Knowing

One who thinks he knows, does not know; one who knows he does not know, knows.

~The Upanishads

Desire

Ravana looked at Sita and he thought—Mine.

                                                               ~Ramayana

Desire: Serving Love or Serving Clinging?

Part of Sita and Rama's spiritual work is to figure out what to do with their desire: how to manage it and how to use it in the service of their love. Their struggle is our struggle. How can we prevent desire from being hijacked by the divisive force of clinging?

Mark Epstein MD, in Open to Desire

Hindu Poem

Wisdom tells me I am nothing.

Love tells me I am everything.

Between the two my life flows.

                                 ~Nisargadatta Mahraj 

Freedom

Remember, you cannot abandon what you do not know. To go beyond yourself, you must know yourself.

~Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Love, Compassion, and Wisdom

Life

Those who see all creatures in themselves
And themselves in all creatures know no fear.
Those who see all creatures in themselves
And themselves in all creatures know no grief.
How can the multiplicity of life
Delude the one who sees its unity?

                                                               ---Isha Upanishad---

The Mind and Consciousness

The mind is not consciousness; it is only an instrument of consciousness—or, in different metaphors, a process, a complex field of forces.

---Eknath Easwaran, in his Introduction to his translation of The Upanishads---

Freedom From Force

If one is to combat the fetish of force, it will be by means totally different from those in vogue among the pure worshipers of brute force.

---Gandhi---

Destiny

                                         You are what your deep, driving desire is.
                                 As your desire, so is your will.
                                 As your will is, so is your deed.
                                 As your deed is, so is your destiny.

                                                        ---Brihadaranyaka IV.4.5---

Your Deed is Your Destiny

The Mahatma

Gandhi's strategy was not to vanquish his opponents but to compassionately and wisely guide them and help them transform themselves by opening their hearts and minds.

Hindu Wisdom

The senses have been conditioned by attraction to the pleasant and aversion to the unpleasant: we should not be ruled by them; they are obstacles on our path.

---Bhagavad Gita---

Need or Greed

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.

---Mahatma Gandhi--

We Can Direct Our Actions, But Not Their Fruits

The secret of human freedom is to act well, without attachment to the results.

---Bhagavad Gita---

Serenity

Meet this transient world
with neither grasping nor fear,
trust the unfolding of life,
and you will attain true serenity.

---Bhagavad Gita---

Freedom

Don't be a Buddhist or a Christian or a Muslim or a Hindu or an Atheist. Don't be anything at all. If you are anything at all, you will experience stress and anxiety.

Original Purity

His mind is empty.
He is not concerned with meditation,
or the absence of it,
or the struggle between "good" and "evil."

---Ashhtavakra Gita---