Contrary Quotes List
I have been asked by readers to list the quotes presented on the sidebar on this site, so here it is:
“Those that know do not speak; those that speak do not know.”
Tao Te Ching
“Anyone who flows as life flows, has solved the enigma of human existence.”
by Lao Tzu
“A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.”
by Albert Einstein
“If the moon, in the act of completing its eternal way around the earth, were gifted with self-consciousness, it would feel thoroughly convinced that it was traveling its way of its own accord on the strength of a resolution taken once and for all. So would a Being, endowed with higher insight and more perfect intelligence, watching man and his doings, smile about man's illusion that he was acting according to his own free will.”
by Albert Einstein
“There is no greater mystery than the following: Ourselves being the Reality, we seek to gain reality. We think there is something hiding our Reality, and that it must be destroyed before the Reality is gained. That is ridiculous. A day will dawn when you will yourself laugh at your past efforts. That which will be on the day you laugh is also here and now.”
by Ramana Maharshi
“Whatever is destined not to happen will not happen, try as you may. Whatever is destined to happen will happen, do what you may to prevent it. This is certain. ”
by Ramana Maharshi
“The Buddha asked, "What do you think, Subhuti? Is there any dharma that the Buddha teaches?"
Subhuti replied, "The Buddha has nothing to teach, World-Honored One.”
Diamond Sutra
“As long as there is a 'you' doing or not-doing anything, thinking or not-thinking, 'meditating' or 'not-meditating', you are no nearer home than the day you were 'born'.
However many years you may have been at it, and whatever you have understood or have not-understood, you have not yet started if there is a 'you' that is still in the saddle.
As long as you do anything as from a 'you', you are in 'bondage'.
The difference is between what you are and what you think you are but are not, 'bondage' being identification of the former with the latter.”
by Wei Wu Wei
“...If you set out in quest of words and sentences, cudgeling your brains with their logical meanings, working over a thousand possibilities and ten thousand subtle distinctions, and creating endless questions and debates, all you will gain is a glib tongue, while all the time getting farther and farther away from Tao, with no rest for your wandering.”
by Chan master Yun-men (d. 949 AD)
“Do not search for the truth; only cease to cherish opinions.”
by Seng Ts'an
“All this Zen stuff is nonsense," said the skeptic.
"You are perfectly correct," responded the master. "But this is a teaching I normally reserve only for my most advanced students.”
Zen Quotes
“People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life. I do not think that is what we're really seeking. I think that what we are seeking is an experience of being alive.”
by Joseph Campbell
“Life is what happens to you while
you're busy making other plans.”
by John Lennon
“The wise man chooses the path of joy;
the fool takes the path of pleasure.”
Upanishads
“I am the master of so many things, that I practically know nothing at all.”
by unknown
China
“As long as you seek for something, you will get the shadow of reality and not reality itself.”
by Shunryu Suzuki
“No yesterday, no tomorrow, and no today.”
by Seng-ts'an
“When you get there, there isn't any there there.”
by Gertrude Stein
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”
by Abraham Lincoln
“Mind is consciousness, which has limitations. We are orginally unlimited and perfect. Later on we take on limitations and become the mind.”
by Ramana Maharshi
“Realization is to get rid of the delusion that you have not realized.”
by Ramana Maharshi
“You can never find mind through the mind. Go beyond it, and find it non-existent.”
by Ramana Maharshi
“All actions, past, present and future, become extinct in the case of a liberated one, because his sense of being the doer is gone; it was lost along with the ego, who alone was the doer.”
by Ramana Maharshi
“Nothing is done by me, everything just happens. I do not expect, I do not plan, I just watch events happening, knowing them to be unreal.”
by Nisargadatta Maharaj
I Am That
“The very notion of doership, of being a cause, is bondage.”
by Nisargadatta Maharaj
I Am That
“Once my Guru told me: 'You are the Supreme Reality', I ceased having visions and trances and became very quiet and simple. I found myself desiring and knowing less and less, until I could say in utter astonishment: 'I know nothing, I want nothing.”
by Nisargadatta Maharaj
I Am That
“There are no steps to self-realisation. There is nothing gradual about it. It happens suddenly and is irreversible....Just like on sunrise you see things as they are, so on self-realisation you see everything as it is. The world of illusions is left behind.”
by Nisargadatta Maharaj
I Am That
“The world and the mind are states of being. The supreme is not a state. It pervades all states, but it is not a state of something else. It is entirely uncaused, independent, complete in itself, beyond time and space, mind and matter. ........There is nothing to recognise it by. It must be seen directly, by giving up all search for signs and approaches. When all names and forms have been given up, the real is with you. You need not seek it. Plurality and diversity are the play of the mind only. Reality is one.”
by Nisargadatta Maharaj
I Am That
“To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to understand all things.”
Zen Quotes
“A student once asked his teacher,
"Master, what is enlightenment?"
The master replied,
"When hungry, eat. When tired, sleep.”
Zen Quotes
“College isn't the place to go for ideas.”
by Helen Keller
“People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.”
by Helen Keller
“Education: that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid, the vast limits of their knowledge.”
by Mark Twain
“Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment.”
by Dogen
“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 one dewdrop on the grass.”
by Dogen
“When you find the way others will find you.
Passing by on the road they will be drawn to your door.
The way that cannot be heard will be echoed in your voice.
The way that cannot be seen will be reflected in your eyes.”
by Lao Tzu
“Looking ahead the way is long,
Looking back it is short.
If you don't go within, you go without.
The beauty of the Way is that there is no Way.”
by Lao Tzu
“The supreme experience is staggering, enrapturing, blissful, and inspiring, but at the same time inexplicable and ungraspable by the intellect. The experience is supremely illuminating because it reveals the grandeur, sublimity and the eternal nature of the soul, but beyond that -- what? All that is beyond lies out of the reach of the intellect, and hence cannot be translated into any language devised by the mind.
”
by Gopi Krishna
“Heaven is in everything:
follow the light,
hide in the cloudiness and begin in what is.
Do this and your understanding will be like not understanding and your wisdom will be like not being wise.
By not being wise you will become wise later.”
by Chuang Tzu
“Should you really open your eyes and see,
you would behold your image in all images.
And should you open your ears and listen,
you would hear your own voice in all voices.”
by Kahlil Gibran