SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS
Allow nothing to stand in the way of spiritual advancement. Anything is better than to remain in the merely self-conscious state, which is full of miseries.
- Richard Bucke, from Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind (Arkana)
A raindrop, dripping from a cloud,
Was ashamed when it saw the sea.
"Who am I where there is a sea?" it said.
When it saw itself with the eye of humility,
A shell nurtured it in its embrace.
- Saadi of Shiraz, quoted in The Way of the Sufi
O you who stab the selfless one with the sword, you are stabbing yourself with it. Beware!
For the selfless one has passed away, he has become a mirror:
naught is there but the image of another's face.
If you spit at it, you spit at your own face; and if you strike the mirror, you strike yourself.
And if you see an ugly face in the mirror, 'tis you; and if you see Jesus and Mary, 'tis you.
He is neither this nor that: he is pure and free from self; he puts your image before you.
- Rumi, quoted in Travelling the Path of Love: Sayings of Sufi Masters
He is infinite love, wisdom, joy.
I reside in the hearts of all beings.
- Gita 15:15, from The Bhagavad Gita (Classics of Indian Spirituality)
I have learned so much from God that I can no longer call myself
a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew.
The truth has shared so much of itself with me that I can no longer
think of myself as a man, a woman, an angel, or even pure soul.
Existence has become so saturated with laughter it has freed me of every
concept and image a mind could ever war with.
- Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky
Know the true nature of your Beloved.
In His loving eyes, your every thought, word, and movement,
is always, always, beautiful.
- Hafiz
Now is the time to know
That all you do is sacred.
- Hafiz
...earthly language is entirely insufficient to describe what there is of joy, happiness and liveliness contained in the inner wonders of God.
- Jacob Behmen
"Be still and know that I am God" (Psalms 46:10). Never flaunting His omnipresence, the Lord is heard only in the immaculate silences.
- Paramahansa Yogananda