🅼Week 2025-08: On Mastery

"The Infinite indeed is below, above, behind, before, right and left—it is indeed all this. Now follows the explanation of the Infinite as the I; I am below, I am above, I am behind, before, right and left - I am all this. Next follows the explanation of the Infinite as the Self: Self is below, above, behind, before, right and left - Self is all this. He who sees, perceives, and understands this, loves the Self, delights in the Self, revels in the Self, rejoices in the Self -  he becomes a Svaraj, [an autocrat or self-ruler]; he is lord and master in all the worlds." (Chandogya Upanishad, 8th-6th century)

"Throwing down your own sword is also an art of war. If you have attained mastery of swordlessness, you will never lack for a sword. The opponent's sword is your sword. This is acting at the vanguard of the moment." (Yagyū Munenori, "Heihō Kadensho" ["A Hereditary Book on the Art of War"], 1632)

"If you do not look at things on a large scale, it will be difficult for you to master strategy. If you learn and attain this strategy, you will never lose, even to twenty or thirty enemies. More than anything […] you must set your heart on strategy and earnestly stick to the Way." (Miyamoto Musashi, "Go Rin No Sho" ["The Book of Five Rings"], 1645)

"The master carpenter, knowing the measurements and designs of all sorts of structures, employs people to build houses. In this respect, the master carpenter is the same as the master warrior. . . . As the master carpenter directs the journeymen, he knows their various levels of skill and gives them appropriate tasks. [...] Efficiency and smooth progress, prudence in all matters, recognizing true courage, recognizing different levels of morale, instilling confidence, and realizing what can and cannot be reasonably expected-such are the matters on the mind of the master carpenter. The principle of martial arts is like this [...]" (Miyamoto Musashi, "Go Rin No Sho" ["The Book of Five Rings"], 1645)

"Swordsman-ship is not something you persevere in just to achieve victory over others. It is also an art through which you can face troubles and clarify issues of life and death. This is an attitude that samurai must always strive to maintain, and so you should master this art." (Issai Chozan, "The Mysterious Skills of the Old Cat" ["Neko No Myoujutsu"], 1727)

"Zen purposes to discipline the mind itself, to make it its own master, through an insight into its proper nature. This getting into the real nature of one's own mind or soul is the fundamental object of Zen Buddhism. Zen, therefore, is more than meditation and Dhyana in its ordinary sense. The discipline of Zen consists in opening the mental eye in order to look into the very reason of existence." (Daisetsu T Suzuki,"An Introduction to Zen Buddhism", 1934)

"After all, only he who handles his ideas lightly is master of his ideas, and only he who is master of his ideas is not enslaved by them. Seriousness, after all, is only a sign of effort, and effort is a sign of imperfect mastery." (Lin Yutang, "The Importance of Living", 1937)

"Students should always be conscious to the advantages of fundamental principles, which are: practicing the movements slowly and evenly, inhaling and exhaling naturally so as to accumulate qi and concentrate the shen [spirit], and never employing muscular strength [li] too excessively. It is through softness and gentleness that you achieve mastery. This softness and gentleness means soft and continuous movements in conjunction with harmonious breathing." (Yearning K Chen, "T’ai Chi Ch’uan: Sword, Saber, Staff, and Dispersing-Hands Combined", 1943)

"The master of the mind is the mind-intent. The mind acts as only an assistant to the mind-intent. When the mind moves, it does so because of the mind-intent. When the mind-intent arises the qi will follow." (Yearning K Chen, "T’ai Chi Ch’uan: Sword, Saber, Staff, and Dispersing-Hands Combined", 1943)

"To gain mastery you must unite the qualities of spirit, strength, technique and the ability to take the initiative." (Sadami Yamada, "Principles and Practice of Aikido", 1966)

"Ultimately, physical, psychological and spiritual mastery are one and the same. The egoless self is open, flexible, supple, fluid and dynamic in body, mind and spirit." (Kisshomaru Ueshiba, "The Spirit of Aikido", 1981)

"In terms of the martial arts, there are two training methods: one focuses on the rational aspect of training while the other emphasizes the technical aspect. The martial arts owe its origin to people’s attempts to rationally unify the mind, body, and skill. In the martial arts, truth will reveal itself once your mind gains insight into the empty nature of the world and your body masters and perfects physical techniques." (Kazumi Tabata, "Mind Power: Secret Strategies for the Martial Arts", 2010)

"Mental disease is to stick to a certain idea. Mental disease is to freeze on certain things or victory. The mind can work freely, if one has enough room to be able to hear the sound of wind and water. One can control one’s mind by releasing it. When one removes the source of thoughts, one’s mind starts to be free from all thoughts. Master the road of experts who remove thoughts by gaining other thoughts." (Kazumi Tabata, "Mind Power: Secret Strategies for the Martial Arts", 2010)

"One who is learning should be passionate and serious. One must build upon the skills one has learned in practice. One must acquire continuous courage to master dori (the way of things)." (Kazumi Tabata, "Mind Power: Secret Strategies for the Martial Arts", 2010) 

🆆Week 2025-07: On Water

"A kata is not fixed or immoveable. Like water, it's ever changing and fits itself to the shape of the vessel containing it. However, kata are not some kind of beautiful competitive dance, but a grand martial art of self-defense - which determines life and death." (Kenwa Mabuni) 

"As a strong wind sweeps away a boat on the water, so the mind dwelling on even one of the senses carries away the intelligence." (Bhagavad Gita) 

"Be soft in your practice. Think of the method as a fine silvery stream, not a raging waterfall. Follow the stream, have faith in its course. It will go on its own way, meandering here, trickling there. It will find the grooves, the cracks, the crevices. Just follow it. Never let it out of your sight. It will take you." (Sheng-yen)

"During zazen, brain and consciousness become pure. It's exactly like muddy water left to stand in a glass. Little by little, the sediment sinks to the bottom and the water becomes pure." (Taisen Deshimaru)

"If you want to learn to swim jump into the water. On dry land no frame of mind is ever going to help you." (Bruce Lee)

"Just as ripples spread out when a single pebble is dropped into water, the actions of individuals can have far-reaching effects." (Tenzin Gyatso, Dalai Lama XIV)

"Ninja must become familiar with eating natural food. We can also eat food without cooking it. First we need water. But drinking water is not enough. You can fill your chest with fresh mountain air." (Toda sensei [in Masaaki Hatsumi's "Ninjutsu: History and Tradition", 1981) 

"One day some people came to the master and asked: How can you be happy in a world of such impermanence, where you cannot protect your loved ones from harm, illness or death? The master held up a glass and said: Someone gave me this glass; It holds my water admirably and it glistens in the sunlight. I touch it and it rings! One day the wind may blow it off the shelf, or my elbow may knock it from the table. I know this glass is already broken, so I enjoy it - incredibly." (Ajahn Chah)

"The Great Way has no gate. Clear water has no taste. The tongue has no bone. In complete stillness, a stone girl is dancing." (Seungsahn Haengwon)

"To drink pure water from a shallow pond one should gently take the water from the surface without disturbing the pond in the least. If it is disturbed, the sediments rise up and make the whole water muddy. If you desire to be pure, have firm faith, and slowly go on with your devotional practices, without wasting your energy in useless scriptural discussions and arguments. Your little brain will otherwise be muddled." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita) 

🆆Week 2025-06: On Water

"The foolish are like ripples on water,

For whatsoever they do is quickly effaced;

But the righteous are like carvings upon stone,

For their smallest act is durable." (Nagarjuna, [attributed] "The Staff of Wisdom", cca. 150–250) 

"Time is fleeting, learning is vast; no one knoweth the duration of one's life:

Therefore use the swan's art of extracting milk from water,

And devote thyself to the Most Precious [Path]"  (Nagarjuna, [attributed] "The Staff of Wisdom", 150–250)

"Ignorance does not exist apart from enlightenment; therefore, it cannot be destroyed [because one cannot destroy something which does not really exist], and yet it cannot not be destroyed [insofar as it remains]. This is like the relationship that exists between the water of the ocean [i.e., enlightenment] and its waves [i.e., modes of mind] stirred by the wind [i.e., ignorance]. Water and wind are inseparable; but water is not mobile by nature, and if the wind stops the movement ceases. But the wet nature remains undestroyed. Likewise, man's Mind, pure in its own nature, is stirred by the wind of ignorance. Both Mind and ignorance have no particular forms of their own and they are inseparable. Yet Mind is not mobile by nature, and if ignorance ceases, then the continuity of deluded activities ceases. But the essential nature of wisdom [i.e., the essence of Mind, like the wet nature of the water] remains undestroyed." (Ashvaghosha, "The Awakening of Faith", cca. 2nd century)

"It is like the water of the ocean: even without wind there are waves everywhere. Suddenly knowing of the waves all around is the gross within the subtle; letting go of knowledge in the midst of knowing is like the subtle within the subtle. This is the sphere of the enlightened." (Pai-chang, 8th century)

"The integration and disintegration of material force is to the Great Vacuity as the freezing and melting of ice is to water. If we realize that the Great Vacuity is identical with material force, we know that there is no such thing as non-being." (Chang Tsai, "Taihe pian" ["Great Harmony", 1076)

"If one achieves a genuine breakthrough, then [one realizes that ] a Confucian is no different from a Buddhist, and a Buddhist is no different from a Confucian; a monk is no different from a layman, and a layman is no different from a monk; an ordinary man is no different from a sage, and a sage is no different from an ordinary man. [In fact] I am you and you are I; Heaven is earth and earth is Heaven; waves are the same as water, and water is no different from waves. Kumis and rich butter are but one taste; bracelets and hairpins are all melted from gold [...] When you reach this state, you are in control of everything." (Ta-hui Tsung-kao ,"Dahui Pujue Chanshi yulu" ("Recorded Sayings of Chan Master Dahui Pujue"), 1172)

"Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in dewdrops on the grass, or even in one drop of water. Enlightenment does not divide you, just as the moon does not break the water. You cannot hinder enlightenment, just as a drop of water does not hinder the moon in the sky. The depth of the drop is the height of the moon. Each reflection, however long or short its duration, manifests the vastness of the dewdrop, and realizes the limitlessness of the moonlight in the sky." (Dogen Zenji, cca. 13th century

