in the process do you think of
something else as the Self? You are wrapped up and lost in your concepts.
For instance, you have a concept about friendship. How long do you keep
your friends? You keep them so long as they are useful to you. So long as a
friend is of some benefit to you, that’s how long you would like to keep that
friendship. Now, how can I actually derive benefit out of a friend? I, as an
individual, am not there, so how can there be a question of benefit? Benefit
to whom? How can there be a question of friendship at all. Anybody, who
comes here can sit. I will allow him to sit for some time, but later on I will say,
"You may leave," Why? Because I have no intention or purpose of having any
friendship with that person. Ordinarily, there is some purpose for deriving certain
benefits out of an association with another. When you meet someone in
friendship, there may be some intention to serve one another. But I have no
friends. Even this "I Amness" will not remain as my friend. I am not able to talk
any longer—the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Previously I used to
welcome people but now I am not in a position to welcome them. They come,
they sit and they go by themselves. I cannot even extend my hospitality. All my
knowledge has gone into liquidation. I am unconcerned.
-- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (June 30,1981)
A Letter Written by Fra Giovanni Giocondo to His
Friend on Christmas Eve,
1513:
There is nothing I can give you which you have not
got, but there is much,
very
much, that, while I
cannot give it, you can take.
No heaven can come to us
unless our hearts find rest
in today. Take heaven!
No peace lies in the future
which is not hidden in
this present little instant. Take peace!
The gloom of the
world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet
within our reach Is joy. There is radiance
and glory
in the darkness could we but see -
and t see we have only to look.
I beseech you to look!
Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its gifts
by
the covering,
cast them away as ugly, or heavy or hard. Remove the
covering
and you
Will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love,
by wisdom, with
power.
Welcome it, grasp it, touch the angel's hand that
brings it to you.
Everything we call a trial, a sorrow, or a duty,
believe me, that angel's hand is
there, the gift is
there, and the wonder of an overshadowing presence.
Our joys, too, be not content with them as joys. They,
too, conceal Diviner gifts.
Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of
beauty - beneath its covering -
that you will find
earth but cloaks your heaven.
Courage, then, to claim it, that
is all. But courage
you have, and the
knowledge that we are all pilgrims together,
wending
through unknown country, home.
And so, at this time, I greet you.
Not quite as the
world sends greetings, but with profound esteem and
with
the prayer that for you now and forever, the day
breaks, and the shadows
flee away.
The Clear Light is the Source of Light that lighteth
everyone of humankind that cometh into the world. It
is the radiance of cosmic consciousness. Yogins
realize it while still in the fleshly body, and all
humans glimpse it at the moment of death. It is the
light of the Buddha, the Christ, and all Masters of
Life. And to the devotee in whom it shines
unimpededly, it is the Guru and the Deliverer.
W.Y. Evans-Wentz
The Song of the Poppadum
No need about the world to roam
And suffer from depression;
Make poppadum within the home
According to the lesson
Of 'THOU ART THAT', without compare,
The Unique Word, unspoken,
'Tis not by speech it will declare.
The silence is unbroken
Of Him who is the Adept-Sage,
The great Apotheosis,
With His eternal heritage
That Being-Wisdom-Bliss is.
Make poppadum and after making fry,
Eat, so your cravings you may satisfy.
The grain which is the black gram's yield,
The so-called self or ego,
Grown in the body's fertile field
Of five-fold sheaths, put into
The roller-mill made out of stone,
Which is the search for Wisdom,
The 'Who am I?'. 'Tis thus alone
The Self will gain its freedom.
This must be crushed to finest dust
And ground up into fragments
As being the non-self, so must
We shatter our attachments.
Make poppadum . . .
Mix in the juice of square-stemmed vine,
This association
With Holy Men. With this combine
Within the prepartion
Some of the cummin-seed of mind-control
And pepper of restraining
The wayward senses, with them roll
That salt which is remaining
Indifferent to the world we see,
With condiment of leanings
Towards a virtuous unity.
These are their different meanings.
Make poppadum . . .
The mixture into dough now blend
And on the stone then place it
Of mind, by tendencies hardened,
And without ceasing baste it
With heavy strokes of the 'I-I'
Delivered with the pestle
Of introverted mind. Slowly
the mind will cease to wrestle.
The roll out with the pin of peace
Upon the slab of Brahman.
Continue effort without cease
With energetic elan.
Make poppadum . . .
The poppadum or soul's now fit
To put into the fry-pan,
The one infinite symbol it
Of the great Silence, which can
Be first prepared by putting in
Some clarified fresh butter
Of the Supreme. And now begin
To heat it till it splutter,
On Wisdom's self-effulgent flame
Fry poppadum, 'I', as That.
