Food for Thought
"The Human Race's prospects of survival were considerably better when we were defenceless against tigers than they are today when we have become defenceless against ourselves."
"In all activities of life, from trivial to important, the secret of efficiency lies in the ability to combine two seemingly incompatible states - a state of maximum activity and a state of maximum relaxation."
"No one who is in a state of fear or sorrow or tension is free, but whosoever is delivered from sorrows or fears or anxieties is at the same time delivered from servitude."
"The witch doctor succeeds for the same reason all the rest of us doctors succeed. Each patient carries his own doctor inside him. They come to us not knowing that truth. We are best when we give the doctor who resides within each patient a chance to go to work."
"If you really want to examine your strength, see how many times a day you are disturbed."
"There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving and that is yourself."
"I know of no more encouraging fact than that of the unquestionable ability we have to elevate our lives by a conscious endeavour."
"Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by anyone, but coaxed downstairs, a step at a time."
Always think of what you have to do as easy and it will be."
"If you refuse to accept anything but the best out of life, you very often get it."
"Brief is the space of life allotted to you; pass it as pleasantly as you can, not grieving from noon to eve."
"Don Juan assured me that in order to accomplish the feat of making myself miserable, I had to work in a most intense fashion, and that it was absurd. I had now realised I could work just the same in making myself complete and strong. 'The trick is in what one emphasises,' he said. 'We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same."
"The dangerous aspects of nature that kept our forbearers watchful and humble have now almost disappeared outside; but they have turned inward (wilderness without - wilderness within). Today the whole of western society is rapidly approaching the physical and mental cracking point from the inner dangers alone."
"If you cannot control yourself, if you are not at peace with yourself, it you are distracted, you can never fully realise your true potential even if you're full of all the learning in the world."
"Serenity is the end - and serenity is also the means - by which you live effectively."
"The measure of mental health is the disposition to find good everywhere."
"It is only your mental habits and your selected memories of how you think things are that keep you from moulding things in your life in a more harmonious way."
"Just as a gardener cultivates his plots, keeping them free from weeds and growing the flowers he requires, so may a person tend the garden of his mind, weeding out all the wrong, useless and negative thoughts."
"I have discovered that all the unhappiness that people experience arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quiet in their own chamber."
"Meditation (relaxation) is the art of suspending verbal and symbolic thinking for a time, somewhat like a courteous audience will stop talking when a concert is about to begin."
"I saw that all things which occasioned me any anxiety or fear had in themselves nothing of good or evil, except insofar as the mind was moved by them."
"We're all doing time. As soon as we get born we find ourselves assigned to one little body, one set of desires and fears, one family, city, state, country and planet. Who can ever understand exactly why or how it comes down as it does? The bottom line is, here we are. Whatever, wherever, whenever, this is what we've got. It's up to us whether we do it as easy time or hard time."
"Balance and good fortune can only come to a person who is balanced and feels fortunate."
"Every now and then have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgement will be surer; since to remain constantly at work will cause you to lose power of judgement."
"Success depends upon where the intention is."
"Be gentle with yourself. The demand for perfection can be your worst enemy."
"Your health is bound to be affected if, day after day, you say the opposite of what you feel, if you grovel before what you dislike, and rejoice at what brings you nothing but misfortune. Our nervous system isn't just a fiction; it's a part of our physical body, and our soul exists in space, and is inside us, like the teeth in our mouth. It can't be forever violated with impunity."
"The greatest miracle you can hope for is self-acceptance."
"Decide to be happy, knowing it is an attitude, a habit gained from daily practice, not a result of a pay off."
"Integration is a basic law of life; when we resist it, disintegration is the natural result, both inside and outside of us. Thus we come to the concept of harmony through integration."
"When forced, as it seems, by your environment to be utterly disquieted, return with all speed into your self, staying in discord no longer than you must. By constant recurrence to the harmony, you will gain more command over it."