Aurobindo on Involution

Since this Consciousness is creatrix of the world, it must be not only state of knowledge, but power of knowledge, and not only a will to light and vision but a will to power and works. And since mind too is created out of it, mind must be a development by limitation out of this primal faculty and this supreme consciousness and must therefore be capable of resolving itself back into it through a reverse development by expansion.

-- Sri Aurobindo, from The Life Divine

Finite and Infinite Games (I)

Genuine travel has no destination. Travelers do not go somewhere, but constantly discover that they are somewhere else.

-- from James Carse, Finite and Infinite Games

Rinzai extreme

Followers of the Way once and for all sit down and cut off the heads of both the Sambhogakaya Buddha and of the Nirmanakaya Buddha. Those satisfied with merely completing the ten stages of the Bodhisattva are like serfs. Those content with universal and profound awakening are but carrying chains. Awakening and nirvana are like tethering posts for donkeys. Why? Because, followers of the Way, you fail to see the emptiness of the three great world ages; this is the obstacle that blocks you.

-- Rinzai

Stuff that makes you go "hmm..."

"And because there is always only Atman, the Atman project never occurred."

-- Ken Wilber, from The Atman Project (last line on the last page.)

Brain science explains meditation benefits

Neuroscientists at the University of Wisconsin recently asked volunteers to practice "compassion meditation" while reclining inside MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machines. Results showed that the brains of more experienced meditators exhibited greater activity in areas known to be related to empathy and emotions than the brains of the less experienced meditators. The tentative conclusion seems to be that meditation does have "real" effects that can be objectively measured in the brain, and that experience and practice in meditation does make a difference.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23829470/

Bodhidharma

Whoever knows that the mind is a fiction and empty of anything real knows that his own mind neither exists nor doesn't exist. The ignorant keep creating the mind, claiming it exists. And adepts keep negating the mind, claiming it doesn't exist. But the truly wise neither create nor negate the mind. This is what's meant by the mind that neither exists nor doesn't exist.

-- Bodhidharma (5th cent.)

Dogen on traceless realization

To study the buddha path is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be realized by all that exists. When realized by all that exists, one's body and mind and the bodies and minds of "others" drop away from thought. No trace of realization remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly.

-- Dogen, Shobogenzo

Spies for Higher Consciousness

"During a war every person that is somewhat awake is considered a spy because of his seriousness and alertness."

-- Gurdjieff

Roadquest

A journey of a thousand miles ends with a single step.

Meher Baba

"The so many deaths during the one whole life, from the beginning of evolution of consciousness to the end of involution of consciousness, are like so many sleeps during one lifetime."

-- Meher Baba, from God Speaks