Enjoying all alone the same;
Which bliss we ever aim at.
Make poppadum of self and after eat;
Of Perfect Peace then you will be replete.
NOTE: Poppadum is a thin, light, round wafer-like
food, usually made of black gram. It is fried and is
much relished by the inhabitants of India. This recipe
is common in South India...
From The Poems of Sri Ramana Maharshi
Translated and Rendered into English Verse by
Sadhu Arunachala (Major A. W. Chadwick)
Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai
My way is so simple to feel, so easy to apply,
That only a few will feel it or apply it.
If it were not the lasting way, the natural way to try,
If it were a passing way, everyone would try it.
But however few shall go my way
Or feel concerned with me,
Some there are and those are they
Who witness what they see:
Sanity is a haircloth sheath
With a jewel underneath.
- Lao-Tzu, Translated by Witter Bynner
Man's nature is not essentially evil. Brute nature has been known to yield
to the influence of love. You must never despair of human nature.
Nonviolence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is
in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being.
It is the law of love that rules mankind. Had violence, i.e. hate, ruled
us we should have become extinct long ago. And yet, the tragedy of it
is that the so-called civilized men and nations conduct themselves as
if the basis of society was violence.
- Mahatma Gandhi
NOTE: Gandhi was once asked what he thought about western civilization.
His response was: "I think it would be a good idea."
So, what is Zen? You are Zen! The Zen approach is to strip away all accumulations.
Zen requires that we be naked. The intent of Zen is to bring about a denuding.
This calls for the complete destruction of the accumulations of little
mind. Destruction in the sense that it will be revealed for what it is,
an accumulation of concepts, and that we have accepted the accumulations
as a real world.
- Excerpt from Jellyfish Bones by Zen Master Don Gilbert (aka Rev.
Ta Hui)
Excerpt from "I AM THAT," Dialogues with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Maharaj:
...realization is explosive. It takes place spontaneously, or at the slightest
hint. The quick is not better than the slow. Slow ripening and rapid flowering
alternate. Both are natural and right. Yet, all this is so in the mind
only. As I see it, there is really nothing of the kind. In the great mirror
of consciousness images arise and disappear and only memory gives them
continuity. And memory is material -- destructible, perishable, transient.
On such flimsy foundations we build a sense of personal existence -- vague,
intermittent, dreamlike. This vague persuasion: 'I-am-so-and-so' obscures
the changeless state of pure awareness and makes us believe that we are
born to suffer and to die.
Seeker:
I was told that a realized person will never do anything unseemly. That
they will behave in an exemplary way.
Maharaj:
Who sets the example? Why should a liberated one necessarily follow conventions?
The moment one becomes predictable, one cannot be free. Ones freedom lies
in being free to fulfill the need of the moment, to obey the necessity
of the situation. Freedom to do what one likes is really bondage, while
being free to do what one must, what is right, is real freedom.
Seeker:
What about cause and effect?
Maharaj:
Each moment contains the whole of the past and creates the whole of the
future.
Seeker:
But past and future exist?
Maharaj:
In the mind only. Time is in the mind, space is in the mind. The law of
cause and effect is also a way of thinking. In reality all is here and
now and all is one. Multiplicity and diversity are in the mind only.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I AM THAT
The wheel of the Good law moves swiftly on. It grinds by night and day.
The worthless husks it drives from out the golden grain, the refuse from
the flour. The hand of Karma guides the wheel; the revolutions mark the
beatings of the Karmic heart.
- H.P.B., The Voice of the Silence
It is not permanent, since it does not exist at all.
It is not nothingness, since it is vividly clear and awake.
It is not oneness, since many things are cognized and known.
It is not plurality, since the many things known are inseparable in one
taste.
It is not somewhere else; it is your own awareness itself.
The face of this Primordial Protector, dwelling in your heart, can be
directly perceived in this very instant.
Never be separated from it, children of my heart!
- Shabkar Tsokdrug Rangdrol, The Flight of the Garuda
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that
we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that
frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous talented
and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened
about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We
were born to manifest the glory of God within us. It's not just in some
of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously
give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from
our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
- Nelson Mandela
IN HONOR OF FOUNDER'S DAY (Nov. 18th), here is a powerful statement from
William Q. Judge, who along with Madame Blavastky and Colonel HS Olcott,
founded the Theosophical Society in New York on November 17, 1871:
<back to top>
Dogmatism in Theosophy
THE Theosophical Society was founded to destroy dogmatism. This is one
of the meanings of its first object - Universal Brotherhood. And Col.
H. S. Olcott in his inaugural address in 1875, at Mott Memorial Hall,
New York, said that such was the object in view, citing the bad effect
that intolerance had had in the past...
