All children are Atheists; they have no idea of God. - Paul-Henri Holbch
I'm an atheist, and that's it. I believe there's nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for other people. - Katherine Hepburn
The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not. - Eric Hoffer
Buddha-dharma
The Buddha-dharma does not invite us to dabble in abstract notions. Rather, the task it presents us with is to attend to what we actually experience, right in this moment. You don't have to look "over there." You don't have to figure anything out. You don't have to acquire anything. And you don't have to run off to Tibet, or Japan, or anywhere else. You wake up right here. In fact, you can only wake up right here. So you don't have to do the long search, the frantic chase, the painful quest. You're already right where you need to be. - Steve Hagen
Buddha
Buddha is not to be worshipped, one has to become a Buddha. Except for that, there is no worship, no prayer. You don't need any priest, you don't need any scriptures, you don't need to be in any religious organization, you have to be just yourself – silently, peacefully settling within your home. - Osho
I do understand that some people need to believe in a religion. I have no problem with that. And I do not mean to belittle any religion, but when hypocrites and ignorant fools spout falsehood, or try to mislead others with nonsense, they deserved to be ridiculed.
Believers reading this, I hope you are not hanging out with the likes of people in the pictures.
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
Harvard MRI Study Proves Meditation Literally Rebuilds Brain’s Gray Matters In 8 Weeks
http://timewheel.net/tome-harvard-mri-study-proves-meditation-literally-rebuilds-brain-s/
source
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/01/eight-weeks-to-a-better-brain/
Spirituality exists wherever we struggle with the issue of how our lives fit into the greater cosmic scheme of things. This is true even when our questions never give way to specific answers or give rise to specific practices such as prayer or meditation. We encounter spiritual issues every time we wonder where the universe comes from, why we are here, or what happens when we die. We also become spiritual when we become moved by values such as beauty, love, or creativity that seem to reveal a meaning or power beyond our visible world. An idea or practice is ‘spiritual’ when it reveals our personal desire to establish a felt-relationship with the deepest meanings or powers governing life. - Robert C. Fuller
The spiritual presence in your life is ever with you, ever available to you and ever reminding you to look beyond your own judgments. It is forever providing for you the support, the assistance and the guidance necessary to minimize the wrong application of your mind and to strengthen the right application of your mind to allow knowledge to arise within you. - Unknown
Ignorance of nature's ways led people in ancient times to invent gods to lord it over every aspect of human life. There were gods of love and war; of the sun, earth, and sky; of the oceans and rivers; of rain and thunderstorms; even of earthquakes and volcanoes. When the gods were pleased, mankind was treated to good weather, peace, and freedom from natural disaster and disease. When they were displeased, there came draught, war, pestilence, and epidemics. Since the connection of cause and effect in nature was invisible to their eyes, these gods appeared inscrutable, and people at their mercy. - Stephen Hawking & Leonard Mlodinow
God was always invented to explain mystery. God is always invented to explain those things that you do not understand. Now when you finally discover how something works, you get some laws which you're taking away from God; you don't need him anymore. But you need him for the other mysteries. So therefore you leave him to create the universe because we haven't figured that out yet; you need him for understanding those things which you don't believe the laws will explain, such as consciousness, or why you only live to a certain length of time – life and death – stuff like that. God is always associated with those things that you do not understand. - Richard Feynman
Instead of being overwhelmed by the universe, I think that perhaps one of the deepest experiences a scientist can have, almost approaching a religious awakening, is to realize that we are children of the stars, and that our minds are capable of understanding the universal laws that they obey. The atoms within our bodies were forged on the anvil of nucleo-synthesis within an exploding star aeons before the birth of the solar system. Our atoms are older than the mountains. We are literally made of star dust. Now these atoms, in turn, have coalesced into intelligent beings capable of understanding the universal laws governing that event. - Michiokaku
Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to non-existent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centred on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries. - Carl Sagan
More quotes on Yin and Yang – the dual polarities in life.
The motion of Yin and Yang generates all things in nature. - Meh Jiuzhang & Guo Lei
The sexual union of male and female is thus regarded as the essential earthly manifestation of the great cosmic dance of Yin and Yang. - Daniel Reid
The world is, was, will always be filled with good and evil, because good and evil is the yin and yang of the human condition. - Philip Zimbardo
The yin and the yang are opposite forces. Yet, they exist together in the harmony of a perfect orb. - R. A. Wise
There's eternal opposition between yin and yang. No third party at all, but treason occurs sometimes. - Toba Beta
Yin and Yang are one vital force – the primordial aura. - YangMing Wang
Excerpts from Buddhist texts and publications.
