If you’ve been in my office,
you can’t help but notice them :)
​
On the outside of my office door:
Homegrown:
NOTICE:
I teach what I need to learn*
*(whether or not I happen to be aware of it at the moment…)
Imported:
Believe nothing, no matter where you read it
or who has said it -- not even if I have said it –
unless it agrees with your own reason
and your own common sense.
~ The Buddha
**
You know the rule: if you’re falling, dive.
Do the thing that has to be done.
~ Joseph Campbell
**
The unexamined life is not worth living.
~ Socrates
**
The unlived life is not worth examining.
~ Unknown
On the inside of my office door
(i.e., on your way out):
APPLY WITHIN.
(Double entendre very much intended...)
Signs that are positioned
so *I* can see them:
(All “homegrown”...)
Back to the Heart…
**
Allow Softening…
**
This is the only moment you can say “yes” to.
**
Is it true?
**
Safety First!
**
I am enough and I have enough.
**
Life is an opportunity to be an open conduit
for the free flow of Light & Love into this world.
**
Relaxation is Awakenment.
**
Let Love lead the way (and set the pace…).
**
Begin Within.
**
There are no “evil” people -- only more or less confused and frightened ones.
**
I could be wrong.*
*(This is, for me, the most important sign in my office -- and the only one that is posted twice, i.e., one for me to see and one for my client to see.)
Signs posted everywhere else:
Homegrown:
The closed heart is the pain.
**
Acceptance first. (Then “change” arises naturally…)
**
BE the Love you’re searching for.
**
Notice the Peace that is already here inside you, Now.
**
Now is the only time powerful enough to free you from the past.
**
Be aware of the Life Energy arising in your body NOW
(not so much what your mind has to say about it).
**
Relinquish Complaining.
**
True wisdom arises in the heart, and is merely reflected in the mind.
**
There’s nothing in you that needs to be “fixed”.
**
I & Thou – Here & Now.
**
Something Wonderful Is Happening…
**
The only way to Peace is to notice the Peace that’s already here, now.
**
Aim to treat your emerging inner self (in whatever form it may appear)
with as much affection, respect and compassion as you would treat
the “outer” person in your life you love the most…
**
Don’t be fooled into being afraid of the truth.
**
The only resistance you can ever let go of
is the resistance you’re resisting with right now.
**
The enemy of aliveness is not death – it’s numbness.
**
The moment you fully accept something within you
exactly as it is, the moment it begins to transform.
[Redundant with the second entry, I know -- but worthy of repetition!]
**
There's still hope for us – not in spite of our differences,
but BECAUSE of them.
**
No need to RESIST the arising of anything internally
-- though it’s perfectly okay to CHOOSE something
more life-giving to focus on.
**
Awareness… not “effort."
**
Let’s utilize our minds to their fullest capacity –
as long as they are in service to the Heart.
**
To be at peace inside one’s own skin requires firstly
that one be in one’s own skin.
**
Let Life express Itself through your body, Now.
**
An axiom:
Whenever two human beings with open hearts occupy the same proximal space,
some form of healing and/or transformative exchange will take place.
**
A wise human being is anyone who has learned how to live in this world
with a more open heart, more of the time.
**
This is not what you think it is.
**
Wherever you direct your life energy,
aim to direct it for something rather than against something.
**
​
How have I contributed to making this world a more beautiful place today?
**
Bring up whatever you’re most afraid to bring up.
**
Love never turns down an open heart.
**
Everything happens for no reason.
**
There’s no need to try to make something happen here;
all that is required is that you pay attention
to what wants to happen inside of you,
and simply let it…
**
My best advice for starters (or if all else fails):
Notice what allows your heart to be a bit more open –
and do some more of that.
**
Don’t believe everything you think.
**
Joy is uncaused… or it isn’t Joy.
Peace includes everything… or it isn’t Peace.
Love is unconditional… or it isn’t Love.
**
Carefully observe the workings of the mind,
and the source of your suffering will be revealed.
**
When suffering arises, it is an opportunity to see more clearly
what gives rise to suffering.
**
There are no evil people --
only more or less confused and frightened ones.
**
Be big about it -- let yourself feel whatever you feel.
**
‘Tis a blessing to be amused by the folly of one’s own mind.
**
Regret is a delusional activity.
**
Perhaps whatever’s in the way is the way...
**
"Accepting everything as it is" includes accepting the parts of you
that aren’t yet able to accept everything the way it is.
