Quotes about Self

The gaps are the thing.  The gaps are the spirit's one home, the altitudes and latitudes so dazzlingly spare and clean that the spirit can discover itself like a once-blind man unbound.  The gaps are the clefts in the rock where you cower to see the back parts of God; they are fissures between mountains and cells the wind lances through, the icy narrowing fiords splitting the cliffs of mystery.  Go up into the gaps.  If you can find them; they shift and vanish too.  Stalk the gaps.  Squeak into a gap in the soil, turn, and unlock--more than a maple--universe.

To lovers of the wild, these mountains are not a hundred miles away.  Their spiritual power and the goodness of the sky make them near, as a circle of friends. ... You cannot feel yourself out of doors; plain, sky, and mountains ray beauty which you feel.  You bathe in these spirit-beams, turning round and round, as if warming at a camp-fire.  Presently you lose consciousness of your own separate existence: you blend with the landscape, and become part and parcel of nature.

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power.

The Self is All and the All is Selfless

The inapprehensible motion of life escapes our daily awareness, as does the tune of the cosmic dust that orders us all in one great dance of life.  We do not hear it playing until we come to a point where our ordinary and subtle senses are aligned together.  Then we come into harmony and awareness of both worlds at once, the apparent and the unseen worlds in conscious communion within us.  These privileged moments cannot be sought; they come unbidden, surprising us into mystical vision.  It may be that when we interrupt a walk on a high place at evening to admire the view, we apprehend the revolution of the earth as a physical motion beneath our feet; it may be that we become aware of a rhythm that weaves about the steady beating of our own heart as if it were a partner in a dance.

The resonances to which we respond and the relationship between ourselves and the music of life give us the only clues available about the nature of the invisible partner - clues reassuring enough that we can trust the source of our music.

"Keep from prying into other people's affairs, for such prying gives occasion for slander, judgment, and other grievous sins. Why do you need to be concerned about others? Know and examine your own self." -- St. Tikhon
of Zadonsk

The light of self-knowledge alone illumines all experiences. It shines by its own light. This inner light appears to be outside and to illumine external objects.

Don't compromise yourself; you're all you've got.

In true courage there is always an element of choice, of an ethical choice, and of anguish, and also of action and deed. There is always a flame of spirit in it, a vision of some necessity higher than oneself.

An hour reflecting on one's own non-existence is better than a year of religious devotions with the thought that one exists.

A man should not strive to eliminate his complexes but to get in accord with them, for they are legitimately what directs his conduct in the world.

Sometimes it is more important to discover what one cannot do, than what one can.

We should know what our convictions are, and stand for them. Upon one's own philosophy, conscious or unconscious, depends one's ultimate interpretation of the facts. Therefore it is wise to be as clear as possible about one's subjective principles. As the man is, so will be his ultimate truth.

There is just one life for each of us: our own.

What does remembering ourselves mean? It essentially means coming back to life-- re-membering.

There is a space between self and other where the boundaries melt. Where being myself means being attuned to others. Where being in sync with those around me means finding my self of worth.

Absorb what is useful. Discard what is not. Add what is uniquely your own.

So much of the stress you hold and the ways you keep yourself stuck have to do with how far you've traveled from your original self. You can release that tension by identifying who's actually there under all those layers and why that pure essence is really perfect as it is. And when you let go of that stress... when you can stop blaming yourself for being who you are, it frees up an enormous amount of energy to move forward in life.

I say I’m in love with her. What does that mean?
It means I review my future and my past in the light of this feeling. It is as though I wrote in a foreign language that I am suddenly able to read. Wordlessly, she explains me to myself. Like genius, she is ignorant of what she does.

You can live in a house, but your real home is inside you.

Wanting others to love you, you give away your heart. Wanting others to see you, you give away your eyes.

Give me life, give me pain, give me myself again.

Everything has its own place and function. That applies to people, although many don't seem to realize it, stuck as they are in the wrong job, the wrong marriage, or the wrong house. When you know and respect your Inner Nature, you know where you belong. You also know where you don't belong.

A lot of mothers will do anything for their children, except let them be themselves.

I find myself fascinating.

I love you more than my own skin.

I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.

The Truth has shared so much of Itself
With me

That I can no longer call myself
A man, a woman, an angel,
Or even pure
Soul.

This place where you are right now, God circled on a map for you.

I restore myself when I'm alone.