Temptation

"I can resist anything but temptation."

---Oscar Wilde

Routine

"Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine."

---Shunryu Suzuki

Exposure

"What you see, you become."

---Tom Bianchi (from the Vedas)

The Field

"Beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right-doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there."

---Rumi

Volunteer

"We're in a free-fall into the future. We don't know where we're going. Things are changing so fast. And as always when you're going through a long tunnel, anxiety comes along. And all you have to do to transform your hell into a paradise is to turn your fall into a voluntary act. It's a very interesting shift of perspective...joyfully participate in the sorrows of the world and everything changes."

---Joseph Campbell, "Sukhavati--The Place of Bliss"

See?

"The foolish reject what they see, not what they think; the wise reject what they think, not what they see."

---Huang-Po (China)

photo: Sadhus, "The Naked Saints of India"

Perfection

"Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add but when there is no longer anything to take away, when a body has been stripped down to it's nakedness."

---Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Radical

"We only become what we are by the radical and deep-seated refusal of that which others have made us."

---Jean-Paul Sartre

photo: sadhus, "The Naked Saints of India"

Temple

"Here in this body are the sacred rivers; here are the sun and the moon, as well as all the pilgrimage places. I have not encountered another temple as blissful as my own body."

---Saraha Doha

Inner Taste

"With the gradual awakening of an inner taste of Tantra, faith grows. Some people are easily inspired by these exotic practices, but to genuinely experience their potential takes time and work. Great patience is needed, as Tantra requires repeated practice with results that grow slowly with time."

---Rob Preece, "The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra"

Directly

"If you cannot directly face your sexuality, you will never discover your true spirituality. Your earthly spirit leads to discovering your heavenly spirit. Look at what created you to discover what will immortalize you."

--Taoist White Tigress Manual

Blow

"I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows stuffed. I want the culture of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any."

--- M.K. Gandhi

Ecstasy

"Any real ecstasy is a sign you are moving in the right direction, don't let any prude tell you otherwise."

---St. Teresa of Avila

Self-transcendence

"By my inner firmness I have caused my seed to remain stationary in the middle of the Lingam. Thus it is always fruitful, ever ready. This is the power of self-transcendence."

--Skanda Purana

The Living One

"His disciples asked, 'When will you become revealed to us and when shall we see you?' Jesus answered, 'When you disrobe without being ashamed and take up your garments and place them under your feet like little children and tread on them, then you will see the son of the Living One, and you will not be afraid.'"

---The Gnostic Gospel of Thomas

Stuff

"Our desires always increase with our possessions; the knowledge that something remains yet unenjoyed, impairs our enjoyment of the good before us."

---Samuel Johnson


"To be satisfied with a little, is the greatest wisdom; and he that increaseth his riches, increaseth his cares; but a contented mind is a hidden treasure, and trouble findeth not."

---Akhenaton, Egyptian pharoah


"Manifest plainness. Embrace simplicity. Reduce selfishness. Have few desires."

---Lao Tzu

Evolution

"Kind prince," said the master, "an individual's approach to sexuality is an indication of his level of evolution."

--The Complete Works of Lao Tzu: Tao Teh Ching & Hua Hu Ching. Translation & elucidation by Hua-Ching Ni