Serenity quotes

SELF-CREATION

     After having subdued by sleep all that belongs to the body, he, not asleep himself, looks down upon the sleeping. Having assumed light, he goes again to his own place, the gold-gleaming genius, the solitary
bird.
     Guarding with the prana the lower nest, the immortal moves away from the nest; that immortal one goes wherever he likes, the gold-gleaming genius, the solitary bird.
     Going up and down in his dream, the god makes manifold shapes for himself, either rejoicing together with women, or laughing with comrades, or seeing terrible sights.
     People may see his playground, but himself no one ever sees. Therefore they say, "Let no one wake a man suddenly, for it is not easy to remedy, if he does not get back."
     Now as a man is like this or like that, according as he acts and according as he behaves, so will he be: - a man of good acts will become good, a man of bad acts, bad. He becomes pure by pure deeds, corrupt by bad deeds.
     And here they say that a person consists of desires. And as is his desire, so is his will: and as is his will, so is his deed; and whatsoever deed he does, that he will reap.
     If a man understands the Self, saying "I am He", what could he wish or desire that he should pine after the body?
     Whosoever has found and understood the Self that has entered this patched-up hiding place, he indeed is the creator, for he is the maker of everything, his is the world, and he is the world itself.
     Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
THE UNRUFFLED MIND

It is upon the serene and placid surface of the unruffled mind that the visions gathered from the invisible find a representation in the visible world. Otherwise you would vainly seek those visions, those flashes of sudden light which have already helped to solve so many of the minor problems and which alone can bring the truth before the eye of the soul. It is with jealous care that we have to guard our mind-plane from all the adverse influences which daily arise in our passage through earth-life.

MAHATMA K. H.
SERENITY

THAT blessed mood,
In which the burthen of the mystery,
In which the heavy and the weary weight
Of all this unintelligible world,
Is lightened: - that serene and blessed mood
In which the affections gently lead us on, -
Until, the breath of this corporeal frame
And even the motion of our human blood
Almost suspended, we are laid asleep
In body, and become a living soul;
While with an eye made quiet by the power
Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,
We see into the life of things.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
THE UNCARVED BLOCK

Know the strength of man,
But keep a woman's care!
Be the stream of the universe!
Being the stream of the universe,
Ever true and unswerving,
Become as a little child once more.

Know honour,
Yet keep humility.
Be the valley of the universe!
Being the valley of the universe,
Ever true and resourceful,
Return to the state of the uncarved block.

Tao Te Ching

Edited by Raghavan N. Iyer, The Jewel in the Lotus , Santa Barbara; Concord Grove Press: 1983 (reprinted in 1987) Jewel in the Lotus archives (okt 12th 2005)