Meditation

Defining meditation has proven difficult due to its wide range of practices across different traditions. In popular usage, "meditation" is often used imprecisely to designate practices aimed at training attention, calmness, or compassion. There is no universally accepted definition. Theories and practices differ within traditions, with some emphasizing the inseparability of meditation from their cultural and religious contexts, while others focus on its role in achieving a relaxed or devout state. - Wikkipedia

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The real glory of meditation lies not in any method but in its continual living experience of presence, in its bliss, clarity, peace, and most important of all, complete absence of grasping. The diminishing of grasping in yourself is a sign that you are becoming freer of yourself. And the more you experience this freedom, the clearer the sign that the ego and the hopes and fears that keep it alive are dissolving, and the closer you will come to the infinitely generous "wisdom of egolessness." When you live in the wisdom home, you'll no longer find a barrier between "I" and "you," "this" and "that," "inside" and "outside;" you'll have come, finally, to your true home, the state of non-duality. - Sogyal Rinpoche

The very aim of meditation is firstly subjugation of the mind, so that it can no longer be an obstacle to a clear vision of the Supreme cliché. Secondly, it is the full silencing of that mind, so that consciousness becomes similar to the mirror-like surface of a quiet lake or pool. I can see the real Reflection of Truth in it then, but not otherwise. - Mouni Sadhu

As we work – in meditation – we find ourselves more at home in the universe, more at ease with ourselves, more able to work effectively at our tasks and toward our goal, closer to our fellow man, less anxious and less hostile. - Unknown

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Tao (道)

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Tao (道) – literally means the ‘Way’.

Everything comes from That which cannot be named nor described because it its beyond man’s comprehension; but for convenience it is called Tao. - Lao Tzu

Taoism teaches the attainment of immortality by merging with Tao. It teaches us we must all find a place for ourselves in the natural way of things that does not disrupt the function of the whole. When we accept our place in the world, we become more concerned for the consequences of our actions, since for every action there is a reaction, and everything we do has a consequence for others.

Taoism shows a way to return to Ultimate Reality. Morality is the first essential in the training for immortality. Then the trainee should meditate on the void. Once he is in mediation, he unites his mind with his breath, and eliminates all emotions and all cares, and just focuses on the void. The void means that which is before anything came into being; it is the primordial of the extreme. Returning to the void means returning to the primordial origin, returning to the primordial nature. - Wu Chong Xu

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Zen

What is Zen?

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Zen is really extraordinarily simple as long as one doesn't try to be cute about it or beat around the bush! Zen is simply the sensation and the clear understanding… that there is behind the multiplicity of events and creatures in this universe simply one energy – and it appears as you, and everything is it. The practice of Zen is to understand that one energy so as to "feel it in your bones." - Alan Watts

Zen is to religion what a Japanese "rock garden" is to a garden. Zen knows no god, no afterlife, no good and no evil, as the rock-garden knows no flowers, herbs or shrubs. It has no doctrine or holy writ: its teaching is transmitted mainly in the form of parables as ambiguous as the pebbles in the rock-garden which symbolise now a mountain, now a fleeting tiger. When a disciple asks "What is Zen?", the master's traditional answer is "Three pounds of flax" or "A decaying noodle" or "A toilet stick" or a whack on the pupil's head. - Arthur Koestler

There are in Zen no sacred books or dogmatic tenets, nor are there any symbolic formulae through which an access might be gained into the signification of Zen. If I am asked, then, what Zen teaches, I would answer, Zen teaches nothing. Whatever teachings there are in Zen, they come out of one's own mind. We teach ourselves; Zen merely points the way. - Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki

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Spiritual Journey

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Paradoxical as it may seem, the purposeful life has no content, no point. It hurries on and on, and misses everything. Not hurrying, the purposeless life misses nothing, for it is only when there is no goal and no rush that the human senses are fully open to receive the world. - Alan W. Watts

Our usual understanding of life is dualistic: you and I, this and that, good and bad. But actually, these discriminations are themselves the awareness of the Universal existence. "You" means to be aware of the Universe in the form of you, and "I" means to be aware of it in the form of I. You and I are just swinging doors... - Shunryu Suzuki

