Quotes on Spiritual Wisdom

When sitting in meditation, say, "That's not my business!" with every thought that comes by.

When you refrain from habitual thoughts and behavior, the uncomfortable feelings will still be there. They don’t magically disappear. Over the years, I’ve come to call resting with the discomfort “the detox period,” because when you don’t act on your habitual patterns, it’s like giving up an addiction. You’re left with the feelings you were trying to escape. The practice is to make a wholehearted relationship with that

There needs to be understanding that anger never helps to solve a problem. It destroys our peace of mind and blinds our ability to think clearly. Anger and attachment are emotions that distort our view of reality.

Each one of us is responsible for the whole of humankind. We need to think of each other really as brothers and sisters and to be concerned for each other’s welfare. Rather than working solely to acquire wealth, we need to do something meaningful, something directed seriously towards the welfare of humanity as a whole.

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

Try to be "good", you'll be judged. Try to be yourself, you'll be criticized. Therefore, choose the second option. Evil uses the "nice good people" as puppets. It appears dressed as a poor guy, telling them that he needs help...When these people realize they have been used, it is already too late.

The winds that sometimes take something we love, are the same that bring us something we learn to love. Therefore we should not cry about something that was taken from us, but, yes, love what we have been given. Because what is really ours is never gone forever.

You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.

Faith is not the belief that God will do what you want. It is the belief that God will do what is right.

How could I bear a crown of gold when the Lord bears a crown of thorns? And bears it for me!

We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.

We impoverish God in our minds when we say there must be answers to our prayers on the material plane; the biggest answers to our prayers are in the realm of the unseen.

There is a common perception that compassion is, if not actually an impediment, at least irrelevant to professional life. Personally, I would argue that not only is it relevant, but that when compassion is lacking, our activities are in danger of becoming destructive. This is because when we ignore the question of the impact our actions have on others' well-being, inevitably we end up hurting them.

To become learned, each day add something. To become enlightened, each day drop something

Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.

It is always the false that makes you suffer, the false desires and fears, the false values and ideas, the false relationships between people. Abandon the false and you are free of pain; truth makes happy, truth liberates.

Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.

Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.

The goal of spiritual practice is full recovery, and the only thing you need to recover from is a fractured sense of self.