In the Key to Theosophy, in the "Conclusion," H.P.B. again refers to this subject and expresses the hope that the Society might not, after her death, become dogmatic or crystallize on some phase of thought or philosophy, but that it might remain free and open, with its members wise and unselfish. And in all her writings and remarks, privately or publicly, she constantly reiterated this idea. Of this the writer has direct evidence as to her statements in private. If our effort is to succeed, we must avoid dogmatism in theosophy as much as in anything else, for the moment we dogmatise and insist on our construction of theosophy, that moment we lose sight of Universal Brotherhood and sow the seeds of future trouble.
There is a great likelihood that members of the Society will insist on a certain orthodoxy in our ranks. They are already doing it here and there, and this is a note of warning to draw their attention to the danger. There is no orthodoxy in our Society. Even though nine-tenths of the members believe in Reincarnation, Karma, the sevenfold constitution, and all the rest, and even though its prominent ones are engaged in promulgating these doctrines as well as others, the ranks of the Society must always be kept open, and no one should be told that he is not orthodox or not a good Theosophist because he does not believe in these doctrines. All that anyone is asked to subscribe to is Universal Brotherhood, and its practice in the search for truth. For the efforts of those who are thus promulgating specific ideas are made under the sanction of the second object of the Society, which any one is free to follow or to refuse to follow as he sees fit. One may deny - undogmatically - reincarnation and other doctrines, or may assert belief in a personal or impersonal God, and still be a good member of the Society, provided Universal Brotherhood is subscribed to and put into practice.
If a member says he must formulate a God, or cannot believe in Reincarnation, none other should condemn or draw comparisons, or point to the writings of H.P.B. or any one else to show that such a member is untheosophical. The greatest minds on earth are puzzled by great ideas such as these, and yet, holding them, can still search for truth with others in a perfect spirit of toleration. But at the same time it is obvious that to enter the Society and then, under our plea of tolerance, assert that theosophy shall not be studied, that the great body of thought and philosophy offered in our literature shall not be investigated, is untheosophical, unpractical, and absurd, for it were to nullify the very object of our organization; it is a dogmatism that flows from negation and indifference. We must study the philosophy and the doctrines offered to us before we are in a position to pass judgment and say that they are not true or that they shall be rejected. To judge or reject before examination is the province of little minds or prejudiced dogmatists. And as the great body of philosophy, science, and ethics offered by H. P. Blavatsky and her teachers has upon it the seal of research, of reasonableness, of antiquity, and of wisdom, it demands our first and best consideration in order that we may with fitness conclude upon its acceptation or rejection.
So, then, a member of the Society, no matter how high or how low his
or her position in its ranks, has the right to promulgate all the philosophical
and ethical ideas found in our literature to the best ability possessed,
and no one else has the right to object, provided such promulgation is
accompanied by a clear statement that it is not authorized or made orthodox
by any declaration from the body corporate of the T.S. Our Society must
be kept free and open, no matter if, because we refuse to formulate beliefs
as a Society, we remain small in number, for we can always be strong in
influence.
- W.Q. Judge, Path, January, 1892
Never forget that life can only be nobly inspired and rightly lived
if you take it bravely and gallantly, as a splendid adventure in which
you are setting out into an unknown country, to meet many a joy, to find
many a comrade, to win and lose many a battle.
- Annie Besant
Before the eyes can see, they must be incapable of tears.
Before the ear can hear, it must have lost its sensitiveness.
Before the voice can speak, it must have lost its power to wound.
Before the soul can stand in the presence of the Masters,
its feet must be washed in the blood of the heart.
- Mabel Collins, Light on the Path
He alone that has realized the Self in the Heart has known the Truth. Having transcended the dualities, he is never perplexed. That alone is True Knowledge, which reveals the Self through enquiry, "To whom pertains the interdependent pair of knowledge and ignorance?"
Self-knowledge, in which both knowledge and phenomena fall off, is alone True Knowledge, because the Self is the Source of all. To know all else except the knower is but ignorance.
The Self being Knowledge Absolute, it is neither knowing nor not knowing.
It can never be nescience. The Self being one and universal, knowledge
of diversity is but ignorance which too is not apart from the Self.
- Ramana Maharshi, Excerpted from "Forty Verses"
Your prime goal
must always be
to generate and nuture
in your heart a love
that is such that the pain of others
is unbearable to you.
carry on like this until the birth
of true compassion
natural and spontaneous
Shabkar Tsogdruk Rangdrol
...Ten thousand fools proclaim themselves into obscurity, while one wise
man forgets himself into immortality.
...All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings
us face to face with another problem.
...I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final
word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger
than evil triumphant.
...The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of
comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and
controversy.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
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