To be loved, learn to live a poetic life

In their lives, most people are cold, stiff, dull, prosaic and unimaginative; nothing subtle emanates from them. They need to be loved, they need good relationships, but they seem to do everything possible to repel each other by remaining closed, gloomy and ponderous. How can anyone so unpleasant be loved? To be loved, you must learn to live a poetic life so you can bring warmth and light to others.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Live in Love

Start the day with Love. Live the day with Love. Fill the day with Love. Spend the day with Love. End the day with Love. Love calls; love responds. Live in Love. This is the way to God.

-Sai Baba

True Regret

When we meditate, things from the past come up. We may remember times when we treated others horribly -hurting their feelings, deceiving, manipulating them. While regret is necessary to purify these karmas, we often fall into guilt instead. Guilt and shame are obstacles, because they keep us trapped in our self-centered melodrama entitled "How Bad I Am." Regret, on the other hand, motivates us to refrain from acting like that again.

-Dalai Lama

Do you want to know if you truly love others?

Do you want to know if you truly love others? Then, here is a simple criterion: do you feel grateful to them? If you ask nothing of them, if you are moved to thank them in words - or merely in your thoughts - simply because they are there, because they exist, then yes, you can be sure that you love them. Otherwise, describe your feelings however you wish, but this is not love.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Building our Future

It is very important that we control our future. In what way? By living in a way that will lead us to our future. For example, if you want to have a great mind in the future, you must work on your mind now. If you want to have a healthy mind, you must think healthy thoughts. If you want to have a beautiful physical body, you must perform only those actions, emotions and mental activities that are in harmony with each other, and this harmony will create a harmonious body in the future.

People are very careful about putting money in the bank. They say, "Twenty years later I will have 20,000 dollars." But they do not think about what bank they are putting their thoughts into and what kind of thoughts they are putting into it. There is a more important bank than the bank where we are putting our dollars. In that bank you are putting all your capital; you are building the capital of your future and it will create earthly joys and heavenly joys. If you deposit material money and do not pay attention to your future becomingness, then you are losing whatever you build here. Your unfoldment of the future is like a garden in which you are going to bloom.

-Torkom Saraydarian

Meat eating makes man descend to the demonic level

I have been stressing the vital importance of people giving up this habit of eating non-vegetarian food even from my boyhood days. Meat eating fosters animal qualities in man making him descend to the demonic level; it is a heart-rending sight to see cows being slaughtered to serve as food for man. Violence in any form is evil and to kill innocent animals in tantamount to blatant savagery.

-Sai Baba

To know the truth, remove the idea that you are somewhere

You are always thinking you are somewhere, in some place. You have to remove that idea. There is a peculiar habit of the mind asserting itself as located in some place, in a particular form, in a particular condition, etc. This must be removed so that you may know the truth.

-Swami Krishnananda

Patience brings charm to your life

Patience is like a beautiful ornament. When you become a person with great patience, it brings a certain element of charm to your life. You are loved by others, and you give no problems to your friends. You bring an element of joy, happiness, and calmness to other people's lives - your friends, your family, and the community. You do not have to ask to be accepted; everyone longs for your presence.

-Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche

The external world reflects your thoughts

The external world will reflect your thoughts. If you view the world with love, it will appear as filled with love. If you view it with hatred, everything will appear antagonistic to you. Eyes filled with love shine with brightness and cheerfulness. Eyes filled with hatred appear bloodshot and fearful. Our thoughts determine our good and bad actions.

The spark of Love in you has to be cherished and fed so that it may reach God; then, every being will be God, every act will be Divine; every reaction you get from the outside world will be charged with Prema and sweetened with that nectar. You love the God in all beings and the God in all beings responds with love.

-Sai Baba

The contemplation of death is the foundation of spiritual discipline

The contemplation of death is the very foundation of spiritual discipline. Without it, human is certain to fall into falsehood, pursuing the objects of sense-pleasure, and trying to accumulate material, worldly riches. Death is no ominous calamity; it is a step into the auspicious brightness beyond.

-Sai Baba

Habits prevent our evolution

We must try to annihilate habits. No one must be the slave of any habit because habits use our willpower and prevent our evolution, unfoldment, blooming and right relations. The destruction of habits opens the way for us to develop our life and expand our consciousness.

-Torkom Saraydarian

Compare yourself with Christ

You can work toward perfection by comparing yourself with Christ and seeing what you are. This is how you can change yourself. It is a clear tactic to find the difference between perfection and yourself.

-Torkom Saraydarian

The end of pain lies not in pleasure

The end of pain lies not in pleasure. When you realize that you are beyond both pain and pleasure, aloof and unassailable, then the pursuit of happiness ceases and the resultant sorrow too. For pain aims at pleasure and pleasure ends in pain, relentlessly.

-Nisargadatta Maharaj

Like troglodytes

People do not slaughter a vast number of cattle from a sense of refinement. Like troglodytes, they are ready to devour bears. One must realize that the mass slaughter of animals is carried on in full consciousness. People know that vegetables or fruit give more vital energy than a cup of blood, yet they prefer being served with bloody meat, greatly relishing this coarseness.

-Agni Yoga

Today, human is shaped by the head, rather than the heart

Few seek real Ananda (Bliss); the many are led away by the pseudo-ananda of the senses, the intellect and the mind. Today ideals must become higher and grander. Desires must become more and more selfless and sublime. Attachment must be transmuted into nobler and subtler emotions. Laziness too is the bane of modern civilization; people want rest, they complain of overwork, they talk of being tired.

Today, human is shaped by the head, rather than the heart. It is cleverness that is admired, that pays. But, peace and joy emanate from the heart not the head. The heart teaches compassion, awe, reverence, humility, equanimity, sympathy - qualities that bind people in love, and turn them towards righteousness and the source and sustenance of the Universe.

-Sai Baba

Thoughts follow their parent

Thoughts follow their parent, good or evil. They come and find you, whether you are in astral, mental, or physical incarnation. Good thoughts return to you with flowers an fruits. Dark thoughts return to you with heavy taxation, pain and suffering.

-Torkom Saraydarian

Service is Joy

I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
I awoke and saw that life was service.
I acted and behold, service was joy.

-Rabindranath Tagore

Do not blame others for your condition

The importance of the mind in the process of transformation should be properly understood, because it is the mind that is the cause of both bondage and liberation. Your own actions are the cause of your happiness or sorrow. Do not blame others for your condition. Every thought, every word and every action has its reflection, resound and reaction. It is a sign of weakness to blame others for your troubles. You have to bear the consequences of your own actions. If they are unbearable, pray to God for relief. God alone can give relief in such cases.

- Sai Baba

People who swear

People who swear -even if it's just under their breath -are cursing themselves. What does that mean? It means they are holding themselves back in life. They are demeaning themselves and making themselves unsuccessful. Their lack of success will create more frustrations within the home, and more swearing. Even thinking a swear word is a mantra.

-Gurudeva

"Why don't I see goodness and beauty everywhere?"

"Why is everyone here so happy except me?"
"Because they have learned to see goodness and beauty everywhere," said the Master.
"Why don't I see goodness and beauty everywhere?"
"Because you cannot see outside of you what you fail to see inside."

-Anthony de Mello, SJ