Daly Bread

Some words correspond to nothing. They were put there by the human mind. There are thousands of words in our vocabulary that do not correspond to reality at all but they trigger emotions, so we begin to see things that are not there.

We never argue about reality; we argue about opinions, and concepts, and judgments. Drop your concepts, drop your opinions, drop your prejudices, drop your judgments, and you will see.

Concepts point, but are never entirely accurate; they miss uniqueness, concreteness. The concept is universal. The concept always misses or omits something important, something that is only found in reality, which is concrete uniqueness.

In order to get awareness, you’ve got to see, and you can’t see if you’re prejudiced. Almost everything and every person we look at, we look at in a prejudiced way.

When you hold on to anything, you cease to live. Understand that happiness is not the same as excitement or thrills. Desire breeds anxiety and sooner or later it brings its hangover. When you’ve suffered enough, then you are ready to see. You’re living off of thrills.

It’s not that you have to suppress desire, because then you would become lifeless. You’d be without energy and that would be terrible. Desire in the healthy sense of the word is energy, and the more energy we have, the better. But don’t suppress desire, understand it.

Self-worth is really about how we are reflected in the mirrors of other people’s minds. One understands one’s personal worth when one no longer identifies or defines one’s self in terms of these transient things.

So, what will happen when you finally arrive. Get started and you will know; it cannot be described. It is said, “Those who know, do not say; those who say, do not know.” A teacher cannot give you the truth. Truth cannot be put into words or a formula. That isn’t the truth. That isn’t reality. Reality cannot be put into a formula. A teacher can only point out your errors. When you drop your errors...

People want to imitate Christ, but, you know, when a monkey plays a saxophone, that doesn’t make him a musician. You can’t imitate Christ by imitating his external behavior. You’ve got to be Christ, you must be what Christ is, love and compassion. An external imitation will get you nowhere.

You don’t have to do anything. The more you do, the worse it gets. All you have to do is understand. The first thing you need to understand is that the negative feeling is inside you. You are responsible for the negative feeling, not the other person. Part of waking up is that you live your life as you see fit. That is not selfish. The selfish thing is to demand that someone else live their life a...

As Meister Eckhart says, “It is not by your actions that you will be saved but by your being. It is not by what you do, but by what you are that you will be judged.” (a) identify the negative feelings in you; (b) understand that they are in you, not in the world, not in external reality; (c) do not see them as an essential part of “I”; these things come and go; (d) understand that when you change,...

The first thing you need is awareness of your negative feelings. The second step is to understand that the feeling is in you, not in reality. The third step: Never identify with that feeling. You don’t do anything to be free, you drop something. Then you’re free.

If you refuse to identify with any labels, most of your worries simply cease. This is the secret of awakening. You would never be unhappy again. Nothing would have the power to hurt you again. No matter what happens you remain at peace. This is being human, not a puppet, jerked about this way and that way, letting events or other people tell you how to feel.

It is extremely important, if you want to wake up, to practice “self-observation.” Be aware of what you’re saying, be aware of what you’re doing, be aware of what you’re thinking, be aware of how you’re acting. Be aware of where you’re coming from, what your motives are.

The only way to awareness is to change what you understand. What you do not understand and are not aware of, you repress. You don’t change. But when you understand it, it changes.

The world’s all right. The one who has to change is you. Life is a symphony. It plays one melody in your presence, but when you leave, the orchestra doesn’t stop. It keeps playing. That’s what awakening is all about. Come home to yourself. Observe yourself. After a while you don’t have to make any effort, because, as illusions begin to crumble, you begin to know things that cannot be described. It...

Most people live mechanical lives, with mechanical thoughts that are not their own, mechanical emotions, mechanical actions, mechanical reactions. We are so mechanical, so controlled. We write books about being controlled and how wonderful it is to be controlled and how necessary it is that people tell you you’re O.K. Then you’ll have a good feeling about yourself. You’ve built a cage for yourself...

What is enlightenment like? Well, you’ll find it when you’re ready to change your illusions for reality, when you’re ready to change your dreams for facts. That’s where life finally becomes meaningful. Life becomes beautiful. When someone tells you, “There is nothing you can do about it,” you say, “There is, I can wake up!” All of a sudden, life is no longer the nightmare that it used to be.

Your good deeds are really self-interest. Have you ever thought about that? You see, you are really acting to of selfishness. You are giving yourself the pleasure of pleasing yourself. It makes you feel good. You are also giving yourself the pleasure of pleasing others. You get to feel that you’re really great, but are you? You give something, you get something. You help someone by giving somethin...

For some of us, the harsh realities of life wake us up. We suffer enough to wake up. Others keep on sleepwalking and never wake up. It just never occurs to them that there may be a better way. Even if you haven’t been knocked around by life enough to wake you up, there is another way. It’s through spirituality. But, spirituality is not what you think it is. It’s not about pious acts. Spirituality...

We have all been wounded, that’s part of being human, but we must turn our wounds into sacred wounds.

Do you know one sign that you’ve woken up? It’s when you are asking yourself, “Am I crazy, or are all of them crazy?” When you’re on the verge of going insane, you’re either psychotic or a mystic. The mystic is the opposite of the lunatic because the whole world is crazy. We’re living on crazy ideas about love, about relationships, about happiness, about joy, about everything. People are crazy. Th...

The first thing you must understand, if you really want to wake up, is that you don’t want to wake up. The first step to waking up is to be honest enough to admit to yourself that you don’t like it.

We are all born with a divine spark, but we have forgotten our true self. Don’t let yourself be domesticated. Embrace the divine within. Remember, we are all called to be saints. We were made by our creator to be a saint. We were made to soar with the eagles. All that is needed  is to want it. God will make you what he created you to be, just consent to let him do it. All you have to do is de...