Arunachala Ramana's last words

“Take no position.

Be happy.”

Alan Watts' words of wisdom

“You don't need to try to be God, you are! But if you try to be God it means you don't know you are, and therefore you try to know and dominate the future, and you believe prophets and things like that. Well, prophecy is simply contaminating the future with the past, projecting what we know upon the unknown. And that's why, really, things like Astrology, although interesting, are rather ridiculous. Because if you know the future there's no surprise for you. A completely known future is past, you've had it. ”

- Alan Watts

Alan Watts : Beat Zen

“[...]the Westerner who is attracted by Zen and who would understand it deeply must have one indispensable qualification: he must understand his own culture so thoroughly that he is no longer swayed by its premises unconsciously. He must really have come to terms with the Lord God Jehovah and with his Hebrew-Christian conscience so that he can take it or leave it without fear or rebellion. He must be free of the itch to justify himself. Lacking this, his Zen will be either "beat" or "square," either a revolt from the culture and social order or a new form of stuffiness and respectability. For Zen is above all the Liberation of the mind from conventional thought, and this is something utterly different from rebellion against convention, on the one hand, or adopting foreign conventions, on the other.”

“The point is simply that people who feel a profound need to justify themselves have difficulty in understanding the viewpoints of those who do not, and the Chinese who created Zen were the same kind of people as Lao-Tzu, who, centuries before, said, "Those who justify themselves do not convince." For the urge to make or prove oneself right has always jiggled the Chinese sense of the ludicrous, since as both Confucians and Taoists-however different these philosophies in other ways-they have invariably appreciated the man who can "come off it." ”

Article

Zen: Words #1

“For Buddhism, the dualism between life and death is only one instance of a more general problem, dualistic thinking. Why is dualistic thinking a problem? We differentiate between good and evil, success and failure, life and death, and so forth because we want to keep the one and reject the other. But we cannot have one without the other because they are interdependent: affirming one half also maintains the other. Living a "pure" life thus requires a preoccupation with impurity, and our hope for success will be proportional to our fear of failure. We discriminate between life and death in order to affirm one and deny the other, and, as we have seen, our tragedy lies in the paradox that these two opposites are so interdependent: there is no life without death and--what we are more likely to overlook--there is no death without life. This means our problem is not death but life-and-death.”

Dōgen, Soto Zen Founder (1200 - 1253 AD)

I realize #38

Enlightenment = En+Light = With Light = Being light as a feather

Cling on and you lose it.. Let go and you have it!

Alan Watts on Self

“Faith is a state of openness or trust. To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float. And the attitude of faith is the very opposite of clinging to belief, of holding on. In other words, a person who is fanatic in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe, becomes a person who has no faith at all. Instead they are holding tight. But the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be.”

“Underneath the superficial self, which pays attention to this and that, there is another self more really us than I. And the more you become aware of the unknown self -- if you become aware of it -- the more you realize that it is inseparably connected with everything else that is. You are a function of this total galaxy, bounded by the Milky Way, and this galaxy is a function of all other galaxies. You are that vast thing that you see far, far off with great telescopes. You look and look, and one day you are going to wake up and say, "Why, that's me!" And in knowing that, you know that you never die. You are the eternal thing that comes and goes that appears -- now as John Jones, now as Mary Smith, now as Betty Brown -- and so it goes, forever and ever and ever.”

Shunryu Suzuki: Study Yourself

From Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

Seek the seeker

“You are the Self, nothing but the Self. Anything else is just imagination. So be the Self, here and now. There is no need to run off to a forest or shut oneself in a room. Carry on with your essential activities but free yourself from the association with the 'doer' of them. Self is the witness; You Are That.”

- Sri Ramana Maharshi

Tea > Water

Drinking three or more cups of tea a day is as good for you as drinking plenty of water and may even have extra health benefits, say researchers.

“Tea replaces fluids and contains antioxidants so its got two things going for it.”

Article

Wei Wu Wei's words of wisdom

As long as we are identified with an object: that is bondage. As long as we think, act, live via an object, or as an object: that is bondage. As long as we feel ourselves to be an object, or think we are such (and a “self ”is an object): that is bondage.

- Wei Wu Wei

Note by Matt Errey : This true nature Wei Wu Wei characterizes as the underlying Subject, or “pure being,” of which all apparent objects—our “selves” included—are simply a manifestation in the relative reality of space and time as perceived through the senses. In and of themselves, these apparent objects have no actual existence except as Subject Itself thus perceived.

I realize #37

Whenever you try to convince others what you are really doing is trying to convince yourself. The more you get offended, raise your voice, assume an indignant stance and fume out of your ears, the more you can be sure that you are afraid of seeing that your cover's blown, that you are in fact lying to yourself, that you are afraid of the notion that there is no one truth, and you become desperate to convince and reassure yourself about that, because what you observe as 'yourself' depends upon it for its existence.

