Quotes from Jed McKenna

We think miracles happen and prayers are answered only when it's something good; when it's in line with our hopes and desires which, in Human Children, are always fear-based. We don't acknowledge the same forces equally at work when the results are not in line with our hopes and desires. We're very selective in our perceptions. Good luck, bad luck, it's all the same; the ebb and flow of tides, it just gets interpreted differently.

Ultimately, everything you think you know is really just something you believe.

I have one overarching preference, and that is whatever the universe prefers. I don't have to like it or understand it, though I usually do.

Why is everyone seeking and no one finding? Because they're not seeking truth or growth or change, they're seeking peace of mind. The rest is just dressing.

What is it, what nameless, inscrutable, unearthly thing is it; what cozening, hidden lord and master, and cruel, remorseless emperor commands me; that against all natural lovings and longings, I so keep pushing, and crowding, and jamming myself on all the time; recklessly making me ready to do what in my own proper, natural heart, I durst not so much as dare?

Spiritual Autolysis—trying to write something true and keeping at it until you do—is the best possible way of identifying and eradicating our falseness because the process of writing minimizes the weaknesses and maximizes the strengths of the intellect. Nothing false can survive illumination by a steady and focused mind.

You can have your cake and eat it too! This is the bestselling formula that had Govinda marching in place for fifteen years; the promise that one can soar majestically as an eagle without actually leaving the nest. Virtual reality, I guess. Virtual spirituality. Virtual life.

We don't want truth, we want a particular truth; one that doesn't threaten ego; one that doesn't exist. We insist on a truth that makes sense given what we know, not knowing that we know nothing.

There is no disorder. Nothing is random or chaotic, only fully perceived or not.

The last thing of a spiritual nature I recall reading was a magazine interview with an old Indian guy who said that if I recited a certain mantra for six months I'd get rich, if I stood on hot rocks for six months I'd conquer my sexual desires, and if I lived on air alone for six months I'd get enlightened. I wondered if all three could be done simultaneously so I could be a rich enlightened eunuch in time for the holidays, but the article didn't address that.

I mean, if you view dualistic reality as a dream, which I do, no discrimination is really called for. Where do you draw the line in a dream? It's all good.

She doesn't get to be a healer because the gods bestow powers upon her, but through the prolonged, rigorous, all-consuming struggle of her own self-healing.

A poem by Ryokan comes to mind: Too lazy to be ambitious, I let the world take care of itself. Ten days worth of rice in my bag; a bundle of twigs by the fireplace. Why chatter about delusion and enlightenment? Listening to the night rain on my roof, I sit comfortably, with both legs stretched out. One of my favorites.

You go forward when you can't stay where you are. That's the process.

An objective observer might look at the vast majority of spiritual seekers today and classify them as spiritually self-lobotomized. They set out to find life and discover truth, and wind up sitting in a dark room repeating a meaningless syllable, eyes closed, brain silenced, convinced that they're actually making a great journey.

For this whole dualistic universe thing to work, it's important that everyone doesn't just go wandering off; that they stay on stage and play their role. Fear is the glue that holds the whole thing together and keeps everyone in character.

Scoop a jar of water out of the ocean and put a lid on it," I tell them. "Study it in its segregated state. Where is the ocean in that jar? Where are the tides and the currents? Pour it back into the ocean and it returns to its integrated state. The temporary entity no longer exists.

Surrender is victory.

Truth hath no confines.

The belief that something is wrong is the fire under the ass of humanity

The fear of no-self is the mother of all fears, the one upon which all others are based. No fear is so small or petty that the fear of no-self isn't at its heart. All fear is ultimately fear of no-self.

It is high time that we realized that it is pointless to praise the light and preach it if nobody can see it. It is much more needful to preach the art of seeing. Carl Jung

The subtext of every question is, Am I making progress by asking questions and trying to understand the answers? And the subtext of every answer is, Yes, you are going somewhere while sitting here talking or reading. This is progress. Be at peace. You are progressing and well-progressed. That's the obvious lie we want to hear and those who tell it most convincingly are the most respected and revered and sought after.

Suffering just means you're having a bad dream. Happiness means you're having a good dream. Enlightenment means getting out of the dream altogether.