[The comments in brackets are by Rolf Sattler]
Philosophy
Whitehead, Chopra
For Quotes by and on Korzybski see Korzybski Quotes
Seek simplicity and distrust it (A. N. Whitehead. The Concept of Nature. Cambridge).
There is no such thing as one and only one correct perspective...You see the world as you are. Others see the world as they are, too (Chopra, D. 2009. The Ultimate Happiness Prescription. New York: Harmony Books, p. 75).
[see also Complementarity of Different Maps and Mandalas]
Conflicts arise as a result of not understanding that there are as many points of view as there are people (Ibid., p. 76).
Know that the outer world reflects you inner reality (Ibid., p. 107).
Religion and Spirituality
J. Krishnamurti, Adyashanti, Rajneesh, Ken Wilber, Jan Kersschot, Chuck Hillig, Karl Brunnhölzl
We are not God’s creation. God is our creation (J. Krishnamurti).
[We created the word ‘God’ that may refer to many different aspects of reality. What we say (s)he is, (s)he is not (see quotes 9-16)]
There are four major stages or phases of spiritual unfolding: belief, faith, direct experience, and permanent adaptation: you can belief in Spirit, you can have faith in Spirit, you can directly experience Spirit, you can become Spirit (Ken Wilber. 2000. One Taste. Boston: Shambhala, p. 290)
When you really laugh, suddenly mind disappears. And the whole Zen methodology is how to get into no-mind – laughter is one of the beautiful doors to get into it (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. 1984. The Book. Series II. Rajneeshpuram, OR: Rajneesh Foundation International, p.111).
[see also Laughter Quotes]
When you are whole, you are healthy. When you are fragmented, divided, split, you are unhealthy… When you are really whole, you are holy, you are pure, innocent (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. 1984. The Book. Series I. Rajneeshpuram, OR: Rajneesh Foundation International, p.626).
[see also Quotes on Health and Healing]
Return to that which is not definable [the unnamable] (Adyashanti. 2006. Emptiness Dancing. Boulder, CO: Sounds True, p. 41).
[see also Beyond Thinking, Writing, and Speaking - the Unnamable]
The golden flower blooms if you are ready to die to the past, if you are utterly in the present. And you can be utterly in the present only if you have no desire to be anywhere else in the future, if you have no desire to be somebody else. This I call enlightenment (Osho. 1982. The Secret of Secrets. Talks on the Secret of the Golden Flower. The Rebel Publishing House.
The cosmic joke, of course, is that the ego is caught on a self-generated treadmill because it already ‘is’ what it is looking for (Chuck Hillig in Kersschot, J. 2004. This Is It. Dialogues on the Nature of Oneness. London: Watkins Publ., p. 164).
Awakening reflects the knowing that there are no borders, that everything is-as-it-is, and that no amount of seeking or understanding can ever change that. It is not about changing the quality of the images on the screen, it is more about recognizing the Light in these images – no matter what kind of images are appearing on the screen (Kersschot, J. 2004. This Is It. Dialogues on the Nature of Oneness. London: Watkins Publ., pp. 48-49).
When I rest as the timeless Witness, the Great Search is undone…
Precisely because the ultimate reality is not anything seen but rather the Seer [Witness], it doesn’t matter in the least what is seen in any moment. Whether you see peace or turmoil… happiness or sadness, matters not at all: it is not those states but the Seer of those states that is already Free. Changing states is thus beside the point; acknowledging the ever-present Seer is the point (Ken Wilber. 2001. The Eye of Spirit. Boston: Shambhala, p. 300).
The fundamental quality of the nature of the mind is precisely that it is infinite, spacious, and without any reference points. That is the freedom aspect, this tremendous space (Brunnhölzl, K. 2012. The Heart Attack Sutra. A new commentary on the heart sutra. Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Publications).
Love and Relationships
Eckhart Tolle, Georg Feuerstein, Thich Nhat Hanh, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho)
In an instant, loving tenderness can turn into a savage attack or dreadful grief…Was it love in the first place, or just an addictive grasping and clinging? (Eckhart Tolle. 1999. The Power of Now. Novato, CA: New World Library, p. 149).
