Quotes by Spiritual Leaders - Page 6

In order to carry a positive action we must develop here a positive vision.
Dalai Lama XIV
A Course in Miracles says we think we're going to understand people in order to figure out whether or not they're worthy of our love,  but that actually, until we love them, we can never understand them.  What is not loved is not understood.  We hold ourselves separate from people and wait for them to earn our love, but people deserve our love because of what God created them to be.  As long as we're waiting for them to be anything better, we will constantly be disappointed.  When we choose to join with them through approval and unconditional love, the miracle kicks in for both parties. This is the primary key, the ultimate miracle, in relationships.
Marianne Williamson
Worry is the destroyer of understanding.
Dada Bhagwan
When your heart's gratitude comes to the fore, when you become all gratitude, this gratitude is like a flow, a flow of consciousness. When your consciousness is flowing, feel that this gratitude-flow is like a river that is watering the root of the tree and the tree itself. It is always through gratitude that your consciousness-river will grow and water the perfection-tree inside you.
Sri Chinmoy
Real joy means immediate expansion. If we experience pure joy, immediately our heart expands. We feel that we are flying in the divine freedom-sky. The entire length and breadth of the world becomes ours, not for us to rule over, but as an expansion of our consciousness. We become reality and vastness.
Sri Chinmoy
When someone studies well, has a successful career, or deals with difficulties well, people think he is a wise man. However, such successes do not mean that one is wise. True wisdom is to know with the consciousness of God.
Woo Myung
Similitude of the heart is like that of a telephone operator between man and God.
Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi
Your Real Self is the permanent atom of your identity, the rock of ages that remains unmoved by the restless tides of life.
Elizabeth Clare Prophet
What do you mean by ‘Divine Consciousness’? It is achieving the knowledge of oneness, i.e., to know that outside we are many but inside all are one.‘Vedanta’ mentioned about ‘oneness’, but could not say what is oneness. When I am saying that I am a living being all your Vedanta’s, scriptures and traditional religions become extinct.
Sri Jibankrishna or Diamond
Achievement of divine consciousness means innumerable people will give him this divine consciousness. Innumerable people will come and say, ‘We are you.’ So, when these people are announcing this before me, then only I am getting divine consciousness. At the same time they are also achieving it.
Sri Jibankrishna or Diamond
When religion starts within human being? Unless the divine consciousness of the body being manifested pours grace on the seer religion will not start. This divine consciousness takes the form of a living human being and as God-the-preceptor appears in the body in 12 years 4 months age, though it is individualistic.
Sri Jibankrishna or Diamond
By studying Bhagavad-gītā, one can become a soul completely surrendered to the Supreme Lord and engage himself in pure devotional service. As the Lord takes charge, one becomes completely free from all kinds of materialistic endeavors.
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
The term ‘Grace’ has been explained by people just to fulfill the vested interest. But what is its actual meaning? Thakur (Sri Ramkrishna) has said ‘When God within the body wishes to liberate himself, then there will be actual liberation of ‘Atma’ or ‘Soul’. That means spontaneous evolution of life power. This spontaneous evolution which individual gets is called grace. Otherwise the term ‘Grace’ is an abstract idea.
Sri Jibankrishna or Diamond
Asking for outside help, or even if it comes unasked, to allow outside help, needs a certain gracefulness and humility. Otherwise, you cannot allow outside help. Lots of people cannot receive something gracefully. Always, the social ethics have taught you that giving is important, taking is not important. Yes, taking is not important, taking is ugly, but receiving is very important.
Sadhguru
Our prayer is not simply, ‘Dear God, please send me a better job,’ but, ‘Dear God, enable me to see this situation differently, that this area of apparent lack might be healed inside my mind.
Marianne Williamson
Love will be our medicine.
Marianne Williamson
Christmas and Easter are attitudinal bookends for an enlightened world view. With an enlightened view of Christmas, we understand that it is within our power through God to give birth to a divine self. With an enlightened view of Easter, we understand that this self is the power of the universe before which death itself has no real power. Resurrection is the symbol of joy, it is the great 'ah-ha!' The acceptance of the resurrection is the realization of the fact that we need wait no longer to see ourselves as healed and whole.
Marianne Williamson
Healing occurs in the present, not the past.  We're not held back by the love we didn't receive in the past, but by the love we'e not giving in the present.  There's a lot of talk today about people growing up in dysfunctional homes, but who didn't grow up in a dysfunctional home?  This world is a dysfunction.  However, there's nothing we've been through or seen or done that cannot be used to make our lives more valuable now.  We can grow from any experience, and we can transcend any experience.
Marianne Williamson
Emotion arise from Desire, hence an Illusion.
Gautama Buddha
When we free ourselves from desire, we will know serenity and freedom.
