Echoes

Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again.

Mind is the king of the senses; breath is the king of the mind.

Fixity of attention depends on slow breathing; quick or uneven breaths are an inevitable accompaniment of harmful emotional states — fear, lust, anger.

Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.

The primary indication, to my thinking, of a well-ordered mind is a man's ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company.

You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

How easy it is to repel and to wipe away every impression which is troublesome or unsuitable, and immediately to be in all tranquility.

As long as a person exercises, exerts himself greatly, does not eat to the point of being overly full, and keeps his bowels soft, illness will not come upon him and his strength will increase.

Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.

Methinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.

To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.

In the words of the ancients, one should make his decisions within the space of seven breaths. It is a matter of being determined and having the spirit to break right through to the other side.

What I urge is that you so learn to control the machinery as to live with 'day-tight compartments' as the most certain way to ensure safety on the voyage. Touch a button and hear, at every level of your life, the iron doors shutting out the dead yesterdays and the unborn to-morrows.

To the quiet mind all things are possible.

With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things.

In silence and in stillness a devout soul maketh progress, and learneth the mysteries of Holy Scripture.

Everyone sees the unseen in proportion to the clarity of his heart, and that depends upon how much he has polished it. Whoever has polished it more sees more — more unseen forms become manifest to him.

If a warrior is not unattached to life and death, he will be of no use whatsoever. The saying that "All abilities come from one mind" sounds as though it has to do with sentient matters, but it is in fact a matter of being unattached to life and death. With such non-attachment one can accomplish any feat.

I can only think while walking; as soon as I stop, I no longer think, and my mind only moves with my feet.

Nowhere you can go is more peaceful — more free of interruptions — than your own soul.

In my walks I would fain return to my senses. What business have I in the woods, if I am thinking of something out of the woods?

Those who are slaves to their appetites cannot preserve their reason, their memory, or their senses in their full vigour; for a full belly does not produce a fine mind.

The present moment contains past and future. The secret of transformation, is in the way we handle this very moment.

Resolve your mental energy into abstraction, your physical energy into inaction. Allow yourself to fall in with the natural order of phenomena, without admitting the element of self,—and the empire will be governed.

O God, give us the serenity to accept what cannot be changed, the courage to change what should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.