The Library
He has learned through the experiences of many births not to cling desperately to anything, not to hold on stubbornly when life's clear indication is to let go, not to get so attached to persons or objects that all his happiness rests solely upon them.
15.24.1.8Listen When one has received a terrible blow--such as losing someone very dear to him--he will understand better why the Buddha taught that all living is suffering. In pleasanter times, this truth goes unrecognized. It is only through heart-rending sorrow that many finally arrive at the gates of the Quest, for they have learned at last that only in seeking some knowledge of the Higher Power can they obtain an enduring measure of inner peace. In the calm heart of the inner life--in its strength and understanding--compensation may be found for our outward hardships, griefs, and losses.
15.24.1.15Listen If it be true, as the pessimist says, that life moves us from one trouble to another, it is also true that it moves us from one joy to another. But it is a question whether the anxieties and miseries of life are sufficiently compensated by its pleasures and satisfactions.
15.24.1.20Listen Gautama’s assertion that “life is suffering” may be matched with Socrates’ assertion that “life is terrible.” But both Indian and Greek sage referred solely to life in the ego. Is it quite fair to stress the misery of human existence without pointing to its mystery? For that is just as much there, even if attention is seldom turned toward it. Man, in order to complete and fulfil himself, will and must rise to life in the Overself with the ego put into place, belittled and broken.
15.24.1.30Listen The criticism of life which the pessimists like Gautama and Schopenhauer make, is too negative. This is not because it is not true but because it is not complete and hence is lopsided.
15.24.1.33Listen ”I enjoy life and try to spend it in peace, joy, and cheerfulness,” Spinoza wrote to a correspondent.
15.24.1.41Listen When one finds a constant happiness within oneself, the pleasures of the senses will not be missed if they are not there. They are no longer necessary to stimulate him, although they will still be appreciated if they are there.
15.24.1.72Listen If you investigate the matter deeply enough and widely enough, you will find that happiness eludes nearly all men despite the fact that they are forever seeking it. The fortunate and successful few are those who have stopped seeking with the ego alone and allow the search to be directed inwardly by the higher self. They alone can find a happiness unblemished by defects or deficiencies, a Supreme Good which is not a further source of pain and sorrow but an endless source of satisfaction and peace.
15.24.1.74Listen If the mind can reach a state where it is free from its own ideas, projections, and wishes, it can reach true happiness.
15.24.1.77Listen In those moments when he touches the still centre of his being, he forgets his miseries and enjoys its happiness. This provides a clue to the correct way to find real happiness, which so many are seeking and so few are finding. It lies within.
15.24.1.79Listen Artificial pleasures are not the same as enduring happiness. They come from outside, from stimulated senses, whereas it comes from within.
15.24.1.85Listen No environment is ideal. Not in outward search but in deeper self-penetration shall we find true lasting happiness.
15.24.1.88Listen He who has learned how to enter at will into this silent inner world will return to it again and again. In no other way can such calm holy joy be felt, such deep meaning be known, such release from personal problems be secured.
15.24.1.90Listen We think that this or that will bring us to the great happiness. But the fortunate few know that in meditation the mind is at its most blissful when it is most empty.
15.24.1.91Listen He is happy even though he has no blessed consciousness of the Overself, no transcendental knowledge of it, but only secondhand news about it. Why, then, is he happy? Because he knows that he has found the way to both consciousness and knowledge. He is content to wait, working nevertheless as he waits; for if he remains faithful to the quest, what other result can there be than attainment? Even if he has to wait fifty years or fifty lifetimes, he will and must gain it.
15.24.1.93Listen When we find the still centre of our being, we find it to be all happiness. When we remain in the surface of our being, we yearn for happiness but never find it. For there the mind is always moving, restless, scattered.
15.24.1.98Listen The Overself is present with man, and life is nothing more, in the end, than a searching for this presence. He engages in this activity quite unconsciously in the belief that he is looking for happiness.
15.24.1.99Listen Hidden under its miseries, life keeps incredible happiness waiting for one who will search and work for it.
15.24.1.100Listen … Underneath the surface sufferings which no one escapes, far deeper down than its counterpart, is a vast harmony, an immense love, an incredible peace, and a universal support.
15.24.1.102,Listen If the divine presence is dwelling at the core of his mind, then the divine bliss, peace, and strength are dwelling at the core of his mind too. Why then should he let outward troubles rob him of the chance to share them? …
15.24.1.106,Listen It is always hard to watch others who are near and dear to him suffer, but he must not let go of his own inner faith and peace, however little they be, because of having to witness such suffering. It ought not to take him by surprise if he remembers that earthly life is usually a mixture of pleasure and pain, and that only in the Overself is there lasting happiness.
15.24.1.108Listen The incentive to seek happiness will always be present so long as the consciousness of the Overself is absent. But so soon as that is found, the incentive vanishes. For then we are that which was sought--seeker, search, and object blend into one.
15.24.1.109Listen
8 Nov 2018
4 Oct 2018
31 May 2014
11 Feb 2024
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5 Nov 2018
14 Oct 2019
27 May 2014
14 Apr 2013
25 Apr 2013
9 Nov 2019
13 Feb 2024
21 Mar 2020
28 Nov 2015
2 Apr 2019
8 Mar 2020
26 Aug 2019
29 Jul 2011
13 Feb 2019
28 Feb 2024
12 Jul 2020
9 Jul 2011
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