Sayings of past spiritual teachers!

[Spirit Ape]

I thought this would be a nice change there is so many hidden meanings, inner alchemy, training methods within the words of the ancient spiritual teachers.

 

Have you got any favourite sayings or quotes from any religion or spiritual masters/teachers?

 

Here ill give one that I like and try and live by!!!

 

 

Health is the greatest possession. Contentment is the greatest treasure. Confidence is the greatest friend. Non-being is the greatest joy.

Lao Tzu

 

 

Spirit Ape

[Vajrahridaya]

 

Here ill give one that I like and try and live by!!!

Health is the greatest possession. Contentment is the greatest treasure. Confidence is the greatest friend. Non-being is the greatest joy.

Lao Tzu

Spirit Ape

 

Hi there,

 

What's the Taoist term that refers to non-being please?

 

 

Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.

Buddha

[Spirit Ape]

No Being as in Emptiness maybe he is meaning, Wu Wei or WuJi?

 

Jesus: This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.

[Vajrahridaya]

No Being as in Emptiness maybe he is meaning, Wu Wei or WuJi?

 

Yes, it sounds like it! I'm going to look up those words, but I hope someone like Stigweard who knows the chinese version of that quote can show me the exact chinese word for that term. But, I'm going to look what you have shown me up. Thanks!

 

Wu Wei just means flowing with nature though doesn't it?

 

The word Wuji

 

Chinese wuji 無極 "limitless; infinite" is a compound of wu 無 "without; no; not have; there is not; nothing, nothingness" and ji 極 "ridgepole; roof ridge; highest/utmost point; extreme; earth's pole; reach the end; attain; exhaust". In analogy with the figurative meanings of English pole, Chinese ji 極 "ridgepole" can mean "geographical pole; direction" (e.g., siji 四極 "four corners of the earth; world's end"), "magnetic pole" (Beiji 北極 "North Pole" or yinji 陰極 "negative pole; anode"), or "celestial pole" (baji 八極 "farthest points of the universe; remotest place").

Common English translations of the cosmological Wuji are "Ultimateless" (Fung and Bodde 1953, Robinet 2008) or "Limitless" (Zhang and Ryden 2002), but other versions are "the ultimate of Nothingness" (Chang 1963), "that which has no Pole" (Needham and Ronan 1978), or "Non-Polar" (Adler 1999).

 

So, I like the translation, Wu = Without and Ji = Extreme so "without extreme"

 

THE QUOTE:

 

Saints are walking gardens filled with wish-fulfilling trees,

and they are living villages of wish-fulfilling gems.

Their words are like oceans of nectar.

 

They are moons without blemish and suns without heat.

May these saints be the friends of all people. - Jnaneshwar

Edited October 25, 2009 by Vajrahridaya

[C T]

"The wise man comes not from North, South, East or West. Coming naught from any direction, he seeks naught to go anywhere. Unfettered by mundane preoccupations, he is free to roam, and with each step, there, there...he is home". - Anon.

[Zhuo Ming-Dao]

[Vajrahridaya]

Edited October 26, 2009 by Vajrahridaya

[Pietro]

I thought this would be a nice change there is so many hidden meanings, inner alchemy, training methods within the words of the ancient spiritual teachers.

 

I like what my first yoga teacher use to say:

doing is the greatest magic

or

doing is the only magic

[everseeking]

"When you ask a leaver of home, I simply think that you should not let your mind linger on a temporary dwelling"

 

Not sure of author, roughly quoted from memory, out of 'The Unfettered Mind' by Takuan Soho, Thomas Cleary translation.

 

Here's one of my all time favorites. I just found out its from the TTC.

 

Experience is a riverbed,

Its source hidden, forever rising;

Its entrance, the root of the world,

Flow courses within it:

Draw upon it; it will not run dry.

 

A slightly different translation than I recall though. I prefer this one-

 

Experience is a riverbed,

Its source hidden, forever flowing;

Its entrance, the root of the world,

The Way moves within it:

Draw upon it; it will not run dry.