Every man is where he is by the law of his being; the thoughts which he has built into his character have brought him there, and in the arrangement of his life there is no element of chance, but all result of a law which cannot err. - Unknown

By having a reverence for life, we enter into a spiritual relation with the world. By practicing reverence for life we become good, deep, and alive. - Albert Schweitzer

Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit, cannot be severed; for the effect already blooms in the cause, the end preexists in the means, the fruit in the seed. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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God

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God is omnipotent; God is wholly good; and yet evil exists. There seems to be some contradiction between these three propositions, so that if any two of them were true the third would be false. But at the same time all three are essential parts of most theological positions: the theologian it seems, at once must adhere and cannot consistently adhere to all three. - J. L. Mackie

If God’s work in creation is so Great, why does it need redemption? Why does God make such an imperfect creation that needs saving, and how can this be called ‘Great?’ The whole plot – God makes a rotten creation that needs saving, so he sends his only-begotten and much-beloved son to be viciously crucified – is grotesque. What kind of almighty creator chooses this as his Creation? - M. Murdock

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? - Epicurus

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Faith

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We may define "faith" as a firm belief in something for which there is no evidence. Where there is evidence, no one speaks of "faith". We do not speak of faith that two and two are four or that the earth is round. We only speak of faith when we wish to substitute emotion for evidence. The substitution of emotion for evidence is apt to lead to strife, since different groups substitute different emotions. - Bertrand Russell

You either have faith that a God exists, or you ‘know’. You can’t know and have faith, or have faith and know, you know? - Michael Sherlock

To follow by faith alone is to follow blindly. - Benjamin Franklin

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Churches

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Since the earliest days the church, as an organization, has thrown itself violently against every effort to liberate the body and mind of man. It has been, at all times and everywhere, the habitual and incorrigible defender of bad governments, bad laws, bad social theories, bad institutions. It was, for centuries, an apologist for slavery, as it was the apologist for the divine right of kings. - H. L. Mencken

Clearly the person who accepts the Church as an infallible guide will believe whatever the Church teaches. - St. Thomas Aquinas

Why did men worship in churches, locking themselves away in the dark, when the world lay beyond its doors in all its real glory? - Charles de Lint

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Christianity

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Christianity, along with all other theistic belief systems, is the fraud of the age. It serves to detach the species from the natural world, and likewise, each other. It supports blind submission to authority. - Unknown

During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution. - James Madison

Of all the systems of religion that ever were invented, there is none more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifying to man, more repugnant to reason, and more contradictory in itself, than this thing called Christianity... it produces only atheists and fanatics. - Thomas Paine

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The Bible

To be fair, I haven’t read the entire bible. I have read a few pages of it in my younger days. It was enough for me to believe it was all a sham.

How many people read the entire Bible? And can one seriously believe in the Bible after having read it thoroughly? I think anyone with a brain would, having read the bible, cast the book aside and never believe a word it said.

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You are, of course, free to interpret the Bible differently – though isn't it amazing that you have succeeded in discerning the true teachings of Christianity, while the most influential thinkers in the history of your faith failed? - Sam Harris

It is from the Bible that man has learned cruelty, rapine, and murder; for the belief of a cruel God makes a cruel man. - Thomas Paine

No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means. - George Bernard Shaw

Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived. - Isaac Asimov

The inspiration of the Bible depends upon the ignorance of the gentleman who reads it. - Robert Ingersoll

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Spirituality

The Spiritual journey is a personal thing. Teachers may open doors, or point the way, but you have to go on the journey on your own. If you are lucky, you may find fellow travellers along the way. But, ultimately, you are on your own.