It seems that most “love relationships” become love/hate relationships before long… The relationship then oscillates…between the polarities of “love” and hate, and it gives you as much pleasure as it gives you pain… I am speaking here of what are commonly called romantic relationships – not of true love, which has no opposite because it arises from beyond the mind. Love as a continuous state is as yet very rare – as rare as conscious human beings. Brief and elusive glimpses of love, however, are possible whenever there is a gap in the stream of mind (Eckhart Tolle. 1999. The Power of Now. Novato, CA: New World Library, p. 148).
romance... is self-centered and self-indulgent. Even as the romantic lover worships his beloved, he only worships himself (Georg Feuerstein. 2006. A Little Book for Lovers. Boulder, CO: Sounds True, p. 51)
romantic love... is of the ego and hence can never reach across space and time to delight in the other's true being.
Only in genuine love, which is free from all idealization, are the ego's distortions of truth overcome (Ibid. p. 54).
To love means to listen [to oneself and others] (Thich Nhat Hanh).
All [?] relationships are damaged by a confrontation between right and wrong...To give up the need to be right doesn't mean that you don't have a point of view. But you can give up your need to defend your point of view (Chopra, D. 2009. The Ultimate Happiness Prescription. New York: Harmony Books, p. 73).
When you give in to your need to be right, you are turning your back on love, communion, and ultimately unity. Unity is the realization that at the deepest level everyone shares the same consciousness, which is the source of all love and joy (Chopra, D. 2009. The Ultimate Happiness Prescription. New York: Harmony Books, p. 77).
Love is the most healing force in the world. Nothing goes deeper than love: it heals not only the body, not only the mind, but also the soul. If one can love, then all one’s wounds disappear. Then one becomes whole – and to be whole is to be holy (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. 1984. The Book. Series I. Rajneeshpuram, OR: Rajneesh Foundation International, p.624).
A ship should not be held by a single anchor, neither should life depend upon a single hope (Epictetus).
[see also Quotes on Health and Healing]
Happiness
Dalai Lama, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho), Ken Wilber, Chuck Hillig
the very motion of life is towards happiness (H.H. The Dalai Lama and H. C. Cutler.1998. The Art of Happiness. New York: Riverhead Books, p. 13).
[However, if happiness is dependent on conditions, it cannot last because conditions change. True happiness is independent of conditions]
Our contentment depends only on our willingness to hold the content of our life within a context that is absolutely limitless (Chuck Hillig. 2007. Seeds for the Soul. Boulder CO: Sentient Publications, p. 188).
Unhappiness is only the ego-mind insisting that this should not be so.
True happiness of the heart, however, always lies in not ‘minding’ anything (Chuck Hillig. 2007. Seeds for the Soul. Boulder CO: Sentient Publications, p. 189).
[In other words, true happiness requires acceptance or, as Byron Katie put it, Loving What Is]
The end of suffering is the fruit of unconditional acceptance, rather than of chasing pleasure and avoiding pain (Ardagh, A. 2007. Awakening into Oneness. Boulder, CO: Sounds True, p. 162).
The [thinking] mind is the root cause of unhappiness and whenever you are happy you are mindless. Watch a moment of tremendous happiness. Suddenly there are no thoughts. You are simply happy (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. 1984. The Book. Series 1. Rajneeshpuram, OR: Rajneesh Foundation International, p.611).
total freedom…- complete liberation from the ignorance that grasps onto the self-existence of things - is the only true, lasting state of happiness (Tenzin Gyatso, The Fourteenth Dalai Lama. 2005. Essence of the Heart Sutra. Boston: Wisdom Publications, p. 97).
Abide as Emptiness, embrace all Form. The liberation [true happiness] is in the Emptiness, never in the Form, but Emptiness embraces all forms as mirror all its objects (Ken Wilber. 2007. A Brief History of Everything. Boston: Shambhala, p.240)
And so, when I rest as the Witness, all things arise in me, so much so that I am all things. There is no subject and object because I do not see the clouds, I am the clouds (Ken Wilber. 2001. The Eye of Spirit. Boston: Shambhala, p. 300).
[For more quotes from Ken Wilber see Quotations from the Work of Ken Wilber]
