Brian's Meditations

Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It's a way of entering into the quiet that's already there, buried under the 50,000 thoughts the average person thinks every day. - Deepak Chopra
Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely. - Lord Buddha
Prayer is when you talk to God; meditation is when you listen to God. - Diana Robinson
They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.- Andy Warhol
Change your thoughts and you change your world.- Norman Vincent Peale
Nothing endures but change.- Heraclitus
He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life. - Muhammad Ali
The more significance you give the moment, the more the moment has the opportunity to be significant.
The mind is like a monkey swinging from branch to branch through the forest. In order not to lose sight of the monkey, we must watch the monkey constantly and even be one with it. - Thich Nhat Hanh
The person should look for peace within and not depend on it in any other place. There are no waves in the depths of the ocean, it is still and unbroken.- Lord Buddha
My God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me, I cannot know for certain where it will end; but I will not fear, for you are ever with me - Thomas Merton
A victor only breeds hatred, while a defeated man lives in misery, but a man at peace within lives happily, abandoning up ideas of victory and defeat. - Siddhartha Guatama Buddha
Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.- Martin Luther King Jr.
Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, this time more wisely. - Anonymous
People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered. Love them anyway.If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.Do good anyway.If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway. The biggest person with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest person with the smallest mind. Think big anyway. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway. People really need help but may attack if you help them. Help people anyway. Give the world the best you have and you might get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you've got anyway - Anonymous
You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself.- Galileo
Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish. A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.- John Quincy Adams
Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.- Winston Churchill
One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest. - Maya Angelou
There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever - Mahatma Gandhi
Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof. - Kahlil Gibran
Faith is to believe what you do not yet see; the reward for this faith is to see what you believe. - St. Augustine
The flowering of love is meditation. - Jiddu Krishnamurti
It is not the number of books you read, nor the variety of sermons you hear, nor the amount of religious conversation in which you mix, but it is the frequency and earnestness with which you meditate on these things till the truth in them becomes your own and part of your being, that ensures your growth. - Frederick William Robertson
We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out. - Ray Bradbury
You can not prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building a nest in your hair - Chinese Proverb
Be light unto yourselves. Rely upon yourself; do not depend on anyone else. - Lord Buddha's last words
Meditation is the window to the soul. Go sit quietly in the window and watch the world pass by.
Meditation is the straight flight of the mind to the Kingdon of Heaven present in the heart of everybody.- Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. - John Donne
Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. - Lord Buddha
Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. - Zen Proverb
Everyone is trying to accomplish something big, not realizing that life is made up of little things. - Frank A. Clark
Health, a light body, freedom from cravings, a glowing skin, sonorous voice, fragrance of bo dy: these signs indicate progress in the practice of meditation. - Shvetashvatara Upanishad
Through meditation and by giving full attention to one thing at a time, we can learn to direct attention where we choose. - Eknath Easwaran
Still your mind in me, still yourself in me, and without a doubt you shall be united with me , Lord of Love, dwelling in your heart. - Bhagavad Gita
What we see depends mainly on what we look for. - Sir John Lubbock
If motivation doesn't come from within, it doesn't come. Fun helps remove the barriers that allow people to motivate themselves. - Herman Cain
Watch your thoughts; they become words.Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny. - Frank Outlaw
If what you're working for really matters, you'll give it all you've got. - Nido Qubein
Even though you may want to move forward in your life, you may have one foot on the brakes. In order to be free, we must learn how to let go. Release the hurt. Release the fear. Refuse to entertain your old pain. The energy it takes to hang onto the past is holding you back from a new life. What is it you would let go of today? - Mary Manin Morrissey
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan, 'Press on,' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race - Calvin Coolidge
See God in every person, place, and thing, and all will be well in your world. - Louise Hay
Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. - Mahatma Gandhi
