A Chinese emperor known for his foul temper entered the bedroom of his soon-to-be-bride, who was one of the most beautiful women in all of China. She was being made to marry him against her will, as her parents were forcing her into it.
Little did the emperor know however that she had also been taught by wise sages as a child. She sat expressionless, staring at the wall. "Hello, pretty," he said to her, but she didn't respond.
"I said hello to you, and you will respond when I address you, do you understand me??" he snarled. But still, she didn't reply.
Most people would have answered him by now, so despite himself he grew curious, and gruffly asked, "What is it you are thinking?"
Finally she answered him. "Two things. One, that I do not wish to marry you because you are so callous and mean-spirited. And the other thing, is that I was wondering if you have it within your power to have a certain something changed."
"What?!" the emperor exclaimed with outrage. "You bitch! How dare you question my authority! ... But ... I admit I'm curious. Since I have it within my power to snap my fingers and whatever I command within my kingdom will be obeyed, what is it you are wondering if I could change?"
"Your attitude," she replied. And with that she got up and walked out of the room, leaving him in stunned silence.
~Zen Story
@GatelessGate
Those who have not found their true wealth, which is the radiant joy of Being and the deep, unshakable peace that comes with it, are beggars, even if they have great material wealth. They are looking outside for scraps of pleasure or fulfillment, for validation, security, or love, while they have a treasure within that not only includes all those things but is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer.
~Eckhart Tolle
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People talk about the Creator - But surely he didn't create man only to destroy him later! Because we are bad? And who's to blame for that? Or because we are beautiful? I can't make any sense of it.
~Omar Khayyam
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The moment you start watching the thinker, a higher level of consciousness becomes activated. You then begin to realize that all the things that truly matter - beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace - arise from beyond the mind. You begin to wake.
~Eckhart Tolle
@GatelessGate
There is a way to be sane.You can get rid of all this insanity created by the past in you. Just by being a simple witness of your thought processes. It is simply sitting silently, witnessing the thoughts, passing before you. Just witnessing, not interfering not even judging, because the moment you judge you have lost the pure witness. The moment you say 'this is good, this is bad' you have already jumped onto the thought process. It takes a little time to create a gap between the witness and the mind. Once the gap is there, you are in for a great surprise, that you are not the mind, that you are the witness, a watcher. And this process of watching is the very alchemy of real religion. Because as you become more and more deeply rooted in witnessing, thoughts start disappearing. You are, but the mind is utterly empty.That's the moment of enlightenment. That is the moment that you become for the first time an unconditioned, sane, really free human being.
~OSHO
@GatelessGate
The growth of wisdom may be measured exactly by the diminution of ill temper.
~Gautama Buddha
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When you lose all sense of self the bonds of a thousands chains will vanish. Lose yourself completely, return to the root of the root of your own soul.
~Rumi
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The greatest fear in the world is of the opinions of others. And the moment you are unafraid of the crowd you are no longer a sheep, you become a lion. A great roar arises in your heart, the roar of freedom.
~OSHO
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A young woman who had been raised as a Christian was walking along a river with her father. She looked up at him and said, “Father, I can never become a Christian. I cannot believe in God.”
Her father stopped and looked down at her. “I’m not asking you to believe in God,” he said. “I’m asking you to believe in the river.”
The young woman looked at the river and then back at her father. “What do you mean?” she asked.
“Watch the river,” he said. “Watch how it flows. It doesn’t care where it’s going. It just flows. It doesn’t try to be anything other than what it is. It just is. And that’s all it needs to be.”
The young woman looked at the river again and then back at her father. She smiled and said, “I think I understand.”
~Zen Story
@GatelessGate
An aged monk, who had lived a long and active life, was assigned a chaplain's role at an academy for girls. In discussion groups he often found that the subject of love became a central topic.
This comprised his warning to the young women: "Understand the danger of anything-too-much in your lives. Too much anger in combat can lead to recklessness and death. Too much ador in religious beliefs can lead to close mindedness and persecution. Too much passion in love creates dream images of the beloved - images that ultimately prove false and generate anger. To love too much is to lick honey from the point of a knife."
"But as a celebate monk," asked one young woman, "how can you know of love between a man and a woman?"
"Sometime, dear children," replied the old teacher, "I will tell you why I became a monk."
~Zen Story
@GatelessGate
Fear is always in relation to something; it does not exist by itself. There is fear of what happened yesterday in relation to the possibility of its repetition tomorrow; there is always a fixed point from which the relationship takes place. How does fear come into this? I had pain yesterday; there is the memory of it and I do not want it again tomorrow. Thinking about the pain of yesterday, thinking which involves the memory of yesterday's pain, projects the fear of having pain again tomorrow. So it is thought that brings about fear. Thought breeds fear; thought also cultivates pleasure. To understand fear you must also understand pleasure. they are interrelated; without understanding one you cannot understand the other. This means that one cannot say 'I must only have pleasure and no fear'; fear is the other side of the coin which is called pleasure.
~Jiddu Krishnamurti
@GatelessGate
There are many people who will give you the purpose of life; they will tell you what the sacred books say. Clever people will go on inventing what the purpose of life is. The political group will have one purpose, the religious group will have another purpose, and so on and on. So, what is the purpose of life when you yourself are confused? When I am confused, I ask you this question, "What is the purpose of life?" because I hope that through this confusion, I shall find an answer. How can I find a true answer when I am confused? If I am confused, I can only receive an answer which is also confused. If my mind is confused, if my mind is disturbed, if my mind is not beautiful, quiet, whatever answer I receive will be through this screen of confusion, anxiety, and fear; therefore, the answer will be perverted.So, what is important is not to ask, "What is the purpose of life, of existence?" but to clear the confusion that is within you. It is like a blind man who asks, "What is light?" If I tell him what light is, he will listen according to his blindness, according to his darkness; but suppose he is able to see, then, he will never ask the question "what is light?" It is there.Similarly, if you can clarify the confusion within yourself, then you will find what the purpose of life is; you will not have to ask, you will not have to look for it; all that you have to do is to be free from those causes which bring about confusion.
~Jiddu Krishnamurti
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Inside this clay jug there are canyons and pine mountains,and the maker of canyons and mountains! All seven oceans are inside, and hundreds of millions of stars.
~Kabir
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