If you look into muddy water,
you see neither the moon nor the sky;
sun and moon both disappear
when darkness possesses the air.
-Jalal al-Din Rumi
Darkness and coarseness will always be with a soul
until its appetites are extinguished.
The appetites are like a cataract on the eye or specks of dust in it.
Until removed, they obstruct vision.
The appetites deprive them of treasure of divine light.
Any appetite, even one that is but slightly imperfect, stains and defiles the soul.
-John of the Cross
This life’s five windows of the soul
Distorts the Heavens from pole to pole,
And leads you to believe a lie
When you see with, not thro’, the eye
That was born in a night, to perish in a night,
When the soul slept in the beams of light.
-William Blake
Distorts the Heavens from pole to pole,
And leads you to believe a lie
When you see with, not thro’, the eye
That was born in a night, to perish in a night,
When the soul slept in the beams of light.
-William Blake
To waste all day
in the busy town,
Forgetting the treasure
in his own house.
-A Zen Forest
The least deviation from the truth
is multiplied later a thousandfold.
-Aristotle
is multiplied later a thousandfold.
-Aristotle
He has lost his control,
and he is led astray
by some force he cannot control.
-Hazrat Inayat Khan
and he is led astray
by some force he cannot control.
-Hazrat Inayat Khan
In ancient days
excesses were called "the chains of hell".
-Supermundane I
That which is false corrupts knowledge;
that which is evil corrupts the will;
that which is ugly corrupts love;
that which is unjust cancels and perverts action...
The evil, the false, the ugly and the unjust
are incompatible with truth...
What is not beautiful is not good,
what is not good is not just,
what is not just is not true.
-Eliphas Levi
Were it not for the excess of your talking and the turmoil in your hearts,
you would see what I see and hear what I hear!
-Ibn 'Arabi
Your striving for what has already been guaranteed to you,
and your remiss in what is demanded of you
are signs of the blurring of your intellect.
-Ibn Ata'Illah
and your remiss in what is demanded of you
are signs of the blurring of your intellect.
-Ibn Ata'Illah
Anything which is troubling you,
anything which is irritating you,
that is your teacher.
-Ajahn Chah
He who says, "I cannot tolerate," shows his smallness;
he who says, "I cannot endure," shows his weakness;
he who says, "I cannot associate," shows his limitation;
he who says, "I cannot forgive," shows his imperfection.
-Hazrat Inayat Khan
Deprivation hurts you
only because of your incomprehension of God in it.
-Ibn Ata'Illah
only because of your incomprehension of God in it.
-Ibn Ata'Illah
How endlessly those caught up
in the floating world suffer.
-Ryokan
All tragedy of life, all misery and inharmony
are caused by one thing
and that is lack of understanding.
-Hazrat Inayat Khan
are caused by one thing
and that is lack of understanding.
-Hazrat Inayat Khan
The results of the heart's torments -
nothing but the shortening of life!
-Mirza Ghalib
Unless you realize in heart and mind that as you are
You're the Devil's coal ready to burn to ash.
-Farid ud-Din Attar
Man has falsely identified himself with the pseudo-soul or ego.
When he transfers his sense of identity to this true being, the immortal Soul,
he discovers that all pain is unreal.
He can no longer even imagine the state of suffering.
-Yogananda