"The breath of life eventually takes leave of all of us; whether we are young or old, if we live we must die. The number of the dead grows; the blossoms of the flowers fade; the leaves of the trees fall. Things are like foam in a dream. As fish gather in tiny pools of water, so life moves on as the days pass by. Parents and children, husbands and wives who passed their lives together, do not remain together. What use is high standing or wealth? Red cheeks in the morning, dead bones in the evening. Not to trust in the things of this perishing world but to enter upon the way of Buddha - thus will one stir up the mind that seeks the ways and believes in the exalted Dharma." (Muso Soseki, 1351)

"Clear water has no back or front, space has no inside or outside. Completely clear, its own luminosity shines before form and emptiness were fabricated. Objects of mind and mind itself have no place to exist."(Keizan Jokin, "Zazen-Yōjinki (Notes on What to be Aware of in Zazen", 14th-century)

"When it's cold, water freezes into ice; when it's warm, ice melts into water. Similarly, when you are confused, essence freezes into mind; when you are enlightened, mind melts into essence." (Muso Soseki, 14th century) 

"My own struggle was undertaken mistakenly, because I didn’t meet up with a clear-eyed master. Eventually, though, I discovered the Buddha-mind for myself; ever since, I have been telling others about theirs, so they’ll know about it without going through that ordeal, just as those people drink water and quench their thirst without having to go and find it for themselves." (Bankei Yōtaku, 1690)

"We must know that it is not enough just to see what the Mind is, we must put into practice all that makes it up in our daily life. We may talk about it glibly, we may write books to explain it, but that is far from being enough. However much we may talk about water and describe it quite intelligently, that does not make it real water. So with fire. Mere talking of it will not make the mouth burn. To know what they are means to experience them in actual concreteness. A book on cooking will not cure our hunger. To feel satisfied we must have actual food. So long as we do not go beyond mere talking, we are not true knowers." (Takuan Sōhō, "Fudōchi Shinmyōroku" ["The Mysterious Record of Immovable Wisdom"], 17 century] 

"All beings are by nature are Buddhas, as ice by nature is water. Apart from water there is no ice; apart from beings, no Buddhas. How sad that people ignore the near and search the truth afar: like someone in the midst of watercrying out in thirst: like a child of a wealthy home wandering among the poor." (Hakuin Ekaku, "Zazen Wasan" ["Song of Zazen), cca. 1760) 

"Live in the world like a waterfowl. The water clings to the bird, but the bird shakes it off. Live in the world like a mudfish. The fish lives in the mud, but its skin is always bright and shiny." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, "The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna", 1942)

"One cannot attain divine knowledge till one gets rid of pride. Water does not stay on the top of a mound; but into low land it flows in torrents from all sides." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, "The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna", 1942)

"The true practice of [meditation] is to sit as if you were drinking water when you are thirsty." (Shunryu Suzuki, "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind", [lecture from late 1960] 1970)

"When one has reached maturity in the art, one will have a formless form. It is like ice dissolving in water. When one has no form, one can be all forms; when one has no style, he can fit in with any style." (Bruce Lee, 1970)

"Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves." (Bruce Lee, "Be Water", 1971)

"Efficiency in sparring and fighting is not a matter of correct classical, traditional form. Efficiency is anything that scores. Creating fancy forms and classical sets to replace sparring is like trying to wrap and tie a pound of water into a manageable shape of paper sack. For something that is static, fixed, dead, there can be a way or a definite path; but not for anything that is moving and living. In sparring there's no exact path or method, but instead a perceptive, pliable, choice-less awareness. It lives from moment to moment." (Bruce Lee, "Liberate Yourself From Classical Karate", Black Belt Magazine, 1971)

"Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless - like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend." (Bruce Lee), [TV script] 1971)

"The combatant should be alive in sparring, throwing punches and kicks from all angles, and should not be a co-operative robot. Like water, sparring should be formless. Pour water into a cup, it becomes part of the cup. Pour it into a bottle; it becomes part of the bottle. Try to kick or punch it, it is resilient; clutch it and it will yield without hesitation. In fact, it will escape as pressure is being applied to it." (Bruce Lee, "Liberate Yourself From Classical Karate", Black Belt Magazine, 1971)

"If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo." (Bruce Lee, "The Tao of Jeet Kune Do", 1975)

"A good martial artist puts his mind on one thing at a time. He takes each thing as it comes, finishes with it, and passes on to the next. Like a Zen master, he is not concerned with the past or the future, only with what he is doing at that moment. Because his mind is tight, he is calm and able to maintain strength in reserve. And then there will be room for only one thought, which will fill his entire being as water fills a pitcher. You wasted an enormous amount of energy because you did not localize and focus your mind. Always remember: in life as well as on the mat an unfocused or 'loose' mind wastes energy." (Joe Hyams, "Zen in the Martial Art", 1979) [attributed to Bruce Lee)]

"mushin, which literally means 'no-mind.' According to the Zen masters, mushin is operating when the actor is separate from the act and no thoughts interfere with action because the unconscious act is the most free and uninhibited. When mushin functions, the mind moves from one activity to another, flowing like a stream of water and filling every space." (Joe Hyams, "Zen in the Martial Art", 1979) [attributed to Bruce Lee)] 

"People say that walking on water is a miracle, but to me, walking peacefully on earth is the real miracle.” (Thich Nhat Hanh, "The Miracle of Mindfulness", 1975)

"Pour some water into a tub and stir it up. Now try as hard as you can to calm the water with your hands; you will succeed in agitating it further. Let it stand undisturbed a while, and it will calm down by itself. The human brain works much the same way." (Koichi Tohei, "Ki in Daily Life", 1978)

"The heart of a human being is no different from the soul of heaven and earth. In your practice always keep in your thoughts the interaction of heaven and earth, water and fire, yin and yang." (Morihei Ueshiba, "The Art of Peace", 1991)

"Water, by its nature, never collides with or breaks against anything. On the contrary, it swallows up any attack harmlessly." (Morihei Ueshiba, "The Art of Peace", 1991)

"One part of Qigong training is learning how to regulate your Fire Qi and Water Qi so that they are balanced. This involves learning to use your wisdom mind to dominate and direct your emotional mind."  (Jwing-Ming Yang, "The Root of Chinese Qigong: Secrets for health, longevity" 2nd Ed., 1997)

🏛️Week 2025-05: Aeschylus - Collected Quotes

"Bronze in the mirror of the form, wine of the mind." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC)

"But time growing old teaches all things." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC) 

"By polluting clear water with slime you will never find good drinking water." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC) 

"Death is easier than a wretched life; and better never to have born than to live and fare badly." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC) 

"Everyone's quick to blame the alien." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC)

"For the poison of hatred seated near the heart doubles the burden for the one who suffers the disease; he is burdened with his own sorrow, and groans on seeing another's happiness." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC)

"From a small seed a mighty trunk may grow." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC) 

"God's most lordly gift to man is decency of mind." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC)

"God always strives together with those who strive." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC)

"God loves to help him who strives to help himself." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC) 

"Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC)

"He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC)

"His resolve is not to seem the bravest, but to be." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC) 

"I have learned to hate all traitors, and there is no disease that I spit on more than treachery." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC)

 "I know how men in exile feed on dreams." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC)

"In the lack of judgment great harm arises, but one vote cast can set right a house." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC)

"It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC) 

"It is always in season for old men to learn." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC) 

"It is best for the wise man not to seem wise." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC) 

"It is easy when we are in prosperity to give advice to the afflicted." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC)

"It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC)

"Justice turns the scale, bringing to some learning through suffering." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC) 

"Memory is the mother of all wisdom." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC)"Justice turns the scale, bringing to some learning through suffering." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC) 

"Obedience is the mother of success and is wedded to safety." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC)

"Of all the gods only death does not desire gifts." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC)

"The anvil of justice is planted firm, and fate who makes the sword does the forging in advance." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC)

"The man whose authority is recent is always stern." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC)

"The wisest of the wise may err." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC) 

"The words of truth are simple." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC) 

"There are times when fear is good. It must keep its watchful place at the heart's controls." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC) 

"There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC) 

"There is no sickness worse for me than words that to be kind must lie." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC)

"Time brings all things to pass." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC)

"To be free from evil thoughts is God's best gift." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC) 

"When a man's willing and eager the god's join in." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC)

"When strength is yoked with justice, where is a mightier pair than they?" (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC) 

"Whenever a man makes haste, God too hastens with him." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC) 

"Whoever is new to power is always harsh." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC)

"Wisdom comes alone through suffering." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC)

"You have been trapped in the inescapable net of ruin by your own want of sense." (Aeschylus, cca. 5 century BC)

🕉️Week 2025-04: Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita

"The devotee of God wants to eat sugar, and not become sugar. (All laugh.) Do you know how a lover of God feels? His attitude is: "O God, Thou art the Master, and I am Thy servant. Thou art the Mother, and I Thy child." Or again: 'Thou art my Father and Mother. Thou art the Whole, and I am a part.' He does not like to say, "I am Brahman." They yogi seeks to realize the Paramatman, the Supreme Soul. His ideal is the union of the embodied soul and the Supreme Soul. He withdraws his mind from sense objects and tries to concentrate on the Paramatman. Therefore, during the first stage of his spiritual discipline, he retires into solitude and with undivided attention practices meditation in a fixed posture. But the reality is one and the same; the difference is only in name. He who is Brahman is verily Atman, and again, He is the Bhagavan. He is Brahman to the followers of the path of knowledge, Paramatman to the yogis, and Bhagavan to the lovers of God." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, "The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna", 1882)

"Meditate upon the Knowledge and Bliss Eternal, and you will also have bliss. The Bliss indeed is eternal, only it is covered and obscured by ignorance. The less your attachment is towards the senses, the more will be your love towards God." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, cca. 1886)

"A truly religious man should think that other religions also have many paths leading to the truth. One should always maintain an attitude of respect towards other religions. Dispute not, as you rest firmly on your own faith and opinion, allow others also equal liberty to stand by their own faith and opinion." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, "Râmakrishna: His Life and Sayings", 1898)

"So long as the bee is outside the petals of the lily, and has not tasted the sweetness of its honey, it hovers around the flower emitting the buzzing sound; but when it is inside the flower, it noiselessly drinks the nectar. So long as a man quarrels and disputes about doctrines and dogmas, he has not tasted the nectar of true faith; when he has tasted it, he becomes quiet and full of peace." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, "Râmakrishna: His Life and Sayings", 1898)