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Life is not a prison and spirituality need not be an attempt to escape from life. - Unknown

Being spiritual has nothing to do with what you believe and everything to do with your state of consciousness. - Eckhart Tolle

Awakening is not to know what this reality is. Awakening is to know what reality is not. It is to cease identifying oneself with any object of knowledge whatsoever. - Alan Watts

Your work is not to drag the world kicking and screaming into a new awareness. Your job is to simply do your work… sacredly, secretly, and silently... and those with ‘eyes to see and ears to hear’, will respond. - The Ardurians

As a progressive and evolving being, man is where he is that he may learn that he may grow; and as he learns the spiritual lesson which any circumstance contains for him, it passes away and gives place to other circumstances. - James Allen

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Beliefs

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There can be no merit in believing something which you can neither explain nor understand. - John Lubbock

A belief which leaves no place for doubt is not a belief; it is a superstition. - Jose Bergamin

Whatever you do, you must remain nimble in your thinking. Do not become so attached to any one belief that you cannot see past it to another possibility. - Christopher Paolini

False beliefs can be every bit as consoling as true ones, right up until the moment of disillusionment. - Richard Dawkins

Everyone believes very easily whatever they fear or desire. - Jean de La Bruyere

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Atheism

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Although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist. - Richard Dawkins

An Atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An atheist believes that deed must be done instead of prayer said. An atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty vanished, war eliminated. - Madalyn Murray O’Hair

For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula, the big answers don’t remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us. - Charles Bukowski

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Spirituality

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Fortunately, some are born with spiritual immune systems that sooner or later give rejection to the illusory worldview grafted upon them from birth through social conditioning. They begin sensing that something is amiss, and start looking for answers. Inner knowledge and anomalous outer experiences show them a side of reality others are oblivious to, and so begins their journey of awakening. Each step of the journey is made by following the heart instead of following the crowd and by choosing knowledge over the veils of ignorance. - Henri Bergson

Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement,(to)get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes noting for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed. - Abraham Joshua Heschel

Free yourself from anger and desire. This is the means by which you come to know the soul, and thereby attain the highest spiritual state. - The Bhagavad Gita

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Zen

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Learning Zen is a phenomenon of gold and dung. Before you understand it, it's like gold; after you understand it, it's like dung. - Zen Saying

Do not think of what has not happened yet, or to be overly concerned about what has already passed; instead to be like a mirror which just sees things everything as is, with no "then what' or "what if?" This is Zen. - Unknown

If Zen is approached with the usual mental attitude, it will seem quite incomprehensible. Our average Western intellectuality would consider its paradoxical language simply as a play upon words. Its full significance is revealed only when we approach it in a different manner, making our minds available to the new processes of inner perception which it suggests. - Robert Linssen

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Universe

What is the universe? What does it make up of? How did it all come about? So many unknown, and so many questions! But until we know better, we can only assume that what we have learned about the universe is all there is. However, everyday, we learn something new. Maybe what we learn tomorrow might change our views of what the Universe is.

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A spiritually optimistic point of view holds that the universe is woven out of a fabric of love. Everything that is happening is ultimately for the good if we’re willing to face it head-on and use our adversities for soul growth. - Joan Borysenko

All persons are contained within a single individual, just as all time is in a moment, and the entire universe is in a grain of sand. - Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson

All things are connected with all things throughout the universe, from the insect to the archangel; from the sand-grain to the mountain and the globe; from the dew-drop to the ocean; from the rain-drop to the rainbow; from the pebble on the shore to 'the sun that blazes in the firmament; from the zephyr that sings among the flowers of the field to the ocean that pours its wild bass in the great anthem of nature. Not only are all things connected with all things, but there is a concatenation of events, so that the character and effects of no one event can terminate in itself. As each event owes some portion of its nature to that which preceded it, so it imparts some of its nature to that which succeeds it, and thus perpetuates the blended good or evil of itself and its predecessors. The single event may thus live on in its influence along the line of all the ages, assuming new shapes, or if clothing itself in the drapery of new events, ever marching onward and upward in the continually growing affairs of time. - John Lanahan

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Religion

I am not a fan of religion. Religion is divisive. We are all human beings. Yet, we kill each other over a belief, a religion. To me, this shows how corrupted religion is.

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I'd be more willing to accept religion, even if I didn't believe it, if I thought it made people nicer to each other but I don't think it does. - Andy Rooney

Change is always one generation away … so if we can plant the seeds of DOUBT in our children, religion will go away in a generation, or at least largely go away. And that’s what I think we have an obligation to do. - Lawrence Krauss

The problem is that – religion – because it has been sheltered from criticism as it has been – allows people – perfectly sane, perfectly intelligent people – to believe en masse, what only idiots or lunatics could believe in isolation. - Sam Harris

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Spirituality

Spirituality is a very personal thing. You are on your own pursuit. Friends and loved ones may not understand. It can be lonely on the journey. If you are lucky, you might meet like-minded fellow travellers. But they can accompany you for a brief period of time only. You see, all our journeys are different. They must go on their journey and you must go on yours alone. 

