Quotes from the Masters and Teachers

[A human Being]

'Without a shift of attention from concept to immediate experience and perception, spirituality tends to degrade into magical thinking, fantasy, and/or fanaticism. It is only by redirecting attention away from the surface level of the mind’s narrative, and towards the pure immediacy of the present, that we can break the trance of ego-identification and fall into conscious connection with our true nature.' - Adyashanti

[Miss Hepburn]

I can tell you only this: If you, without prejudice or opinion, without a theory or
concept of what God is, can realise, God is
and dwell with that and ponder it, keeping your thought in that line, from out of the
depths of your consciousness within will come the experience revealing what God is and
how God operates and acts throughout this marvelous universe.



-Joel S. Goldsmith

All the happiness in the world
Comes from the selfless heart,
And all its unhappiness,
From self-love.

ShantiDeva

[Miss Hepburn]

You can be as close to God as you to want to be; it all
depends on how much time you want to put into it.

-a Christian teacher, pastor, author

[Miss Hepburn]

Paramahansa Yogananda:
God is playing hide-and-seek through human hearts, so that ultimately you will understand that
it is His love you are seeking in your human loves.

[A human Being]

'It is foolish to think that we will enter heaven without entering into ourselves.' - St. Teresa of Avila

[Still_Waters]

Originally Posted by A human Being

'It is foolish to think that we will enter heaven without entering into ourselves.' - St. Teresa of Avila

That's a great quote.

Teresa of Avila is one of my favorite mystics and my sense is that she goes deeper than her contemporary, John of the Cross.

It was difficult writing or even speaking in the times of the Spanish Inquisition but she gets her points across very well despite the repressive culture of that time period. It has been reported that she would walk into the court of the Inquisitors with questions and they were literally "afraid" of her.

[A human Being]

Very interesting, Still Waters! She's someone I first heard about in connection with one of my most influential teachers, Adyashanti, who fell madly in love with her apparently. Though the quote was just something I came across on another forum, but you've inspired me to learn more about her now, she sounds like a fascinating woman!

[Still_Waters]

Originally Posted by A human Being

Very interesting, Still Waters! She's someone I first heard about in connection with one of my most influential teachers, Adyashanti, who fell madly in love with her apparently. Though the quote was just something I came across on another forum, but you've inspired me to learn more about her now, she sounds like a fascinating woman!

Her writings are often self-deprecating in a way, which made them difficult to read initially when I first read some of them. There are repeated self-references to herself as a "miserable sinner". However, in those days, women could not really preach as the men could so, with those kind of comments about just being a woman, she was cleverly able to get her writings into the public domain. She's definitely worth investigating further as I think that she goes deeper than her respected contemporary, John of the Cross, though she had to be a little more careful in her writings since she was "just a woman".

My own spiritual mentor was also "just a woman" ... but she was the best (for me). I never expected to have a woman "guru" but I'm most assuredly happy that I connected with her and was guided by her.

[A human Being]

Thanks for the info, SW, I'll definitely do some research on her.