Do not be impatient with your seemingly slow progress. Do not try to run faster than you presently can. If you are studying, reflecting and trying, you are making progress whether you are aware of it or not. A traveler walking the road in the darkness of night is still going forward. Someday, some way, everything will break open, like the natural unfolding of a rosebud.
You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need.
Always walk through life as if you have something new to learn, and you will.
Our freedom can be measured by the number of things we can walk away from.
We never get upset over what happens. Never. We get upset because of preconceived ideas as to what we think should happen, what we want to happen. When our preference clashes with the reality, we get hurt. Rid yourself of all preconceived ideas as to what should happen. You are then at peace whatever happens.
You cannot stop destructive actions by others, but you can stop your own destructive reactions to them
Awareness of your weakness and confusion makes you strong because conscious awareness is the bright light that destroys the darkness of negativity. Detection of inner negativity is not a negative act, but a courageously positive act that makes you a new person.
Whenever encountering a troublesome person, do not identify him as being cruel or stupid or rude or anything else like that. Instead, see him as a frightened person.
No one on earth can hurt you, unless you accept the hurt in your own mind. . . The problem is not other people; it is your reaction.
Is the beam from a lighthouse affected by howling wind and rain? It remains perfectly steadfast and unaffected by the storm. Your true self is like that. Nothing can ever harm you once you are consciously aware that it is so.
A truly strong person does not need the approval of others any more than a lion needs the approval of sheep.
The answers come when you are quietly willing to be without them.
Be teachable. That is the whole secret.
Our life-transformation is in exact proportion to the amount of truth we can take without running away.
Run forward when possible, walk ahead when you can, stagger onward when you must, but never cease your forward movement.
Have the daring to stop doing the things you really don’t want to do. Can you see them? Look closely. Can you observe the many things you do because you reluctantly feel you should or must? Watch closely. Examine every action and reaction. Do you act naturally or do you act because you feel compelled? If you feel compelled, stop. Compulsion is slavery. Example: Refuse to go along with the crowd.
Resistance to the disturbance is the disturbance.
Anger or bitterness toward those who have hurt you will block your path to higher ground. You can have anger toward people or you can have freedom from people, but you can’t have both.
Many of us knock on the door but remain outside, because knocking and entering are entirely different actions. Knocking is necessary, consisting of reading books, attending meetings, asking questions. But entrance requires much bolder action. It requires one to enter into himself, to uncover hidden motives, to see contradictions, and to realize his actual power for self-change.
Happiness is not the acquisition of anything; it’s the understanding of something.
We can accept God becoming Man to save Man, but not Man becoming God to save himself.
The reason why most people are frustrated is because a lie cannot be turned into a truth.
It is a mistake for anyone to think he has lived too long in his old, unsatisfactory ways to make the great change. If you switch on the light in a dark room, it makes no difference how long it was dark because the light will still shine. Be teachable. That is the whole secret.
Don’t try to be spiritual. That is only a word in the dictionary. Make it your goal to become a normally functioning individual. Let these principles shape you according to your real nature of a simple, decent, honest, unafraid human being.
The need to impress others causes half the world’s woes.
