Still Knowledge Runs Deep

The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell.
— Simone Weil, Simone Weil: A Life, in Journey of Awakening: A Meditator's Guidebook, Ram Dass, p. 10.

If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few.
— Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, in Ibid., p. 11.

All wordly pursuits have but one unavoidable and inevitable end, which is sorrow: acquisitions end in dispersion; buildings, in destruction; meetings, in separation; births, in death.
— Milarepa, in Ibid., p. 18.

The happiness of solitude is not found in retreats. It may be had even in busy centres. Happiness is not to be sought in solitude or in busy centres. It is in the self.
— Sri Ramana Maharshi, in Ibid., p. 36.

The result is not the point; it is the effort to improve ourselves that is valuable. There is no end to this practice.
— Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, in Ibid., p. 200.

To endure is the disposition of the sage.
— The I Ching, in Ibid., p. 200.

     Obsessing about ourselves is not enough Buber notes, "You can rake the muck this way, rake the muck that way — it will always be muck. Have I sinned or have I not sinned? In that time I am brooding over it, I could be stringing pearls for the delight of heaven."
— Sheldon Kopp, All God's Children Are Lost, But Only a Few Can Play the Piano, p. 32.

If we interpret dreams as our unconscious expression of yesterday's conflicts, we may learn more about how our problems began. However, if we learn to experience these nocturnal images as our soul's observations about today's crises, they can guide us to the place where tomorrow's personal growth will take us.
— Sheldon Kopp, Ibid., pp. 54-55.