**
To understand all is to forgive all.
**
If you want to transcend something, make sure you include it first.
**
My “spiritual teacher” is anyone in my immediate vicinity
whose heart happens to be a bit more relaxed and open
than mine is at the moment…
**
Perhaps being happy has more to do with releasing things
that thwart happiness,
than with acquiring things that provide it.
**
When life gives you lemons,
at least don’t squirt yourself in the eyes with them.
**
Perhaps whatever’s in the way is the way.
**
Fear is what makes courage possible.
**
A better choice does not exist for us unless we are aware of it.
“Imported” (i.e., Sayings From Others):
We are the ones we have been waiting for.
~ Hopi Saying
**
When the heart is unobstructed, the result is Love.
~ Anthony DeMello
**
MORE COURAGE.
~ Alex Redmountain
**
This is Heaven.
~ Tony Parsons
**
The Mad Hatter: Have I gone mad?
Alice: I'm afraid so. You're entirely bonkers.
But I'll tell you a secret: all the best people are.
~ From Alice In Wonderland (2010)
**
Woulda, Coulda -- Didn’t!
~ Unknown
**
And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud
was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
~ Anaïs Nin (1903 – 1977)
**
Awareness, Awareness, Awareness.
~ Anthony DeMello
**
You can know everything there is to know about water,
and still die of thirst.
~ Unknown
**
“All things which seem foolish in the light of death
are truly foolish in themselves”
~ from the preamble to The Kaddish
**
Be kind – for everyone you meet is engaged in a great struggle.
~ Philo Of Alexandria
**
What is the secret of your serenity?
“Wholehearted cooperation with the inevitable.”
~ Anthony DeMello
**
I am the perpetuator of my own suffering -- but only all of it.
~ Byron Katie
**
When you argue with reality, you lose – but only 100% of the time.
~ (if Anthony DeMellos’ quote mated with Byron Katie’s)
**
If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you.

If you do not bring forth what is within you,
what you do not bring forth will destroy you.

~ Attributed to Jesus in The Gospel According to Thomas.
**
It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.
~ Krishnamurti
**
The mind is a terrible place to look for Truth.
~ Adyashanti
**
Let everything happen to you: the beauty and the terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke
**
Love is the answer.
(I’ve forgotten the question...)
~ Alex Redmountain
**
The three hardest tasks in the world are neither physical feats
nor intellectual achievements:
to return love for hate, to include the excluded, and to say, "I was wrong.”
~ Sydney J. Harris
**
The soul would have no rainbow if the eyes had no tears.
~ Native American Saying
**
There is only one evil in the world, and that is fear;
There is only one good in the world, and that is love.
~ Anthony DeMello
**
Your task is not to seek for love,
but merely to seek and find all the barriers
within yourself that you have built against it.
~ Jalal ad-Din Rumi
**
Find someone who’s turning, and you will come around.
~ Neil Young
**
If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
If you want to be happy,practice compassion.
~ The Dalai Lama
​
**
The cure for the pain is in the pain.
~ Jalal ad-Din Rumi
**
Be kind whenever possible.*
*(It is always possible...)
~ The Dalai Lama
**
No matter how far you have traveled in the wrong direction,
now is the best time to turn around.
~ Tony’s variation on a Turkish proverb
**
Listening is leaning in, gently,
with a willingness to be changed by what we hear.
~ Mark Nepo
The “XXX” Section (SPIRITUAL ADULTS ONLY):
As well search for water without wetness,
as for attachment without suffering.
~ Anthony DeMello
**
Our deepest and most secret longing is simply for our own absence.
~ Tony Parsons
**
Contrary to what your culture and your religion have taught you, nothing
-- but absolutely nothing -- can make you happy.
~ Anthony DeMello
**
If you can kill yourself without doing bodily harm, it’s a good thing.
~ Michael Brant DeMaria
**
Contact with reality is what heals us and awakens us;
nothing less -- and nothing more -- will do.
~ Anthony DeMello
**
Perhaps the key is not to change anything, but simply to allow everything...
~ Tony Rooney
**
As long as your happiness is caused or sustained by something
or someone outside of you, you are still in the land of the dead.
~ Anthony DeMello
**
If seeking revenge, best dig two graves.
~ Chinese Proverb
**
No need to seek for truth;
just drop your preconceptions and the truth is revealed.
~ Anthony DeMello
**
Barns burned down, now I can see the moon.
~ Mizuta Masahide (17th Century Samurai)