"The manifestation of the Divinity must be understood to be in greater degree in those who are honoured, respected, and obeyed by a large following, than in those who have gained no such influence." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, "Râmakrishna: His Life and Sayings", 1898)

"Many good sayings are to be found in holy books, but merely reading them will not make one religious." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, "Sri Ramakrishna's Teachings", 1916)

"Meditate upon the Knowledge and Bliss Eternal, and you will also have bliss. The Bliss indeed is eternal, only it is covered and obscured by ignorance. The less your attachment is towards the senses, the more will be your love towards God." (Sri Ramakrishna, 1916)

"God is directly perceived by the mind, but not by this ordinary mind. It is the pure mind that perceives God, and at that time this ordinary mind does not function. A mind that has the slightest trace of attachment to the world cannot be called pure. When all the impurities of the mind are removed, you may call that mind Pure Mind or Pure Ātman." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, "The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna", 1942)

"God is directly perceived by the mind, but not by this ordinary mind. It is the pure mind that perceives God, and at that time this ordinary mind does not function. A mind that has the slightest trace of attachment to the world cannot be called pure. When all the impurities of the mind are removed, you may call that mind Pure Mind or Pure Ātman." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, "The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna", 1942)

"God reveals Himself to a devotee who feels drawn to Him by the combined force of these three attractions: the attraction of worldly possessions for the worldly man, the child's attraction for its mother, and the husband's attraction for the chaste wife. If one feels drawn to Him by the combined force of these three attractions, then through it one can attain Him." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, "The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna", 1942)

"Live in the world like a waterfowl. The water clings to the bird, but the bird shakes it off. Live in the world like a mudfish. The fish lives in the mud, but its skin is always bright and shiny." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, "The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna", 1942)

"One can easily realize God if one is free from guile. Spiritual instruction produces quick results in a guileless heart. Such a heart is like well cultivated land from which all the stones have been removed. No sooner is the seed sown than it germinates. The fruit also appears quickly." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, "The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna", 1942)

"One cannot attain divine knowledge till one gets rid of pride. Water does not stay on the top of a mound; but into low land it flows in torrents from all sides." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, "The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna", 1942)

"The Pure Mind and the Pure Ātman are one and the same thing. Whatever comes up in the Pure Mind is the voice of God." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, "The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna", 1942)

"The waves belong to the Ganges, not the Ganges to the waves. A man cannot realize God unless he gets rid of all such egotistic ideas as "I am such an important man" or 'I am so and so'. Level the mound of "I" to the ground by dissolving it with tears of devotion." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, "The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna", 1942)

"A boat may stay in water, but water should not stay in boat. A spiritual aspirant may live in the world, but the world should not live within him." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita)

"A man is truly free, even here in this embodied state, if he knows that God is the true agent and he by himself is powerless to do anything." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita)

"As a piece of rope, when burnt, retains its form, but cannot serve to bind, so is the ego which is burnt by the fire of supreme Knowledge." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita)

"As the shell, the pith and the kernel of the fruit are all produced form one parent seed of the tree, so from the one Lord is produced the whole of creation, animate and inanimate, spiritual and material." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita) 

"As the snake is separate from its slough, even so is the Spirit separate from the body." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita)

"Brahman is beyond mind and speech, beyond concentration and meditation, beyond the knower, the known and knowledge, beyond even the conception of the real and unreal. In short, It is beyond all relativity." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita)

"Disease is the tax which the soul pays for the body, as the tenant pays house-rent for the use of the house." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, 1886)

"Honour both spirit and form, the sentiment within as well as the symbol without." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita)

"It's enough to have faith in one aspect of God. You have faith in God without form. That is very good. But never get into your head that your faith alone is true and every other is false. Know for certain that God without form is real and that God with form is also real. Then hold fast to whichever faith appeals to you." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita)

"It is easy to talk on religion, but difficult to practice it." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita)

"Knowledge leads to unity, and Ignorance to diversity." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita)

"Many are the names of God, and infinite the forms that lead us to know Him. In whatsoever name or form you desire to call Him, in that very form and name you will see Him." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita)

"Meditate upon the Knowledge and Bliss Eternal, and you will also have bliss. The Bliss indeed is eternal, only it is covered and obscured by ignorance. The less your attachment is towards the senses, the more will be your love towards God." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, cca. 1886)

"Right discrimination is of two kinds — analytical and synthetical. The first leads one from the phenomena to the Absolute Brahman, while by the second one knows how the Absolute Brahman appears as the universe." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita)

"Sunlight is one and the same wherever it falls; but only a bright surface like that of water, or of a mirror reflects it fully. So is the light Divine. It falls equally and impartially on all hearts, but the pure and pious hearts of holy men receive and reflect that light well." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita)

"That knowledge which purifies the mind and heart alone is true Knowledge, all else is only a negation of Knowledge." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita)

"The magnetic needle always points to the north, and hence it is that sailing vessel does not lose her direction. So long as the heart of man is directed towards God, he cannot be lost in the ocean of worldliness." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita) 

"The nearer you come to God, the less you are disposed to questioning and reasoning. When you actually attain Him, when you behold Him as the reality, then all noise, all disputations, come to an end." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, [recorded] 1882)

"The young bamboo can be easily bent, but the full grown bamboo breaks when it is bent with force. It is easy to bend the young heart towards God, but the untrained heart of the old escapes the hold whenever it is so drawn." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita) 

"To drink pure water from a shallow pond one should gently take the water from the surface without disturbing the pond in the least. If it is disturbed, the sediments rise up and make the whole water muddy. If you desire to be pure, have firm faith, and slowly go on with your devotional practices, without wasting your energy in useless scriptural discussions and arguments. Your little brain will otherwise be muddled." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita) 

🅿Week 2025-03: On Posture

“The posture assumed must be steady and easy.” (Patanjali, “Yoga Sutra", cca. 400)

"When right posture (asana) has been attained there follows right control of prana and proper inspiration and expiration of the breath.” (Patanjali, “Yoga Sutra", cca. 400)

"Once the posture has been stabilized and the breath regulated, push forth the lower abdomen; one thinks not of good or evil." (Dogen Zenji, "Zazen gi", cca. 13th century)

"The devotee of God wants to eat sugar, and not become sugar. (All laugh.) Do you know how a lover of God feels? His attitude is: "O God, Thou art the Master, and I am Thy servant. Thou art the Mother, and I Thy child." Or again: 'Thou art my Father and Mother. Thou art the Whole, and I am a part.' He does not like to say, "I am Brahman." They yogi seeks to realize the Paramatman, the Supreme Soul. His ideal is the union of the embodied soul and the Supreme Soul. He withdraws his mind from sense objects and tries to concentrate on the Paramatman. Therefore, during the first stage of his spiritual discipline, he retires into solitude and with undivided attention practices meditation in a fixed posture. But the reality is one and the same; the difference is only in name. He who is Brahman is verily Atman, and again, He is the Bhagavan. He is Brahman to the followers of the path of knowledge, Paramatman to the yogis, and Bhagavan to the lovers of God." (Ramakrishna, "The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna", 1882) 

"However keen you may be to begin your study, before you venture on to the mat and attempt any of the basic techniques it is necessary to know something of the principles that govern aikido, for unless you do understand a little about posture, movement, balance, gentleness and courtesy, you will not be a satisfactory pupil." (Sadami Yamada, "Principles and Practice of Aikido", 1966)

"In other words, just practice Zen meditation in a certain posture. Do not think about anything. Just remain on your cushion without expecting anything. Then eventually you will resume your own true nature. That is to say, your own true nature resumes itself." (Shunryu Suzuki, "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind", 1970)

"Don't think that only sitting with the eyes closed is practice. If you do think this way, then quickly change your thinking. Steady practice is keeping mindful in every posture, whether sitting, walking, standing or lying down. When coming out of sitting, don't think that you're coming out of meditation, but that you are only changing postures. If you reflect in this way, you will have peace. Wherever you are, you will have this attitude of practice with you constantly. You will have a steady awareness within yourself." (Ajahn Chah, "Steady Practice", 1978)

"A good stance and posture reflect a proper state of mind." (Morihei Ueshiba, "The Art of Peace", 1991)

"In sitting on the meditation cushion and assuming the meditation posture, we connect ourselves with the present moment in this body and on this earth." (Jack Kornfield, "A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life", 1993)

"The Martial Way is centred in posture. Strive to maintain correct posture at all times." (Mas Oyama) [motto]

🅱Week 2025-02: On Breathing

"A human being is only breath and shadow." (Sophocles, "Ajax the Locrian" ["Aias Locrus"], cca. 5 century BC)

"It is not large, and not minute; not short, not long; without blood, without fat; without shadow, without darkness; without wind, without ether; not adhesive, not tangible; without smell, without taste; without eyes, ears, voice, or mind; without heat, breath, or mouth; without personal or family name; unaging, undying, without fear, immortal, dustless, not un¬ covered or covered; with nothing before, nothing behind, nothing within. It consumes no one, and is consumed by no one. It is the imseen seer, the un¬ heard hearer, the unthought thinker, the unknown knower." (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, cca. 7th century) 

"Once the posture has been stabilized and the breath regulated, push forth the lower abdomen; one thinks not of good or evil." (Dogen Zenji, "Zazen gi", cca. 13th century)

"Those who follow conventional views believe that what is illusory is real, what is transient is permanent, and so they are concerned only with gain and loss and coarse profit. Their lives are like candles in the wind and yet they place their trust in what is uncertain even for tomorrow. Breathing out does not mean that you will necessarily breath in again. And so they are filled with glee and despair at momentary changes." (Koun Ejo, "Komyozo-Zanmai" ["Samadhi of the Treasury of the Radiant Light", 13th century)

"The breath of life eventually takes leave of all of us; whether we are young or old, if we live we must die. The number of the dead grows; the blossoms of the flowers fade; the leaves of the trees fall. Things are like foam in a dream. As fish gather in tiny pools of water, so life moves on as the days pass by. Parents and children, husbands and wives who passed their lives together, do not remain together. What use is high standing or wealth? Red cheeks in the morning, dead bones in the evening. Not to trust in the things of this perishing world but to enter upon the way of Buddha - thus will one stir up the mind that seeks the ways and believes in the exalted Dharma." (Muso Soseki, 1351)

