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M Quotes

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“Meditation means to learn to surrender to existence. Ordinarily we are fighting and struggling with existence, because that is how we have been brought up. We have been brought up with the idea of fighting and being aggressive, because it is the way to compete and succeed in the world. Meditation means that we are not concerned with success. We are concerned with silence, joy, peace, truth, compassion, freedom and God. Even if you succeed, death is going to destroy anything, so it has just been a wastage of our life. You may have power, status, money, position and prestige, but it will all be taken away by death. But if you have known love, it will go with you. If you have known joy, it will go with you. If you have known the truth, it will go with you. If you have known freedom, death cannot take it away. These are the real treasures of life. But they can only be attained if one surrender to the whole. You have to love so totally, so that you can trust the whole. You have to love so deeply, so that you can surrender to the whole. You have to disappear as a separate entity. You have to become part of infinity and become a wave in the ocean of God.”

“Meditation means undoing what the society has done to you. It has reduced you to a machine; you have to de-automatise yourself, you have to become a man again. You have to come out of this state of unconsciousness, of mechanicalness. You have to come out of this sleep. It is possible only through meditation. There is no other way, there has never been, there will never be. The only way to reduce a man to a machine is take away his consciousness force him to function unconsciously. And just the opposite is the way of meditation: give him back his consciousness.”

“Meditation means you don't have anything, any object to think about. You are just in a state of absolute aloneness. You don't have anything on which you can focus yourself - not a sutra, not a mantra, not any great value of life, just pure space all around you. Then you are in meditation. Meditation is never about something. Meditation is a state.”

“Meditation means you start changing your inner world. You start removing dust from the inner world, you start removing all that is unnecessary in the inner world. You remove all that clutter, all the rubbish you are full of. Meditation means emptying yourself of all that the society has put inside you so that you can have a clean, clear vision, so that you can have a mirror-like quality.”

“Meditation means: remain as relaxed as you are in deep sleep and yet alert. Keep awareness there; let thoughts disappear but awareness has to be retained. And this is not difficult: it is just that we have not tried it, that's all. It is like swimming: if you have not tried it, it looks very difficult; it looks very dangerous too. And you cannot believe how people can swim because you simply drown! But once you have tried a little bit it comes easily; it is very natural.”

“Meditation not only heals disease but brings great peace to the mind. It is the nature of positive thoughts to make us feel calm and relaxed. The best positive thoughts for healing are loving kindness and compassion. Loving kindness is the wish that others have happiness and the causes of happiness; great loving kindness is taking the responsibility upon ourselves to bring others happiness and its causes. Compassion is the wish that others be free from suffering and the causes of suffering; great compassion is taking the responsibility upon ourselves to free others from suffering and its causes. Generating these positive attitudes can heal disease. Compassion is the best healer. The most powerful healing comes from developing compassion for all other living beings, irrespective of their race, nationality, religious belief, or relationship to us. We need to feel compassion for all living beings, every single one of whom wants happiness and does not want suffering. We need to develop not only compassion, the wish to free everyone from all suffering, but great compassion, which means taking upon ourselves the responsibility for doing this. This brings deep and powerful healing. (p. 7)”

“Meditation on inevitable death should be performed daily. Every day when one’s body and mind are at peace, one should meditate upon being ripped apart by arrows, rifles, spears and swords, being carried away by surging waves, being thrown into the midst of a great fire, being struck by lightning, being shaken to death by a great earthquake, falling from thousand-foot cliffs, dying of disease or committing seppuku at the death of one’s master. And every day without fail one should consider himself as dead”

“Meditation on the self is the highest form of true method-less meditation, for it brings self-awareness – which is beyond the everyday joy and sorrow. True meditation does not put you in control of your sorrow, rather it takes your mind beyond that very sorrow, as well as joy, into the kingdom of contentment – a kingdom without ideology – without cognitive extremes, such as radical rationalism, radical romanticism or radical emotionalism. In that kingdom, you simply are a human, with no name, no nationality, no tradition, no culture, no religion, no gender and no social image – simply a human.”

“Meditation opens your inner consciousness like the sun opens the flowers. The presence of the sun functions like a catalytic agent. The same process happens in meditation. Meditation creates an inner warmth. The non-meditative person is cold inside. He has no heart. He is just mind. The meditative person's energy starts moving from the head to the heart . The heart starts becoming warmer, and in that warmth your being opens up like a flower. In that opening of your being, one feels like coming home.”

“Meditation periods in monasteries can be as long as fifty minutes or more, but this is appropriate only if it does not cause too much discomfort and if one is able to maintain concentration for that long. During intensive Zen retreats, called sesshin, practitioners sit for twelve hours or more per day. But don't let this scare you off, just as it should not scare off beginning joggers to know that some super-athletes run double marathons. Always start where you are. After all, where else could you start?”

“Meditation practice is like piano scales, basketball drills, ballroom dance class. Practice requires discipline; it can be tedious; it is necessary. After you have practiced enough, you become more skilled at the art form itself. You do not practice to become a great scale player or drill champion. You practice to become a musician or athlete. Likewise, one does not practice meditation to become a great meditator. We meditate to wake up and live, to become skilled at the art of living.”

“Meditation releases creativity. For the first time you will see the creative potential that you are carrying within yourself. Ordinarily we are not aware of this creative potential. Meditation opens all the windows and doors to our creativity. Suddenly you are aware of the open sky, the sun, the trees, the wind, the rain and the rivers. And the moment that you becomes aware of it, your heart starts singing and dancing with joy. Your whole life becomes poetry. Whatever you do bring the touch of creativity. Meditation starts a creative explosion which is infinite. Meditation is the beginning and there is no end to it.”