Reading Archives (Author)
Man's Most Important Mistake
G. I. Gurdjieff
One of man's most important mistakes, one which must be remembered, is his illusion in regard to his I. Man such as we know him, the ‘man-machine,’ the man who cannot ‘do,&rsq...
Tale of Two Sermons
G.I. Gurdjieff
I must tell you that in our brotherhood there are two very old brethren; one is called Brother Ahl and the other Brother Sez. These brethern have voluntarily undertaken the obligation of periodically ...
The Pleasure of Serving
Gabriela Mistral
All of nature is a yearning for service: The cloud serves, and the wind, and the furrow. Where there is a tree to plant, you be the one. Where there is a mistake to undo, let it be you. You be...
The Fish on the Camel
Gail Gustafson
As Hafiz says, "First, The fish needs to say, “Something ain’t right about this Camel ride – And I’m Feeling so damn Thirsty.” Most of us come to practice meditat...
How Much Silence Is Too Much?
Gal Beckerman
Ours is a noisy country. We’ve been rebellious, insolent shouters since the beginning. We invent freak shows and circuses and casinos. Talk too loud. Our public spaces honk and whistle at us. We...
Supreme Consideration Is Man
Gandhi
What I object to is the "craze" for machinery, not machinery as such. The craze is what they call labor-saving machinery. Men go on "saving labor" till thousands arewithout work and thrown on the o...
Uncommon Quotes
Gandhi
"Love is the only remedy for hate. It blossoms only in the heart of a fearless man." "Having flung aside the sword, there is nothing except the cup of love which I can offer to those who oppose me....
Gift of Dry Leaf
Gandhi
A few weeks prior to Independence Day of India in 1947, an emissary of Pandit Nehru and Sardar Patel was sent to Gandhi at Calcutta, who was working for peace and harmony among the Hindus and Muslims...
To Be Simply, Radically, Absolutely Still
Gangaji
Sometimes, in a blessed life, there arises what we call the spiritual search, the search for God, the search for Truth. There is a recognition that the usual means of taking care of this command just ...
Be Vigilance
Gangaji
Vigilance is often misunderstood. Usually what passes for vigilance is careful monitoring by the superego. I'm sure you're very aware of this kind of monitoring-- "Oh I shouldn't have...
Deep Inquiry: Not for the Faint of Heart
Gangaji
Authentic spiritual inquiry reveals the joy of fresh insights and revelation, just as artistic or scientific inquiry does, but if we cling to the latest insight as a thing we know, that thing grows st...
To Know Without Needing To Understand
Gangaji
Usually, we search for understanding because we believe that it will lead to true experience. We try to understand every experience that is brought...
Underneath All Victories and Defeats
Gangaji
In the midst of some activity, even the activity of reading this now, it is completely possible to allow your mind to open fully, and in that opening to discover the peace and fulfillment of your own ...
The Power of Stopping
Gangaji
The trance of conditioned thoughts can be deep and complex, but it has no defense against something as simple as "stop". When you consciously recognize this point of st...
The Practice of Desire
Gangaji
Someone once shared with me this very simple yet profound discovery, "If I practice desire, I suffer." What could be simpler? This essential teaching arose from his own direct experience. (....
What Do You Really Want?
Gangaji
Most of us do not have to worry about where we will get our next meal, or if we will have a place to sleep tonight. Most of us are not in imminent danger, and neither are our families. We find oursel...
Our Environment Is An Integrated Whole
Ganoba
We have a very special relationship with our environment. The sooner we realize it, the better it is for all of us. Life as we know it came into being because of the environment. Having given birth...
Awareness of Emotions
Gary Zukav
Without an awareness of our feelings we cannot experience compassion. How can we share the sufferings and the joys of others if we cannot experience our own? If we are not intimate with our emotions...
Romance Vs. Love
Gary Zukav
Romantic love is like a drug. It produces euphoria, energy and vitality. You think you've found someone to complete your life — it's a high. But when that drug wears off, everything you felt befo...
Releasing Your Specifications
Gary Zukav
When you depend entirely upon the ability of your personality to determine what is best for you, you may stand in the way of a richness that is waiting for you. How do you know what the Universe has ...
Reverence Protects Life
Gary Zukav
As you work toward becoming reverent, your tendencies toward harming others and other forms of life diminish. As you acquire a sense of reverence, you develop the capacity to think more deeply about t...
Intentions And Effects
Gary Zukav
Have you ever wondered why things happen the way they do in your life? Have you ever considered that the creation of your experiences, like the creation of everything else, is governed by the law of c...
Universal Humans In Training
Gary Zukav
We are in the midst of an unprecedented transformation in human consciousness. Unprecedented. Our perception is expanding beyond the limitations of the five senses. Together, they form a single system...
A Turtle's Silver Bead Of Quietude
Gayle Boss
The day is bright and warm for December, but the logs in the marsh pond are bare. Spring to summer into early fall they served, on sunny days, as spa to a dozen or so painted turtles. I would see ...
An Ode To Imagination
Geneen Marie Haugen
What is unique about human beings? That was the question that followed me. Other philosophers have supposed that our form of consciousness is unique among the animals, or our symbol-making ability. Bu...
