Great Throughts Treasury

"Spontaneity by-passes the processes of the conceptual (aspect of) mind."

"Realization is a matter of becoming conscious of that which is already realized."

"Reintegration with Nature, which we are, is the recovery of spontaneity."

"Spontaneity is being present in the present."

"That is non-objective relation."

"THAT which is sought is THIS which is seeking."

"TAO - The Doctrine is the doctrine of non-doctrine, the Practice is the practice of non-practice, the Method is meditation by non-meditation, and Cultivation which is cultivation by non-cultivation. This is the Mind of non-mind, which is wu hsin, the Thought of non-thought, which is wu nien, the Action of non-action, which is wu wei, the Presence of the absence of volition, which is Tao."

"'Sudden Enlightenment' means precisely the immediate apperception of all that in fact we are. 'Enlightenment' is 'sudden' only because it is not in 'time' (subject to sequential duration). It is reintegration in intemporality."

"The Buddha forbore to specify: as long as there is any “one” to suffer — he will."

"The great difficulty here is that there isn't one."

"The identified man takes part: the unidentified looks on!"

"The only real service we can render to that which we perceive and interpret in phenomenal existence as 'others' is by awakening to universal consciousness ourselves."

"The notion that human life has greater value than any other form of life is both unjustifiable and arrogant."

"The inadequacy of the short paragraphs that follow is due to the insufficiency of their expression. They are offered in the hope that the verity which underlies them may penetrate the mist of their presentation and kindle a spark that shall develop into the flame of fulfilment."

"The purest doctrines, such as those of Ramana Maharshi, Padma Sambhava, Huang Po and Shen Hui, just teach that it is sufficient by analysis to comprehend that there is no entity which could have effective volition, that an apparent act of volition when in accord with the inevitable can only be a vain gesture and, when in discord, the fluttering of a caged bird against the bars of his cage. When he knows that, then at last he has peace and is glad."

"The problem is that people are not inanimate objects. When we try to control them (action, wei) they react and often retaliate. So our action creates a neutralizing reaction. If we understand the Tao, we can act according to its principles, avoiding the resistance of people and working with the support of the law of nature rather than against it."

"The practice of non-meditation is ceasing to be the see-er, hearer or speaker while eyes, ears and mouths are fulfilling their function in daily life."

"The practice of meditation is represented by the three monkeys, who cover their eyes, ears and mouths so as to avoid the phenomenal world. The practice of non-meditation is ceasing to be the see-er, hearer or speaker while eyes, ears and mouths are fulfilling their function in daily life."

"The qualities we possess should never be a matter for satisfaction, but the qualities we have discarded."

"The seeing of Truth cannot be dualistic (a ‘thing’ seen). It cannot be seen by a see-er, or via a see-er. There can only be a seeing which itself is Truth."

"The Saint is a man who disciplines his ego. The Sage is a man who rids himself of his ego."

"The seeker is the found, the found is the seeker - as soon as it is apperceived that there is no time."

"The writer of these lines has nothing whatsoever to teach anyone; his words are just his contribution to our common discussion of what must inevitably be for us the most important subject which could be discussed by sentient beings."

"There is no becoming. ALL IS."

"The Void is not of the nature of a black abyss or a bottomless pit. Rather is its nature 'vast and expansive like space itself'. It is apprehended as 'serene, marvelous, all-pure, brilliant and all-inclusive'. Above all does it partake of the nature of light. And it is not anything. For Void is Mind Itself, and Mind Itself is Void."

"There can only be a seeing which itself is Truth."

"There seems never to have been a time at which sentient beings have not escaped from the dungeon of individuality. In the East liberation was elaborated into a fine art, but it may be doubted whether more people made their escape from solitary confinement outside the organized religions than by means of them. In the West reintegration was sporadic, but in recent years it has become a widespread preoccupation. Unfortunately it’s technical dependence on oriental literature — sometimes translated by scholars whose knowledge of the language was greater than their understanding of the subject — has proved a barrier which rendered full comprehension laborious and exceedingly long. Therefore it appears to be essential that such teaching as may be transmissible shall be given in a modern idiom and in accordance with our own processes of thought. But this presentation can never be given by the discursive method to which we are used for the acquisition of conceptual knowledge, for the understanding required is not conceptual and therefore is not knowledge. This may account for the extraordinary popularity of such works as the Tao Te Ching, and in a lesser degree for that of the Diamond and Heart Sutras and Padma Sambhava ’s Knowing the Mind. For despite the accretion of superfluous verbiage in which the essential doctrine of some of the latter has become embedded, their direct pointing at the truth, instead of explaining it, goes straight to the heart of the matter and allows the mind itself to develop its own vision. An elaborately developed thesis must always defeat its own end where this subject matter is concerned, for only indication could produce this understanding, which requires an intuitional faculty, and it could never be acquired wholesale from without."

"This may account for the extraordinary popularity of such works as the Tao Te Ching, and in a lesser degree for that of the Diamond and Heart Sutras and Padma Sambhava's Knowing the Mind. For despite the accretion of superfluous verbiage in which the essential doctrine of some of the latter has become embedded, their direct pointing at the truth, instead of explaining it, goes straight to the heart of the matter and allows the mind itself to develop its own vision. An elaborately developed thesis must always defeat its own end where this subject matter is concerned, for only indication could produce this understanding, which requires an intuitional faculty, and it could never be acquired wholesale from without."

"There is no mystery whatever - only inability to perceive the obvious."

"There seem to be two kinds of searchers: those who seek to make their ego something other than it is, i.e. holy, happy, unselfish (as though you could make a fish unfish), and those who understand that all such attempts are just gesticulation and play-acting, that there is only one thing that can be done, which is to dis-identify themselves with the ego, by realizing its unreality, and by becoming aware of their eternal identity with pure being."

"This which is seeking is that which is sought, and that which is sought is this which is seeking."

"What we appear to be is a fleeting shadow, a distorted and fragmentary reflection of what we all are when we no longer assume that we are that phenomenal appearance."

"This 'real' nature with whose revelation the Chan Masters are primarily concerned, or the Atman-'I' of the Vedantists, is not the far-off, unreachable will-o'-the-wisp we are apt to imagine, but just the within of which we know the without. It is just the other side of the medal, and it lies wherever our senses and our intellect cease to function."

"We are required to cease looking at objects as events apart from ourselves, and to know them at their source – which is our perceiving of them."

"Truth is that which lies in a dimension beyond the reach of thought."

"We have only to eliminate the ego-notion by succeeding in the difficult task of understanding that it does not exist except as a notion."

"We do not possess an 'ego'. We are possessed by the idea of one."

"What is your trouble? Mistaken identity."

"What is non-objective relation?"

"We ourselves are not an illusory part of Reality; rather are we Reality itself illusorily conceived."

"What do you have to do?"

"What we know as 'life' is the analytical realization in the seriality of time of our eternal reality."

"Whoever thinks as, from, or on behalf of, an entity which he believes himself to be, the more so if he tries to work on himself, by, with, or for such an entity - which is only a concept in mind - has not yet begun to understand what it is all about."

"Wherever there are others there is a self, wherever there are no others there can be no self, wherever there is no self there are no others, because in the absence of self I am all others."

"When you give a shilling to a beggar - do you realize that you are giving it to yourself? When you help a lame dog over a stile - do you realize that you yourself are being helped? When you kick a man when he is down - do you realize that you are kicking yourself? Give him another kick - if you deserve it!"

"Whole-mind has no 'thoughts', thoughts are split-mind."

"Wise men don't judge: they seek to understand."