My Spiritual Quotes

Andrew Cohen Quotes from Evolutionary Enlightenment

My spiritual quotes Katinka — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:11:28 +0000

When we embark on the spiritual quest, most of us, understandably, are pursuing freedom or enlightenment for our own sake. This is why we begin by asking, What do I really want? What is more important to me than anything else? But once your intention has become clear, and you sincerely pursue that one-pointed aspiration, a profound shift occurs. Over time, as your soul develops and matures through the practice of the first three tenets, you will see the quality of that intention evolve. And as you embrace the fourth tenet, and learn to see yourself as a very small part of a very big process, your relationship to the spiritual path becomes dramatically recontextualized. You discover that it’s not about you. (p. 158, Andrew Cohen, Evolutionary Enlightenment: a new path to spiritual awakening, ch. Cosmic Consciousce)

When you think objectively about how much work went into creating your own capacity to have the experience you are having in this very moment – fourteen billion years of hard work - then it might even begin to strike you as immoral to spend too much time sitting around and worrying about the fears and desires of your personal ego. Surely the purpose of all that cosmic effort and creativity and positivity – from nothing to energy to light to matter to life to consciousness to you - could not possibly have been just for that. When you awaken to the evolutionary process and its endless creativity, and you discover how profound and complex the structure of our universe is, you start to recognize and appreciate, at a soul level, what a precious gift it is to be here. (p. 37, Andrew Cohen, Evolutionary Enlightenment: a new path to spiritual awakening,ch. A Big Yes)

Think about it for a moment: if you are reading a book like this, the likelihood is that you are among the luckiest people who have ever been born. To begin with, you are one of those privileged to have received a high degree of education. People like you and me have access to information that wasn’t available until very recently – about the life process, about our psychological development, the natural history of our planet, and the evolution of the expanding cosmos. Besides this wealth of knowledge, we also have a degree of material wealth, comfort, security, and leisure time that is historically unprecedented. The standard of living that we take for granted, kings and queens of old could not have imagined. And on top of all this, we enjoy a degree of freedom that is unparalleled – personal, political, religious, and philosophical. There have never been human beings who have had the extraordinary liberty we have to experiment with our own lives – to think in whatever way we want, to do almost anything we want, to say anything we want, to go anywhere we want, to be whatever we want. (p. 78, Andrew Cohen, Evolutionary Enlightenment: a new path to spiritual awakening, Ch. The Postmodern Predicament)

This awakened passion for evolutionary transformation is not reasonable. It demands change, right now, and it will not wait, because God is always desperate to grow. God is infinite in the unmanifest realm. But in the manifest realm God is not infinite – God can only know him- or herself to the extent to which conscious beings are actually able to awaken to their own absolute nature. (p. 52, Andrew Cohen, Evolutionary Enlightenment: a new path to spiritual awakening, Ch. The Universe Project)

There are layers of cultural conditioning, values and assumptions about how things should be that color our perspectives without us even knowing it. And many people believe that within our psyches we also carry the unresolved stories of previous lifetimes. All these factors play a part in the complex web of motives and impulses that makes up your sense of self. All this is you. And yet it is possible to take responsibility for all of these dimensions of who you are, through the transformative recognition that you are always the one who is choosing. (p. 71, Andrew Cohen, Evolutionary Enlightenment: a new path to spiritual awakening, Ch. Enlightening the Choosing Faculty)

When you awaken to the truth that your human experience of consciousness and cognition, your personal presence here on this small planet, is part of an infinitely bigger process than you had ever imagined, you may notice an uncomfortable and perhaps unfamiliar sensation stirring within you – a sense of obligation. (page 86, Andrew Cohen, Evolutionary Enlightenment: a new path to spiritual awakening, Ch. A Moral Imperative)

