Be here now

• About a guru
• "dont think about the past. Just be here now"
• "Dont think about the future. Just be here now"
• "Emotions are like waves. Watch them dissapear in the distance on the vast calm ocean."
• He wasnt the least bit interested in all of the extraordinary dramas that I had collected.
• Once you realize God knows everything, youre free. ... I had managed to keep private places in my head. ... And suddenly I realized that he knew everything that was going on in my head, all the time, and taht he still loved me. Because wo we are is behind all that.
• So: I can do nothing for you but work on myself... You can do nothing for me but work on yourself
• Sadhana: youve got to be quiet inside to do that kind of photography. Its very easy to photograph inanimate objects - like other people. But: Turn the lens right in on the very stuff youre hiding in. Shoot the camera this way.
• Making it sacred - this (shopping wood and carrying water) is karma yoga ... the yoga of daily life. The way to do it is: so what you do but dedicate the fruits of the work to me.
• People often say to me: I would really like to do sadhana... I am a teacher now. If I could only finish being a teacher, i could so sadhana. BAloney! You're either doing sadhana or youre not. Sadhana is a full tim thing that you do because there is nothing else to do. You do it whether youre teaching, or sitting in a monastery, whether youre lying in bed, going to the toilet, making love, eating, everything is part of waking up.... its all dedicated ... its all sacred
• you meet another person and there are qualities in that personality which offend you, seduce you, repel you, sexually excite you,....... It's only when you can see through all that veil... through all your own desires ... that you can see beyond all that to where THE OTHER BEING IS. You will do that when youve gone inside to see where you are
• You are the guru. Thats whats so far out. You are your own guru. And thats what you finally know when you are hanging out with one of these guys. You hang out with yourself. 
• When you wake up at 3:47
• What time is it? NOW
• Where am I? HERE
• When you get up at 9 a.m.
• What time is it? NOW
• Where am I? HERE
• Try 4:32 three weeks from next Thursday
• What time is it? NOW
• Where am I? HERE
• By God - is it - there's no getting away from it - thats the way it is. Thats the eternal present. You finally figure out that its only the clock thats going around... Its doing it thing but you - youre sitting HERE - RIGHT NOW - ALWAYS
• Nobody is going anywhere
• Nobody is coming from anywhere
• We're all here
• We're all here
• In eternal time & space
• We're always going to be here
• Nothing to do - there is nowhere to go and there is nothing to do
• Just the process of calming, centering, centering, calming - extricating myself from the drama
• So long as one feeld that he is the doer he cannot escape from the wheel of births and deaths
• Drama is drama is drama is drama
• desire is drama
• thought is drama
• breathing is drama
• emotions are drama
• all form is drama
• It's all part of the drama
• Everywhere I look I see only my own desires
• Go to bed early and get up early
• Meditate for a few minutes before lying down to go to sleep
• Get out of the habit of "thinking about things" when you are going into sleep. Clear your mind
• Asanas are positions. Once you have gotten into the position and made the statement connected with that position you are there. You become a statue in each asana. The statue image is a useful one. No matter how unusual the position of the asana may seem to you, once you are in the position then you become totally centered in that position. It - your body - comes to be a position of rest... as if you were always in that position, as a statue.
• Your state of mind is of paramount importance in asanas. Dont identify with the ego who is doing the asanas. Merely watch the body move into the appropriate positions. Stay in a place inside yourself where nothing is happening at all.
• When the body has gotten into the asana as perfectly as it is able without forcing (just firm pressure)... then go into "neutral" with the body so that it becomes perfectly relaxed and stable in the position of the asanas.
• You can make up other mantras for other daily acts to bring to consciousness your center so that you break the identification with an ego who is performin the act.
• The witness
• You play many roles in the course of a day - and that WHO YOU ARE from moment to moment changes. There is the angry you, and the kind you, the lazy you, - hundreds of different yous. If, as we have seen, the work is to break these identifications, we can work effectively throughout each day by making each of these "you's" objects, i.e. by breaking the identification with each of them. 
• The witness
• It is a part of the rational mind. 
• The witness could be thought of as an eye. It is not an active thing. It just sees it all happening.
• The witness is not evaluative. It does not judge your actions. It merely notes them. Thus, if you perfom an act because of desire, such as eating something the witness would merely note a) he is eating such-and-such and b) he is putting himself down for eating such-and-such. Thus the witness has noted a "you" of desires and a super-ego you ... two "you's"
• At first the witness is adoped because of an intellectual understanding of the need to separate the Self from the Doer
• It is difficult to fully get lost in the subtle sensual gratifications of eating when you are witnessing yourself eat. "He is chewing...testing..savoring, etc. It all seems so dispassionate. And truly it is
• You will also note that as you break identification with more and more of your roles and begin to live more calmly in the witness, that you begin to be aware of much more.
• Meditation
• The human mind is like that monkey, incessantly active by its own nature, then it becomes drunk with the wine of desire, thus increasing its turbulence.
• All that you do is register thoughts, states, etc. in the present
• You dont think about your thoughts. You merely note them.
• At first let your mind wander and just watch it. Just note how your mind works. Dont think about the thoughts. Just note them. Do this for about thirty minutes a day for a week.
• Let all other thoughts drift by and keep your attention focused on this muscle. (breathing)
• Count - Om...2...Om...3...
• Your only task is to count that muscle going up and down. All other thoughts dont belong here. 
• Note the intruding thought, give it a label, and return to the task at hand.
• This simple technique of bare attention is very powerful.

