Category: Sayings and Quotes

“You will know it [enlightenment] at the latest when you feel death approaching. Death is the stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to die before you die” – Source: Eckhart Tolle

What Tolle is getting at here is how to understand the difference between the ‘I’ and the ‘self’. The ‘self’ lives in the world of illusion and the ‘I’ observes. The ‘self’ worries about things that are illusion (like what do other people think of me?, Will I get a job that will make me happy?, etc.).

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“Do you know what an image is? It is something carved by the hand, out of stone, out of marble, and this stone carved by the hand is put in a temple and worshipped. But it is still handmade, an image made by man. You also have an image about yourself, not made by the hand but made by the mind, by thought, by experience, by knowledge, by your struggle, by all the conflicts and miseries of your life. As you grow older, that image becomes stronger, larger, all-demanding and insistent. The more you listen, act, have your existence in that image, the less you see beauty, feel joy at something beyond the little promptings of that image.” – Source: J. Krishnamurti

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“You cannot possibly say that you are what you think yourself to be! Your ideas about yourself change from day to day and from moment to moment. Your self-image is the most changeful thing you have. It is utterly vulnerable, at the mercy of a passer by. A bereavement, the loss of a job, an insult, and your image of yourself, which you call your person, changes deeply. To know what you are you must first investigate and know what you are not.” – Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

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“Its a good world, not perfect, but its ours so we’d better learn to live with it the way it is.” – Source: James Randy

James Randy works to show people how many religions or mystics are fakes and how easy it is for people to be fooled by them. As a talented magician he knows this from his trade.

He has exposed a number of fakes including some evangelical priests. His quote above is actually very similar to de Mellos philosophy that you need to change yourself, not the world.

“When the archer shoots for no particular prize, he has all his skills; when he shoots to win a brass buckle, he is already nervous; when he shoots for a gold prize, he goes blind, sees two targets, and is out of his mind. His skill has not changed, but the prize divides him. He cares! He thinks more of winning than of shooting, and the need to win drains him of power” – Source: Tranxu (Chinese Sage)

The more that an individual believes is at stake, the worse they perform. In this case if the archer was not bothered by the gold prize he would shoot with the same accuracy as if there was no prize – accurately.

“The three hardest tasks in the world are neither physical feats nor intellectual achievements, but moral acts: to return love for hate, to include the excluded, and to say, ‘I was wrong’.” – Source: Sydney J. Harris

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“You are brainwashed when you take on an idea which isn’t yours” – Source: Anthony de Mello.

De Mello argues that most of our values were given to us and we accept them without question.

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“A saint is one until he or she know it” – Source: Sufi

A person who does good without knowing that they are doing good is a saint. When they become aware they are doing good, perhaps because they are praised, then they continue to do good because it makes them feel good.

They are no longer doing good without motivation.

“The three types of selfishness. The first type is where I give myself the pleasure of pleasing myself. The second one is where I give myself the pleasure of pleasing others. The third one is where you do something to not get a bad feeling.” – Source: Anthony de Mello

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“Faith: an openness to the truth, no matter what the consequences, no matter where it comes from, no matter where it leads you. Faith is insecurity, you don’t know, you are ready to listen. Faith does not mean being gullible. You have to challenge everything, but challenge it from an attitude of openness” – Source: Anthony de Mello (slightly paraphrased)

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