But if we choose – consciously or unconsciously – to live a life of mediocrity, then we are also making a statement. Because we are not flourishing, what we are saying, whether we intend it or not, is that the evolutionary process is not flourishing. (p. 89, Andrew Cohen, Evolutionary Enlightenment: a new path to spiritual awakening, Ch. The Moral Imperative)

As long as we remain invested in the ego’s need to manipulate reality, we will find that we keep making the same mistakes, over and over and over again, because we are deliberately avoiding aspects of the way things are. It’s not a mystery: if we are trying to get somewhere, but we cover our eyes to avoid seeing the obstacles that lie in our path, it’s no wonder we keep tripping over them. (p. 138, Andrew Cohen, Evolutionary Enlightenment: a new path to spiritual awakening, ch. Face Everything and Avoid Nothing)

…

(p. 139, Andrew Cohen, Evolutionary Enlightenment: a new path to spiritual awakening,) But the point is that when you choose to avoid, you lose touch with your own soul. Emotionally, you become disconnected from your own deeper dimensions. It’s as if there is a wall, a barrier, between you and your own authenticity. And far too many of us get accustomed to living that way.

…

(p. 141, Andrew Cohen, Evolutionary Enlightenment: a new path to spiritual awakening,) When you remove the protective shield of avoidance and self-protection, there is an intensity and vulnerability to the human experience. And the complexity of life hits you more directly. … It demands that you be emotionally willing to bear a degree of reality – both in regard to yourself and to life itself – that you may have been unwilling to tolerate before.

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Lama Yeshe Quotes on Happiness – When the chocolate runs out

My spiritual quotes Katinka — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 18:50:07 +0000

We love chocolate. Perhaps so much so that on some level we may believe, “As long as I have chocolate, I’ll be happy.” This is the power of attachment at work. And based on this attachment, we create a chocolate-based philosophy and order our life prioritizing chocolate. But sometimes, we can’t get our hands on any chocolate. And when the chocolate disappears, we get nervous, upset: “Oh no! Now I’m unhappy!” But of course it’s not the absence of chocolate that’s making us unhappy; it’s our fixed ideas, and our misunderstanding the nature of chocolate. (When the Chocolate Runs Out, p. 1)

Chocolate comes, chocolate goes, chocolate disappears. (When the Chocolate Runs Out, p. 2)

The sense world alone cannot satisfy the human mind. (When the Chocolate Runs Out, p. 5)

Wherever you go, your dissatisfied mind is still there. (When the Chocolate Runs Out, p. 7)

Meditation explodes the belief that satisfaction depends on circumstances (When the Chocolate Runs Out, p. 8 )

If you think practicing the Dharma means simply learning new ideas, you’d be better off sucking a piece of candy. (When the Chocolate Runs Out, p. 37)

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Chogyam Trungpa Quotes on Work, Sex and Money

My spiritual quotes Katinka — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 10:07:26 +0000

Dharma teachings are not going to be romantic or beautiful – ho no! The teachings are going to be painful, even invoking paranoia. At the same time, we can work with the situation and find something creative in it.

Chogyam Trungpa, Work, Sex, Money: Real life on the Path of Mindfulness, p. 7

For many of us, regardless of our politics or our status in society, money is a private thing, sex is a private thing, and so is work. We don’t want to discuss them with others at all. We would like to find something transcendental that raises us above those situations. People don’t want anything to do with death either. Most of us still have the dualistic notion of death as bad and birth as good. That kind of notion is pervasive, and that is precisely why we need to talk about these subjects.

Chogyam Trungpa, Work, Sex, Money: Real life on the Path of Mindfulness, p. 9

There is a Tibetan saying that it is better not to begin things, but once you begin, you should finish properly.

Chogyam Trungpa, Work, Sex, Money: Real life on the Path of Mindfulness, p. 17

When you relate to situations directly and simply, you realize that body and mind have a very close relationship. Mind and body are one thing rather than separate. Body is mind, mind is body. The expressions of body are also constantly the expressions of mind. Work, which is an expression of everyday life, brings the body and mind into play equally. We do not have to develop a special philosophical attitude in order to make our work spiritual, even if our activity appears to have nothing to do with spirituality.