Art is a Life Raft
George S. Clinton
Art is a life raft. Many who become artists did so because they found refuge in art from some traumatic aspect of their early lives. I know I did. For me, it was about finding a safe creative space fr...
Kindness Includes Everything
George Saunders
What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness. Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I responded ... sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly. Or, to lo...
Mistaking The World We’ve Made For The Real World
George Saunders
The instant we wake the story begins: “Here I am. In my bed. Hard worker, good dad, decent husband, a guy who always tries his best. Jeez, my back hurts. Probably from the stupid gym.” ...
Welcoming Fear As A Friend
Gerald G. May
The basic lesson is this: Fear is not an enemy but a friend. Fear is something good, something alive, alert, and wild in us. Fear may be a response to danger, bur fear itself is not dangerous. On the ...
Releasing Willpower From Movement
Gert van Leeuwen
Initially, I used to move from willpower; I was concerned only with results. In retrospect, I realize that this created a sort of tunnel vision; my consciousness was debilitatingly limited. I allowed ...
Self Knowledge
Gibran
And a man said, "Speak to us of Self-Knowledge." And he answered, saying: Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and the nights. But your ears thirst for the sound of your heart's kn...
Work Is Love Made Visible
Gibran
Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work w...
Joy and Sorrow
Gibran
"Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the self same well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears. And how else can it be? The deeper that sorrow carves into your b...
Your Thoughts And Mine
Gibran
Your thought is a tree rooted deep in the soil of tradition and whose branches grow in the power of continuity. My thought is a cloud moving in the space. It turns into drops which, as they fall, fo...
Using Attention in a New Way
Gil Fronsdal
One of the things we are trying to do here, is learn to pay attention to seeing what complicates our attention -- where we get caught, what makes it difficult. Because the place we get caught is also ...
Natural Unfolding
Gil Fronsdal
I believe that spiritual practice unfolds most smoothly when we find how to accord ourselves with nature. A useful metaphor for this is river. The river metaphor is expressive of a practice of accordi...
Being a Naturalist
Gil Fronsdal
In mindfulness meditation we learn to be present for things as they are. In doing so, it can be useful to assume the attitude of a naturalist. A naturalist simply observes nature without interfering ...
Fearlessness can Coexist with Fear
Gil Fronsdal
In meditation and in mindfulness practice, we are learning to replace fear with trust, not as an ideal or abstraction, but as a sense of self-confidence that arises from coming to know fear well. Many...
Bringing Attention to Intention
Gil Fronsdal
The greater our awareness of intentions, the greater our freedom to choose. People who do not see their choices do not believe they have choices. They tend to respond automatically, blindly influenced...
Intentions Are Seeds
Gil Fronsdal
While our activities have consequences in both the external and internal world, happiness and freedom belong to the inner world of our intentions and dispositions. [...] Mindfulness places us where o...
Logical Conclusion of Meditation
Goenka
The absence of craving and aversion does not imply an attitude of callous indifference, in which one enjoys one’s own liberation but gives no thought to the suffering of others. On the contrary, ...
The Hole-y Bucket
Gopal Dada
A student approaches the teacher with the question, “Could you help me with a question I've been struggling with -- what is the purpose of my life?” The wise teacher responds,...
Lessons From An Accident
Grace Dammann
For the last forty years, I have been a somewhat compulsive caregiver. However, I found an appropriate niche in medical school, and have happily practiced medicine for the last twenty-five years. For ...
The Greatest Danger Before You
Granny D
In the end -- and it will end -- your life will seem to have sped by like a fleeting dream. Much of your story will be the age-old but ever joyful human experience: romance, family, satisfying work, a...
Grateful For Nothing
Gregg Krech
If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance your life is relatively safe -- so safe that safety isn’t on your mind. So when nothing happens, you don’t feel particularly grate...
Sincerely Enthusiastic
Gretchen Rubin
I wanted to laugh more, I wanted to show more loving-kindness, and I also wanted to be more enthusiastic. I knew that it wasn't nice to criticize but it was fun. Why was it so deliciously satisfyi...
No Wasted Time
Gunaratana
The concept of wasted time doesn't exist for a serious meditator. Little dead spaces during your day can be turned into profit. Every spare moment can be used for meditation. Sitting anxiously in the...
So What is Happiness?
Gunaratana Mahathera
Happiness and peace. Those are really the prime issues in human existence. That is what all of us are seeking. This often is a bit hard to see because we cover up those basic goals with layers...
Paradox of Noise
Gunilla Norris
It is a paradox that we encounter so much internal noise when we first try to sit in silence. It is a paradox that experiencing pain releases pain. It is a paradox that keeping still can le...
Working With Soil, Attending To Soul
Gunilla Norris
A garden tends to get inside us. If we go there to accomplish something or to get something, the garden soon becomes a burden. With expectations that it must look good or that it has to produce no mat...
Sacrifice Your Suffering
Gurdjieff
I have already said before that sacrifice is necessary. Without sacrifice, nothing can be attained. But if there is anything in the world that people do not understand it is the idea of sacrifice. ...