"The mind that opens to a new idea never returns to its original size." ~ Albert Einstein

“Nothing that resists life can hope to learn from it.” ~ Guy Finley

Shift from ego to soul...

“Your soul witnesses your feelings, your desires, your fearlessness.  Stay in the witness, not identifying with the desires or attitudes or those things.  You can sit by and watch the show.  Watch the show of your incarnation and just sit back from your ego and your other thoughts." ~ Ram Dass

Laughter is an instant vacation. ~ Milton Berle

“Ego is a structure that is erected by a neurotic individual who is a member of a neurotic culture against the facts of the matter. And culture, which we put on like an overcoat, is the collectivized consensus about what sort of neurotic behaviors are acceptable...

...Culture is not your friend, it’s an impediment to understanding what’s going on. That’s why the words cult and culture have a direct relationship to each other. Culture is an extremely repressive cult that leads to all kinds of humiliation and degradation, and automatic, unquestioned and unthinking behaviour.” ~ Terence McKenna

"The integrity of living in truth is a gift beyond measure."

Hello Summer!

Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air, and you ~ Langston Hughes

Vulnerability

 “They fully embraced vulnerability. They believed that what made them vulnerable made them beautiful. They didn’t talk about vulnerability being comfortable, nor did they really talk about it being excruciating.  They just talked about it being necessary.”

Excerpt from Brené Brown's Ted Talk,  The Power of Vulnerability
(via A Bloomsbury Life blog)

"Beauty isn't a question of being the right age, of having the right look -- it comes down to attitude, individuality and character." - Alber Elbaz

Change

"The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance." ~ Alan Watts

“The way to become one with the universe, is to trust it.”

"Don't Seek Happiness. If you seek it, you won't find it, because seeking is the antithesis of happiness." 
~ Eckhart Tolle

God is...

...a sunrise over the Rockies, a baby's smile.

Sometimes one creates a dynamic impression by saying something, and sometimes one creates as significant an impression by remaining silent. ~ Dalai Lama

"But I'll tell you what hermits realize.  If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you'll come to understand that you're connected with everything." ~ Alan Watts

"I love what loves me back."

...what you put out is what you get back.

"Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present."

“Nothing comes unannounced, but many can miss the announcement. So it's very important to actually listen to your own intuition rather than driving through it.”  ~ Terence McKenna

“It is undeniable how connected we all are – to God, to self, and to each other. Once this is seen, we move from love – and that is how we will transform the world – one heart at a time." ~ Prajna Ana

Human beings are made of body, mind and spirit. Of these, spirit is primary, for it connects us to the source of everything, the eternal field of consciousness. ~ Deepak Chopra, M.D.

Becoming comfortable not knowing...

...requires us to fully understand, accept and let go of our desire to be right, and open up to everything and anything that is coming our way. 


Excerpt from Letting Go of Taking Things Personally

“If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.”- Pema Chodron

We Are Not Our Minds

"...we are not our minds…we are that which can see the movement of mind; that which is aware.

And this awareness that we are has no beginning, no end and no boundaries." 

- Craig Holliday, mindfulness psychotherapist, Durango, CO

"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." - T. S. Eliot

Doing Nothing Is Something

"When we lose ourselves in activities, we diminish our quality of being...if you can be happy, relaxed, and smiling when you're not doing something, you're quite strong.  Doing nothing brings about a quality of Being which is very important...there's a link between doing and being.  If you don't succeed in being, you can't succeed in doing. - Thich Nhat Hanh

“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” ~ Stephen R. Covey

"Patience, my all-time favorite spiritual quality...

Patience is the capacity to welcome difficulty when it comes, with a spirit of strength, endurance, forbearance, and dignity rather than fear, anxiety, and avoidance. None of us likes to be oppressed or defeated, yet if we can endure oppression and defeat with strength, without whining, we are ennobled by it. Patience makes this possible. 

In our culture, we think of patience as passive and unglamorous; other qualities like love or compassion or insight are much more popular. But when tough times cause our love to fray into annoyance, our compassion to be overwhelmed by our fear, and our insight to evaporate, then patience begins to make sense -- to me, it is the most substantial, most serviceable, and most reliable of all spiritual qualities. Without it, all other qualities are shaky." 

~ Zen teacher, Norman Fischer