Chogyam Trungpa, Work, Sex, Money: Real life on the Path of Mindfulness, p. 21

The popular, confused notion of compassion suggests a certain idea of charity, which is trying to be kind because you feel you are well off and therefore you should be kind to others who are not well off. You might go off to underdeveloped nations or join the Peace Corps. Your country is wealthy, but those other countries are not. The people are illiterate, so you will teach them how to read and write and how to manage things. In this approach, you actually look down on those people.

Chogyam Trungpa, Work, Sex, Money: Real life on the Path of Mindfulness, p. 31

Real compassion is not a matter of “I would like to make this person happy by making the person fit into my idea of happiness”; rather, it is a matter of actually seeing that a certain person needs help. You put yourself at the disposal of that person. You just get into a relationship with that person and see where that leads. That is a more demanding and am ore generous approach than following your expectation that the person should end up thus and such a way.

Chogyam Trungpa, Work, Sex, Money: Real life on the Path of Mindfulness, p. 31

In working with others, the approach of genuine spirituality is to just do it, just help. If you’re doing it unskillfully, you’ll be pushed back. A direct message is there always, unless you are dreaming, in which case you don’t receive any messages. But if you are relating with things directly, even with ambition, that’s okay. There will be messages coming toward you automatically. This could be called genuine mystical experience.

Chogyam Trungpa, Work, Sex, Money: Real life on the Path of Mindfulness, p. 32

You are good; fundamentally, you are healthy. Moreover, that particular health is capable of accomodating your badness as well as your goodness. When you’re good, you’re not particularly bashful about your goodness, and when you’re bad, you’re not particularly shocked by that either. These are simply your attributes. When you begin to accept both aspects of your being as energy, as part of the perspective of your view of yourself, then you are connecting with the fundamental goodness, which can accommodate all of these energies as part of one basic being.

Chogyam Trungpa, Work, Sex, Money: Real life on the Path of Mindfulness, p. 35

If you do not feel every step you take, then your pattern of mind becomes full of chaos and you begin to wonder where these problems are coming from. They just spring out of nowhere, because they are a signal that attention is needed.

Chogyam Trungpa, Work, Sex, Money: Real life on the Path of Mindfulness, p. 44,45

Particularly people on the spiritual path are in danger of not being able to persevere in the work situation. They can be particularly apt at finding excuses not to work and very clever in developing the practice of laziness. The moment they don’t feel like doing something, the appropriate spiritual quotation comes to mind.

Chogyam Trungpa, Work, Sex, Money: Real life on the Path of Mindfulness, p. 93, 94

Repression is a very unskilled way of dealing with passion. It is not that there is something wrong with the traditional teachings, but you take them the wrong way. If you panic, if you feel terribly shy about our passion, this doesn’t let you see it. It doesn’t let you examine it. If you do see it, you realize that physically carrying out your passion is not the point. Acting on it seems to be a secondary matter. What is important is seeing the passion clearly.

In the Buddhist monastic tradition, celibacy is a powerful way of dealing with desire, not by suppressing passion, but by examining the mental aspect of it. In the Buddhist tradition altogether, rather than suppressing any desire that comes into your mind, you look at it. you have to become familiar with the desires; then the need to express them physically automatically wears out. You see that the physical expression is no more than an extension of the desire itself – you see the childish as well as the chaotic quality of the expression.

Chogyam Trungpa, Work, Sex, Money: Real life on the Path of Mindfulness, p. 119, 120

Whenever anything irritates us, it’s trying to communicate with us. Usually we are looking for an answer rather than trying to communicate with irritation. There is sanity operating, but usually we don’t try to learn from that at all. We try to do something with that irritation rather than just relate to it.