[innerspace_cadet]

"Happiness is the absence of striving for happiness." -- Chuang Tzu

[Taomeow]

"A soap impression of his wife which he ate and donated to the National Trust." -- John Lennon

[Gemstone]

[Kameel]

"No matter how new age you get, old age is gonna kick your ass!" Utah Phillips

[Dreamingawake]

"Do the thing and you will have the power"

quoted roughly from memory. I've heard a few people say it but I first heard it from Peter Ragnar

[SeriesOfTubes]

"The ones who complain and talk the most about giving away Medicine Secrets, are always those who know the least."

 

-Frank Fools Crow

[fizix]

"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." -George Orwell, 1984.

The Tao of Orwell!

[TzuJanLi]

Greetings..

 

"Simplicity and humility are the tools of Masters"

Anon

 

Be well..

[C T]

"Ignoring the dark side, one attempts goodness.

Ignoring the good, one remains in darkness.

One is being bound by chains of gold,

the other chains of iron.

Both are prisoners of conditions.

Beyond conditions is the road that leads nowhere -

be wise, and take it." (Anon)

 

 

Be good!

[innerspace_cadet]

"Do or do not. There is no try." --Yoda

[bindo]

[atena]

"practise, practise, practise and all is coming" - Pattabhi Jois

[Vajrahridaya]

"Ignoring the dark side, one attempts goodness.

Ignoring the good, one remains in darkness.

One is being bound by chains of gold,

the other chains of iron.

Both are prisoners of conditions.

Beyond conditions is the road that leads nowhere -

be wise, and take it." (Anon)

 

 

Be good!

 

That's awesome, I got it on a... multidimensional... or, non-dimensional level. I'm all hot wired right now after reading this!!

 

Fabulous... wonderful!! Don't give everyone this jewel, they might use it as an excuse to act chaotic without any real understanding. Much like telling people online to, "If you see the Buddha on the road, kill him." Most will just not understand what that means and what level of realization you'd have to have in order to actually implement that information with wisdom.

 

No one is to be called an enemy, all are your benefactors, and no one does you harm. You have no enemy except yourselves.

Francis of Assisi

 

He's probably my favorite Christian saint. He even shaved the crown of his head, no doubt as a symbol of a mystical experience of the crown chakra! I've read all his stuff... Looove him!!

Edited October 28, 2009 by Vajrahridaya

[exorcist_1699]

One of them , a Zen Buddhist poem, I like most , is :

 

I do not have any kinds of minds, why do I need to have any kinds of ways (to achieve Enlightenment).

( 我無一切心, 何用一切法 )

 

Such kind of Zen's ability to reach Tao's deepest core at one stroke, skipping all those trivial , steps and layers, contrary to modern people's clumsiness , showing us how talented an intuition once the Chinese possessed .

Edited October 28, 2009 by exorcist_1699

[TzuJanLi]

Greetings..

 

"We are traveling to where we have always been, from ignorance to enlightenment.. awareness is the vehicle"

 

"Embracing your dark side is wisdom, living it is enlightenment"

 

Be well..

[C T]

That's awesome, I got it on a... multidimensional... or, non-dimensional level. I'm all hot wired right now after reading this!!

 

Fabulous... wonderful!! Don't give everyone this jewel, they might use it as an excuse to act chaotic without any real understanding. Much like telling people online to, "If you see the Buddha on the road, kill him." Most will just not understand what that means and what level of realization you'd have to have in order to actually implement that information with wisdom.

He's probably my favorite Christian saint. He even shaved the crown of his head, no doubt as a symbol of a mystical experience of the crown chakra! I've read all his stuff... Looove him!!

Glad you found this sparkling V... I live with the guy who wrote this. A simple man indeed He never answers any questions though, very frustrating!! He just sits there drinking herbal tea all day, and have secret conversations with his puppy. He says more to the pup than to anyone else hehehehe.... lucky pup!