"All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only law of life. He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying. Therefore love for love's sake, because it is the only law of life, just as you breathe to live." (Swami Vivekananda, [letter] 1895)

"Students should always be conscious to the advantages of fundamental principles, which are: practicing the movements slowly and evenly, inhaling and exhaling naturally so as to accumulate qi and concentrate the shen [spirit], and never employing muscular strength [li] too excessively. It is through softness and gentleness that you achieve mastery. This softness and gentleness means soft and continuous movements in conjunction with harmonious breathing." (Yearning K Chen, "T’ai Chi Ch’uan: Sword, Saber, Staff, and Dispersing-Hands Combined", 1943)

"Through slowness you can later be soft; through evenness you can later be gentle. The capability of being soft and gentle will cause the muscle and bone to be opened. The qi and blood will circulate harmoniously. From this the breath will become deep and long and the spirit of vitality can be stimulated and brought forth." (Yearning K Chen, "T’ai Chi Ch’uan: Sword, Saber, Staff, and Dispersing-Hands Combined", 1943)

"Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts." (Thich Nhat Hanh, "The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation", 1975)

"There are people who are born and die and never once are aware of their breath going in and out of their body. That's how far away they live from themselves." (Ajahn Chah, "The Peace Beyond", [talk] 1978)

"The subtle working of ki is the maternal source that affects changes in breath. It is also the source of martial art as love. When one unifies mind and body by virtue of ki and manifests ai-ki (harmony of ki), delicate changes in breath-power occur spontaneously and 'waza' (proper technique) flows freely." (Kisshomaru Ueshiba, "The Spirit of Aikido", 1981)

"Breathing in, I calm body and mind. Breathing out, I smile. 
Dwelling in the present moment I know this is the only moment." (Thich Nhat Hanh, "Being Peace", 1987)

"Breathing meditation can quiet the mind, open the body, and develop a great power of concentration." (Jack Kornfield, "A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life", 1993)

"If you breathe in and are aware that you are alive - that you can touch the miracle of being alive ~ then that is a kind of enlightenment." (Thich Nhat Hanh, "book Living Buddha, Living Christ", 1995)

"Regulating the mind and the breathing cannot be separated. When the mind is regulated, the breathing can be regulated. When the breathing is regulated, the mind is able to enter a deeper level of calmness. They help each other mutually." (Jwing-Ming Yang, "The Root of Chinese Qigong: Secrets for health, longevity" 2nd Ed., 1997)

"You should understand that your natural breathing is constantly affected by your thoughts and emotions." (Jwing-Ming Yang, "The Root of Chinese Qigong: Secrets for health, longevity" 2nd Ed., 1997)

"There is a close connection between breathing and mind. When breathing is disturbed, one’s mind is disturbed. When mind is disturbed, one’s breathing is disturbed." (Kazumi Tabata, "Mind Power: Secret Strategies for the Martial Arts", 2010)

"Where mindfulness is, true life, solidity, freedom, and healing also manifest. We all have the ability to generate this energy of mindfulness. Do walking meditation, breathe mindfully, drink your tea mindfully, and cultivate this energy that dwells in you, that illuminates you, and makes life possible." (Thich Nhat Hanh, "You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment", 2010)

"Without those things that produce the air that we breathe, there would be no air for us to breathe. In that way, we always depend on others and everything around us and therefore our well-being depends upon their wellbeing as well." (Gyalwa Karmapa, "The Heart Is Noble: Changing the World from the Inside Out", 2013)

"Chanting is no more holy than listening to the murmur of a stream,
couting prayer beads no more scared than simply breathing,
religious robed no more spiritual than work clothes." (Lao Tzu)

🆅Week 2025-01: On Virtue

"Boasting of wealth and virtue brings your demise." (Lao Tzu, (Lao Tzu, "Tao Te Ching", cca 400 BC)

"Give up virtue, renounce wisdom;

people will benefit a thousand times.

Give up kindness, renounce morality,

people will embrace love and filial piety.

Give up cleverness, renounce greed,

bandits and thieves will vanish." (Lao Tzu, "Tao Te Ching", cca 400 BC)

"When the great Too is forgotten,
virtue and morality arise.
When knowledge and intelligence are born,
the great pretense begins.
When there is no harmony within the family,
filial piety and devotion arise.
When the country is confused and in chaos,
loyal officials appear." (Lao Tzu, "Tao Te Ching", cca 400 BC)

"The greatest virtue is to be prudent, and wisdom is to speak the truth and with understanding to act according to nature. (Heraclitus of Ephesus, "Fragments" [75.112], cca. 5th century)

"A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all other virtues." (Marcus Tullius Cicero, "Pro Plancio" ["Defense of Plancius"], 54 BC) 

"Courage is the virtue which champions the cause of right." (Marcus Tullius Cicero, "De officiis" ["On Duties"], cca.44 BC)

"He who understands virtue will have a sufficient amount, that is all. He will not allow sensual desires to be a burden to his mind, the small to injure the great, or the secondary to destroy the fundamental." (Chang Tsai, "Cheng-meng" ["Correcting Youthful Ignorance"], 1076)

"The virtues and the vices are all put in motion by interest." (Francóis de La Róchefoucald, "Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims", 1665)

"The strength and its functioning vary greatly according to the depth or shallowness of insight, and the corresponding freedom of action. It is for this reason that now as in the past students with the same insight and training differ as to strength and virtue." ((Torei Enji, "The Inexhaustible Lamp" ["Shumon Mujinto Ron"], cca. 1800)

"To secure our own happiness and causes of happiness, we must first act to create wholesome causes of happiness. We must create virtue. We must engage in good conduct. We must generate wholesome attitudes. These are important." (Gyalwa Karmapa, "A Talk on Being a Principled Person of Good Conduct", 2009)

"People control themselves with virtue. One must practice virtue to alleviate spiritual strains and remember peace of mind to appreciate the generosity of the gods." (Kazumi Tabata, "Mind Power: Secret Strategies for the Martial Arts", 2010)

"He who governs by way of virtue [/ excellence] can be compared to the [North] Pole Star, which keeps its place while all the other stars position themselves around it." (Confucius)

🅱Week 2024-52: On Buddha Mind

"But when you try to stop your rising anger, [your mind] is split between your angry thoughts and your thoughts of stopping them. It’s as if you’re chasing after someone who is running away, except that you’re both the runner and the one pursuing him as well! [...] So the idea of trying to stop [your thoughts] is wrong. Since that’s how it is, when you no longer bother about those rising thoughts, not trying either to stop them or not to stop them, that’s the Unborn Buddha Mind." (Bankei Yōtaku, 1690)

"My own struggle was undertaken mistakenly, because I didn’t meet up with a clear-eyed master. Eventually, though, I discovered the Buddha-mind for myself; ever since, I have been telling others about theirs, so they’ll know about it without going through that ordeal, just as those people drink water and quench their thirst without having to go and find it for themselves." (Bankei Yōtaku, 1690)

"None of you could say that you heard the sounds because you had made up your minds to hear them beforehand. If you did, you wouldn’t be telling the truth. All of you are looking this way intent upon hearing me. You’re concentrating single-mindedly on listening. There’s no thought in any of your minds to hear the sounds or noises that might occur behind you. You are able to hear and distinguish sounds when they do occur without consciously intending to hear them because you’re listening by means of the unborn Buddha-mind." (Bankei Yōtaku, cca. 1690)

"The actual proof of this Unborn which perfectly manages [everything] is that, as you’re all turned this way listening to me talk, if out back there’s the cawing of crows, the chirping of sparrows or the rustling of the wind, even though you’re not deliberately trying to hear each of these sounds, you recognize and distinguish each one. The voices of the crows and sparrows, the rustling of the wind - you hear them without making any mistake about them, and that’s what’s called hearing with the Unborn. In this way, all things are perfectly managed with the Unborn. This is the actual proof of the Unborn. Conclusively realize that what’s unborn and marvelously illuminating is truly the Buddha Mind." (Bankei Yōtaku, 1690)

🅼Week 2024-52: On Middle Path

"Avoiding both these extremes, [indulgence of sense pleasures, devotion to self-mortification] the Tathagata has realized the Middle Path: it gives vision, it gives knowledge, and it leads to calm, to insight, to enlightenment, to Nirvana." ("Samyutta-nikāya" ["Kindred Sayings"], [Pāli Canon, first sermon of Buddha] cca. 5th century BC)

"The true way is the middle one, halfway between deserving a place and pushing oneself into it." (Baltasar Gracián, "The Art of Worldly Wisdom", 1647)

"Setting aside the fact that coercion and guidance can never succeed in producing virtue, they manifestly tend to weaken power; and what are tranquil order and outward morality without true moral strength and virtue? Moreover, however great an evil immorality may be, we must not forget that it is not without its beneficial consequences. It is only through extremes that men can arrive at the middle path of wisdom and virtue." (Wilhelm von Humboldt, "The Limits of State Action", 1792)

"Harmonizing opposites by going back to their source is the distinctive quality of the Zen attitude, the Middle Way: embracing contradictions, making a synthesis of them, achieving balance." (Taisen Deshimaru, "Zen: Here and Now", [documentary] 1971)

"Our task is to strike a balance, to find a middle way, to learn not to overextend ourselves with extraneous activities and preoccupations, but to simplify our lives more and more. The key to finding a happy balance in modern life is simplicity." (Sogyal Rinpoche, "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying", 1992)

"As human beings, not only do we seek resolution, but we also feel that we deserve resolution. However, not only do we not deserve resolution, we suffer from resolution. We don't deserve resolution; we deserve something better than that. We deserve our birthright, which is the middle way, an open state of mind that can relax with paradox and ambiguity." (Pema Chödrön, "When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times", 1996)

"The middle way cannot be achieved by dividing two extremes in half." (Eric Maisel, "Affirmations for Artists", 1996)

"The Buddha's message was simple but profound. Neither a life of self-indulgence nor one of self-mortification can bring happiness. Only a middle path, avoiding these two extremes, leads to peace of mind, wisdom, & complete liberation from the dissatisfactions of life." (Henepola Gunaratana, "Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness: Walking the Buddha's Path", 2001)

