QUOTES FROM THE SOURCE Compiled by Sri Clownananda TABLE OF CONTENTS EFFORTS – DISCIPLINE – EARNESTNESS – page 3 HUMILITY - SURRENDER – EFFACEMENT – page 21 SILENCE - NO THOUGHTS - STILLNESS OF MIND – page 33 DISSOLUTION OF MIND - ANNIHILATION OF EGO – page 65 KNOWING THE FALSE – page 73 INTELLECTUALISM - NOT-KNOWING – NON-CONCEPTUAL – page 77 PRIOR TO CONSCIOUSNESS - ABSOLUTE - NOTHINGNESS – page 89 SELF-ENQUIRY - ABIDING – page 97 SUFFERING – page 102 SAMADHI – page 106 STRENGTH OF THE MIND - REFINEMENT – page 110 INTEREST IN THE INNER - MATURING – page 111 BREATH - PRANA – page 112 GIVING AND RECEIVING – EFFORT AND GRACE – page 121 MEDIOCRITY - FALSE TEACHERS – page 124 CHANGING THE WORLD – page 127 INTERDEPENDENCE – page 128 CLOSER THAN CLOSE – page 128 "I AM" IS GOD – page 132 ATTENTION – page 133 DON JUAN - CASTANEDA - SILENCE - INNER DIALOGUE – page 134 1 PREFACE Here's a compilation of hundreds of selected quotes sorted by topics, from great masters in many spiritual traditions. I always loved collecting quotes, whether from books I read or websites and social networks. I believe and feel they have a great power for one engaged on a spiritual path, as reminders, pointers, inspiration, tools of clarification, but also as a very effective aid to nurture our focus, perseverance, determination and dedication to our practice. I hope you will find it helpful. May you all be blessed in the light of your own being! Sri Clownananda 2 EFFORTS – DISCIPLINE - EARNESTNESS "In all cases the effort must be ceaseless and untiring until the goal can be reached." - Ramana Maharshi "The mind only gets dissolved in the Self by constant practice." - Annamalai Swami "No one succeeds without effort. Mind control is not one's birthright. The successful few owe their success to their perseverance." - Ramana Maharshi "Be strong and keep up constant effort." - Ramana Maharshi "Conscious, deliberate effort is needed to attain that effortless state of stillness." - Ramana Maharshi "Effort is necessary to move oneself deeper and deeper in the practice of Self-enquiry, not philosophising on the subject. Firm determination is necessary to achieve experience, not trying to find it at one particular point. This is to be done until the ego is consumed and only the Self remains." - Ramana Maharshi "There must be a great battle going on inwardly all the time until the Self is realized. This battle is symbolically spoken of in scriptural writings as the fight between God and Satan." - Ramana Maharshi "Effort is necessary up to the state of realisation. Even then the Self should spontaneously become evident. Otherwise happiness will not be complete. Up to that state of spontaneity there must be effort in some form or another." - Ramana Maharshi "Unless you make tremendous efforts, you will not be convinced that effort will take you nowhere. The self is so self-confident that unless it is totally discouraged it will not give up. Mere verbal conviction is not enough. Hard facts alone can show the absolute nothingness of the self-image." - Nisargadatta Maharaj "I always teach in earnestness. As I have explained many times, I was always inclined to sacrifice my life for the sake of Dhamma [Dharma, truth]. No one would believe how much effort I put into the practice. Since others haven't done what I have, they cannot imagine the extraordinary effort I made for the attainment of this Supreme Dhamma. But I did put forth the effort, and here are the results. Which demonstrates the power of uncompromising diligence when it is used for the sake of Dhamma. The more determination, the better. Then one will die victorious, not badly defeated. Remember this well." - Ajahn Maha Boowa 3 "I tell you no one can experience this birth (of God in the soul) without a mighty effort." - Meister Eckhart "Maya is destroyed only by engaging with supreme effort in mouna [silence]. It is not destroyed by any other means." - Ramana Maharshi "Being Still is not an effortless state of indolence. All mundane activities which are ordinarily called effort are performed with the aid of a portion of the mind and with frequent breaks. But the act of communion with the Self or remaining still inwardly is intense activity which is performed with the entire mind and without break. Maya (delusion or ignorance) which cannot be destroyed by any other act is completely destroyed by this intense activity which is called 'silence'." - Ramana Maharshi "Intense effort is necessary until the I-thought disappears completely in the Heart [Self] and all the vasanas [egoistic tendencies] and samskaras [mental impressions and psychological imprints] are fried and do not revive again." - Ramana Maharshi "Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi sometimes said that Self-knowledge, that is, attaining the state of the jnani, is an easy thing