Inter- Faiths Dialogue

Detachement > from thoughts

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T he flowering of meditation is goodness, and the generosity of the heart is the beginning of meditation."

"Meditation is a movement in and of the unknown. You are not there, only the movement. You are too petty or too great for this movement. It has nothing behind it or in front of it. It is that energy which thought-matter cannot touch. Thought is perversion, for it is the product of yesterday; it is caught in the toils of centuries and so is confused, unclear. Do what you will, the known cannot reach out for the unknown. Meditation is the dying to the known. [...] Everything put together by thought is within the area of noise, and thought can in no way make itself still [...], thought itself must be still for silence to be. Silence is always now as thought is not. Thought, always being old, cannot possibly enter into that silence which is always new. The new becomes the old when thought touches it [...] Love can only be when thought is still. This stillness can in no way be manufactured by thought [...] this stillness can never be touched by thought. Thought is always old, but love is not [...] the flowering of goodness is not in the soil of thought."

temple_hindu

quote 4540 | Jiddu Krishnamurti
Commentaries on Living

S eated in a solitary place, free from desires and with senses controlled, one should meditate free of thought on that one infinite Self.

temple_hindu

quote 3698 | (Adi Shankaracharya) Shankara
Atma Bodha: 38

Y oga is the restraint of the thought-waves of the mind

temple_hindu

quote 3685 | Patanjali
Yoga Sutras, 2

D ay after day, let the yogi practice the stilling of the mind, in a secret place, in deep seclusion, master of his thoughts, hoping for nothing, desiring nothing. Let him find a place that is pure and a pose that is restful... In that place let him rest and practice yoga for the purification of the soul; with his mind and prana [vital energy] stilled, let him be silent before the One.

With his soul in peace, and all fear gone, and firm in the vow of purity, let him hold his mind steady, focusing his intention on Me, the supreme Lord. When the mind of the yogi is steady, and finds rest in the Spirit, when all restless desires have vanished, then he is a yukta, one who has attained yoga. ... Then he knows the joy of eternity; he sees with his mind far beyond what the senses can see. He remains steady in the Truth, unmoving. ... This supreme joy comes to the yogi whose heart is still, whose passions have found rest; he is free from all sin, and is one with Brahman.

temple_hindu

quote 3684 | The Bhagavat Gita
6:10-28

T he higher we soar in contemplation, the more limited become our expressions of that which is purely intelligible; even as now, when plunging into the Darkness which is above the intellect, we pass not merely into brevity of speech, but even into absolute silence, of thoughts as well as of words ... and, according to the degree of transcendence, so our speech is restrained until, the entire ascent being accomplished, we become wholly voiceless, inasmuch as we are absorbed in Him who is totally ineffable.

church

quote 3672 | Dionysius the Areopagite
Mystical Theology, III.; Editors of The Shrine Of Wisdom, 1965; P. 14

W hat is meant by the purification of the soul is simply to allow it to be alone. [It is pure] when it keeps no company, entertains no alien thoughts; when it no longer sees images, much less elaborates them into veritable affections.

candle

quote 3659 | Plotinus
Enneads, 26:3:5; in Porphyry, Life Of Plotinus, Turnbull, 1936; p. 100

H e is known by those who know Him beyond thought, not to those who imagine He can be attained by thought. ... If you think, "I know Him well," you do not know the Truth. You only perceive that appearance of Brahman produced by the inner senses. Continue to meditate.

temple_hindu

quote 3591 | The Upanishads
Kena Upanishad, II; based on Mascaro, Juan, 1965

L et {the soul} try, without forcing itself or causing any turmoil, to put a stop to all discursive reasoning, yet not to suspend the understanding, nor to cease from all thought, though it is well for it to remember that is is in God's presence and Who this God is. If feeling this should lead it into a state of absorption, well and good; but it should not try to understand what this state is, because that is a gift bestowed upon the will. The will, then, should be left to enjoy it, and should not labour except for uttering a few loving words, for although in such a case one may not be striving to cease from thought, such cessation often comes, though for a very short time.

church

quote 3473 | Saint Teresa of Avila
Interior Castle. Trans. E. Allison Peers. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1990, pp. 89-90, Fourth Mansions, Chapter 3, Paragraph 7

G od is the one who leads me and elevates me to that state. I do not go to it on my own, for by myself I would not know how to want, desire, or seek it. I am now continually in this state. Furthermore, God very often elevates me to this state with no need, even, for my consent; for when I hope or expect it least, when I am not thinking about anything, suddenly my soul is elevated by God and I hold dominion over and comprehend the whole world. It seems, then, as if I am no longer on earth but in heaven, in God.

church

quote 3458 | Angela of Foligno
Complete Works. Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1993, pp. 214-216

Y ou cannot attain pure prayer while entangled in material things and agitated by constant cares. For prayer means the shedding of thoughts.

church

quote 3384 | Saint Evagrios the Solitary
On Prayer: ("Philokalia (Vol. 1)", pp. 62-63, text 71)

S tand on guard and protect your intellect from thoughts while you pray. Then your intellect will complete its prayer and continue in the tranquility that is natural to it. In this way He who has compassion on the ignorant will come to you, and you will receive the blessed gift of prayer.

