Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism

Q: Do you think it is possible to begin to see what is, to see yourself as you are, without a teacher? A: I do not think it is possible at all. You have to have a spiritual friend in order to surrender and completely open yourself.

The practice of meditation involves letting be—trying to go with the pattern, trying to go with the energy and the speed. In this way we learn now to deal with these factors, how to relate with them, not in the sense of causing them to mature in the way we would like, but in the sense of knowing them for what they are and working with their pattern

Nationalism, communism, existentialism, Christianity, Buddhism—all provide us with identities, rules of action, and interpretations of how and why things happen as they do.

The more we generate thoughts, the busier we are mentally and the more convinced we are of our existence.

The lord of mind refers to the effort of consciousness to maintain awareness of itself.

In order to be accepted by your guru as a friend, you have to open yourself completely. And in order that you might open, you will probably have to undergo tests by your spiritual friend and by life situations in general, all of these tests taking the form of disappointment.

Before we filled our shop with so many things the room was beautiful: whitewashed walls and a very simple floor with a bright lamp burning in the ceiling. There was one object of art in the middle of the room, and it was beautiful. Everyone who came appreciated its beauty, including ourselves. But we were not satisfied and we thought, “Since this o

Mara represents the neurotic tendency of mind, the unbalanced state of being, and he sends his daughters to seduce us.

This struggle to maintain the sense of a solid, continuous self is the action of ego.