"To pursue enlightenment is to search for immeasurable truth, to acquire the ability manipulate life at will, to investigate phenomena that originate in our mind, and to undergo training to recall what our ancestors and predecessors had learned. The aim of the martial arts is not only to unveil the true nature and the laws of the universe through mental and physical exercises, but also to attain eternal tranquility. Enlightenment is achieved when the mind and body are guided to a higher dimension. An enlightened person holds no attachment to his skill or mind, let alone other worldly matters. This means that such a person knows how to practice the middle path." (Kazumi Tabata, "Mind Power: Secret Strategies for the Martial Arts", 2010)

🅰Week 2024-51: On Attachment

"Loving, hating, having expectations: all these are attachments. Attachment prevents the growth of one's true being." (Lao Tsu, "Hua Hu Ching: Teachings of Lao Tzu", cca. 4th century BC)

"Most of the world's religions serve only to strengthen attachments to false concepts such as self and other, life and death, heaven and earth, and so on. Those who become entangled in these false ideas are prevented from perceiving the Integral Oneness." (Lao Tsu, "Hua Hu Ching: Teachings of Lao Tzu", cca. 4th century BC)

"To manage your mind, know that there is nothing, and then relinquish all attachment to nothingness." (Lao Tsu, "Hua Hu Ching: Teachings of Lao Tzu", cca. 4th century BC)

"The Noble Truth of Suffering is this: Birth is suffering, ageing is suffering; sickness is suffering; death is suffering; sorrow and lamentation, pain, grief and despair are suffering; association with the unpleasant is suffering; dissociation from the pleasant is suffering; not to get what one wants is suffering - in brief, the five aggregates of attachment are suffering." (Pāli Canon, "Samyutta-nikāya" ["Kindred Sayings"], [First Sermon of the Buddha] cca. 3rd century) 

"What is called 'consciousness' (vijnana) is the 'continuing mind'. Because of their deep-rooted attachment, ordinary men imagine that I and Mine are real and cling to them in their illusions. As soon as objects are presented, this consciousness rests on them and discriminates the objects of the five senses and of the mind. This is called 'vijnana' [i.e., the differentiating consciousness] or the 'separating consciousness'." (Ashvaghosha, "The Awakening of Faith", cca. 2nd century)

"The objects of sense are originally empty and null; ordinary people arbitrarily create attachments and fixations. Nirvana and samsara are equal; who in the world gets differential treatment? The uncontrived Great Way is natural and spontaneous; you don’t need to use your mind to figure it out." (Pao-chih,"The Nonduality of Good and Evil", cca. 6th century) 

"To live in the Great Way is neither easy nor difficult, but those with limited views are fearful and irresolute: the faster they hurry, the slower they go, and clinging cannot be limited: even to be attached to the idea of enlightenment is to go astray. Just let things be in their own way and there will be neither coming nor going. Obey the nature of things (your own nature), and you will walk freely and undisturbed." (Jianzhi Sengcan, "Xinxin Ming" ["Inscription on Faith in Mind"], 6th century)

"No-mind does not mean the unconsciousness of wood or tile. It means that when you come into contact with external objects, your mind is immovable and does not get attached to anything. There is total freedom and non-obstruction. You are not defiled by anything. On the other hand, you should not abide in non-defilement either. While you view the body and the mind as a dream and an illusion, you nevertheless do not abide in the emptiness of dreams and illusions. When you reach this state, you have then really achieved no-mind." (Ta-hui Tsung-kao, 12th century) 

"You students, are you trying to learn zazen or are you trying to learn sitting Buddhahood? If you are learning zazen, Zen is not sitting and lying down. If you are learning sitting Buddhahood, Buddha is not a fixed form. According to the teaching of non-attachment or non-settling down, you should not adopt this or reject that. You students, if you try to become a sitting Buddha you kill the Buddha, and if you become attached to sitting you will not reach that principle." (Koun Ejo, "Shōbōgenzō Zuimonki" ["The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: Record of Things Heard"], cca. 1239)

"The impurity of the mind is greed, and the impurity of the tongue is falsehood. The impurity of the eyes is to gaze upon the beauty of another man's wife, and his wealth. The impurity of the ears is to listen to the slander of others. O Nanak, the mortal's soul goes, bound and gagged to the city of Death. All impurity comes from doubt and attachment to duality. Birth and death are subject to the Command of the Lord's Will; through His Will we come and go." (Guru Nanak Dev Ji, cca. 16th century) 

"If a warrior is not unattached to life and death, he will be of no use whatsoever. The saying that All abilities come from one mind sounds as though it has to do with sentient matters, but it is in fact a matter of being unattached to life and death. With such non-attachment one can accomplish any feat." (Yamamoto Tsunetomo, "Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai", cca. 1716)

"Meditate upon the Knowledge and Bliss Eternal, and you will also have bliss. The Bliss indeed is eternal, only it is covered and obscured by ignorance. The less your attachment is towards the senses, the more will be your love towards God." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, cca. 1886)

"As soon as extreme attachment comes, a man loses himself, he is no more master of himself, he is a slave." (Swami Vivekananda,"The Preparation", [lecture] 1895)

"Our misery comes, not from work, but by our getting attached to something. Take for instance, money: money is a great thing to have, earn it, says Krishna; struggle hard to get money, but don't get attached to it. So with children, with wife, husband, relatives, fame, everything; you have no need to shun them, only don't get attached. There is only one attachment and that belongs to the Lord, and to none other." (Swami Vivekananda, "Karma Yoga", 1896)

"This attachment of Love to God is indeed one that does not bind the soul but effectively breaks all its bondages." (Swami Vivekananda, "Para-Bhakti" ["Supreme Devotion"], cca. 1900)

"Meditate upon the Knowledge and Bliss Eternal, and you will also have bliss. The Bliss indeed is eternal, only it is covered and obscured by ignorance. The less your attachment is towards the senses, the more will be your love towards God." (Sri Ramakrishna, 1916)

"God is directly perceived by the mind, but not by this ordinary mind. It is the pure mind that perceives God, and at that time this ordinary mind does not function. A mind that has the slightest trace of attachment to the world cannot be called pure. When all the impurities of the mind are removed, you may call that mind Pure Mind or Pure Ātman." (Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, "The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna", 1942)

"Even in the world, the yogi who faithfully discharges his responsibilities, without personal motive or attachment, treads the sure path of enlightenment." (Mahavatar Babaj [in Paramahansa Yogananda's "Autobiography of a Yogi", 1946])

"In the spiritual life one becomes just like a little child, without resentment, without attachment, full of life and joy." (Paramahansa Yogananda, Self-realization Magazine, 1960) 

"And we should forget, day by day, what we have done; this is true non-attachment. And we should do something new. To do something new, of course we must know our past, and this is alright. But we should not keep holding onto anything we have done; we should only reflect on it. And we must have some idea of what we should do in the future. But the future is the future, the past is the past; now we should work on something new." (Shunryu Suzuki, "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind", 1970)

"When we are absorbed in other things, in the not-self, we forget the self. There is nothing unnatural about it. But, why forget the self through excess of attachment? Wisdom lies in never forgetting the self as the ever-present source of both the experiencer and his experience." (Nisargadatta Maharaj, "I Am That", 1973)

"Clear mind is like the full moon in the sky. Sometimes clouds come and cover it, but the moon is always behind them. Clouds go away, then the moon shines brightly. So don't worry about clear mind: it is always there. When thinking comes, behind it is clear mind. When thinking goes, there is only clear mind. Thinking comes and goes, comes and goes, You must not be attached to the coming or the going." (Seungsahn Haengwon, "Dropping Ashes on the Buddha by Zen", 1976)

"Craziness is good. Crazy people are happy, free, they have no hindrance. But since you have many attachment, you are only a little crazy. This is not crazy enough. You must become completely crazy. Then you will understand." (Seungsahn Haengwon, "Dropping Ashes on the Buddha by Zen", 1976)

"Attachment to views is the greatest impediment to the spiritual path." (Thich Nhat Hanh, "Old Path White Clouds: Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha", 1987)

"As human beings we have the capacity to enjoy limitless, blissful happiness...there is nothing wrong with having pleasures and enjoyments. What is wrong is the confused way we grasp onto these pleasures, turning them from a source of happiness into a source of pain and dissatisfaction. It is grasping and attachment that is the problem, not the pleasure themselves [...]" (Thubten Yeshe, "Introduction to Tantra: The Transformation of Desire", 1987)

"The near enemy of love is attachment. Attachment masquerades as love. It says, I will love this person because I need them. Or, I'll love you if you'll love me back. I'll love you, but only if you will be the way I want. This isn't love at all - it is attachment - and attachment is rigid, it is very different from love." (Jack Kornfield & Joseph Goldstein, "Seeking the Heart of Wisdom: The Path of Insight Meditation", 1987)

"Materialism, attachment to things of the world, includes pride. Many religious people suffer from pride: taking pleasure or even delight in being good, or religious." (Idries Shah, "Sufi Thought and Action", 1990)

"To study Buddhism and then use it as a weapon in order to criticize others' theories or ideologies is wrong. The very purpose of religion is to control yourself, not to criticize others. Rather, we must criticize ourselves. How much am I doing about my anger? About my attachment, about my hatred, about my pride, my jealousy? These are the things which we must check in daily life with the knowledge of the Buddhist teachings." (Tenzin Gyatso [14th Dalai Lama], "The Dalai Lama: A Policy of Kindness", 1990)

"Understanding that everything is impermanent, that happiness is transformed into suffering, and that all phenomena are lacking reality in themselves and are only projections of our mind, will permit us to counteract the first hindrance to meditation, that is, our attachment to this world." (Bokar Tulku Rinpoche, "Meditation: Advice to Beginners", 1993) 

"Just know what is happening in your mind - not happy or sad about it, not attached. If you suffer see it, know it, and be empty. It's like a letter - you have to open it before you can know what's in it." (Ajahn Chah, "A Tree in the Fores", 1995)

"The tragedy of an attachment is that if its object is not attained it causes unhappiness. But if it is attained, it does not cause happiness – it merely causes a flash of pleasure followed by weariness, and it is always accompanied, of course, by the anxiety that you may lose the object of your attachment." (Anthony de Mello, "The Way to Love", 1995)