If you see things with real insight, then there is no attachment in your relationship to them. They come – pleasant and unpleasant – you see them and there is no attachment. They come and they pass. Even if the worst kinds of defilement come up, such as greed or anger, there's enough wisdom to see their impermanent nature and allow them to just fade away. If you react to them, however, by liking or disliking, that isn't wisdom. You're only creating more suffering for yourself. - Unknown
Once you understand non-self, then the burden of life is gone. You'll be at peace with the world. When we see beyond self, we no longer cling to happiness and we can truly be happy. Learn to let go without struggle, simply let go, to be just as you are – no holding on, no attachment, free. - Unknown
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
All that you need is just to be silent and listen to existence. There is no need of any religion, there is no need of any God, there is no need of any priesthood, there is no need of any organization. All those things can be removed. Now all that is left to you is a state of meditation which simply means a state of utter silence. Even the word meditation makes it look heavier. It is better to just call it a simple, innocent silence. - Osho
Mystical attainment is an individual accomplishment. Others influence our way of approaching life, but the development of the inner self must be undertaken in solitude. It is by retreating within, facing the real self, and relying on his own resources that the way to mastery of life is achieved. - Unknown
The task, and joy, of a mystic is to listen for the stirrings of the sacred in the world and the presence of soul. What the mystic seeks to hear is not a message or even a sound. It is something more subtle and less glamorous. The hearing of a mystic is not really auditory at all but more a deeply focused yet widely extended attentiveness. - 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
Reaching the zenith of one mystic mountain of attainment, we find the base of another still nobler and higher to climb. - Unknown
The will is the commander of chi. Chi is the totality of the body. - Mencius
Explanation:
Our will power can control the flow of energy. When we think of a certain organ or area of our body, energy will flow to that part. Energy is the basic ingredient of our whole body. All our organs, tissues and cells as well as all our physiological functions and metal activities are the products of energy.
Man is born of the chi of heaven and of earth, and is nurtured by the ways of the four seasons. - Nei Jing
Explanation:
The very substance of which a man is born is the same as the substance that comprises the whole universe, that is energy. This energy may be manifested as different kinds, which are generalized into two main groups. The fine types are known as heaven energy, and the coarser types as earth energy. This energy, which is in man as well as in the whole universe, is not static. It is forever changing, and the changes can be brought about by different times and environments. The growth and development of a man, therefore, are affected by the seasons, which include not only climatic but also subtle psychological, physiological and other variations.
I am not even an atheist so much as I am an antitheist; I not only maintain that all religions are versions of the same untruth, but I hold that the influence of churches, and the effect of religious belief is positively harmful. Reviewing the false claims of religion, I do not wish, as some sentimental materialists affect to wish, that they were true. I do not envy believers their faith. I am relieved to think that the whole story is a sinister fairy tale; life would be miserable if what the faithful affirmed was actually the case. - Christopher Hitchens
I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But as much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking. - Carl Sagan
The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality of happiness, and by no means a necessity of life. - George Bernard Shaw
One Buddha Teaching That Will Tell You More About Yourself Than Anything Else.
Click on the link to read the article.
The ground we walk on, the plants and creatures, the clouds above constantly dissolving into new formations – each gift of nature possessing its own radiant energy, bound together by cosmic harmony. - Ruth Bernhard
There are no cosmic secrets except as man is ignorant of cosmic phenomena or unable to perceive them. - Validivar
The Cosmos and I live on forever. All things and I are united as one. - Chuang Tzu
We are the cosmos made conscious and life is the means by which the universe understands itself. - Brian Cox
Benefits of Meditation
Mingyur Rinpoche talks about his experiences in the laboratory. Click on the link to read the article.
When you approach spirituality as an adventure of being alive, you start as you would any adventure – with a sense of mystery and not-knowing. Instead of searching for answers that make you feel safe, you set out into the vastness of life and death, with a willingness to continually grow. You open up to the possibility that your ordinary life is an extraordinary adventure, and that your joys and sorrows have meaning. Spiritual practice becomes your rudder, offering direction and insight and discretion as you venture into the unknown. - Elizabeth Lesser
The spiritual presence in your life is ever with you, ever available to you and ever reminding you to look beyond your own judgments. It is forever providing for you the support, the assistance and the guidance necessary to minimize the wrong application of your mind and to strengthen the right application of your mind to allow knowledge to arise within you. - Unknown
If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise. - Johann Von Goethe
Many deeds are enacted in God's name which fill the Devil's heart with envy. - Abraham Miller
A god of kindness would be charitable to all. Your god of wrath and punishment is but a monstrous phantasy. - Emile Zola
I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time. - Friedrich Nietzsche
I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires. - Susan B. Anthony
