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\x0a “Knowing others is wisdom;
\x0aKnowing the self is enlightenment.
\x0aMastering others requires force;
\x0aMastering the self requires strength;
\x0aHe who knows he has enough is rich.
\x0aPerseverance is a sign of will power.
\x0aHe who stays where he is endures.
\x0aTo die but not to perish is to be eternally present.”\x0a

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~ Laozi (6th Cent, B.C.)

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Storms by Sri Sri Ravishankar

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\x0a How to free yourself from the grip of storms? This is the only basic problem in this universe. The first thing is to become aware of it and stop regretting it. Like waves come and go, storms in your life too will subside. No one storm can be there for ever. One storm comes and subsides, another comes and subsides and it goes on. As the storm subsides, you experience that inner cool, soft, delicate aspect of yourself. In that space of calm, all the anxiety, fear, feverishness lose their grip on you and you become yourself again. Love dawns.

When you stop resisting the storms of life and start accepting them with open arms, they will subside on their own. That is the purpose of all spiritual practices, or sadhana, and meditation. When you realise that somebody really cares for you, you feel at rest and all fears and insecurities drop off.

You keep running away from small things — your feelings, sensations, desires — and this leads to more feverishness. Realize that like the ocean cannot be there without the waves, storms are inevitable in your life. Every storm touches you somewhere and makes you grow stronger. A storm pulls you out of your likes and dislikes and purifies you. So accept all that comes with both arms open. Even when the storms come, you are still the same ocean, as deep as ever.

This realization is the culmination of knowledge. When this knowledge dawns, you rise above events; you grow out of them. Everybody in the world goes through crises, insecurities, confusions. It’s like drowning in the ocean of life. But the person with the life jacket can survive even the worst turmoil. So keep your life jacket of knowledge handy.

Do not be in a hurry to get rid of the storms, be with them. Looking for perfection creates imperfection inside you. If you are peaceful, everything around you becomes peaceful. You are the center of this universe. Wherever you go, you carry your own mind, and wherever you go, you will create your own storms. It may appear to be calm and quiet for sometime but the storm will surface sooner or later. Unless you realize this, nothing will hold. There is no other permanent solution. Don’t resist the storms, instead see them as an amazing play of your personality.\x0a

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Rumi :

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\x0a No end, no end to the journey
no end, no end never
how can the heart in love
ever stop opening
if you love me,
you won’t just die once
in every moment
you will die into me
to be reborn

Into this new love, die
your way begins
on the other side
become the sky
take an axe to the prison wall,
escape
walk out like someone
suddenly born into color
do it now\x0a

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Poetry, by Pablo Neruda

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\x0a And it was at that age… Poetry arrived
in search of me. I don’t know, I don’t know where
it came from, from winter or a river.
I don’t know how or when,
no, they were not voices, they were not
words, nor silence,
but from a street I was summoned,
from the branches of night,
abruptly from the others,
among violent fires
or returning alone,
there I was without a face
and it touched me.

I did not know what to say, my mouth
had no way
with names
my eyes were blind,
and something started in my soul,
fever or forgotten wings,
and I made my own way,
deciphering
that fire
and I wrote the first faint line,
faint, without substance, pure
nonsense,
pure wisdom
of someone who knows nothing,
and suddenly I saw
the heavens
unfastened
and open,
planets,
palpitating planations,
shadow perforated,
riddled
with arrows, fire and flowers,
the winding night, the universe.

And I, infinitesimal being,
drunk with the great starry
void,
likeness, image of
mystery,
I felt myself a pure part
of the abyss,
I wheeled with the stars,
my heart broke free on the open sky.\x0a

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\x0a “If sex becomes such a trivial thing — just a bodily affair where surfaces meet and separate — your depth remains untouched. You are again missing something — something great, something very mysterious — because you become aware of your own depth only when somebody else touches it. Only through the other do you become aware of your inner being; only in deep relationship does somebody’s love resound in you and bring your depth into being. Only through somebody else do you discover yourself.”\x0a

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Osho, A Bird on the Wing

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[—]

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Jill Bolte Taylor

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I read her book “A Stroke of Insight” and seeing her speak so passionately about her experience and what it brought to her really moved me.

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Elizabeth Gilbert: A Different Way to Think about Creative Genius.

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I loved her book “Eat, Pray, Love” and hearing her speak of the process and the “ongoing-ness” of it is inspiring. An amazing talk.

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\x0a “In the end, man is an event which cannot judge itself, but for better or worse, is left to the judgement of others.”\x0a

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C.G Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections

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[—]

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\x0a “Take a moment
\x0ato check and see if you are actually here.
\x0aBefore there is right and wrong,
\x0awe are just here.
\x0aBefore there is good or bad, or unworthy,
\x0aand before there is a sinner or saint,
\x0awe are just here.
\x0aJust meet here, where silence is —
\x0awhere the stillness inside dances.
\x0aJust here, before knowing something, or not knowing.
\x0aJust meet me here where all points of view
\x0amerge into one point,
\x0aand the one point disappears.
\x0aJust see if you can meet right now
\x0awhere you touch the eternal,
\x0aand feel the eternal living and dying at each moment.
\x0aJust to meet here —
\x0abefore you were an expert,
\x0abefore you were a beginner.
\x0aTo just be here,
\x0awhere you are what you always will be,
\x0awhere you never add anything to this,
\x0aor subtract anything.
\x0aMeet here, where you want nothing,
\x0aand where you are nothing.
\x0aThe here that is unspeakable.
\x0aWhere we meet only mystery to mystery,
\x0aor we don’t meet at all.
\x0aMeet here where you find yourself
\x0aby not finding yourself.
\x0aIn this place where quietness is deafening,
\x0aand the stillness moves too fast to catch it.
\x0aMeet here where you are what you want
\x0aand you want what you are
\x0aand everything falls away
\x0ainto radiant emptiness.”\x0a

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~ Adyashanti, Emptiness Dancing

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[—]

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\x0a “Dreaming, Chuang Tzu became a butterfly;
\x0aWaking, the butterfly became a man.
\x0aWho knows which is real?
\x0aWho know where endless changes end?
\x0aThe waters of the deepest sea
\x0aReturn to the smallest stream.
\x0aThe melon-grower outside the city gate
\x0aWas once the King of the Hill.
\x0aEven rank and riches eventually disappear.
\x0aYou know, and still you toil.”\x0a

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Li T’ai-po

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[—]

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