"Always recognize the dreamlike qualities of life and reduce attachment and aversion. Practice good-heartedness toward all beings. Be loving and compassionate, no matter what others do to you. What they will do will not matter so much when you see it as a dream. The trick is to have positive intention during the dream. This is the essential point. This is true spirituality." (Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, "Life in Relation to Death" 2nd. ed., 2000)

"Attachment constrains our vision so that we are not able to see things from a wider perspective." (Tenzin Gyatso [14th Dalai Lama], "Transforming the mind: teachings on generating compassion", 2000)

"You have everything and you want more. It's natural in human beings. You don't need to give away your house, money, and car, and leave your family to find God. The only thing necessary is to understand attachment." (Baba Hari Dass, "Everyday Peace: Letters for Life", 2000)

"A feeling of aversion or attachment toward something is your clue that there's work to be done." (Ram Dass, "One-Liners: A Mini-Manual for a Spiritual Life", 2002)

"Attachment to being right creates suffering. When you have a choice to be right, or to be kind, choose kind and watch your suffering disappear." (Wayne Dyer, "Everyday Wisdom", 2005) 

"According to Buddhist psychology most of our troubles stem from attachment to things that we mistakenly see as permanent." (Tenzin Gyatso [14th Dalai Lama], "How to See Yourself As You Really Are", 2006) 

"Enjoy everything that happens in your life, but never make your happiness or success dependent on an attachment to any person, place, or thing." (Wayne Dyer, "Everyday Wisdom for Success", 2006)

"The aim of meditation lies in introspection. Meditation without self-examination is useless because distortion of the mind is not corrected. As a result, you may easily succumb to temptation or your mind may not function properly. Your preoccupation with attachment makes you vulnerable to temptation. Consequently, attachment grows even stronger, preventing you from engaging in introspection." (Kazumi Tabata, "Mind Power: Secret Strategies for the Martial Arts", 2010)

"To pursue enlightenment is to search for immeasurable truth, to acquire the ability manipulate life at will, to investigate phenomena that originate in our mind, and to undergo training to recall what our ancestors and predecessors had learned. The aim of the martial arts is not only to unveil the true nature and the laws of the universe through mental and physical exercises, but also to attain eternal tranquility. Enlightenment is achieved when the mind and body are guided to a higher dimension. An enlightened person holds no attachment to his skill or mind, let alone other worldly matters. This means that such a person knows how to practice the middle path." (Kazumi Tabata, "Mind Power: Secret Strategies for the Martial Arts", 2010)

"Letting go of attachment to any way of believing or thinking has made me feel more expanded and almost transparent so that universal energy can just flow through me." (Anita Moorjani, "Dying to Be Me", 2012)

"Don’t be attached to visions or lights in meditation, don’t rise or fall with them. What’s so great about brightness? My flashlight has it. It can’t help us rid ourselves of our suffering." (Ajahn Chah)

"Once you understand non-self, then the burden of life is gone. You'll be at peace with the world. When we see beyond self, we no longer cling to happiness and we can truly be happy. Learn to let go without struggle, simply let go, to be just as you are - no holding on, no attachment, free." (Ajahn Chah)

"There needs to be understanding that anger never helps to solve a problem. It destroys our peace of mind and blinds our ability to think clearly. Anger and attachment are emotions that distort our view of reality." (Dalai Lama) [attributed]

"You are your own teacher. Looking for teachers can’t solve your own doubts. Investigate yourself to find the truth - inside, not outside. Knowing yourself is most important. Read yourself, not books. Just know what is happening in your mind - not happy or sad about it, not attached. If you suffer see it, know it, and be empty." (Ajahn Chah)

🅵Week 2024-50: On Fortune

"A righteous government is of all the most to be wished for,

Bearing of blessing and good fortune in the highest.

Guided by the law of Truth, supported by dedication and zeal,

It blossoms into the Best of Order, a Kingdom of Heaven!

To effect this I shall work now and ever more." (Zarathustra [Zoroaster], "Vohu-Khshathra Gatha" (Vestra), cca. 1500-1000 BC) 

"I should rather labor as another's serf, in the home of a man without fortune, one whose livelihood was meager, than rule over all the departed dead." (Homer, "The Odyssey", cca. 750 BC)

"A mind unruffled by the vagaries of fortune, from sorrow freed, from defilements cleansed, from fear liberated - this is the greatest blessing." (Gautama Buddha, "Mangala Sutta", cca. 6th century BC) 

"Fortune always will confer an aura
Of worth, unworthily; and in this world
The lucky person passes for a genius." (Euripedes, "The Heracleidae", 430–429 BC)

"What shall I say? that thou from Heaven look'st down Upon mankind, or have they rashly formed A vain opinion, deeming that the race Of gods exists, though fortune governs." (Euripides, Hecuba, cca. 424 BC)

"Chorus of women: [...] Oh! my good, gallant Lysistrata, and all my friends, be ever like a bundle of nettles; never let you anger slacken; the wind of fortune blown our way." (Aristophanes, "Lysistrata", 411 BC) 

"You can now, if you choose, employ your present success to advantage, so as to keep what you have got and gain honour and reputation besides, and you can avoid the mistake of those who meet with an extraordinary piece of good fortune, and are led on by hope to grasp continually at something further, through having already succeeded without expecting it." (Thucydides, "History of the Peloponnesian War" Book IV 4.17, cca. 425–400 BC) 

"Man is born for uprightness. If a man lose his uprightness, and yet live, his escape from death is the effect of mere good fortune." (Confucius, "Analects", cca. 4th century)

"The makers of fortunes have a second love of money as a creation of their own, resembling the affection of authors for their own poems, or of parents for their children, besides that natural love of it for the sake of use and profit." (Plato, "Republic", cca. 380-370)

"To man no suffering unexpected comes;

We hold our fortune but from day to day." (Diphilus of Sinope, "Fabulae Incertae", cca. 330-289 BC) 

"Friends are much better tried in bad fortune than in good." (Aristotle, "Nicomachean Ethics" cca. 325 BC)

"The man who is truly good and wise will bear with dignity whatever fortune sends, and will always make the best of his circumstances." (Aristotle, "Nicomachean Ethics" cca. 325 BC)

"Is it possible, then, for any man to apprehend in advance occurrences for which no cause or reason can be assigned? What do we mean when we employ such terms as luck, fortune, accident, turn of the die, except that we are seeking to describe events which happened and came to pass in such a way that they either might not have happened and come to pass at all or might have happened and come to pass under quite different circumstances? How then can an event be anticipated and predicted which occurs fortuitously and as a result of blind chance and of the spinning of Fortune's wheel?" (Marcus Tulius Cicero, "De Divinatione", 44 BC)

"No man ever wetted clay and then left it, as if there would be bricks by chance and fortune." (Plutarch, "De Fortuna" ["Of Fortune"], cca 1st century) 

"His own character is the arbiter of every one's fortune." (Publilius Syrus, "Sententiae" ["Sentences"], 46–43 BC) 

"An infant realm and fortune hard, 

Compel me thus my shores to guard." (Virgil, "Aeneid", 29–19 BC)

"A great fortune is a great slavery." (Seneca the Younger, "Ad Polybium De Consolatione" ["Of Consolation, To Polybius"], cca. 43-44)

"There was more courage in bearing trouble than in escaping from it; the brave and the energetic cling to hope, even in spite of fortune; the cowardly and the indolent are hurried by their fears,' said Plotius Firmus, Roman Praetorian." (Tacitus, "TheHistories", 100–110)

"These times having the rare good fortune that you may think what you like and say what you think." (Tacitus, "TheHistories", 100–110)

"Not even the vicissitudes of fortune are contrary to nature or to the providential ordering of the universe. It all flows from the gods, who determine what is needed for the welfare of the whole universe, of which you are a part." (Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations", cca. 170-180)

"There are three attributes for which I am grateful to Fortune: that I was born, first, human and not animal; second, man and not woman; and third, Greek and not barbarian." (Thales of Miletus [attributed by Diogenes Laërtius in "Opinions of Eminent Philosophers", 3rd century])

"A Buddha is someone who finds freedom in good fortune and bad." (Bodhidharma, cca. 6th century)

"So long as fortune is favouring you, your defects will remain covered." (Ali ibn Abi Talib, [compiled in Nahj al-Balagha, cca 10th century] 656-661) 

"Everything is destiny. A man should accept obediently what is correct [in his destiny]. If one obeys the principles of his nature and destiny, he will obtain what is correct in them. If one destroys principle and indulges in desires to the limit, he will be inviting evil fortune." (Chang Tsai, "Zhengmeng" ["Correcting Youthful Ignorance"], 1076)

"Come, seek, for search is the foundation of fortune:

every success depends upon focusing the heart." (Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, Masnavi, cca. 13th century) 

"He who finds Fortune on his side should go briskly ahead, for she is wont to favor the bold." (Baltasar Gracian, "The Art of Worldly Wisdom" 1647)

"Some are satisfied to stand politely before the portals of Fortune and to await her bidding; better those who push forward, who employ their enterprise, who on the wings of their worth and valor seek to embrace luck, and to effectively gain her favor." (Baltasar Gracian, "The Art of Worldly Wisdom" 1647)

"The shortest and best way to make your fortune is to let people see that it is in their interests to promote yours." (Jean de La Bruyère, "Les Caractères" ["Characters"), 1688)

"The cause of the bad and of the good fortune of men is the way in which their method of working fits the times." (Niccolò Machiavelli, "Discourse upon the First Ten Books of Livy" cca. 1513–17)

"You cannot tell whether a person is good or bad by his vicissitudes in life. Good and bad fortune are matters of fate." (Yamamoto Tsunetomo, "Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai", cca. 1716)

"Fortune in men has some small diff'rence made,

One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade,

The cobbler apron'd, and the parson gown'd,

The friar hooded, and the monarch crown'd." (Alexander Pope, "An Essay on Man", 1734)

"Not only ought fortune to be pictured on a wheel, but every thing else in this world." (George Herbert, "Prose", 1846) 

"Therever fortune clears a way, thither our ready footsteps stray." (Jules Verne, "Journey to the Center of the Earth", 1864)

