The Sufis advise us to speak only after our words have managed to pass through three gates. At the first gate, we ask ourselves, ‘Are these words true?’ If so, we let them pass on; if not, back they go. At the second gate, we ask, ‘Are the necessary?’ At the last gate, we ask, ‘Are they kind?’
The Lord is a good psychologist: he knows the way our minds run. Turmoil can be the Lord’s way of tapping us on the shoulder and saying, ‘Don’t forget me.’
Patience can’t be acquired overnight. It is just like building up a muscle. Every day you need to work on it.
Imagine a hot tub for the mind. That is what meditation is; it can bathe your mind in relaxing thoughts.
When we truly are putting others first, we cannot but feel at peace with ourselves.
Human relationships are the perfect tool for sanding away our rough edges and getting at the core of divinity within us.
I have never been able to understand the compelling phrase, ‘keeping up with the Joneses.’ It does not matter very much whether I keep up with Tom Jones or anybody else; what is important is to keep up with myself by making my today a little better than my yesterday.
We have no need to teach pure motives to the mind. All that is necessary to make the mind pure is to undo the negative conditioning to which it has been subjected; then we will be left with Pure, Unconditioned Awareness.
Like Gandhi, like the Buddha, like all great spiritual teachers, Easwaran had no use for beliefs unless they generated actions. Doing, not saying, is what counts.
This is the central principle of meditation: we become what we meditate on.
As we get deeper, we move closer and closer to other people; we feel closer to life as a whole.
As meditation deepens, compulsions, cravings and fits of emotion begin to lose their power to dictate our behavior. We see clearly that choices are possible; we can say yes or we can say no. It is profoundly liberating.
We can all learn to conquer hatred through love -drawing on the power released through the practice of meditation to throw all our weight, all our energy, and all our will on the side of what is patient, forgiving, and selfless in ourselves and others.
Activity is not achievement. It is not enough to rush about beginning a lot of things and keeping busy. A well-spent life is one that rounds out what it has begun.
To be secure everywhere is the mark of sophistication, to be unshakable is the mark of courage, to be permanently in love with every person is the mark of masculinity or femininity, to forgive is the mark of strength, to govern our senses and passions is the mark of freedom.
At the beginning of every winter people are careful to install storm windows. These extra panes of glass protect their houses against the bitter winds. We do something very similar to protect our minds through the practice of meditation.
Whenever you are angry or afraid, nervous or worried or resentful, repeat the mantram until the agitation subsides. The mantram works to steady the mind, and all these emotions are power running against you, which the mantram can harness and put to work for you.
The capacity to be patient, to bear with others through thick and thin, is within the reach of anyone.
International war is the sum total of millions of individual wars, raging in the minds of the people, between what is selfish and what is selfless. To the extent that you and I develop selflessness in our own hearts, to that extent we contribute to peace in our family, community, country, and world.
We have to have a purpose greater than the endless struggle to satisfy personal desires.