To be free comes not from changing or fixing this world, but from seeing this world as it is and opening the heart in the midst of it.
Till the false is seen as false, truth is not.
To go far you must begin near, and the nearest step is the most important one.
If I do not understand myself, the whole complexity of myself, I have no basis for thinking.
Look at that battle you are involved in; you are caught in it: you are it.
A man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.
Some go to sleep in an organization and never wake up, and those who do wake up put them selves to sleep again by joining another. This acquisitive movement is called expansion of thought, progress.
Transformation can only take place immediately; the revolution is now, not tomorrow.
A man who is really earnest must begin with himself, he must be passively aware of all his thoughts, feelings and actions.
The reality of truth is not to be bought, to be sold, to be repeated; it cannot be caught in books. It has to be found from moment to moment, in the smile, in the tear, under the dead leaf, in the vagrant thought, in the fullness of love.
It seems to me that the real problem is the mind itself, and not the problem which the mind has created and tries to solve.
My only concern is to set men absolutely, unconditionally free.
Compassion being action without motive, without self-interest, without any sense of fear, without any sense of pleasure.
Tradition implies authority, conformity, imitation, following.
To learn about oneself, a living thing, you have to watch, learn anew each minute.
It is more important to find out what you are giving to society than to ask what is the right means of livelihood.
Joy is something entirely different from pleasure.
When we suffer we have made it into a personal affair. We shut out all the suffering of mankind.
We demand to be coaxed and comforted, to be encouraged and gratified, so we choose a teacher who will give us what we crave for. We do not search out reality, but go after gratification and sensation.
If the mind could cease measuring itself against the hero, the perfect, the glorious and all that, it would be what it is.