because we are already the Self and consequently are already realized. At other times he would admit that attaining such a state is very difficult. To illustrate the later attitude i can offer the following exchange. A woman came and had Bhagavan's darshan. When she was ready to leave, she asked him, "Bhagavan, my mind is wandering in many directions. What shall I do?" Bhagavan advised her, "Let it go in only on in one direction." After she had left, I asked him, "If that is possible, what more do we want? That is jnana itself, is it not?" "Well, what am I to do or say?" asked Bhagavan. "As soon as people come here they want to become jnanis [self-realized]. They think it is quite easy. They do not realize the difficulty in it." - Rangan (Velacheri Ranga Iyer) "Question: "Will the knowledge gained by direct experience be lost afterwards?" Ramana: "Kaivalya Navanita [a classic text of Advaita Vedanta recommended by Sri Ramana Maharshi] says it may be lost. Experience gained without rooting out the vasanas cannot remain steady. Efforts must therefore be made to eradicate all the vasanas. Otherwise, rebirth takes place. Some say direct experience results from hearing from one's Master; others say it is from reflection; yet others say from one-pointedness and also from samadhi. Though appearing different on the surface, ultimately they mean the same. Knowledge can remain unshaken only after all the vasanas are rooted out." - Ramana Maharshi "Try again, no matter how many times you have failed. Always try once more. Perseverance is the whole magic of spiritual success." - Paramahansa Yogananda 4 "You have to make an enormous effort to realise the Self. It is very easy to stop on the way and fall back into ignorance. At any moment you can fall back. You have to make a strong determined effort to remain on the peak when you first reach it, but eventually a time will come when you are fully established in the Self. When that happens, you cannot fall. You have reached your destination and no further efforts are required. Until that moment comes, constant sadhana is required." - Annamalai Swami "If we perform sadhana to the limit of our abilities the Lord will accomplish for us that which is beyond our capabilities. If we fail to do even that which is within our capabilities, there is not the slightest fault in the grace of the Lord." - Ramana Maharshi "There is absolutely nothing in ordinary human experience to compare with the joy of the presence of the Love of God. No sacrifice is too great nor effort too much in order to realize that Presence." - David R. Hawkins "Don't think you can attain total awareness and whole enlightenment without proper discipline and practice. This is egomania. Appropriate rituals channel your emotions and life energy toward the light. Without the discipline to practice them, you will tumble constantly backward into darkness. Here is the great secret: just as high awareness of the subtle truth is gained through virtuous conduct and sustaining disciplines, so also is it maintained through these things. Highly evolved beings know and respect the truth of this." - Lao Tzu "Let me repeat. Without effort you will never reach it, with effort nobody has ever reached it. You will need great effort, and only then there comes a moment.when effort becomes futile. But it becomes futile only when you have come to the very peak of it, never before it. When you have come to the very pinnacle of your effort - all that you can do you have done - then suddenly there is no need to do anything anymore. You drop the effort. But nobody can drop it in the middle, it can be dropped only at the extreme end. So go to the extreme end if you want to drop it. Hence I go on insisting: make as much effort as you can, put your whole energy and total heart in it, so that one day you can see - now effort is not going to lead me anywhere. And that day it will not be you who will drop the effort, it drops on its own accord. And when it drops on its own accord, meditation happens." - Osho "Out of millions of men who try for the path, only one may endeavor for perfection, and out of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth." - Bhagavad Gita "If one wants to abide in the thought-free state, a struggle is inevitable. One must fight one's way through before regaining one's original primal state. If one succeeds in the fight and reaches the goal, the enemy, namely the thoughts, will all subside in the Self and disappear entirely." - Ramana Maharshi 5 "Keep up the practice until there are no breaks. Practice alone will bring about continuity of awareness." - Ramana Maharshi "Because truth is exceedingly subtle and serene, the bliss of the Self can manifest only in a mind rendered subtle and steady by assiduous meditation." - Ramana Maharshi "Constant meditation is the only way.