More 20th Century Psalms (February 2013)

If things don’t go well, try giving.

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Most people introspect by worrying about individual problems. This is not finding out “Who and What you are.” This Life Force will manifest in strange places, bursting out in isolated plants springing from bare rocks. It is almost absurd in its urge to express, to transform. We move from “potential” to actual – essence to function.

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Nature is “impersonal.” It doesn’t give a hoot about your little ego satisfactions.

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The change won’t come through psychology. We do what we do and think what we think because of what we are, not vice-versa. The devotional man expresses devotion. We have created our vibration (the flow of the Vital Force), and it, in turn, creates us. The merry-go-round goes round.

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In this world it is best to have a little poetry in you.

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“Should we fast, eat meat, have sex, etc?” These are useless questions, what Paul Reps calls “verbal delusionary.” When you live with little greed, anger and delusion … that is real fasting. If you lived with none, you would not be here.

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It’s always easy to find loves but difficult to find a companion.

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How we rationalize our actions! This never convinces anyone else, but it tends to salve our conscience. When there is no longer a need to rationalize, enlightenment isn’t far away.

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Spirituality (accord with Reality) and sentimentality or emotional consciousness do not go together. Sorry.

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When the great Japanese Zen Master, Hakuin, experienced his great Enlightenment (he had had numerous minor Satori experiences), he said: “After this, seeing the things of the world was like seeing the back of my own hand.” Who is self, who is other?

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The more joyous you are, the closer you are to God. The truth is, however, you are never apart from God.

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The lavender skies of Kyoto will soften the sharpest edge.

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Each death is also a birth. How do you know we are not dying into something better? So why all the grief? Are we grieving for the departed or are we feeling sorry for ourselves?

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All life is a purification. We see it only in the physical. “Illness” is purification.