U.G.'s words of wisdom

On turning our intellect -'self'- against itself :

“It's thought that is creating all our problems and it is not the instrument to help us solve the problems created by itself.”

“Thought creates frontiers everywhere. That's all it can do. ...it is thought that has created the world; and you draw lines on this planet, "This is my country, that is your country". So how can there be unity between two countries? The very thing that is creating the frontiers and differences cannot be the means to bridge the different viewpoints. It is an exercise in futility.”

“This instrument thought which we have been using to understand has not helped us to understand anything except that every time we are using it we are sharpening it. Someone asked me, 'What is Philosophy? How does it help me in my day-to-day existence?' It doesn't help you in any way except that it sharpens the intellect. It doesn't in any way help you to understand life. If that thought is not the instrument and if there is no other instrument then is there anything to understand?”

“Unfortunately, the servant, which is the thought structure that is there, has taken possession of the house. But he can no longer control and run the household. So he must be dislodged. It is in this sense that I use the term 'natural state', without any connotation of spirituality or enlightenment.”

“The only way for anyone who is interested in finding out what this is all about is to watch how this separation is occurring, how you are separating yourself from the things that are happening around you and inside you. Actually there is no difference between the outside and the inside. It is thought that creates the frontiers and tells us that this is the inside and something else is the outside. If you tell yourself that you are happy, miserable, or bored, you have already separated yourself from that particular sensation that is there inside you. The only way it can maintain its continuity is through the constant demand to know. If you don't know what you are looking at, the 'you' as you know yourself, the 'you' as you experience yourself, is going to come to an end. That is death. That is the only death and there is no other death.”

“Thought can never capture the movement of life, it is much too slow. It is like lightning and thunder. They occur simultaneously, but sound, traveling slower than light, reaches you later, creating the illusion of two separate events.”

“Knowledge creates experience and experience strengthens the knowledge. This is a vicious circle.”

“Anything you experience based on knowledge is an illusion.”

“There is no meaning in and no purpose to suffering.”

On spirituality :

“Spirituality is the invention of the mind, and the mind is a myth.”

“The so called self-realization is the discovery for yourself and by yourself that there is no self to discover. That will be a very shocking thing because it's going to blast every nerve, every cell, even the cells in the marrow of your bones.”

“The mystique of enlightenment is based upon the idea of transforming yourself. I maintain that there is nothing to change or transform.”

“Consciousness is so pure that whatever you are doing in the direction of purifying that consciousness is adding impurity to it.”

“Unless you are free from the desire of all desires, Moksha, liberation, or self-realisation, you will be miserable.”

“A guru is one who tells you to throw away all the crutches that we have been made to believe are essential for our survival. He would ask you to walk, and he would say that if you fall, you will arise and walk.”

“All I am saying is that the peace you are seeking is already inside you, in the harmonious functioning of the body.”

On the Natural State :

“You actually have no way of looking at the sunset because you are not separated from the sunset. The moment you separate your self from the sunset, the poet in you comes out. Out of that separation poets and painters have tried to express themselves, to share their experiences with others. All that is culture.”

“To be an individual and to be yourself you don't have to do a thing. Culture demands that you should be something other than what you are. What a tremendous amount of energy — the will, the effort — we waste trying to become that! If that energy is released, what is it that we can't do? How simple it would be for every one of us to live in this world!”

“All that is necessary for the survival of this living organism is already there. The tremendous intelligence of the body is no match for all that we have gathered and acquired through our intellect.”

“As a human body it is an extraordinary piece of creation. But as a human being he is rotten because of the culture.”

“This body doesn't want to learn anything. Left to itself it has tremendous intelligence.”

“When once it throws out everything that has been put in there by your filthy culture, this body will function in an extraordinarily intelligent way. It can take care of everything.”

“The native intelligence of the human body is amazing. That is all it needs to survive in any dangerous situation in life.”

“The native intelligence is what you are born with; the intellect is acquired from what they teach you.”

“(Q:) Are you afraid of death? (A:)There is nothing to die here. The body cannot be afraid of death.”

On himself :

“I am not anti-rational, just un-rational. You may infer a rational meaning in what I say or do, but it is your doing, not mine.”

“My mission, if there is any, should be, from now on, to debunk every statement I have made. If you take seriously and try to use or apply what I have said, you will be in danger.”

“My interest is not to knock off what others have said [that is too easy], but to knock off what I am saying. More precisely, I am trying to stop what you are making out of what I am saying.”

“The fact is that we don't want to be free. What is responsible for our problems is the fear of losing what we have and what we know. All these therapies, all these techniques, religious or otherwise, are only perpetuating the agony of man.”

