“We mostly spend our lives conjugating the verb ‘to want’ in every tense… we try to understand people in order to judge whether they deserve our love; but in reality, until we love them, we cannot understand them. The unlovable is incomprehensible.” –Evelyn Underhill
“There is no warrior of light who has never been afraid of going into battle. There is no warrior of light who has never betrayed or lied in the past. There is no warrior of light who has never trodden a path that was not his. There is no warrior of light who has never […]
“The way of the heart is the way of courage. It is to live in insecurity, it is to live in love, and trust; it is to move in the unknown. It is leaving the past and allowing the future to be. Courage is moving on dangerous paths. Life is dangerous, and only cowards can […]
“If someone does not treat you with love and respect, it is a gift if they walk away from you. If that person doesn’t leave, you will certainly endure many years of suffering with him or her. Leaving may hurt for a while, but your heart will eventually heal. Then you can choose what you […]
“The study of the past can help us clarify many of our problems, but healing does not occur in the past. It occurs in the present. There is a current mania for blaming childhood events for our present despair. What the ego doesn’t want us to see is that our pain doesn’t come from the […]
The Zen Story of Bankei “Bankei was quietly teaching his followers when his talk was interrupted by a Shinshu priest who believed in miracles and thought that salvation came from repeating sacred words. Bankei was unable to continue his discourse and asked the priest what he had to say. — ‘The founder of my religion,’ […]
“But don’t follow rules imposed from the outside. No imposed rule can ever be right, because rules are created by people who want to control you! Yes, sometimes great enlightened ones appear in the world — like Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, Mohammed. They did not give rules to the world; they gave their love. But sooner […]
The Parable of Avicenna and the Apprentice “Avicenna had a very diligent, newly-initiated student. One day, a blind man was brought to the great physician. The Master specified exactly which components to mix to create two poultices. The student followed the instructions perfectly, and the next day, the patient regained his sight. Now, the student’s […]
A story told and commented by Osho: “There were two beggars who lived outside a village. One was blind and the other had no legs. One day the forest near the village where the beggars lived caught fire. These beggars were, of course, competitors — of the same profession, begging from the same people — […]
“…your responsibility is only toward your own being. Don’t go against it, because going against it is committing suicide, is being self-destructive. And what is the gain? Even if people respect you, even if people think you are a very sober, moral, respectable man, these things are not going to nourish your being. They are […]
“…I realized that I needed to help a man feel more like a man, rather than wasting my time worrying about whether he IS enough of a man. Part of our work on ourselves, in order to prepare for a deep relationship, is learning how to support another person in manifesting their very best self.” […]
“…it is only through our feebleness and incapacity that we are linked up with the unconscious, with the lower world of the instincts and with our fellow beings. Our virtues make us independent. In that state we do not need anybody—we are masters there; but in our inferiority we are linked up with mankind as […]
