There is a kind of awakening in every letting go,
until nothing is left to let go of.  

The more we indulge our thoughts and emotions,
the stronger they become.  

I’m not thinking. Thoughts are going on by themselves.
It seems like they are self-perpetuating.  

We are part angel and part demon. If we deny the demon it will haunt us from the dark; let the demon out into the daylight.  

In the whole of history there has never existed a single person whose conduct was always perfect. Understanding this,
I don’t try to be perfect.  

I am not innocent; I know I am both good and bad.  

A person who has never passed thru the inferno of their passions (with awareness) has never overcome them.  

It is a considerable benefit for a person to realize that he or she has their negative side, like everyone else.  

We think we know what is good, and because we think we know what is good, we think we are good. Unless we know how bad we are, we cannot be real.

How far is innocence used as a strategy for living?  

Every human beings essential nature is perfect and faultless, but after years of immersion in the world we easily forget our roots and take on a counterfeit nature.  

Goodness makes demands on us, and the native belief that people simply love the good is one of our earliest illusions.

If you think you can have good without evil, right without wrong, order without chaos, you understand nothing about the universe. (Sage)

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process they do not become monsters themselves. (Nietzsche)

Dig deep underneath the layers of programming you have received from your parents, your schooling, your friends, the television, your culture – and discover what you are, what you feel, what you think.

Only when you are willing to look at your mind without feeling guilty, without wanting to do anything about it, will you be able to see it clearly. Then it will lose its power over you because it is exposed – it is transparent.

I am becoming more and more aware of the dark side of my mind, and as I become more accepting it becomes more revealing and I become more at ease.

Accepting the truth frees my mind.

It is very difficult to be honest with oneself. We lie to ourselves all the time. I am a hypocrite. It’s painful to see that.

We can pretend for a while, but truth shows through every now and then.

The moment the mind wants to be in control, it loses its balance.

Much of our suffering is our own creation. The mind is a great magician; it creates suffering and it suffers; it creates pleasure and it enjoys: it is bitten by a snake that is its own creation and suffers the effect of the poison. If only it knew and did not create so much suffering, ninety percent of mental pain would not be there any more.

I would like to beg you, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, some day far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answers. (Rainer Maria Rilke)

Thinking creates so many problems. And yet it is always trying to solve problems. Imaginary problems and imaginary solutions, it goes on and on…

It is important to learn how things affect our body and mind. Food, weather, exercise, and talking, reading, sensual pleasures: everything affects body and mind.

The mind likes to dwell in the past or in the future: It touches the present only tangentially, it doesn’t want to stay in the present; always looking for distraction – watching TV, listening to the radio, or CD, eating, talking, smoking, reading and what not. No wonder we are superficial.

Free yourself from social conditioning and you will return to your innate instincts and intuitions.

Most people are heavily conditioned.

Don’t do anything you don’t really love doing. We have wasted a lot of time doing things we don’t really love doing, for duty’s sake, to please someone.

We want so much admiration, recognition, respect and love that we think quite a lot about what to do to get them.

An awakened person turns the common sense values of society on their heads, rejecting wealth, fame and prestige as worthless nonsense, and instead value simplicity, humility, and natural instincts. Intensely individualistic, often confronting, and sometimes plain rude, they say what they want to say regardless of social niceties. They exude a feeling of limitless freedom, great depths of compassion and an irrepressible sense of fun. (Chinese sage)

Outwardly the enlightened seem the same as everybody else. Inwardly however, their distinctive trait is that they have no goals, but simply allow life to un-fold, unconcerned about where it is going. For them, effort, cunning and purpose are the results of having forgotten ones true nature. (Chinese sage)

If you think you are enlightened, spend a weekend with your relatives.

Don’t waste time calculating your chances of success or failure. Just fix your aim and begin.

Give up and you will succeed.

The secret to success is before attempting anything, be very clear about why you are doing it.

You haven’t been able to prevent your birth and you won’t be able to prevent your death.

Obtain as much joy from life as you can, then accept death when it comes, for everything must end. (Chinese sage)

Take it easy ultimately nothing matters.

Yes, the world is crazy but what can I co about it? Why waste time and energy being upset about it.

Stay calm; wait; be patient. Do whatever is possible at the moment. Nothing lasts forever. Things will change, possibly for the better if you stay clear and calm, but if you get agitated and run around like crazy you will disturb the situation.

Only birds sing cheerfully. Human beings are gloomy.

People are too busy they don’t hear the birds singing. They don’t know how to appreciate the sounds of birds singing.