Chogyam Trungpa, Work, Sex, Money: Real life on the Path of Mindfulness, p. 212, 213

Working with money is always part of the psychology or the philosophy of a situation. So we need basic criteria for working with money. Working with money requires discipline to know how much money you need for a week, how much money is required to live for a day or a month. Living in any society requires this process of discipline. We have to work along with the pattern of society. In that context, it seems that a relationship with money is necessary. We have to actually face the whole problem of money as it is.

Chogyam Trungpa, Work, Sex, Money: Real life on the Path of Mindfulness, p. 171

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Khalil Gibran Quotes on Love

My spiritual quotes Katinka — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 12:11:28 +0000

My house says to me, “Do not leave me, for here dwells your past.”
And the road says to me, “Come and follow me, for I am your future.”
And I say to both my house and the road, “I have no past, nor have I a future. If I stay here, there is a going in my staying; and if I go there is a staying in my going. Only love and death will change all things.”

From ‘Sand And Foam’ (Khalil Gibran, 1926)

THE LOVE SONG

A poet once wrote a love song and it was beautiful. And he made many copies of it, and sent them to his friends and his acquaintances, both men and women, and even to a young woman whom he had met but once, who lived beyond the mountains.

And in a day or two a messenger came from the young woman bringing a letter. And in the letter she said, “Let me assure you, I am deeply touched by the love song that you have written to me. Come now, and see my father and my mother, and we shall make arrangements for the betrothal.”

And the poet answered the letter, and he said to her, “My friend, it was but a song of love out of a poet’s heart, sung by every man to every woman.”

And she wrote again to him saying, “Hypocrite and liar in words! From this day unto my coffin-day I shall hate all poets for your sake.”

Khalil Gibran, story in ‘The Wanderer’ (1932, published posthumously)

LOVE AND HATE

A woman said unto a man, “I love you.” And the man said, “It is in my heart to be worthy of your love.”

Ant he woman said, “You love me not?”

And the man only gazed upon her and said nothing.

Then the woman cried aloud, “I hate you.”

And the man said, “Then it is also in my heart to be worthy of your hate.”

Khalil Gibran, story in ‘The Wanderer’ (1932, published posthumously)

For love when love is homesick exhausts time’s measurements and time’s soundings.

Khalil Gibran, The Garden of the Prophet (1933, published posthumously)

Miserable is the man who loves a woman and takes her for a wife, pouring at her feet the sweat of his skin and the blood of his body and the life of his heart, and placing in her hands the fruit of his toil and the revenue of hi s diligence; for when he slowly wakes up, he finds that the heart, which he endeavoured to buy, is given freely and in sincerity to another man for the enjoyment of its hidden secrets and deepest love. Miserable is the woman who arises from the inattenti veness and restlessness of youth and finds herself in the home of a man showering her with his glittering gold and precious gifts and according her all the honors and grace of lavish entertainment but unable to satisfy her soul with the heavenly wine whic h God pours from the eyes of a man into the heart of a woman.

Spirits Rebellious (Khalil Gibran, 1908)

When love beckons to you follow him,

Though his ways are hard and steep.

And when his wings enfold you yield to him,

Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.

And when he speaks to you believe in him,

Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.

Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,

So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.

He threshes you to make you naked.

He sifts you to free you from your husks.

He grinds you to whiteness.

He kneads you until you are pliant;

And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God’s sacred feast.

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life’s heart.

But if in your fear you would seek only love’s peace and love’s pleasure,

Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love’s threshing-floor,

Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.

Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;

For love is sufficient unto love.

When you love you should not say, “God is in my heart,” but rather, I am in the heart of God.”

And think not you can direct the course of love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.

But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:

To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.

To know the pain of too much tenderness.

To be wounded by your own understanding of love;

And to bleed willingly and joyfully.