God would be pleased if you were to take one last look in the mirror before you start your day and say, 'God loves you . . . and so do I'. - Zig Ziglar
Submission to God's will is the softest pillow on which to rest.- Unknown
Because God is everywhere, you can pray anywhere. - Unknown
God loves us and believes in us and has done and will do anything he can to help us, but he will not impose on our free agency. - Marion D. Hanks Ensign
No one in the world can alter truth. All we can do is seek it and live it. - St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe
Thoughtfulness is the beginning of great sanctity. If you learn this art of being thoughtful, you will become more and more Christlike, for His heart was meek and always thought of others. - Mother Teresa
Be kind and merciful. Let no one ever come to you without coming away better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness. - Mother Teresa
Now let me say that the next thing we must be concerned about if we are to have peace on earth and good will toward men is the nonviolent affirmation of the sacredness of all human life. Every man is somebody because he is a child of God. - Martin Luther King Jr
To find out what you love to do demands a great deal of intelligence; because, if you are afraid of not being able to earn a livelihood, or of not fitting into this rotten society, then you will never find out. But, if you are not frightened, if you refuse to be pushed into the groove of tradition by your parents, by your teachers, by the superficial demands of society, then there is a possibility of discovering what it is you really love to do. So, to discover, there must be no fear of not surviving. - Krishnamurti
There are times when you have to obey a call which is the highest of all, i.e. the voice of conscience even though such obedience may cost many a bitter tear, and even more, separation from friends, from family, from the state to which you may belong, from all that you have held as dear as life itself. For this obedience is the law of our being. - Mahatma Gandhi
Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. - Martin Luther King Jr
Live simply and take life more easily. Happiness lies in giving yourself time to think an d to introspect. Be alone once in a while, and remain more in silence. - Yogananda
The value of life does not depend upon the place we occupy. It depends upon the way we occupy that place. - St. Thérèse de Lisieux
Religion in fact is not knowledge, but a faith and aspiration; it is justified indeed both by an imprecise intuitive knowledge of large spiritual truths and by the subjective experience of souls that have risen beyond the ordinary life, but in itself it only gives us the hope and faith by which we may be induced to aspire to the intimate possession of the hidden tracts and larger realities of the Spirit. That we turn always the few distinct truths and the symbols or the particular discipline of a religion into a hard and fast dogmas, is a sign that as yet we are only infants in the spiritual knowledge and are yet far from the science of the Infinite. - Sri Aurobindo
Asceticism for its own sake is not the ideal of this Yoga, but self-control in the vital and right order in the material are a very important part of it -- and even an ascetic discipline is better for our purpose than a loose absence of true control. Mastery of the material implies in it the right and careful utilization of things and also a self-control in their use. Forceful suppression (fasting also comes under the head) stands on the same level as free indulgence; in both cases, the desire remains: in the one it is fed by indulgence, in the other it lies latent and exasperated by suppression. - Sri Aurobindo
He who loves, never grows old. God is a shining example. You may feel that in this world, some people are very bad. But by feeling that a person is very bad or by hating that person, are you gaining anything? That particular person has not gained anything from your hatred. And what have you done? By hating that person, you have lost something very sweet in yourself. Why should one lose something very precious of her own, just because she wants to correct someone by hating him? In this world, we have to be very wise. You will say that he is very bad and that you have to do something. But hating is not the right instrument. If you want to use the right weapon, the most effective weapon will be love. - Sri Chinmoy
Through self knowledge you begin to find out what is God, what is truth, what is that state which is timeless. Your teacher may pass on to you the knowledge which he received from his teacher, and you may do well in your examinations, get a degree and all the rest of it; but, without knowing yourself as you know your own face in the mirror, all other knowledge has very little meaning. Learned people who don't know themselves are really unintelligent; they don't know what thinking is, what life is. That is why it is important for the educator to be educated in the true sense of the word, which means that he must know the workings of his own mind and heart, see himself exactly as he is in the mirror of relationship. Self-knowledge is the beginning of wisdom. In self-knowledge is the whole universe; it embraces all the struggles of humanity. - Krishanmurti
The best way to prepare for death is to spend every day of life as though it were the last. Think of the end of worldly honor, wealth and pleasure and ask yourself: And then? And then? - St. Philip Romolo Neri
We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies. - Martin Luther King Jr

Thoughts to Meditate on from

Thoughts to Meditate on
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