Quotations I like

Rabindranath Tagore

Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.

Plato

A philosopher spends his whole live preparing to die

Socrates

The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways. I to die and you to live. Which is better God only knows

Ming-Dao Den

What is an archer without a target?

There is only one universal goal: a gracious death with no regrets

Tom Wolfe

(re a quote from Guardian about Tom Wolfe)

"More profoundly, Wolfe wondered whether neuroscience would eliminate the popular notion of the soul – nothing but a poetic name for “the self”, he admitted

How wrong can you be?

- well I am not alone in thinking that the soul only reaches Nirvana by getting rid of "self" - pretty much a Buddhist basic tenet

Sri Ramana Maharshi

What you gave up is of no importance now. What have you not given up? Find that out and give that up. Sadhana [spiritual practice] is a search for what to give up. Empty yourself completely...

Tao te Ching (verse 48)

In the pursuit of knowledge,every day something is added.In the practice of the Tao,every day something is dropped.

Herman Hesse - Siddhartha p121

Vasudeva's face was filled with a bright smile.

"Yes, Siddhartha," he spoke. "It is this that you mean, isn't it: that the river is everywhere at once, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the rapids, in the sea, in the mountains, everywhere at once, and that there is only the present time for it, not the shadow of the past, not the shadow of the future?"

"This it is," said Siddhartha. "And when I had learned it, I looked at my life, and it was also a river, and the boy Siddhartha was only separated from the man Siddhartha and from the old man Siddhartha by a shadow, not by something real”

William Samuel

Arithmetic (as a principle) is, and is infinite, whether there is time, space, numbers or whatever. God is in a similar way.

The only thing you know for sure is that (you) are aware.

Stop believing that you are a separate ego that is aware and identify as being (part of) awareness itself - which is.

From Two plus Two = Reality by William Samuel

Jon J. Muth

It is easy to believe we are each waves and forget we are also the ocean

Albert Einstein

The true value of a human being can be found in the degree to which he has attained liberation from the self

The Prophet Mohammed

Whoever know himself, knows God

Kalu Rinpoche

We live in illusion,

the appearance of things.

But there is a reality.

We are that reality.

When you understand this,

you see that you are nothing,

and,

being nothing,

you are everything.

That is all.

What you gave up is of no importance now. What have you not given up? Find that out and give that up. Sadhana [spiritual practice] is a search for what to give up. Empty yourself completely...

Sadhguru

Yesterday lives only in your mind

Friedrich Nietzsche

God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?”

"Sailor" Bob Adamson

Who are you if you don’t think about it? Who are you without your past? (those bloody memories again!)

Hui-neng 6th patriarch

Shen-hsiu's said-

The body is the bodhi tree;

The mind like a bright mirror standing.

Take care to wipe it all the time,

And allow no dust to cling!

Hui-neng responded-

There never was a boddhi tree,

Nor bright mirror standing,

Fundamentally not one thing exists,

So where is the dust to cling?

Diamond Sutra

One should produce that thought which is nowhere supported / One should produce the thought which abides nowhere

Zen koan

Q - which moves, the flag or the wind?

A - neither it is the mind

The Pope

When no one is to blame everyone is to blame

..... and to add a bit of local flavour

Bar Niño wall plaque

No te preocupes tanto por la vida, pues no saldrás viVo de ella

(Don't worry so much about life, since you won't get out of it alive”.