To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;

To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy;

To return home at eventide with gratitude;

And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

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Shunryu Suzuki Zazen Meditation Quotes

My spiritual quotes Katinka — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 10:50:36 +0000

When you practice zazen you should not try to attain anything. You should just sit in the complete calmness of your mind and not rely on anything. Just keep your body straight without leaning over or against something. To keep your body straight means not to rely on anything. In this way, physically and mentally, you will obtain complete calmness. But to rely on something or try to do something in zazen is dualistic and not complete calmness.

Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Shunryu Suzuki, 40th anniversary edition, p. 113

If you want to study Zen, you should forget all your previous ideas and just practice zazen and see what kind of experience you have in your practice. That is naturalness.

Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Shunryu Suzuki, 40th anniversary edition p. 99

Zazen practice is a direct expression of our true nature. Strictly speaking, for a human being, there is no other practice than this practice; there is no other way of life than this way of life.

Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Shunryu Suzuki, 40th anniversary edition, p. 5

When you are practicing zazen, do not try to stop your thinking. Let it stop by itself. If something comes into your mind, let it come in, and let it go out. It will not stay long. When you try to stop your thinking, it means you are bothered by it. Do not be bothered by anything. It appears as if something comes from outside your mind, but actually it is only the waves of your mind, and if you are not bothered by the waves, gradually they will become calmer and calmer.

Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Shunryu Suzuki, 40th anniversary edition, p. 17, 18

When you say, “whatever I do is Buddha nature, so it doesn’t matter what I do, and there is no need to practice zazen,” that is already a dualistic understanding of our everyday life. If it really does not matter, there is no need for you even to say so. As long as you are concerned about what you do, that is dualistic.

Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Shunryu Suzuki, 40th anniversary edition, p. 26

For the beginner, practice without effort is not true practice. For the beginner, the practice needs great effort.

Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Shunryu Suzuki, 40th anniversary edition, p.27

You become discouraged with your practice when your practice has been idealistic. You have some gaining idea in your practice, and it is not pure enough. It is when your practice is rather greedy that you become discouraged with it. So you should be grateful that you have a sign or warning signal to show you the weak point in your practice. At that time, forgetting all about your mistake and renewing your way, you can resume your original practice. This is a very important point.

Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Shunryu Suzuki, 40th anniversary edition, p. 58

Another mistake will be to practice for the sake of the joy you find in it. Actually, when your practice is involved in a feeling of joy, it is not in very good shape either. Of course it is not poor practice, but compared to the true practice it is not so good. In Hinayana Buddhism, practice is classified in four ways. The best way is to just do it without having any joy in it, not even physical joy. This way is just to do it, forgetting your physical and mental feeling, forgetting all about yourself in your practice. This is the fourth stage, the highest stage. The next highest stage is to have just physical joy in your practice. At this stage you find some pleasure in practice, and you will practice because of the pleasure you find in it. In the second stage you have both mental and physical joy, or good feeling. These two middle stages are stages in which you practice zazen because you feel good in your practice. The first stage is when you have no thinking and no curiosity in your practice. These four stages also apply to Mahayana practice, and the highest is just to practice it.

Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Shunryu Suzuki, 40th anniversary edition, p. 59

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Short Pema Chodron Buddhism Quotes

My spiritual quotes Katinka — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 08:28:20 +0000

Life has taught me the wisdom of moving toward what scares me.

Although it is embarrassing and painful, it is very healing to stop hiding from yourself. It is healing to know all the ways that you’re sneaky, all the ways that you hide out, all the ways that you shut down, deny, close off, criticize people, all your weird little ways. You can know all of that with some sense of humor and kindness. By knowing yourself, you’re coming to know humanness altogether. We are all up against these things. We are all in this together.

Pema Chodron, Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living

Welcome the present moment as if you had invited it. It is all we ever have so we might as well work with it rather than struggling against it. We might as well make it our friend and teacher rather than our enemy.

