Quotes About Awareness

Meditation raises the question: Who are we really?

Whose presence reveals how subtle is the path of Love.

If you wear shoeleather, the whole earth is covered with leather.

In The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment, Thaddeus Golas says, "You never have to change what you see, only the way you see it.

My Guru, Maharaj-ji, once told me, "Enjoy everything!" These days I try to simply love everything that comes my way, whether animate or inanimate, pleasant or painful. I hope you too can learn to absorb life's ecstasies and distresses into your spiritual practice so they are just more grist for the mill.

Part of the process of awakening is recognizing that the realities we thought were absolute are only relative. All you have to do is shift from one reality to another once, and your attachment to what you thought was real starts to collapse. Once the seed of awakening sprouts in you, there's no choice—there's no turning back.

The art of spiritual growth has to do with how quickly you recognize attachments and how quickly you can release them.

You can stay in touch with your soul by dwelling in the moment.

Whatever you need to do to get ready to die, you should have done it a minute ago. Do it now and get ready. Every moment is the moment you die. Every breath is the first and last. A conscious being holds on nowhere.

Satsang is a community of truth seekers. It is a group of people with the shared awareness that there is a spiritual dimension to the universe. Goethe had this beautiful thought: "The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers and cities; but to know someone here and there who thinks and feels with us, and who, though distant is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.

Drugs had changed me from a selfish, striving academic in search of recognition and power to someone who was aware of the soul. Psychedelics had introduced me to compassion, to recognizing and feeling love for others. Harvard seemed trivial by comparison.

Instead of seeing my life as a personal history or career, I see myself as a pilgrim on a spiritual journey. I am no longer an isolated ego narrating my own storyline; I am a soul, evolving toward oneness. I am a pinprick of awareness in the star field of the cosmos. I am part of it all.

Who I am is awareness and deep love, a presence beyond experience within a temporal, changing form. Who I am is a soul, a soul without a name, address, social security number, or biography, who isn't born and doesn't die. I am.

At night he didn't seem to sleep like I did. That is, any time I'd wake up at night, I'd look over and he would be sitting in the lotus position. And sometimes I'd make believe I was asleep and then open sort of a half-eye to see if he wasn't cheating—maybe he was sleeping Now—but he was always in the lotus posture.

Whoever clings to mind sees not The truth of what's Beyond the mind. Whoever strives to practice Dharma Finds not the truth of Beyond-practice. To know what is Beyond both mind and practice, One should cut cleanly through the root of mind And stare naked. One should thus break away From all distinctions and remain at ease.

It's all right now But later?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . forget it baby That's later Now is Now Are you going to be here Or not? It's as simple as that!

Strategies in the book involve ways to use the mind to go beyond the mind, ways to understand states of consciousness that are beyond thought, and ways to identify ourselves other than through our mind, through our intuition, and so forth.

Ask yourself: Where am I? Answer: Here. Ask yourself: What time is it? Answer: Now. Say it until you can hear it.

The abstract point of this is that we don't do anything to anybody else, anyway. Actually, people do things to themselves, and we are merely the environment in which they do it when they are ready.

you don't need to go to anywhere else to find what you are seeking.

Did I ever tell you about the time that Tim and I . . ." And he'd say, "Don't think about the past. Just be here now." Silence. And I'd say, "How long do you think we're going to be on this trip?" And he'd say, "Don't think about the future. Just be here now." I'd say, "You know, I really feel crumby, my hips are hurting . . .

Remember, awareness is part of the soul. And the soul loves everything.

Don't think about the future. Just be here now.

Sooner or later the realization comes that nothing we can think of is going to do it.