People feel empty and useless, to cover that they try to keep themselves busy. People feel important when they’re busy.

I understand what you said about the feeling of inadequacy among American males. I have noticed this in myself when I was in America. This disease (so called) is quite rare among tribal people in underdeveloped regions of Burma. Burmese from well-to-do families have this problem too. I think it is because people expect too much from them, and the model of a successful life is too rigid, narrow, materialistic, stereotyped and dumb. As if there were only one good model for everybody. Live your life your own way. Whoever really cares about you anyway?

We think we’re important. That is a delusion.

What a waste it is not to do what is really meaningful to you and do what people expect you to do.

It’s hard to live your life without thinking of what others think of you.

Giving others the freedom to be stupid is one of the most important steps to take in spiritual progress.

Life is a series of experiments. There are all kinds of people out there; yoga, Zen, Hindu, Tibetan, Theravada, Western Psychology, Judaism, Christianity, Reiki, Rolfing, Prana, Gestalt, an endless array of Gurus, The Course in Miracles etc. Go there for a visit and find out. Some are sincere, some have understanding, but many of them are totally lost and mixed up. If you don’t have much of your own experience to reflect on, you can get even more confused. No one can tell you what will make you happy, but you will eventually find freedom, freedom to live your life in your own way. As for judging the way others are living their life, what can one say? It’s their life. Everybody is more or less a fool. Your innate awareness and wisdom is your only protection. (Sage)

To have a calm and peaceful mind all the time is impossible.

Chaos keeps us from getting too fixed in our ways.

Attachment to calmness is dangerous.

Having an ideal of calmness, peacefulness and cheerfulness makes a person even more frustrated.

Calmness is necessary to develop deep insight; it is the opposite of agitation. Calmness makes the mind clear. There is nothing wrong with having calmness, but be careful of attachment to calmness – that attachment is dangerous.

You cannot be totally free from anger. It will come when there is sufficient cause.

As soon as you have contact with people (people who are inconsiderate, selfish, who take advantage of you), you will find it difficult to have calmness.

Accept that you are also not perfect.

Be myself and not slip into the role that others expect of me.

Everything changes the only constant is change. (Sage)

Allow your self to change, to become a different person.

Living too long in one place makes me feel like I’m in prison.

The less self-awareness a person has the more they are un-free.

The reason we do not see truth is that we don’t have enough courage.

Most people have not enough courage to see or accept the truth. They want something that will make them happy. Truth is sometimes frightening. Being disillusioned is scary. There is nothing you can hold on to – a set of ideals; a method; a community; a sect; an order; anything they can identify with.

Opinions that agree offer security.

If you don’t hold on to your old self-image the change will go on and on. You will feel like a new person, always changing and growing, and you will feel younger too. The old is always new; the new is always young.

The most painful experiences in life arise from relationships. So it is important to be aware when we are relating to people. We should be aware of our attitude towards the people we relate to. To watch our attitude towards anything is very important. If we don’t have the right attitude we will create a lot of problems.

Where you live and with whom you associate with is very important. Some places and people put your mind in a bad mood, and to be in a bad mood all the time can really damage your mind. People around us very subtly influence us.

It is greed hand-in-hand with ignorance, which make life so complicated. Not easy when almost everybody around you is living such a greedy, speedy, and complicated life. One needs great wisdom and a strong mind not to follow them. Before you know it, you are thinking of what to do to prove that you are not a failure. It’s hard to live your life without thinking of what others think of you.

Most people have grown an invisible, impenetrable shell around themselves to protect them from being hurt, and they’re looking for satisfaction in money, status, sense pleasures, drugs, alcohol, and sex mainly because they don’t have somebody who loves them and understands them more deeply. It’s too scary to be open and vulnerable.

If you force your mind to let go of attachment without really seeing the nature of it, it will come back very soon. Seeing clearly and understanding deeply is the only way to overcome it. Forced detachment is not real detachment.

Understanding comes to those who are not in a hurry to understand. Understanding is like a fruit tree; it takes time to become mature. One cannot force it to bear fruits.

Unless you can embrace loneliness you will never understand what friendship really means.

For most people, friendship is a means to overcome loneliness.

Until we can accept that we are alone and until we can stand on our own two feet, we cannot have a healthy, meaningful relationship with another. Dependent, exploitive, and manipulative relationships are not meaningful.

How full of views and opinions we are. Yet we are not sure of anything; we’re just a lot of talk; a lot of words - blah, blah, blah.

If I am in harmony, then all around me comes into harmony.