From the new Pema Chodron Fan Site

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Albert Low zen quotes

My spiritual quotes Katinka — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 07:27:49 +0000

The vow of the Bodhisattva is that she will not go into Nirvana until every single suffering being has entered Nirvana. One has to understand what this means. Our awakening is not a personal triumph. We do not have to win a spiritual sprint. We are one mind. Awakening is to penetrate more and more deeply into this truth. The world is alive. And as long as there is suffering then this living whole is shattered. Whether it is my suffering or the suffering of another, when seen from the perspective of the Bodhisattva makes no difference, because, seen from this perspective there is no ‘me’ or ‘another.’ In the Diamond Sutra, “Although the Bodhisattva saves all sentient beings, there are no sentient beings to save.”

From an article on a Zen Koan

The heart of our practice is perplexity, wonder, care, concern, in the face of our situation. One only has to pick up a newspaper to realize the truth of Shakespeare’s words, “what a tangled web these mortals weave.” How contradictory our lives are; how full of pettiness and greatness, stupidity and wisdom.

A Fountain of Miracles

Go where the heart of the problem lies.Our practice is all about seeing into the conditional nature of the world, me and God. We are not people or things, among other people or other things in the world. It is illusory to look on this structure as absolute. It is conditional, it is relative, it is useful. It is useful in the same way a filing system is useful. The filing system does not itself impinge in any way on the material that is filed. It does not alter in any way the letters, correspondence, forms or invoices. It is the melting down of this structure that our practice is about.

Go where the heart of the problem lies

Life is a constant creation. It is a moment by moment, instant by instant creation. I don’t mean by this that it is a set of discrete creations, it is not like that. But nevertheless, this spontaneity is constantly arising. And it is within this that is our freedom.

A Non-Buddhist Questions the Buddha

Often, when doing a spiritual practice one comes face to face with the desert, a feeling of being abandoned, a feeling of dryness and an endless sense of nothing to look forward to. At its most intense it is not a feeling to which one can give a name. At first this is very painful and one has a strong tendency to want to stir things up, try to make something happen, to try this, do that… But one has entered this desert because one has let go of the various ways one has used in the past to entertain oneself. These ways have, for the moment at least, come to an end. It is now possible for a much deeper unity to manifest, a unity that is not dependent upon an integration from outside.

Albert Low on Pain

More about Albert Low. More about Zen Buddhism

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Short spiritual quotes

My spiritual quotes Katinka — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:37:46 +0000

H.P.Blavatsky in “Our Cycle and the Next”.

For real Theosophy is Altruism, and we cannot repeat it too often. It is brotherly love, mutual help, unswerving devotion to Truth. If once men do but realize that in these alone can true happiness be found, and never in wealth, possessions, or any selfish gratification, then the dark clouds will roll away, and a new humanity wild be born upon the earth . . . . .

But if not, then the storm will burst, and our boasted civilization and enlightenment will sink in such a sea of horror that its parallel History has never yet recorded.

Paul Brunton, The Inner Reality, Chapter I

I should prefer to say all I have to say in a single page, or better still, compress it into the single line of the Biblical Psalmist: Be still and know that I am God.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.

The Theosophist, Volume I, august, 1880, p. 287

At whatsover moment you catch yourself trying to persuade yourself that you are particularly humble, be assured that then you are farthest from humility.

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Alice A. Bailey Quotes from her Autobiography

My spiritual quotes Katinka — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 09:56:12 +0000

From the earliest possible time we were taught to care about the poor and the sick and to realize that fortunate circumstances entailed responsibility. Several times a week when it was time to go for a walk we had to go to the housekeeper’s room for jellies and soup for some sick person on the property, for baby cloths for the new baby at one of the lodges, for books for someone who was confined to the house to read. This may be an instance of the paternalism and the feudalism of Great Britain but it had its good points. It may be a good thing that it has disappeared – personally I believe it is – but we could do with that trained sense of responsibility and of duty to others among the wealthy of this land. We were taught that money and position entailed certain obligations and that these obligations must be met. (The Unfinished Autobiography of Alice Bailey, p. 27)