"Wherever good fortune enters, envy lays siege to the place and attacks it; and when it departs, sorrow and repentance remain behind." (Leonardo da Vinci, "The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci", 1888)

"Because we all share this small planet earth, we have to learn to live in harmony and peace with each other and with nature. That is not just a dream, but a necessity. We are dependent on each other in so many ways, that we can no longer live in isolated communities and ignore what is happening outside those communities, and we must share the good fortune that we enjoy." (Tenzin Gyatso [14th Dalai Lama], [Nobel lecture] 1989)

"True friends share genuine closeness and remain friends irrespective of fluctuating fortunes." (Tenzin Gyatso [14th Dalai Lama], "The transformed mind: reflections on truth, love, and hapiness", 1999)

" To help us bring benefit to others through our words and actions, it is useful to cultivate an attitude of sympathetic joy in others' achievements and good fortune. This attitude is a powerful antidote against envy, which is not only a source of unnecessary suffering on the individual level but also an obstacle to our ability to reach out and engage with others." (Tenzin Gyatso [14th Dalai Lama], "Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World", 2011)

"Fortune cannot aid those who do nothing." (Sophocles)

"It is more easy to get a favor from fortune than to keep it." (Publilius Syrus)

"Ninja live in a protected wind. The wind runs directly into the flames, fans them, climbs to the heavens, and gathers great skills. The wind kami bestows honor and good fortune." (Masaaki Hatsumi)

"We must master our good fortune, or it will master us." (Publilius Syrus)

🕉️Week 2024-49: Rabindranath Tagore - Collected Quotes

"A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it." (Rabindranath Tagore)

"Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time." (Rabindranath Tagore)

"Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark." (Rabindranath Tagore)

"It is very simple to be happy, but it is very difficult to be simple. (Rabindranath Tagore)

"Music fills the infinite between two souls." (Rabindranath Tagore)

"The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough." (Rabindranath Tagore)

"The fish in the water is silent, the animals on the earth is noisy, the bird in the air is singing. But man has in him the silence of the sea, the noise of the earth and the music of the air." (Rabindranath Tagore, "Stray Birds", 1916) 

"The fundamental desire of life is the desire to exist." (Rabindranath Tagore)

"The higher nature in man always seeks for something which transcends itself and yet is its deepest truth; which claims all its sacrifice, yet makes this sacrifice its own recompense. This is man's dharma, man's religion, and man's self is the vessel which is to carry this sacrifice to the altar." (Rabindranath Tagore, "Sādhanā: The Realization of Life", 1913) 

"The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence." (Rabindranath Tagore)

"The most important lesson that man can learn from his life is not that there is pain in this world, but that it depends upon him to turn it into good account, that it is possible for him to transmute it into joy... Man's freedom is never in being saved troubles, but it is the freedom to take trouble for his own good, to make the trouble an element in his joy [...] that in pain is symbolised the infinite possibility of perfection, the eternal unfolding of joy." (Rabindranath Tagore)

"The object of education is to give man the unity of truth. Formerly, when life was simple, all the different elements of man were in complete harmony. But when there came the separation of the intellect from the spiritual and the physical, the school education put entire emphasis on intellect and the physical side of man. We devote our sole attention to giving children information, not knowing that by this emphasis we are accentuating a break between the intellectual, physical, and the spiritual life... I believe in a spiritual world -  not as anything separate from this world -  but as its innermost truth. With the breath we draw we must always feel this truth, that we are living in God. Born in this great world, full of the mystery of the infinite, we cannot accept our existence as a momentary outburst of chance drifting on the current of matter toward an eternal nowhere. We cannot look upon our lives as dreams of a dreamer who has no awakening in all time. We have a personality to which matter and force are unmeaning unless related to something infinitely personal, whose nature we have discovered, in some measure, in human love, in the greatness of the good, in the martyrdom of heroic souls, in the ineffable beauty of nature which can never be a mere physical fact nor anything but an expression of personality." (Rabindranath Tagore)

"The picture of a flower in a botanical book is information; its mission ends with our knowledge. But in pure art it is a personal communication. And therefore until it finds its harmony in the depth of our personality it misses the mark. We can treat existence solely as a textbook furnishing us lessons, and we shall not be disappointed, but we know that there its mission does not end. For in our joy in it, which is an end in itself, we feel that it is a communication, the final response of our knowing but the response of our being." (Rabindranath Tagore)

"The progress of our soul is like a perfect poem. It has an infinite idea which once realised makes all movements full of meaning and joy. But if we detach its movements from that ultimate idea, if we do not see the infinite rest and only see the infinite motion, then existence appears to us a monstrous evil., impetuously rushing towards an unending aimlessness." (Rabindranath Tagore)

"The tendency in modern civilization is to make the world uniform... Let the mind be universal. The individual should not be sacrificed." (Rabindranath Tagore)

"Things are distinct not in their essence but in their appearance; in other words, in their relation to one to whom they appear. This is art, the truth of which is not in substance or logic, but in expression. Abstract truth may belong to science and metaphysics, but the world of reality belongs to art." (Rabindranath Tagore)

"Time is a wealth of change, but the clock in its parody makes it mere change and no wealth." (Rabindranath Tagore)

"Time is a wealth of change, but the clock in its parody makes it mere change and no wealth." (Rabindranath Tagore)

"To understand anything is to find in it something which is our own, and it is the discovery of ourselves outside us which makes us glad. This relation of understanding is partial, but the relation of love is complete. In love the sense of difference is obliterated and the human soul fulfills its purpose in perfection, transcending the limits of itself and reaching across the threshold of the infinite. Therefore love is the highest bliss that man can attain to, for through it alone he truly knows that he is more than himself, and that he is at one with the All." (Rabindranath Tagore)

"We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility." (Rabindranath Tagore)

"What is Art? It is the response of man's creative soul to the call of the Real." (Rabindranath Tagore)

"Whatever we treasure for ourselves separates us from others; our possessions are our limitations." (Rabindranath Tagore)

"Where the old tracks are lost, new country is revealed with its wonders." (Rabindranath Tagore)

"With begging and scrambling we find very little, but with being true to ourselves we find a great deal more." (Rabindranath Tagore)

"You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water. Don't let yourself indulge in vain wishes." (Rabindranath Tagore)

🅼Week 2024-48: On Misfortune

"After that, comes tactical maneuvering, than which there is nothing more difficult. The difficulty of tactical maneuvering consists in turning the devious into the direct, and misfortune into gain." (Sun Tzu, "The Art of War", 5th century BC)

"There is no disaster greater than not being content; There is no misfortune greater than being covetous." (Lao Tzu, "Tao Te Ching", cca 400 BC)

"Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil. 'Tis the sole remedy against misfortune, the very ventilation of the soul." (Baltasar Gracian, "The Art of Worldly Wisdom" 1647)

"There is no wilderness like a life without friends; friendship multiplies blessings and minimizes misfortunes; it is a unique remedy against adversity, and it soothes the soul."(Baltasar Gracian, "The Art of Worldly Wisdom" 1647)

"Samurai should always wish to keep to the righteous path and try not to fall into the way of depravity, no matter what happens. Those samurai who keep on with the right path will achieve high honours with the aid of Buddha and the gods, while those who have fallen into a corrupt way will naturally meet with misfortune and be laughed at by the people of the world." (Musha Monogatari, 1654)

"All that philosophy can teach is to be stubborn or sullen under misfortunes." (Oliver Goldsmith, "The Miscellaneous Works of Dr. Goldsmith", 1792)

"I am learning to understand rather than immediately judge or to be judged. I cannot blindly follow the crowd and accept their approach. I will not allow myself to indulge in the usual manipulating game of role creation. Fortunately for me, my self-knowledge has transcended that and I have come to understand that life is best to be lived and not to be conceptualized. I am happy because I am growing daily and I am honestly not knowing where the limit lies. To be certain, every day there can be a revelation or a new discovery. I treasure the memory of the past misfortunes. It has added more to my bank of fortitude." (Bruce Lee, 1973)

"Even in the darkest moments, light exists if you have the faith to see it. Fear is a poison produced by the mind, and courage is the antidote stored always in the soul. In misfortune lies the seed of future triumph." (Dean Koontz, "One Door Away from Heaven", 2001)

"No one is exempt from talking nonsense. The great misfortune is to do it solemnly." (Anthony de Mello, "One Minute Nonsense", 2003)

"What fate can be worse than to know we have no one but ourselves to blame for our misfortunes!" (Sophocles)

🏛️Week 2024-47: Aristotle - Collected Quotes

"A deduction is a demonstration when the premisses from which the deduction starts are true and primitive, or are such that our knowledge of them has originally come through premisses which are primitive and true." (Aristotle, "Topics", cca. 350 BC)

"A problem that is suitable for argumentative reasoning is one for which there are numerous and good arguments." (Aristotle, "Topics", cca. 350 BC)

"A quantity is infinite if it is such that we can always take a part outside what has been already taken." (Aristotle, "Physics")

"All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire." (Aristotle)

"But Nature flies from the infinite, for the infinite is unending or imperfect, and Nature ever seeks an end." (Aristotle, "Generation of Animals")

"Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all." (Aristotle)

"Education and morals will be found almost the whole that goes to make a good man." (Aristotle)

"Education is the best provision for old age." (Aristotle)

"For generally the infinite has this mode of existence: one thing is always being taken after another, and each thing that is taken is always finite […]." (Aristotle, "Physics")

"For that which is probable is that which generally happens." (Aristotle, "The Art of Rhetoric", 4th century BC)

"For the things we have to learn before we can do, we learn by doing." (Aristotle, "Nicomachean Ethics", Book II, 349 BC)

"[Imagination is] that in virtue of which we say that an image occurs to us and not as we speak of it metaphorically."  (Aristotle, "De Anima" III, cca. 350 BC)

"In all things which have a plurality of parts, and which are not a total aggregate but a whole of some sort distinct from the parts, there is some cause." (Aristotle, "Metaphysics", cca. 335-323 BC)

"Intuition is the source of scientific knowledge." (Aristotle)

"It is impossible that the existence of something [one thing] should necessitate both the existence and the non-existence of something else [i.e., one (same) other thing]." (Aristotle, "Posterior Analytics", cca. 350 BC)

