As above, so below, as within, so without, as the universe, so the soul.
Solitude of Soul
who doesn't grieve for what's not:
he's deservedly called a monk.
I dreamt and I envisioned that life was all joy.
I awoke to find that life was all service.
I served, and found that in serving, was joy.
Sir Rabindranoth Tagore
Do not go after the past,
Nor lose yourself in the future.
For the past no longer exists,
And the future is not yet here.
By looking deeply at things just as they are,
In this moment, here and now,
The seeker lives calmly and freely.
You should be attentive today,
For waiting until tomorrow is too late.
Death can come and take us by surprise--
How can we gainsay it?
The one who knows
How to live attentively
Night and day
Is the one who knows
The best way to be independent.
Bhaddekaratta Sutra
The greatest support we can have is mindfulness, which means being totally present in each moment. If the mind remains centered, it cannot make up stories about the injustice of the world or one's friends, or about one's desires or sorrows. All these stories could fill many volumes, but when we are mindful such verbalizations stop. Being mindful means being fully absorbed in the moment, leaving no room for anything else. We are filled with the momentary happening, whatever it is--standing or sitting or lying down, feeling pleasure or pain--and we maintain a nonjudgmental awareness, a "just knowing."
Ayya Khema, "Be an Island"
Arouse your will, supreme and great,
Practice love, give joy and protection;
Let your giving be like space,
Without discrimination or limitation.
Do good things, not for your own sake
But for all the beings in the universe;
Save and make free everyone you encounter,
Help them attain the wisdom of the way.
Prajnaparamita
A monk with his mind at peace,
going into an empty dwelling,
clearly seeing the Dhamma aright:
his delight is more
than human.
Dhammapada, 373,
translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
SOUL POINT: You must understand the whole of life,
not just one little part of it.
That is why you must read,
that is why you must look at the skies,
that is why you must sing and dance,
and write poems and suffer and understand,
for all that is life.
.J Krishnamurti, Think on These Things
A soul can create only when alone
Abraham Joshua Heschel
Solitude is a kind of freedom.
Umberto Eco
It is only alone, truly alone that one bursts apart, springs forth.
Maria Isabel Barreno
And that was what she often felt the need of to think;
well, not even to think. To be silent; to be alone.
All the being and the doing, expansive, glittering, vocal, evaporated;
and one shrunk, with a sense of solemnity, to being oneself.
When life sank down for a moment, the range of experience seemed limitless.
Virginia Woolf, from To the Lighthouse
If happiness hasn't been felt when alone, a group of people will not aid the experience.
Adept Godrakpa, "Hermit of Go Cliffs"
To meet everything and everyone through stillness instead of mental noise
is the greatest gift you can offer to the universe.
Eckhart Tolle
Having drunk the sweetness of solitude and also the sweetness of tranquility,
one becomes free from fear and wrongdoing while drinking the sweetness of the joy of truth.
Sutta Nipata
Alone time is when I distance myself from the voices of the world so I can hear my own.
Oprah Winfrey
More Views
The old holy one replied: It is just this feeling that happens when a person walks through the woods at night, when the breeze is cool and the scent in the air is delicious. If another joins the traveler with a lantern, they can walk safely and joyfully together. But if they come to a crossroads and the one with the lantern departs, then the first must grope her way alone unless she carries her light within her.
The way is not in the sky, the way is in the heart.
Gautama Buddha