Image from the internet All spiritual practice is the art of shifting perspectives. - Teal

Spirituality is not religion. It is a path for us to generate happiness, understanding, and love, so we can live deeply each moment of our life. Having a spiritual dimension in our lives does not mean escaping life or dwelling in a place of bliss outside this world but discovering ways to handle life’s difficulties and generate peace, joy, and happiness right where we are, on this beautiful planet. - Thich Nhat Hanh

Being spiritual does not mean being dead serious. - Sadhguru

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Mysticism

In the contemporary usage "mysticism" has become an umbrella term, conflated with spirituality and esotericism.

Practices associated with mysticism include meditation and comtemplative prayer. Mysticism can be distinguished from ordinary religious belief by its emphasis on the direct personal experience of unique states of consciousness, particularly those of a transcendentally blissful character.

In the widest sense, mysticism is every guidance to the immediate awareness of what is not reached by either perception or conception, or generally by any knowledge. The mystic is opposed to the philosopher by the fact that he begins from within, whereas the philosopher begins from without. The mystic starts from his inner, positive, individual experience, in which he finds himself as the eternal and only being, and so on. But nothing of this is communicable except the assertions that we have to accept on his word; consequently he is unable to convince.

- Wikipedia

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Mysticism . . .is a path of incarnation, not of escape. - Unknown

For problems that arise when one steps into the shadow, the obvious cure is to step back into the sunlight. - Unknown

Once we have seriously embarked upon the mystical path, we begin to look upon the conditions in the world from the higher point of view. - Unknown

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Meditation

Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state.

Meditation is practiced in numerous religious traditions. Asian meditative techniques have spread to other cultures where they have found application in non-spiritual contexts, such as business and health.

Defining meditation has proven difficult due to its wide range of practices across different traditions. In popular usage, "meditation" is often used imprecisely to designate practices aimed at training attention, calmness, or compassion. There is no universally accepted definition. Theories and practices differ within traditions, with some emphasizing the inseparability of meditation from their cultural and religious contexts, while others focus on its role in achieving a relaxed or devout state.

Meditation may significantly reduce stress, anxiety, depression, and pain, and enhance peace, peace, self-concept, and well-being. Research is ongoing to better understand the effects of meditaion on health (psychological, neurological, and cardiovascular) and other areas.

- Wikipedia

What does meditation involve? Simply put, you just sit silently and witness your mind-process, while keeping your attention on the breath.

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Buddha was asked, “What have you gained from meditation?” He replied, “Nothing! However, let me tell you what I have lost: anger, anxiety, depression, insecurity, fear of old age and death.” - Unknown

All too often people come to meditation in the hope of extraordinary results, like visions, lights, or some supernatural miracle. When no such thing occurs, they feel extremely disappointed. But the real miracle of meditation is more ordinary and much more useful. - Sogyal Rinpoche

{While meditating} I sit quietly and rest in the nature of mind; I don't question or doubt whether I am in the "correct" state or not. There is no effort, only rich understanding, wakefulness, and unshakable certainty. When I am in the nature of mind, the ordinary mind is no longer there. There is no need to sustain or confirm a sense of being: I simply am. - Sogyal Rinpoche

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God

Can there be a Creator, a God? People believe in so many Gods. Which one is the correct, true God? If God created man, who created God? So many questions and no answers. So, one either believes blindly that there is a God, or that the idea of a God is ridiculous.

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Are you a God-fearing man? That is such a strange phrase. I’ve always thought of God as a teacher; a bringer of light, wisdom, and understanding. - Magneto

Because let’s be honest, the idea of a god sending himself to sacrifice himself to save us from himself is a little bit much for any sane, logical person to accept. - Unknown

Do not be too quick to condemn the man who no longer believes in God: for it is perhaps your own coldness and avarice and mediocrity and materialism and selfishness that have chilled his faith. - Thomas Merton

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