What is

If you desire to be even slightly different from what you are, you are going against what is. And what is is the path. The moment one wakes up to what is, one's life is filled with a naturalness and beauty, a freedom and liberation permeates one's every breath. This beauty is never available to the so-called practioner. A violence, a supression and a kind of lust for becoming destroys that naturalness. Hence there is an ugliness found in all the so-called aspiring ascetics. Then what shall we do? Nothing. Not to do, not to do anything, is meditation. The self is neither in doing nor in thoughts. It is discovered the moment actions and thoughts are dispelled. Drop everything, let go of everything, let everything disappear. And then what is seen in this nothingness, in this emptiness, is everything.

Osho: No where to go but in

Our thoughts

As we treat others, so -- invariably -- do we treat ourselves. For the energy we project to him is generated first in ourselves. Our thoughts and energy create a vortex, which draws to us whatever vibrations out of the great ocean of consciousness resound in sympathy with our own. "Thoughts", Yogananda wrote in Autobiography of a Yogi, "are universally and not individually rooted". "Whatever vibrations we attract, and then project outward to others, have their first and greatest impact on ourselves: adversally, if our thoughts are unkind; beneficially, if they are generous.

Kriyananda: The promise of Immortality

Words of wisdom

We only get what we deserve. It is a lie when we say, the world is bad and we are good, it can never be so. It is a terrible lie we tell ourselves. This is the first lesson to learn: be determined not to curse anything outside, not to lay the blame upon anyone outside: but be a man, stand up, lay the blame on yourself. You will find that is always true. Get hold of yourself...We are to take care of ourselves. That much we can do, and give up attending to others, for a time. Let us perfect the means, the end will take care of itself. For the world can be good and pure, only if our lives are good and pure. It is an effect, and we are the means, let us purify ourselves. Let us make ourselves perfect.

Swami Vivekananda

What is happiness?

What is happiness, and how can we all get some? Biochemist turned Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard says we can train our minds in habits of well-being, to generate a true sense of serenity and fulfillment.

From "I am That"

By all means attend to your duties. Action, in which you are not emotionally involved and which is beneficial and does not cause suffering will not bind you. You may be engaged in several directions and work with enormous zest, yet remain inwardly free and quiet, with a mirror like mind, which reflects all, without being affected.

--Nisargadatta

Lao Tzu

Everything in the universe
is an expression of the Tao
It springs into existence
unconscious, perfect, free
take on a physical body
let circumstances complete it
That is why every being
spontaneously honors the Tao
The Tao gives birth to all beings
nourishes them, maintains them
cares for them, comforts them, protects them
takes them back to itself
creating without possessing
acting without expecting
guiding without interferring
That is why love of the Tao
is in the very nature of things.

--Lao Tze