Hermann Hesse - Siddhartha

• Schon verstand er, lautlos das Om zu sprechen, das Wort der Worte, es lautlos in sich hinein zu sprechen mit dem Einhauch, es lautlos aus sich heraus zu sprechen mit dem Aushauch, mit gesammelter Seele, die Stirn umgeben vom Glanz des klardenkenden Geistes. Schon verstand er, im Innern seines Wesens Atman zu wissen, unzerstörbar, eins mit dem Weltall.
• Und wie war das mit den Göttern? War es wirklich Prajapati, der die Welt erschaffen hat? War es nicht der Atman, Er, der Einzige, der All-Eine? [...] Wem anders war zu opfern? wem anders war Verehrung darzubringen als Ihm, dem Einzigen, dem Atman? Und wo war Atman zu finden, wo wohnte Er, wo schlug Sein ewiges Herz, wo anders als im eigenen Ich, im Innersten, im Unzerstörbaren, das ein jeder in sich trug?
• Vollkommenheit seiner Ruge, an der Stille seiner Gestalt, in welcher kein Suchen, kein Wollen kein Nachahmen, kein Bemühen zu erkennen war, nur Licht und Frieden.
• Er stellte fest, dass er kein Jüngling mehr, sondern ein Mann geworden sei. Er stellte fest, dass eines ihn verlassen hatte, wie die Schlange von ihrer alten Haut verlassen wird, dass eines nicht mehr in ihm vorhanden war, das durch seine ganze Jugend ihn begleitet und zu ihm gehört hatte: der Wunsch, Lehrer zu haben und Lehren zu hören. [...] Langsamer ging der Denkende dahin und fragte sich selbst: "Was nun ist es aber, das du aus Lehren und von Lehrern hattest lernen wollen, und was sie, die dich viel gelehrt haben, dich doch nicht lehren konnten?" Und er fand: "Das Ich war es, dessen Sinn und Wesen ich lernen wollte. Das Ich war es, von dem ich loskommen, das ich überwinden wollte. Ich konnte es aber nicht überwinden, konnte es nur täuschen, konnte nur vor ihm fliehen, mich nur vor ihm verstecken. Wahrlich, kein Ding in der Welt hat so viel meine Gedanken beschäftigt wie dieses mein Ich, dies Rätsel, daß ich lebe, daß ich einer und von allen andern getrennt und abgesondert bin, daß ich Siddhartha bin! Und über kein Ding in der Welt weiß ich weniger als über mich, über Siddhartha!" [...] Bei mir selbst will ich lernen!
• Dies alles [...] war in den früheren Zeiten für Siddhartha  [...], mit Mißtrauen betrachtet, dazu bestimmt, vom Gedanken durchdrungen und vernichtet zu werden, da es nicht Wesen war,  [...] Schön war die Welt, wenn man sie so betrachtete, so ohne Suchen, so einfach, so kinderhaft.  [...] Schön und lieblich war es, so durch die Welt zu gehen, so kindlich, so erwacht, so dem Nahen aufgetan, so ohne Mißtrauen.
• mäßiges Leben, Freude am Denken, Stunden der Versenkung, heimliches Wissen vom Selbst, vom ewigen Ich, das nicht Körper noch Bewußtsein ist.
• Lächelnd wiegte sich der Ruderer: "Es ist schön, Herr, es ist, wie du sagst. Aber ist nicht jedes Leben, ist nicht jede Arbeit schön?
• Du zwingst ihn nicht, schlägst ihn nicht, befiehlst ihm nicht, weil du weißt, das Weich stärker ist als Hart, Wasser stärker als Feld, Liebe stärker als Gewalt.
• Sprach Siddhartha: "Was sollte ich dir, Ehrwürdiger, wohl zu sagen haben? Vielleicht das, dap du allzuviel suchst? Daß du vor Suchen nicht zum Finden kommst?
• Ich scherze nicht. Ich sage, was ich gefunden habe. Wissen kann man mitteilen, Weisheit aber nicht. Man kann sie finden, man kann sie leben, man kann von ihr getragen werden, man kann mit ihr Wunder tun, aber sagen und lehren kann man sie nicht.