- U.G. Krishnamurti

I realize #36

There is no point in creating or acquiring anything -both material and immaterial- if it is not shared with others. It is not yours; you cannot claim ownership of it any more than you can claim ownership of water, or the sky. Its function, the reason it comes into being and into your reality is precisely so that you, along with others, can make use of it, enjoy it for what it is and gain more happiness, more fulfillment, perhaps more liberation even from it.

All that one possesses comes to naught if it is not used to enrich others besides ones' self. And there is always plenty to go around for everyone. Otherwise it lives and dies ingloriously with its “owner”, destined to find expression and fulfill its purpose elsewhere.

I realize #35

Yearning for a solution is what creates the problem.

I realize #34

It does not matter where or how one begins. It is sufficient that one begin, and begin immediately.

Don't improve;remove

If you try to “improve” you will reach a dead end. It cannot be done, because you are attempting to improve upon a falsehood, an ego that only wishes to remain and perpetuate its current form.

Goethe's words of wisdom

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”

“A really great talent finds its happiness in execution.”

“All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs ever green.”

“As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.”

“The deed is everything, the glory is naught.”

“Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.”

“The formation of one's character ought to be everyone's chief aim.”

“The right man is the one who seizes the moment.”

“Fresh activity is the only means of overcoming adversity.”

“The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.”

“To create something you must be something.”

“The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.”

“What is my life if I am no longer useful to others.”

“Who is the wisest man? He who neither knows or wishes for anything else than what happens.”

“Who is the most sensible person? The one who finds what is to their own advantage in all that happens to them.”

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I realize #33

You cannot use rational thinking to resolve irrational behavior.

That is another one of the cunning strategies by which the irrational -the resistance within- attempts to protect its existence and misguide you by convincing you that you chose it consciously at some point and that therefore it must have some rational basis, some basis in 'reality' and therefore belongs with you, it is a part of you, maybe it even IS you...
It makes you believe that by using your rational faculties you can get rid of this proverbial splinter in your mind and essence that stands in your way. Do not believe it, do not get sucked into its alluring rhetoric. You will only be running in circles.
You can not reason with the irrational. See it for what it is and reduce it to nothingness. It is a lie, a misconception, one that you did not chose anyway. It stands in the way of your freedom.

The objective of awareness is freedom of experience.

Freedom is not found in learning ways to win the fight against resistance but rather it is being without resistance. The process of enlightenment is getting rid of resistance in perception, action, thought & experience. Why learn to manage that which you do not need in the first place?

Resistance can acquire many forms and be perceived and understood in many ways; fear, anxiety, doubt, suffering, self-limitation, negativity, temptation, criticism, depression, anguish, despair, attachment, egoism, not being present... All those and many more are the result of but one thing, a perception of reality based on resistance and a meaning created through the filter of resistance.

Realize that meaning is not truth, and that there is no one truth, but only the truth you create and choose to be your truth, and you will be on your way to freedom.

Buddha said simply, " I teach suffering and the end of suffering."

Asked whether he was a god, a man or something else, he replied,

"I am awake."

I realize #32

Restriction kills inspiration,

and inspiration -the ability to go beyond yourself in your work- is what enables one's unique creative expression to manifest itself, and that is where the true value of the artist lies. It is his/her only true power; the ability to access inspiration, that invisible but potent force that guides and directs and touches and leaves its mark on both the artist and the work and enables tremendous personal and actual accomplishment.

What we call talent seems to me to be nothing more than the intuitive observation that someone (perhaps ourselves) possesses the ability to 'plug into' inspiration and deliver creative work that transcends the commonplace, the bland, the indifferent and in some way forms a connection with the people coming in contact with it. Without allowing inspiration to work itself through him or her the artist must settle with imitation, a mere performer of premeditated gestures and applier of intellectual concepts, a slave to all the tools he has acquired ostensibly for the purpose of enabling his own creativity to manifest itself. A pitiful and endlessly frustrating predicament.

The artist's job is to obtain self-mastery at least where inspiration is concerned, otherwise he can never flourish. He or she must realize the causes of them restricting the flow of their inspiration and instead learn to ride on that wave that leads them closer to themselves, closer to their artistic vision, their artistic truth.

Without inspiration there is only imitation. It may be such a successful imitation that it'll fool some, but it has no vitality, it is lacking in true meaning and purpose for existence and such it is but an orphan in time, it is ephemeral and lacks the substance to impact anything long-term. The only way for the artist to guard against this is to give himself entirely to the creative force, open the gates of his mind to inspiration without judgment, without expectation, without attachment to the outcome and allow it full reign in his work. Then, in the eyes of others who do not know how or will not surrender to this force that all readily recognize behind every great work of art, the artist becomes Godlike.