Reborn

“Information is just bits of data. Knowledge is putting them together. Wisdom is transcending them.”

“Spiritual practices help us move from identifying with the ego to identifying with the soul. Old age does that for you too. It spiritualizes people naturally.”

“The difference between a passion and addiction is that between a divine spark, and a flame that incinerates.”

“All the things that truly matter, beauty, love, creativity, joy and inner peace arise from beyond the mind.”

“Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it. What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside.”

“There is a voice that doesn't use words. Listen.”

“When we come to the realisation that we are not this identity that the mind has created, but we’re actually spirit, at that moment spirit has become conscious of itself. It’s become conscious of itself as spirit, as ineffable being, as a sort of conscious presence.”

“Did you ever sit quietly with your back straight, not moving, just only cherishing the beauty of silence?”

“You are not separate from the whole. You are one with the sun, the earth, the air. You don’t have a life. You are life.”

“Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world, receiving the gifts with open eyes and open heart.”

“The most strongly enforced of all known taboos is the taboo of knowing who or what you really are behind the mask of your apparently separate, independent, and isolated ego.”

“As you come to realise the Truth of what Is, of who you are, you see that your family has somehow expanded to become the whole world.”

“The Dhamma heart is that beautiful, radiant fearless part of you. It is the place of absolute integrity because there is no fear. It is the place of peace because there is no desire. It is the place of love because there is no judgement. It is the place of truth because there is no corruption. It is the smile that arrived on the face of Gotoma the Buddha at the moment of his Awakening. It is you before ‘you’ was born. May all beings be happy.”

“Everything we experience happens within our mind. Anger, fear, frustration and all our negative mental states begin and end within us. No one gives them to us and no one can take them away. We do it to ourselves. As we begin to understand this, we can peacefully let them go. Not attempting to drive them away with an attitude of, ‘I shouldn’t feel like this,’ but to see them for what they really are, impersonal movements of mind, not ‘me,’ not ‘mine,’ not what ‘I am’. They are like visitors to your house. Perhaps you don’t like them, but you can still be kind and polite. You don’t have to ask them to stay, but you don’t need to throw them out either. Eventually, and without any fuss, they will grow tired and leave by themselves. This is called ‘letting go’, and is the reality of liberation. With awareness we see, with love we accept and with wisdom we respond. This is the whole of Dhamma. May all beings be happy.”

“If the human species has been able to make any progress, it is because of our heart of love and compassion.”

“Remember laughing? Laughter enhances the blood flow to the body’s extremities and improves cardiovascular function. Laughter releases endorphin’s and other natural mood elevating and pain-killing chemicals, improves the transfer of oxygen and nutrients to internal organs. Laughter boosts the immune system and helps the body fight off disease, cancer cells as well as viral, bacterial and other infections. Being happy is the best cure of all diseases!”

“You have to simply become aware of the movement of the mind, which begins this endless trouble.”