“The claim of discipleship is ever permissible; it gives nothing away and only carries weight if backed by a life of service. The claim that one is an initiate of a certain status is never permissible, except among those of the same rating and then it is not necessary. The world is full of disciples. Let them acknowledge it. Let them stand together in the bonds of discipleship and make it easier for others to do the same. Thus will the existence of the Masters be proved and proved in the right way – through the lives and testimonies of those They train. ” (The Unfinished Autobiography of Alice Bailey, p. 38)

“Today, I can laugh and today I am quite sure that I do not have all the answers. I find myself left with few if any doctrines and dogmas. I am very sure of the existence of Christ and of the Masters who are His disciples. I am sure that there is a plan which They are attempting to work out on earth and I believe that They, in Themselves, are the answer and the guarantee of man’s ultimate achievement and that as They are, so shall we all be some day. I can no longer say with assurance and aplomb what people ought to do. I seldom, therefore, give advice. I certainly do not pretend to interpret God’s mind and to say what God wants as do the theologians of the world. ” (The Unfinished Autobiography of Alice Bailey, p. 49)

“I believed in the power of Christ to save then and I believe in it a thousandfold more today. I know that people can turn from the error of their ways and I have seen them again and again find that reality in themselves which St. Paul calls “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Upon that knowledge I stake my eternal salvation and the salvation of mankind. I know that Christ lives and that we live in Him and I know that God is our Father and that, under God’s great Plan, all souls eventually find their way back to Him. I know that the Christ life in the human heart can lead all men from death to immortality. I know that because Christ lives we shall live also and that we are saved by His life. But I question our human techniques very often and I believe that God’s way is often the best and that He often leaves us to find our own way home, knowing that in all of us there is something of Himself which is divine, which never dies, and which comes to knowledge. I know that nothing in Heaven or hell can come between the love of God and His children. I know that He stays on guard watching “until the last weary pilgrim has found his way home.” I know that all things work together for good to those who love God, and this means that we do not love some far off, abstract Deity but that we love our fellowmen. Loving our fellowmen is evidence – undefined, maybe, but just as sure – that we love God. ” (The Unfinished Autobiography of Alice Bailey, pp. 60, 61)

“I was, as you may have gathered, a consummate prig, even if well-intentioned. I was almost too good to live and certainly holy enough to be hated.” (The Unfinished Autobiography of Alice Bailey,p. 66)

“I proved to myself, with much surprise, that understanding and love will work with individuals when condemnation and accusations will fail. ” This after telling a funny story about how she got a bunch of soldiers to behave – through taking them on a picknick… (The Unfinished Autobiography of Alice Bailey,pp. 73, 74)

“One hot night in Lucknow I could not sleep. I walked up and down my room and felt entirely desolate. I went out on to the broad verandah shrouded in flowering bougainvilaea but found nothing there but mosquitoes. I returned to my room and stood by my dressing table for a minute. Suddenly a broad shaft of brilliant light struck my room and the voice of the Master Who had come to me when I was fifteen spoke to me. I did not see Him this time but I stood in the middle of the room and listened to what He had to say. He told me not to be unduly troubled; that I had been under observation and was doing what He wanted me to do. He told me that things were planned and that the life work which He had earlier outlined to me would start, but in a way which I would not recognize. He offered me no solution for any of my problems and He did not tell me what to do. The Masters never do. They never tell a disciple what to do or where to go, or how to handle a situation, in spite of all the bunk talked by nice, well meaning devotees. The Master is a busy executive and His job is world direction. He never runs around talking sweet platitudes to perfectly mediocre people whose influence is nil and whose power to serve is undeveloped.
(…)
We learn to be Masters by mastering our own problems, by putting right our own mistakes, by lifting some of humanity’s burdens and forgetting ourselves. The Master did not comfort me that night, He offered me no compliments or nice platitudes. He said, in effect, the work must go on. Don’t forget. Be prepared to work. Don’t be deceived by circumstances. ” (The Unfinished Autobiography of Alice Bailey,pp. 88-89)