When our life breaks down, we have an opportunity to break through to another level of awareness.

See the good in every experience and every experience will become a good experience.

Nobody and no place is perfect. A perfect place, a perfect community, or a perfect teacher is nowhere to be found.

It is a considerable benefit for a person to realize that they have a negative side like everyone else.

I should live in a place where I feel totally released, at ease, and psychologically free, free from the expectations of others; a place where I feel really myself and don’t have to say or act to please anyone.

Sometimes, I think of finding a cave in the mountains, and going to live there alone, but nothing can bring real satisfaction.

Have you found a place where you’ll be happy and content for the rest of your life? I haven’t found a place like that yet but I hope to find it some day.

If you carry all your defilements with you, no matter where you go, you’ll be unhappy.

I see my attachments and I’m learning to let go more and more-attachments are heavy burdens-I, my, mine. If you have no strong attachments you can live in a quiet place.

Repeatedly I find that attachment leads to suffering. There is no mistake about that. Watch out for attachments. Desires make you believe that you’ll be happy, when they are fulfilled, but there is no end to fulfilling desires. We think that some day we’ll be happy, some day, some day…and that some day always moves ahead. You’re lucky if you can say “I’m Happy”.

Even if someone lives to be a hundred years old, a great part of that time is spent in the infirmities of childhood and old age. A huge part is consumed by sleep at night and worries by day. Much of it is wasted in sorrow and fear. Only a small fraction remains for enjoying being alive. So don’t waste it. (sage)

If you can find no room in your heart for others, you will always feel like a stranger among strangers.

One sees them everywhere – businessmen hoisting themselves up on tiptoe, struggling desperately to succeed. They are overflowing with anxieties so there is no longer any room for love of their fellow beings. They are therefore, themselves un-loved and regarded as being no longer human.

If someone neglected their business to wander about aimlessly, people would say she was crazy. Yet those who completely ignore the inevitability of death and obsessively seek wealth and prestige are called sane!

People believe that they will find satisfaction in good food, expensive clothes, lively music and exciting sex. But when they have all this they are still not satisfied. Having understood that happiness is not just about having ones material needs met, they desire prestige, fame, and recognition. Pulled by these glittery prizes and pushed by cultural pressure, people waste their lives in pursuit of such goals. Their achievements may give them the illusion that they have gained something in their lives, but in reality they have lost a lot. They can no longer see, hear, feel, think, and act from their hearts. Social pressures from without dictate everything they do. They end up living the life others tell them to, not their own lives. Is this any different then being a slave or prisoner?

The way you talk, dress, relate to other people, eat, sleep laugh – everything you do reflects your state of mind.

Some people wear a lot of jewelry and gold ornaments because they are themselves worthless; they only feel worthy when they have these ornaments on. Some people own colorful stones and glittering metals; some have big numbers in the bank; some are temporarily appointed ministers and presidents (and look how puffed up these people are). If you don’t call that craziness, I don’t know what craziness is! Are there other ways by which people make themselves feel worthy? So much pain and nonsense in the world!

How people must suffer to be so much in need of playing the clown.

The world is crazy, absolutely senseless, a fake, a show, a conceited show. Fools get caught in its snare. Vain glory. False possessions.

We waste so much time in trivial pursuits.

What a funny thing fame is – how empty and annoying.

What do people want? They want happiness and they don’t want pain. So see what makes you unhappy. People don’t see that it’s the unwholesome thoughts, which make them unhappy; it’s hard for most people to accept that. They think sensual pleasures and the things they want will make them happy. If you are happy inside you don’t need much to be happy.

Most people are after fame, money, position, pleasure, etc. Very few are earnestly looking for (seeking) the truth and peace. Some people use meditation as a substitute for narcotics.

Almost everyone is struggling in some form or other to build or protect their self-esteem, their sense of significance as a person.

Doing nothing is actually not easy. I believe you know that from your own experience. What happens to your mind when you do nothing? Have you carefully observed that? Boredom is unbearable. If we try to accomplish something, you are doing. And your ego is strong. If you don’t do anything then you become meaningless and empty.

Non-doing is a state of mind that is free from ego. Doing without reacting, without a person doing it and most important of all, doing without expecting anything in return.

There is a kind of dullness in the mind, which is always there. We need something exciting, some kind of stimulant, whether talking or reading or traveling or…to keep the mind awake! Otherwise it is in a half-wakeful state. If you can train the mind to be awake all the time, without any of those stimulants, you will find a new kind of energy.

