Contemplative quotes

Often, the words of a wise other provide us with the opportunity for profound insight. Following are a selection of wisdoms that have guided my own spiritual path.

I hope they may also guide yours ...

When you are in a state of non acceptance, it is difficult to learn. A clenched fist cannot receive a gift, and a clenched psyche, grasped tightly against the reality, can not easily receive a lesson.

A powerful spiritual practice is to consciously allow the diminishment of ego when it happens without attempting to restore it.

In taking up this [meditative] practice, one should not expect 'mystical experiences' or cheap emotional satisfaction.

The birds have vanished from the sky,
and now the last cloud drains away.

We sit together, the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains.

We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.

The map is not the territory.

Be master of mind rather than mastered by mind.