“All good things come to those who live harmlessly, who are kind and considerate as well. But harmlessness is the key and I leave you to find out for yourselves how difficult it is to be harmless in word and deed and thought.” (The Unfinished Autobiography of Alice Bailey,p. 152)

“I have always held the theory that the deepest and most esoteric truths could be shouted from the housetops to the general public and unless there was an inner mechanism of spiritual recognition no harm could possibly be done. Therefore pledges to secrecy became meaningless. There are no secrets. There is only the presentation of truth and its understanding.” (The Unfinished Autobiography of Alice Bailey,p. 121)

“The world has to be salvaged by those with both intelligence and love; aspiration and good intention are not enough.” (The Unfinished Autobiography of Alice Bailey,p. 229)

“If a person is highly developed they will begin to rule their stars. They will do the unpredictable and their horoscopes will prove inaccurate and have no meaning at all. If a person is undeveloped then the probability is that their stars completely condition them and their horoscopes will therefore be entirely accurate from the predictional angle. When this is so and the person accepts the dictum of their horoscope their free will is completely stultified, they work entirely within the limits of their horoscope and the result of this is that they fail to make any personal effort to free themselves from the possible determining factors.” (The Unfinished Autobiography of Alice Bailey,p. 231)

“Let me repeat what I have oft said before. The Hierarchy and all its members, including myself, love humanity but they will not endorse evil, aggression, cruelty and the imprisoning of the human soul. They stand for liberty, for opportunity for all to move forward along the way of light, for human welfare without discrimination, for kindness and the right of every man to think for himself, to speak and to work. Necessarily they cannot, therefore, endorse the nations or the people in any nation who are against human freedom and happiness. (…) the entire force of the Hierarchy is thrown on the side of the nations struggling to free humanity, and on the side of those in any nation who thus work.” (The Unfinished Autobiography of Alice Bailey,p. 252, Appendix: My Work, by The Tibetan)

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Don’t give up – Theosophy Quotes

Don’t give up – Theosophy Quotes

My spiritual quotes Katinka — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 17:38:54 +0000

[B]e not discouraged, but try, ever keep trying; twenty failures are not irremediable if followed by as many undaunted struggles upward; is it not so that mountains are climbed? (Blavatsky Collected Writings, Vol. 12, Esoteric Instructions)

With each morning’s awakening try to live through the day in harmony with the Higher Self. “Try” is the battle-cry taught by the Teachers to each pupil. Naught else is expected of you. One who does his best does all that can be asked. There is a moment when even a Buddha ceases to be a sinning mortal and takes his first step toward Buddhahood. (Blavatsky Collected Writings, Vol. 12, Esoteric Instructions)

It is our duty to help all, and we must begin on those nearest to us, for to run abroad to souls we might possibly help we again forsake our present duty. It is better to die in our own duty, however mean, than to try another one. ( W.Q. Judge, Letters That Have Helped Me, p.10)

If you are not well‑balanced and physically purified, you will often get thoughts that are not correct. Such is your Karma and the Karma of the race. But if you are sincere and try to base yourself on right philosophy, your mind will naturally reject wrong notions. You can see in this how it is that systems of thought are made and kept going, even though foolish, incorrect, or pernicious. (“Conversations on Occultism.” (*) Vernal Blooms (No. XII: Phantasy; Memory and Mind; The Sun; Altruism), p.197; The Path, Vol. 9, December 1894, p.282.)

Success in life depends on one’s ability to adapt to change in situations and to make the most of new opportunities arising. (Source unknown)

More quotes on giving up and perseverance.

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Alice A. Bailey Quotes from her Autobiography