Quotes from Eknath Easwaran

We never really encounter the world; all we experience is our own nervous system.

Training the mind to be patient and calm under all circumstances, then, often begins with learning to wear our likes and dislikes loosely, casually, like a favorite old sweater.

When we look at the lives of the great mystics, however, we find ready proof that turning inward does not mean turning away from life.

One man cannot do right in one department of life whilst he is occupied in doing wrong in any other department. Life is one indivisible whole.

Whatever they desire, the object of that desire arises from the power of their own thoughts; they have it and are happy.

The Self is hidden in the lotus of the heart. Those who see themselves in all creatures go day by day into the world of Brahman hidden in the heart.

When we are at home with ourselves, we are at home everywhere in the world. When we have found peace within ourselves, peace and love follow us wherever we go.

Instead of looking at difficulties as deprivations, we can learn to recognize them as opportunities for deepening and widening our love.

Those who indulge themselves in sense stimulation throughout their lives often end up exhausted, with an enfeebled will and little capacity to love others.

God made the senses turn outwards, man therefore looks outwards, not into himself. But occasionally a daring soul, desiring immortality, has looked back and found himself.

Patience can't be acquired overnight. It is just like building up a muscle. Every day you need to work on it.

Every angry thought makes it a little easier to get angry the next time, and a little more likely.

A calm mind releases the most precious capacity a human being can have: the capacity to turn anger into compassion, fear into fearlessness, and hatred into love.