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All consumption is a kind of eating, wherein we ingest some product from the external world. In the process we ourselves become more material, more heavy, more dense and dependent.

The consumer is the consumed. To be a consumer is to be involved in a process of destruction. Consumption is the inertia of matter to feed on itself. Eventually we ourselves are thrown away like yesterday?s newspaper. In the process of consuming things, our life and creativity is eaten up by commercial forces and worldly interests. We gather nothing enduring but merely eat up temporary sensations or ideas to keep us distracted, which state we call life.-- David Frawley

Never expect anything from anyone. But always give. Otherwise, a sense of dryness will overtake you. But you must not give your mind to anyone. That you must give only to God.-- Swami Turiyananda

Be like an eye always seeing your own faults. But be like a blind person toward the faults of others.? Atisha

From Chuang Tsu: Inner Chapters, page 55.

I don’t think any sensitive person can be satisfied with having fun, no matter how much of it we may cram into our lives. Our need is not for pleasure but for joy – a deep sense of fulfillment that not only never leaves us but actually increases with the passage of time. Fun is living for ourselves; joy comes from living for others, giving our time and love to a purpose greater than ourselves.

— Eknath Easwaran

1. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

2. There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."

3. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.

4. The most destructive force in the universe is gossip.

5. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.

6. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age eleven.

7. A person, who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person. (This is very important. Pay attention. It never fails.)

— Biologic Show

Some men dream of fortunes,
others dream of cookies.

Better stop short than fill to the brim.
Oversharpen the blade, and the edge will soon blunt.
Amass a store of gold and jade, and no one can protect it.
Claim wealth and titles, and disaster will follow.
Retire when the work is done.
This is the way of heaven.

--Lao Tsu,
Tao Te Ching

Your world would not be in its present condition were you to have simply listened to your experience. The result of your not listening to your experience is that you keep reliving it, over and over again.

-- Neale Donald Walsch

Genuine service has nothing to do with getting anything – not even with the satisfaction of knowing that we have modified a situation so that it now conforms to our image of how we think it should be. Any time we try to “improve” a situation – to make it over in our own image – we can only do so by imposing our will on it. This does nothing but create a new tension, yet it is what most people have in mind when they talk about helping others.

-- Swami Chetanananda

And:

Compassionate service helps to alleviate the pain of those who are suffering. But its greater value lies in purifying the minds and hearts of those who render it. The satisfaction and joy you derive from rendering selfless service to someone in need is immense and everlasting. However, there is one danger – feeding your ego by identifying yourself as a generous, compassionate person. This is destructive both to you and to those to whom you render service.

-- Pandit Rajmani Tigunait

The ego is nothing but memory, a set of definitions which are limiting. You strongly believe in these patterns you have yourself brought about and you mechanically repeat them. It is only habit that maintains them, makes them seem permanent. Let them go once and for all.

-- Jean Klein

All human beings want happiness, but they don?t know how to go about it. They don?t even know that there is work to be done and a discipline to be observed in order to obtain it. They think that just because they are here on earth they only need to eat, drink, sleep, earn a living, and bring children into the world, and they should automatically be happy. But animals do pretty much the same things, so what is the difference? To be on earth is no guarantee of happiness. . .

If you want happiness, don?t just sit there and do nothing about it. You must go out and start looking for the elements that nourish it, and as these elements belong to the divine world, that is where you have to look for them. Once you find them, you will love everyone and everything and be loved in return; you will understand things better, and you will have the power to create and achieve your aspirations.

-- Omraam Michael Aivanhov

     Yen Hui said, "I am making progress."
     Confucius asked, "In what way?"
     Yen Hui said, "I have given up doing good and being right."
     Confucius said, "Very good, but that is not quite enough."
     Another day, Yen Hui saw Confucius and said, "I am making progress."
     Confucius asked, "In what way?"
     Yen Hui said, "I have given up ceremony and music."
     Confucius said, "Very good, but that is not quite enough."
     Another day, Yen Hui saw Confucius again and said, "I am making progress."
     Confucius asked, "In what way?"
     Yen Hui said, "I just sit and forget."
     Confucius was startled and asked, "What do you mean by sitting and forgetting?"
     Yen Hui said, "I am not attached to the body and I give up any idea of knowing. By freeing myself from the body and mind, I become one with the infinite. This is what I mean by sitting and forgetting."
     Confucius said, "When there is oneness, there are no preferences. When there is change, there is no constancy.
     "If you have really attained this, then let me become your pupil."

--Chuang Tsu: Inner Chapters (p 140)

Those who want comfort in life have to seek conformity. The result is false compromise and hypocrisy, and the life without integrity becomes a patchwork.

-- Swami Avyaktananda

You are the architect of your spiritual life. You should learn to build it. Be brave. The brave alone enjoy the world. Learn to enjoy the world by living here and now.

-- Swami Rama

I have seen his master at work in this little spot, with his coat off, and his dibble† in his hand: it was a scene of tranquil virtue to have stopped an angel on his errands of mercy!

--Henry Mackenzie,
The Man Of Feeling, 1771

† A tool for making holes to plant seeds in a garden.

Do not condemn the world. Deify the world by your deeds, purify the world by your utterance, and ennoble the world by your presence.

-- Selvarajan Yesudian

Doubts, like clouds, sail on the mental horizon occasionally. They can be dark and heavy or small and wispy. Sometimes they disappear, but often return unnoticed because of an influx of new experiences. . . . Impatience and restlessness create doubt, but the aspirant is warned that both prevent certain spiritual powers from developing. Remember that impatience is an expression of arrogance of some sort which, if allowed to linger, will undermine faith, hope and will and only strengthen the moods of depression. Arrogance is of the ego and is therefore destructive.

-- Swami Sivananda Radha

Words, like eyeglasses, blur everything they do not make clear.

-- Joseph Joubert

After my month [following childbirth] was up, my mother returned to Dean Street and I to my occupation of daddling after her, carrying the child with me, as I had the honor of suckling till I became a perfect shadow; and they were forced for very shame to let me off that duty, and get me an ass to suck myself.

—Thraliana, April 1778

And:

... I turn and retrace my steps and come back to the winding road past the hospital, where at night in certain wards the gay student nurses dispensed a far more precious thing than pills to lucky boys in the know...

—Invisible Man, 1947

Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger.

—Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials

When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.

—François de la Rouchefoucauld

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back?Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.

?Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust

Modern man does not experience himself as a part of nature, but as an outside force destined to dominate and conquer it. He even talks of a battle with nature, forgetting that, if he won the battle, he would find himself on the losing side.

—E.F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful

Pooh was sitting in his house one day, counting his pots of honey, when there came a knock on the door.

"Fourteen," said Pooh. "Come in. Fourteen. Or was it fifteen? Bother. That's muddled me."

"Hallo, Pooh," said Rabbit. "Hallo, Rabbit. Fourteen, wasn't it?" "What was?" "My pots of honey what I was counting."

"Fourteen, that's right."

"Are you sure?"

"No," said Rabbit. "Does it matter?"

—A. A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner

I always say, keep a diary and someday it'll keep you.

—Mae West

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