There is freedom in relinquishing certainty

- author unknown

Philippe Petit suspended between the World Trade Center towers in Manhattan, August 7, 1974
It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare,
it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.
-- Seneca.
There is courage involved if you want to
become truth
-Rumi

Jesus and the Pharisees

Enlightenment is the "quiet acceptance of what is" I believe
the truly enlightened beings are those who refuse to allow
themselves to be distressed over things that simply are the way
they are
- Wayne Dyer
 "Studies of lottery winners found that within a year, most say
that they are no happier than they were before they won."

• Kennon Sheldon, a psychologist at the University of Missouri at

Columbia. "We consistently find that people who say money is most
important to them are (the unhappiest),“
 He who is not contented with what he has,
would not be contented with what he would like to have.
-Socrates (B.C. 469 – 399)
The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we
are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is
only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely
to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer
answers.
M. Scott Peck (1936-2005)

Nelson Mandela in prison

“The illusion that we are separate from one another is an
optical delusion of our consciousness” - Albert Einstein
Your key to freedom lies in your power to control
your thoughts
- Tim Connor
Time is Nature's way of preventing everything from happening
all at once.
 The infinite is in
the finite of every
instant

- Zen Proverb
Put your heart, mind, and soul
into even your smallest acts.
This is the secret of success.
- Swami Sivananda
 “Our masks, always in peril of
smearing or cracking, in need
of continuous check in the
mirror or silverware, keep us
in thrall to ourselves,
concerned with our surfaces.”
- Carolyn Kizer
 If you buy one of the advertised sofas, you too will be immune to
life’s disasters and while you’re sitting on that very sofa you can be
sure you’ll only ever feel happy and content.  This is advertising
FACT. 
 The Joy of Not Being Sold
Anything

Woman from the Bas-Congo tribe Woman of the Himba tribe Native American girl
colouring eyebrows
• "You are not your job. You are not
the money in your bank account. You
are not the car you drive. You are
not how much money is in your
wallet. You are not your fucking
khakis.
• You are the all-singing, all-dancing
crap of the world."
• We would often be sorry if our wishes
were gratified.

• -Aesop (c. B.C. 555)

“Beauty is truth's smile when she beholds
her own face in a perfect mirror.”
Rabindranath Tagore  
With respect to physical existence, one needs little, and to the degree that one needs less, the more
perfect one is.
-Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855), Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses, 1990  
Lives based on having are less free than lives based either on
doing or on being.
-William James (1842-1910)  
 Prosperity knits a man to the world,
   he feels that 'he is finding his place in it',
   while really it is finding "it's" place in him.
-C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), The Screwtape Letters, 1946
You are the witness, to whom things happen but who remains a witness.
Witnessing is the art of nonidentification, and nonidentification is all.
Nonidentification is all there is to meditation. It is the whole meditation
- Osho
All that is great cannot be possessed - and that is one of the most
foolish things man goes on doing. We want to possess
- Osho
 Enlightenment is the understanding that this is all, that this is
perfect, that this is it. Enlightenment is not an achievement, it is an
understanding that there is nothing to achieve, nowhere to go.
- Osho
When there is no security there is an endless movement and then life
and death are the same.
- Jiddu Krishnamurti
 Identification with your mind creates an opaque screen of concepts,
labels, images, words, judgments, and definitions that blocks all true
relationship.
- Eckhart Tolle
Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to
"die before you die" - and find that there is no death.
- Eckhart Tolle
"Pleasure is always derived from something outside you, whereas joy
arises from within"
- Eckhart Tolle
"Nonresistance, nonjudgement and nonattachment are the three
aspects of true freedom and enlightened living"
-Eckhart Tolle
All the things that truly matter — beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner
peace — arise from beyond the mind.
-Eckhart Tolle
 To the ego, the present moment hardly exists. Only past and future are
considered important. This total reversal of the truth accounts for the fact that
in the ego mode the mind is so dysfunctional. It is always concerned with
keeping the past alive, because without it - who are you?
- Eckhart Tolle
 Why does the mind habitually deny or resist the Now? Because it cannot
function and remain in control without time, which is past and future, so it
perceives the timeless Now as threatening. Time and mind are in fact
inseparable.
-Eckhart Tolle
Ecstasy carries you completely outside your ego boundaries.
In ecstasy you know yourself as cosmic ego,
unbounded in time and space.
- Deepak Chopra
 Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop
your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not
to surrender, that is strength.
- Gandhi (1869 - 1948)
 If we begin with certainties we shall end in doubts; but if we begin
with doubts, and are patient with them, we shall end with certainties.
Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626)
All difficult things have their origin in that which is easy, and great
things in that which is small.
- Lao Tzu
 If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to
hold on to. If you are not afraid of dying, there is nothing you cannot
achieve.
- Lao Tzu
To realize that you do not understand is a virtue; Not to realize that
you do not understand is a defect.
- Lao Tzu
The desire for truth is the highest of all desires, yet, it is still a desire.
All desires must be given up for the real to be.....When all search
ceases, it is the Supreme State.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
 It is always the false that makes you suffer, the false desires and fears, the
false values and ideas, the false relationships between people. Abandon the
false and you are free of pain; truth makes happy, truth liberates.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all
generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is
present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart.
Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.
- Carl Jung
Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an
understanding of ourselves.
- Carl Jung
"I searched for God and found only myself. I searched for myself and
found only God".
Sufi Proverb
"Do not think about yourself, but be aware of the thought, emotion,
or action that makes you think of yourself."
- Krishanmurti
To truly know the world, look deeply within your own being; to truly
know yourself, take real interest in the world.
Rudolf Steiner
What you are aware of you are in control of; what you are not aware
of is in control of you.
- Anthony de Mello
What lies behind us and what lies before us Are tiny matters
compared to What lies within us.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
 "Pain by itself is merely pain,
but the experience of pain couples with an understanding
that the pain serves a worthy purpose as suffering.
Suffering can be endured because
there is a reason for it that is worth the effort.
What is more worthy of your pain than the evolution of your soul?"
- Gary Zukav
We have to try to get rid of the notion of time. And when you have an
intense contact of love with nature or another human being, like a
spark, then you understand that there is no time and that everything
is eternal.
- Paulo Coelho
 Courage, it would seem, is nothing less than the power to overcome
danger, misfortune, fear, injustice, while continuing to affirm inwardly
that life with all its sorrows is good; that everything is meaningful
even if in a sense beyond our understanding.
- Dorothy Thompson
 There was never yet an uninteresting life. Such a thing is an
impossibility. Inside of the dullest exterior there is a drama, a
comedy and a tragedy.
- Mark Twain
Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the
future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the
present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.
- Thich Nhat Hanh
Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
- Soren Kierkegaard
The goal of life is living in agreement with nature.
- Zeno