"It is obvious then, that memory belongs to that part of the soul to which imagination belongs. […] Just as the picture painted on the panel is at once a picture and a portrait, and though one and the same, is both, yet the essence of the two is not the same, and it is possible to think of it both as a picture and as a portrait, so in the same way we must regard the mental picture within us both as an object of contemplation in itself and as a mental picture of something else […]. Insofar as we consider it in relation to something else, e.g. as a likeness, it is also an aid to memory." (Aristotle, "De Memoria et Reminiscentia" [On Memory and Recollection], 4th century BC)

"It is the mark of an educated mind to rest satisfied with the degree of precision which the nature of the subject admits and not to seek exactness where only an approximation is possible."  (Aristotle, "Nicomachean Ethics", Book II, 349 BC)

"Knowledge, then, is a state of capacity to demonstrate, and has the other limiting characteristics which we specify in the Analytics; for it is when one believes in a certain way and the principles are known to him that he has knowledge, since if they are not better known to him than the conclusion, he will have his knowledge only on the basis of some concomitant." (Aristotle," Nicomachean Ethics", cca. 340 BC)

"Metaphysics is universal and is exclusively concerned with primary substance. […] And here we will have the science to study that which is, both in its essence and in the properties which, just as a thing that is, it has. […] That among entities there must be some cause which moves and combines things. […] There must then be a principle of such a kind that its substance is activity." (Aristotle, "Metaphysics", cca. 335-323 BC) 

"Sense perception is a prerequisite for memory; the memory of frequently repeated sense perceptions results in experimental proof; experimental proofs provide the materials for a science or an art.” (Aristotle)

"So poetry is something more philosophical and more worthy of serious attention than history, for while poetry is concerned with universal truth, history treats of particular facts [...]" (Aristotle, "Poetics", cca. 350 BC)

"The infinite is imperfect, unfinished and therefore, unthinkable; it is formless and confused."  (Aristotle)

"The intellectual capacity thinks the forms in the phantasmata (mental images) […] And for the following reason, as without having perceptual awareness no one could either learn or understand anything, so when one engages in intellectual activity one must at that time do so by means of a phantasma. For, phantasmata are just as perceptual states (aisthemata) are [in actual external perception] but without matter." (Aristotle, "De Anima" III, cca. 350 BC)

"The same ideas, one must believe, recur in men’s minds not once or twice but again and again." (Aristotle, "De Caelo" ["On the Heavens"], cca. 350 BC)

"The soul never thinks without a picture." (Aristotle)

"The whole is more than the sum of its parts." (Aristotle, "Metaphysics", cca. 335-323 BC)

"When the consequences of either assumption are the same, we should always assume that things are finite rather than infinite in number, since in things constituted by nature that which is infinite and that which is better ought, if possible, to be present rather than the reverse […]" (Aristotle)

"While those whom devotion to abstract discussions has rendered unobservant of the facts are too ready to dogmatize on the basis of a few observations." (Aristotle, "De Caelo" ["On the Heavens"], cca. 350 BC)

🏛️Week 2024-46:Saint Augustine of Hippo - Collected Quotes

"If I am given a formula, and I am ignorant of its meaning, it cannot teach me anything, but if I already know it what does the formula teach me?" (Saint Augustine of Hippo , "De Magistro", 389)

"The inclination to seek the truth is safer than the presumption which regards unknown things as known." (Augustine of Hippo, "De Trinitate", 417)

"The mind itself, its love of itself and it knowledge of itself are a kind of trinity." (Augustine of Hippo, "De Trinitate", 417)

"Then assuredly the world was made, not in time, but simultaneously with time." (Augustine of Hippo, "The City of God", 426)

"A free curiosity is more effective in learning than a rigid discipline." (Augustine of Hippo)

"Faith is to believe what you do not yet see; the reward for this faith is to see what you believe." (Augustine of Hippo)

"Free curiosity has greater power to stimulate learning than rigorous coercion. Nevertheless, the free ranging flux of curiosity is channeled by discipline under Your Law." (Augustine of Hippo)

"No one indeed believes anything unless he has first thought that it it to be believed." (Augustine of Hippo)

"Time is like a river made up of events which happen, and its current is strong; no sooner does anything appear than it is swept away." (Augustine of Hippo)

"When regard for truth has been broken down or even slightly weakened, all things will remain doubtful." (Augustine of Hippo)

🏛️Week 2024-46: Archimedes - Collected Quotes

"Those who claim to discover everything but produce no proofs of the same may be confuted as having actually pretended to discover the impossible." (Archimedes, "On Spirals", cca. 225 BC)

"Equal weights at equal distances are in equilibrium and equal weights at unequal distances are not in equilibrium but incline towards the weight which is at the greater distance." (Archimedes, "On the Equilibrium of Planes" Vol. I, 3rd century BC)

"It is evidently equally foolish to accept probable reasoning from a mathematician and to demand from a rhetorician demonstrative proofs." (Aristotle, cca. 4th century BC)

"It is of course easier to supply the proof when we have previously acquired some knowledge of the questions by the method, than it is to find it without any previous knowledge." (Archimedes, cca. 3rd century BC)

"Two magnitudes whether commensurable or incommensurable, balance at distances reciprocally proportional to the magnitudes." (Archimedes, "On the Equilibrium of Planes" Vol. I, 3rd century BC)

"Give me but one firm spot on which to stand, and I will move the earth." (Archimedes)

🅻Week 2024-44: On Letting Go

"He who stands on tiptoe 

doesn't stand firm.

He who rushes ahead 

doesn't go far.

He who tries to shine 

dims his own light.

He who defines himself

can't know who he really is.

He who has power over others 

can't empower himself.

He who clings to his work 

will create nothing that endures.

If you want to accord with the Tao,

just do your job, then let go." (Lao Tzu, "Tao Te Ching", cca 400 BC)

"The great way is not difficult if you don't cling to good or bad. Just let go of your preferences; and everything will become perfectly clear."  (Jianzhi Sengcan, "Hsin Hsin Ming" ["Faith-Mind Inscription"], 6th century)

"The way to experience ultimate happiness is to let go of all worries and regrets, and to know that being happy is the most satisfying of life's feelings. Reflect back on all the progress in your life and allow the positive, creative and joyous thoughts to outshine and overwhelm any sorrow or grief that may linger in the recesses of your mind. Knowing that disease and disaster are natural parts of life is the key to overcoming adversity with a calm and happy spirit. Happiness is waiting there in front of you. Only you can decide whether or not you choose to experience it. Take this to heart." (Toshitsugu Takamatsu,"Kōfuku no Shiori" ["A Guide to Happiness" or "A Bookmark of Happiness"], 1963)

"Hanashi, 'letting go' means that when one strategy does not work you let go of it and try something new." (Frederick J Loveret, "The Way and the Power: Secrets of Japanese Strategy", 1987)

"To live fully is to let go and die with each passing moment, and to be reborn in each new one."  (Jack Kornfield & Joseph Goldstein, "Seeking the Heart of Wisdom: The Path of Insight Meditation", 1987)

"By practicing letting go of our reactions we can find the doorway out. Each time we fail to respond to something, we have taken a big step toward freedom. Until we have done that, we are constant victims of our feelings [...]" (Ayya Khema, "Know Where You’re Going", 1991)

"The Buddha said, 'The way to liberation is the way of letting go of clinging.' 'Letting go' is our spiritual growth process. There’s nothing to gain, nothing to get. In order to meditate we have to let go of all sensual desires, no matter how subtle. If we don’t let go of hopes, ideas, thoughts, worries, and problems during our meditation periods, we can’t concentrate. 'Letting go' is the key phrase for the spiritual path. Knowing that all is impermanent, cannot last, and is moving toward dissolution helps us to let go. Wanting always results in anxiety, because we don’t know whether we will get what we desire, and even if we do, we don’t know whether we can keep it." (Ayya Khema, "Know Where You’re Going", 1991)

"The whole of the spiritual path is one of purification, which means a constant letting go. It is a matter of seeing our inner difficulties and learning to drop them. Meditation is our vehicle for practicing the art of letting go." (Ayya Khema, "Know Where You’re Going", 1991)

"Once you understand non-self, then the burden of life is gone. You'll be at peace with the world. When we see beyond self, we no longer cling to happiness and we can truly be happy. Learn to let go without struggle, simply let go, to be just as you are - no holding on, no attachment, free." (Ajahn Chah, "No Ajahn Chah: Reflections", 1994)

"Remember you don't meditate to get anything, but to get rid of things. We do it, not with desire, but with letting go. If you want anything, you wont find it." (Ajahn Chah, "No Ajahn Chah: Reflections", 1994)

"The forest is peaceful, why aren’t you? You hold on to things causing your confusion. Let nature teach you. Hear the bird’s song then let go. If you know nature, you’ll know truth. If you know truth, you’ll know nature." (Ajahn Chah, "No Ajahn Chah: Reflections", 1994)

"Letting go is not the same as aversion, struggling to get rid of something. We cannot genuinely let go of what we resist. What we resist and fear secretly follows us even as we push it away. To let go of fear or trauma, we need to acknowledge just how it is. We need to feel it fully and accept that it is so. It is as it is. Letting go begins with letting be." (Jack Kornfield, "The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace", 2002)

"Love creates a communion with life. Love expands us, connects us, sweetens us, ennobles us. Love springs up in tender concern, it blossoms into caring action. It makes beauty out of all we touch. In any moment we can step beyond our small self and embrace each other as beloved parts of a whole." (Jack Kornfield, "The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace", 2002)

"The knowledge of the past stays with us. To let go is to release the images and emotions, the grudges and fears, the clingings and disappointments of the past that bind our spirit." (Jack Kornfield, "The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace", 2002)

"True Meditation is the space in which everything gets revealed, everything gets seen, everything gets experienced. And as such, it lets go of itself. We don't even let go. It lets go of itself." (Adyashant, "True Meditation: Discover the Freedom of Pure Awareness", 2006)

"Any method can settle the mind in the present moment, but with Silent Illumination you can be relieved of even the present moment. Just take this attitude: don’t worry about the past or the future, and let go of the present too. Just stay in awareness. Chan is called the 'gateless gate' because it has no door to enlightenment." (Sheng Yen, "The Method of No-Method: The Chan Practice of Silent Illumination", 2008)