> explore
Find wisdom by theme or search for a word or phrase.
> browse by theme
abundance
acceptance
accountability
achievement
action
adaptability
adaptation
adversity
alan-watts
all-beings
ambition
anarchy
anger
anxiety
application
appreciation
art
aspiration
authenticity
awakening
awareness
balance
beauty
before-heaven-and-earth
beginner
beginnings
being
beyond-thought
beyond-words
blessing
blue-cliff-record
body
book-of-serenity
bravery
breakthrough
breath
brevity
buddha-nature
care
cause-effect
caution
centeredness
centre
change
character
child-like
choice
chuang-tzu
circumstance
clarity
communication
community
compassion
completeness
completion
complexity
concepts
conduct
conflict
connection
consciousness
consequence
consequences
conserving-energy
consistency
constancy
contemplation
contentment
continuity
cooperation
corruption
cosmology
courage
creation
creativity
cultivation
cycles
death
decisiveness
decline
delicacy
delusion
depth
desire
desires
destiny
detachment
determination
development
direct-experience
direction
discernment
discipline
discretion
discrimination
duality
duty
early-action
ease
effectiveness
effort
effortless
effortlessness
ego
embodiment
emotions
empathy
emptiness
energy
enlightenment
enthusiasm
equality
equanimity
essence
eternal
ethics
everyday-life
everywhere
excess
expression
fairness
faith
fame
fasting
fate
fear
feminine
flexibility
flow
following
foresight
formless
freedom
frugality
function
fundamentals
futility
generations
generosity
gentleness
giving
good-and-bad
governance
governing
grace
gradual
gratitude
greatness
greed
grief
growth
guidance
haiku
han-shan
harmony
heart
heaven
heaven-earth
heaven-way
heavens-way
help
helping
highway
holy-vessel
honesty
hua-hu-jing
huang-po
human-nature
humanity
humility
humor
i-ching
identity
illumination
illusion
immortality
impartiality
impermanence
inactivity
ineffable
inevitability
inexhaustible
infinity
influence
initiative
inner-knowing
inner-knowledge
inner-light
innocence
inquiry
insight
integrity
intelligence
intention
interconnection
intuition
invisible
invulnerability
japanese
joy
judgment
justice
karma
kindness
knowing
knowledge
language
leadership
learning
legacy
less-is-more
letting-be
letting-go
life
life-death
light
limits
loss
love
lowness
ma
mastery
materialism
meditation
mind
mind-body
mindfulness
minimalism
mirror
mirror-mind
moderation
modesty
mortality
mother
mysterious-female
mysterious-power
mystery
nameless
naming
natural-law
natural-order
naturalness
nature
new-beginnings
no-self
non-action
non-attachment
non-being
non-duality
non-harm
non-interference
non-knowing
non-ownership
non-possession
non-resistance
non-self
non-striving
non-violence
not-contending
nothingness
nurturing
oneness
openness
oppression
order
origin
paradox
path
patience
peace
perception
perfection
permanence
perseverance
persistence
perspective
philosophy
position
possessions
potential
power
practical
practice
pragmatism
presence
present-moment
preservation
prevention
principles
priorities
progress
protection
purity
quality
quiet
quietness
radiance
reality
receptivity
reciprocity
recognition
recursion
redistribution
reduction
reflection
reform
refuge
relationships
relativity
renewal
repetition
reputation
resilience
resolution
respect
responding-to-injury
responsibility
rest
restoration
restraint
retreat
return
returning
reverence
reversal
reward
rewards
right-path
root
sacrifice
safety
sage
satisfaction
seasons
seeing
seeking
self
self-awareness
self-cultivation
self-improvement
self-knowledge
selflessness
senses
service
shapes
shunryu-suzuki
silence
simplicity
simplification
sincerity
skill
skillfulness
small-steps
society
softness
solitude
source
space
speech
spirit
spiritual
spontaneity
stability
statecraft
steadiness
stillness
strategy
strength
strength-in-weakness
subtlety
subtraction
success
sudden-insight
suffering
support
surprise
surrender
sustainability
tao
tao-power
tao-te-ching
tao-treasure
tao-virtue
taxation
tea
teaching
the-way
thich-nhat-hanh
three-treasures
time
timing
transcendence
transformation
transience
transition
treasure
true-life
trust
truth
uncarved-block
uncertainty
unchanging
understanding
unity
universality
unknowable
unlearning
usefulness
valley
valley-spirit
values
virtue
vitality
void
wabi
war
water
weakness
wholeness
wisdom
withdrawal
wonder
wu-wei
yielding
yin-yang
yunmen
zen
zen-koan
ziran
> 27 quotes tagged "self"
-
The Master puts herself last; And finds herself in the place of authority. She detaches herself from all things; Therefore she is united with all things.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 7
-
If you want to become straight, first let yourself become twisted.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 22
-
To practice virtue is to selflessly offer assistance to others, giving without limitation one's time, abilities, and possessions in service. If your willingness to give blessings is limited, so also is your ability to receive them.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 4
-
Can you dissolve your ego? Can you abandon the idea of self and other? Can you let go of all these dualities and embrace the Tao without skepticism or panic?Hua Hu Jing, Verse 14
-