church

quote 3383 | Saint Evagrios the Solitary
On Prayer: ("Philokalia (Vol. 1)", p. 63, text 70)

W hen your intellect in its great longing for God gradually withdraws from the flesh and turns away from all thoughts that have their source in your sense-perception, memory or soul-body temperament, and when it becomes full of reverence and joy, then you may conclude that you are close to the frontiers of prayer.

church

quote 3382 | Saint Evagrios the Solitary
On Prayer: ("Philokalia (Vol. 1)", pp. 62-63, text 62)

B ecause every thought enters the heart in the form of a mental image of some sensible object, the blessed light of the Divinity will illumine the heart only when the heart is completely empty of everything and so free from all form. Indeed, this light reveals itself to the pure intellect in the measure to which the intellect is purged of all concepts.

church

quote 3379 | Saint Hesychios the Priest
On Watchfulness and Holiness: ("Philokalia (Vol. 1)", p. 177, text 89)

W e should strive to preserve the precious gifts which preserve us from all evil… These gifts are the guarding of the intellect with the invocation of Jesus Christ, continuous insight into the heart's depths, stillness of mind unbroken even by thoughts which appear to be good, and the capacity to be empty of all thought.

church

quote 3378 | Saint Hesychios the Priest
On Watchfulness and Holiness: ("Philokalia (Vol. 1)", p. 180, text 103)

I f, then, you wish to behold and commune with Him who is beyond sense-perception and beyond concept, you must free yourself from every impassioned thought.

church

quote 3360 | Saint Evagrios the Solitary
On Prayer: ("Philokalia (Vol. 1)")

T rue wisdom is gazing at God. Gazing at God is silence of the thoughts. Stillness of mind is tranquillity which comes from discernment.

church

quote 3358 | Saint Isaac the Syrian
Homily 64

P rayer is the laying aside of thoughts.

church

quote 3357 | The Philokalia
Evagrios Ponticus, "On Prayer 61," in the Philokalia

I t is possible to be a solitary in one's mind while living in a crowd, and it is possible for one who is a solitary to live in the crowd of his own thoughts.

church

quote 3344 | Desert Fathers
Amma Syncletica: The sayings of the Desert Fathers : the alphabetical collection. Trans. Benedicta Ward, SLG. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publications Inc., 1984, 1975, p. 234, Syncletica 19

L et go of thought and bring it not into your heart, for you are naked and thought is an icy wind. You think in order to escape from torment and suffering, but your thinking is torment's fountainhead. Know that the bazaar of God's Making is outside of thought…

mosque

quote 3319 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 256, Trans. William C. Chittick. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1983

N ot thinking about anything is zen. Once you know this, walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is zen. To know that the mind is empty is to see the buddha… Using the mind to look for reality is delusion. Not using the mind to look for reality is awareness. Freeing oneself from words is liberation.

temple_buddhist

quote 3250 | Bodhidharma
The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma. Trans. Red Pine. New York: North Point Press, 1987. The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma. Trans. Red Pine. New York: North Point Press, 1987, p. 49

B rahman is beyond all duality, beyond the reach of thinker and thought.

temple_hindu

quote 3219 | The Upanishads
Tejabindu Up. 6, p. 240 in The Upanishads. Trans. Eknath Easwaran. Tomales, CA.: Nilgiri Press, 1987

T he supreme Self is neither born nor dies. He cannot be burned, moved, pierced, cut, nor dried. Beyond all attributes, the supreme Self is the eternal witness, ever pure, indivisible, and uncompounded, far beyond the senses and the ego… He is omnipresent, beyond all thought, without action in the external world, without action in the internal world. Detached from the outer and the inner, This supreme Self purifies the impure.

temple_hindu

quote 3207 | The Upanishads
Atma Up. 3, p. 242 in The Upanishads. Trans. Eknath Easwaran. Tomales, CA.: Nilgiri Press, 1987

E veryone is overridden by thoughts;
that's why they have so much heartache and sorrow.
At times I give myself up to thought purposefully;
but when I choose,
I spring up from those under its sway.
I am like a high-flying bird,
and thought is a gnat:
how should a gnat overpower me?

mosque

quote 3142 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Mathnawi II, 3559-3561 - 'Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance' - Camille and Kabir Helminski

T he Saint becomes so unified with God, that it is impossible to distinguish between God and Saint.
Embrace meets embrace.
Body is unified with body.
Words mix with words.
Eyes meet with eyes.

I have girded up my loins, and found a way to cross the ocean of life.
Come here, come here, great and small, women and men.
Take no thought; have no anxiety.
I shall carry all of you to the other shore.
A come as the sole bearer of the stamp of God
to carry you over with His Name.

temple_hindu

quote 3107 | Tukaram
Ranade, R. D. Mysticism in India. Albany, NY. SUMY Press, 1983, pp. 303, 312, 320, 339, 349.

D on't think.
Don't get lost in your thoughts.
Your thoughts are a veil on the face of the Moon.
That Moon is your heart,
and those thoughts cover your heart.
So let them go,
just let them fall into the water.

mosque

quote 3052 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Star, Jonathan, and Shiva, Shahram, trans. A Garden Beyond Paradise. New York: Bantam Books, 1992

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