There are no greater treasures than the highest human qualities such as compassion, courage and hope. Not even tragic accident or disaster can destroy such treasures of the heart.
Fasting in the monastic community is considered an ascetic practice, a “dhutanga” practice. Dhutanga means “to shake up” or “invigoration”. The Buddha, as is well known, emphasized moderation, the Middle Way that avoids extremes, in all things. Fasting is an additional method that one can take up, with supervision, for a time.
God first created light, all men are born out of it. The whole world came out of a single spark; who is good and who is bad? The Creator is in the creation, and the creation in the Creator, He is everywhere.
O Lord! I may have increased desire for the objective world like other people but with this difference that I shall look upon it as Thyself without any idea of duality.
The ornament of the night is the moon, that of the day is the sun. The ornament of the devotee is devotion, that of devotion knowledge. The ornament of knowledge is meditation, and that of meditation is renunciation. The ornament of renunciation, says Tulsi, is pure, unalloyed peace.
Thoughts are the medium through which the ego, the limited self, appears and paves the way for all our likes and dislikes, pleasure and pain.
You may control a mad elephant; You may shut the mouth of the bear and the tiger; Ride the lion and play with the cobra; By alchemy you may earn your livelihood; You may wander through the universe incognito; Make vassals of the gods; be ever youthful; You may walk on water and live in fire; But control of the mind is better and more difficult.
Success should be measured by the yardstick of happiness; by your ability to remain in peaceful harmony with cosmic laws.
The soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of Divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast; for until the cord be broken, the bird cannot fly.