Guatama Buddha
Desires are very cunning and complex. You are frustrated, but not because of needs. You are frustrated because of desires. And if desires take too much of your energy you will be unable to fulfill your needs also, because who is there to fulfill them? You are moving into the future; you are thinking of the future; your mind is dreaming. Who is there to fulfill ordinary needs of the day? You are not there. And you would like to remain hungry but reach the horizon. You would like to postpone needs so that the whole energy moves towards the desire. But in the end, you find that the desire is not fulfilled, and because needs have been neglected, in the end you are just a ruin. And the time that is lost cannot be regained; you cannot go back.
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
There is a story told of one old wise man, whose name was Mencius. He was a follower of Confucius and he died when he was very, very old. Somebody asked him: If you were given life again, how will you start it? Said Mencius: I will pay more attention to my needs and less attention to my desires. And this realisation will come to you also. But it always comes very late and then life is no more in your hands. If you were given life again....
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
Needs can be fulfilled, but desires cannot be. Desire is a need gone mad. Needs are simple, they come from nature; desires are very complex they don’t come from nature. They are created by the mind. Needs are moment to moment, they are created out of life itself. Desires are not moment to moment, they are always for the future. They are not created by life itself, they are projected by the mind. Desires are projections, they are not really needs. This is the first thing to be understood, and the deeper you understand, the better.
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
The power of unfulfilled desires is the root of all man's slavery
Paramahansa Yogananda
In between your failure-treeAnd your triumph-tree,The tree that is growingIs known as your patience-tree.
Sri Chinmoy
To make the fastest progress,Be an absolutely cheerfulHero-warriorAnd take both victory and failureAs parallel experience riversLeading to the sea Of progress-delight.
Sri Chinmoy
He who has no faith in himself can never have faith in God.
Guru Nanak
If we feel secureIn the depths of our heart,We shall not challenge anybody,For inner confidenceIs nothing short ofComplete satisfaction.
Sri Chinmoy
And no one will listen to us until we listen to ourselves.
Marianne Williamson
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do.
Marianne Williamson
You are the community now. Be a lamp for yourselves. Be your own refuge. Seek for no other. All things must pass. Strive on diligently. Don’t give up.
Gautama Buddha
We must recognize that the suffering of one person or one nation is the suffering of humanity.
Dalai Lama XIV
Through the round of many births I roamed without reward, without rest, seeking the house-builder. Painful is birth again & again.House-builder, you're seen!You will not build a house again.All your rafters broken,the ridge pole destroyed,gone to the Unformed, the mind has come to the end of craving.
Gautama Buddha
He has no need for faith who knows the uncreated, who has cut off rebirth, who has destroyed any opportunity for good or evil, and cast away all desire. He is indeed the ultimate man.
Gautama Buddha
The person who knows how to adjust to others, he will not have any suffering. ‘Adjust everywhere’.
Dada Bhagwan
In terms of the real quality of a human being, only when suffering comes, when pain comes, does a man stand up as a human being. You can see great human beings surface only when the society is really suffering. When India was under the oppression of British rulers, how many wonderful people stood up? Where are they now? They have just fallen back into their comforts, that's all. All those Ghandis, Patels, Tilaks are still there, but they're dormant. When pain came, they all became alive. They left everything behind and stood up as giants. Where are they now? This is the human misfortune that still there's not enough intelligence in the world that human beings will rise to their peaks when everything is well. They wait for calamities.
Sadhguru
Just as a line drawn on water with a stick will quickly vanish and will not last long; even so is human life like a line drawn on water. It is short, limited, and brief; it is full of suffering, full of tribulation. This one should wisely understand, one should do good and live a pure life; for none who is born can escape death.
Gautama Buddha
...[A]ccording to Buddhism in the Tibetan tradition, a being that achieves Buddhahood, although freed from Samsara,the 'wheel of suffering', as the phenomenon of existence is known, will continue to return to work for the benefit of all other sentient beings until such time as each one is similarly liberated.
Dalai Lama XIV
The suffering that is there in this world is such that it will fall off (go away), but people give support to it.
Dada Bhagwan
Spiritual growth involves giving up the stories of your past so the universe can write a new one.
Marianne Williamson
Just as a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our past over and over again.
Gautama Buddha
You have tremendous gifts to give; God sent them with you when you came to this earth. And while you might forget them, or doubt they exist, God does not forget and He will show them to you. As soon as your gifts are dedicated to His work, they will blossom. Chains that might have held you back for years will dissolve. And you will feel free. You will learn that your spirit is bigger than your circumstances, as soon as you put your spirit first.
Marianne Williamson
Each of us has a unique part to play in the healing of the world.
Marianne Williamson
Cultivate the understanding that the self is not really an independently existing entity, and begin to view self instead in terms of it's dependent relation to others. Although it is difficult to say that merely reflecting on this will produce a profound spiritual realization, it will at least have some effect. Your mind will be more open. Something will begin to change within you. Therefore, even in the immediate term there is definitely a positive and beneficial effect in reversing these two attitudes and moving from self-centeredness to other-centeredness, from belief in self existence to belief in dependent origination.