The Tao is always present and always available. When speech is exhausted and mind dissolved, it presents itself. If you are willing to be lived by it, you will see it everywhere.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 22
-
The highest truth cannot be put into words. Therefore the greatest teacher has nothing to say. He simply gives himself in service, and never worries.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 23
-
Your nature and the integral nature of the universe are one and the same: indescribable, but eternally present. Simply open yourself to this.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 24
-
Do not imagine that an integral being has the ambition of enlightening the unaware. To her, there is no self and other, and hence no one to be raised. Therefore her only concern is her own sincerity.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 27
-
The character of your existence is determined by the energies to which you connect yourself. By holding to that which is refined and subtle, one traverses refined and subtle realms.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 34
-
The superior person understands that her own energies play a part in all living things. Caring for them, she knows that she cares for herself. At peace with them, she is always at peace with herself.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 37
-
The source of the universe is ultimately unknowable, a great invisible river flowing forever through a vast and fertile valley. Your creation takes place by itself within the subtle operation of the universe.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 39
-
The superior person recognizes that he and the subtle law are one. Therefore he cultivates himself to accord with it, bringing moderation to his actions and clarity to his mind.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 40
-
Live a quiet and simple life, free of ideas and concepts. Find contentment in the practice of undiscriminating virtue, the only true power. Your virtue becomes a sanctuary for yourself and all beings.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 47
-
Unless the mind, body, and spirit are equally developed and fully integrated, no spiritual peak or state of enlightenment can be sustained. True self-cultivation involves the holistic integration of mind, body, and spirit.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 58
-
Devote yourself to living a virtuous, integrated, selfless life. Refine your energy from gross and heavy to subtle and light. Then the mystical door will open.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 60
-
Through the practices of the Integral Way, one refines gross, heavy energy into something ethereal and light. The new life created is self-aware yet without ego, capable of inhabiting a body yet not attached to it.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 66
-
Spiritual freedom and oneness with the Tao are not randomly bestowed gifts, but the rewards of conscious self-transformation and self-evolution.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 70
-
If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself. If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 75
-
Independently I stand between heaven and earth. Seeing with my own eyes, hearing with my own ears.Zen Poem – Hsüeh-t'ou Ch'ung-hsien (980-1052)
-
We seldom realize, for example that our most private thoughts and emotions are not actually our own. For we think in terms of languages and images which we did not invent, but which were given to us by our society.Alan Watts
-
Every intelligent individual wants to know what makes him tick, and yet is at once fascinated and frustrated by the fact that oneself is the most difficult of all things to know.Alan Watts
-
If you cannot trust yourself, you cannot even trust your mistrust of yourself – so that without this underlying trust in the whole system of nature you are simply paralyzed.Alan Watts
-
Like too much alcohol, self-consciousness makes us see ourselves double, and we make the double image for two selves – mental and material, controlling and controlled, reflective and spontaneous. Thus instead of suffering we suffer about suffering, and suffer about suffering about suffering.Alan Watts
-
The word 'person' comes from the latin word 'persona' which referred to the masks worn by actors in which sound would come through. The 'person' is the mask — the role you're playing. And all of your friends and relations and teachers are busy telling you who you are and what your role in life is.Alan Watts
-
Everyone has love, but it can only come out when he is convinced of the impossibility and the frustration of trying to love himself. This conviction will not come through condemnations, through hating oneself, through calling self love bad names in the universe. It comes only in the awareness that one has no self to love.Alan Watts
-
To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don't need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.Thich Nhat Hanh
-
The foolish man seeks for truth abroad, while the wise man knows that it is within himself.Huang Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po, tr. John Blofeld