Thursday Afternoon Quotage

"It makes no difference what method you use to clear your mind. The idea is to make your mind quiescent. To make your mind still and calm. When your mind is still and calm you solve the problem. For all the methods, self-inquiry, breath control, yoga, everything is to quiet the mind. Use whatever method suits you. You can become the witness to your thoughts. You can watch your thoughts as they go by. When you become the witness and you do not interfere with the thought process, the thoughts automatically disappear by themselves, until they dissipate entirely. You can ask yourself: “To whom comes these thoughts?” What ever method you use is fine. But by all means do something to still the mind. And again when the mind is still and quiet, everything will take care of itself. The secret is to quiet the mind. Your real nature is self-realization. When the mind is stilled, you just return to your real nature, to what you always were."

--Robert Adams
"Come home to yourself. Observe yourself. That’s why I said earlier that self-observation is such a delightful and extraordinary thing. After a while you don’t have to make any effort, because, as illusions begin to crumble, you begin to know things that cannot be described. It’s called happiness. Everything changes and you become addicted to awareness.

There’s the story of the disciple who went to the master and said, Could you give me a word of wisdom? Could you tell me something that would guide me through my days. It was the master’s day of silence, so he picked up a pad. It said, Awareness. When the disciple saw it, he said, This is too brief. Can you expand on it a bit? So the master took back the pad and wrote, Awareness, awareness, awareness. The disciple said, Yes, but what does it mean? The master took back the pad and wrote, Awareness, awareness, awareness means awareness.

That’s what it is to watch yourself. No one can show you how to do it, because he would be giving you a technique, he would be programming you. But watch yourself. When you talk to someone, are you aware of it or are you simply identifying with it? When you got angry with somebody, were you aware that you were angry or were you simply identifying with your anger? Later, when you had the time, did you study your experience and attempt to understand it? Where did it come from? What brought it on? I don’t know of any other way to awareness. You only change what you understand. What you do not understand and are not aware of, you repress. You don’t change. But when you understand it, it changes."

--Anthony De Mello