Dalai Lama XIV
If you want to travel on the path of moksha (ultimate liberation), ‘You’ (the Self) do not have to ‘do’ anything. And if you want to wander in the worldly life, ‘You’ have to ‘do’ everything.
Dada Bhagwan
This’ path is not to be followed through force. It is to be followed through understanding.
Dada Bhagwan
afflictions are classed as peripheral mental factors and are not themselves any of the six main minds [eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mental consciousnesses]. however, when any of the afflicting mental factors becomes manifest, a main mind [a mental consciousness] comes under its influence, goes wherever the affliction leads it, and 'accumulates' a bad action.there are a great many different kinds of afflictions, but the chief of them are desire, hatred, pride, wrong view and so forth. of these, desire and hatred are chief. because of an initial attachment to oneself, hatred arises when something undesirable occurs. further, through being attached to oneself the pride that holds one to be superior arises, and similarly when one has no knowledge of something, a wrong view that holds the object of this knowledge to be non-existent arises.how do self-attachment and so forth arise in such great force? because of beginningless conditioning, the mind tightly holds to 'i, i' even in dreams, and through the power of this conception, self-attachment and so forth occur. this false conception of 'i' arises because of one's lack of knowledge concerning the mode of existence of things. the fact that all objects are empty of inherent existence is obscured and one conceives things to exist inherently; the strong conception of 'i' derives from this. therefore, the conception that phenomena inherently exist is the afflicting ignorance that is the ultimate root of all afflictions.
Dalai Lama XIV
Owing to ignorance of the rope the rope appears to be a snake; owing to ignorance of the Self the transient state arises of the individualized, limited, phenomenal aspect of the Self.
Guru Nanak
The problem with setting goals is that they can be limiting.  Perhaps we're asking for something good when God's will is that we be given something great.
Marianne Williamson
If we do not push ourselves enough, we do not grow, but if we push ourselves too much, we regress. What is enough will change, depending on where we are and what we are doing. In that sense, the present moment is always some kind of beginning.
Sakyong Mipham
Achievement doesn't come from what we do, but from who we are.  Our worldly power results from our personal power.  Our career is an extension of our personality. People who profoundly achieve aren't necessarily people who do so much, they're people around whom things get done. Mahatma Gandhi and JFK were great examples of this.  Their great achievements lay in all the energy they stirred in other people, the invisible forces they unleashed around them.  By touching their own depths, they touched the depths within others.  That kind of charisma, the power to affect what happens on the earth, from an invisible realm within is the natural right and function of the son of god.  New frontiers are internal ones, the real stretch is always within us.  Instead of expanding our ability or willingness to go out and get anything, we expand our ability to receive what is already here for us.  Personal power emanates from someone who takes life seriously.  The universe takes us as seriously as we take it.  There is no greater seriousness than the full appreciation of the power and importance of love.  Miracles flow from the recognition that love is the purpose of our career.
Marianne Williamson
The only way to gain power in a world that is moving too fast is to learn to slow down. And the only way to spread one’s influence wide to learn how to go deep. The world we want for ourselves and our children will not emerge from electronic speed but rather from a spiritual stillness that takes root in our souls. Then, and only then, will we create a world that reflects the heart instead of shattering it.
Marianne Williamson
Let each man take the path according to his capacity, understanding and temperament. His true guru will meet him along that path.
Sivananda Saraswati
An evil man is a saint of the future. See good in everything. Destroy the evil-finding quality. Develop the good-finding quality. Rise above good and evil.
Sivananda Saraswati
Love makes us wake up in the morning with a sense of purpose and a flow of creative ideas. Love floods our nervous system with positive energy, making us far more attractive to prospective employers, clients, and creative partners. Love fills us with powerful charisma, enabling us to produce new ideas and new projects, even within circumstances that seem to be limited. Love leads us to atone for our errors and clean up the mess when we've made mistakes. Love leads us to act with impeccability, integrity, and excellence. Love leads us to serve, to forgive, and to hope. Those things are the opposite of a poverty consciousness; they're the stuff of spiritual wealth creation.
Marianne Williamson
How blissful it is, for one who has nothing. Attainers-of-wisdom are people with nothing. See him suffering, one who has something, a person bound in mind with people.
Gautama Buddha
To misuse wealth is a great fault.
Dada Bhagwan
All action results from thought, so it is thoughts that matter.
Sai Baba
My earnest request is that you practice love and kindness whether you believe in a religion or not.
Dalai Lama XIV
All breathing, existing, living, sentient creatures should not be slain, nor treated with violence, nor abused, nor tormented, nor driven away.
Mahavira