Instead of running away from boredom, if you can work through it you will find a kind of wakefulness, alertness, life, and clarity, beyond that. Then the mind becomes workable. Mostly we give in and become busy, busy. When we’re busy we feel useful, important. When we’re doing nothing we feel useless and feel ashamed. Some people take pride in being busy.

The mind is tricky. The mind wants change, something different. It craves for entertainment, stimulation. Boredom is a great problem. That’s what most people are doing – running after stimulation in one form or another.

Our “cult of progress” is in danger of imposing on us even more childish dreams of the future the harder it presses us to escape from the past. Progress by advances, that is, by new methods or gadgets, which of course are impressive at first, but in the long run dubious and dearly paid for. By no means do they increase the contentment or happiness of people on the whole. Instead, they are deceptive sweetenings of existence, like speedier communications, which unpleasantly accelerate the tempo of life and leave us with less time then ever before.

People are afraid of unconventional people, I think, and of change. They find security in old, familiar ideas; new ideas are threatening and they think that people who change their minds are unreliable.

In this super busy, supersonic, super distraction, superficial world – is there any hope for the majority of mankind to be sane? People are becoming like manufactured clothes – stereotyped, cheap, short-lasting style with no personal uniqueness.

I’ve been to a very different world, meeting people who live in a very different way, with different values. They have just the basic necessities and yet are very happy people. No psychological problems. People living in big modernized cities are all crazy.

Happiness is such a simple thing; you are happy when you are not trying to be happy. True happiness is not made, not put together, not something you can possess.

I live outside of this busy, noisy, crazy world. Don’t become too busy. Cut down on all unnecessary activities. Get enough time to rest and relax and meditate.

Sometimes, in my imagination, I take you for long walks in the forest and introduce you to the quietness, the trees, many different kinds of birds such as song birds and wood cocks and to the deep peacefulness which you can never feel living among people who are always upset about one thing or another – nonverbal relationships with animals and nature.

Imagination is very powerful. When you imagine a peaceful situation your mind becomes peaceful. On the other hand, you can scare yourself to death by imagining terrible situations. Since you have a choice, choose peaceful images, like sitting in a peaceful setting. Imagine all the details. Imagine you are deep in the mountains. Cool, quiet, feeling very calm, tranquil, safe, secure, and free from dirt.

Once when I was meditating in a Motel 6 in Bakersfield, California I heard the sound of a truck somewhere in the distance. Moments later as I became more aware I experienced the sound of the truck in my ear, as happening in my ear. And then as my awareness increased, I experienced the sound as happening in my mind. I realized that without my mind there could be no sound. (Sage)

People are so busy they don’t hear the birds singing. They don’t know how to appreciate the sound of birds singing.

The tragic issue is the issue of seeing the reality and truth about oneself.

When you are thwarted, it is your attitude that is out of order.

If I am in harmony, then all around me comes into harmony.

The reason we do not see truth is that we do not have enough courage.

To accept the inevitable is very important for peace of mind.

We cannot change anything unless we accept it.

Doing office work every day must be tiring. You need to do something creative.

I used to think that life was a mathematical formula. Now I think it’s more like a poem.

Change keeps us from getting too fixed in our ways.

Life would be so superficial and boring if there were no hardships. Suffer, learn and grow.

Living your life is an art. There is no formula. You must always be alert and creative. Once you lose creativity you are as good as dead. Creativity in living ones life is so rare. No wonder people behave like robots! No wonder they have no joy.

I am not a follower since that would mean I am not taking complete responsibility for my life. Neither am I a leader since that would mean I am taking responsibility away from others.

People mistakenly seek for the truth outside themselves, in teachers, books and ideas, which necessarily only contain someone else’s views and experience.

Eventually you will experience the great awakening, and then you will discover that life is a great dream.

To live well, we need only follow our natural instincts.

Many of the quotes on this page are extracts derived from a compilation of letters written by a Burmese Buddhist monk named Sayadaw U Jotika. Collected in a small book called “Snow In The Summer”, they were written to friends and students many years ago while he was living and meditating in an isolated forest hut. I also included several quotes written by ancient Chinese sages and a couple European ones, where noted. I chose quotes that I identify as being realizations and “awakenings” I have had in my own life. I often look to these words for clarity. They are good verbal expressions of the “Bodhi Story”. I have a tattered old copy of the original book “Snow In The Summer” that was printed in Burma, but I have not seen it in print anywhere else. The complete content of this beautiful, heartfelt book is fortunately available at your fingertips. www.buddhanet.net/snow.htm