{"id":31492,"date":"2015-03-15T21:19:10","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T05:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=31492"},"modified":"2015-03-18T21:08:09","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T05:08:09","slug":"11-thought-provoking-quotes-spiritual-teachers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/11-thought-provoking-quotes-spiritual-teachers\/","title":{"rendered":"11 Thought-Provoking Quotes from Spiritual Teachers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Are you perceiving reality as it is or as you think it is?<\/p>\n

I would like to share with you the following quotes from some of the best spiritual teachers I know. (Warning: reading them may change the way you view reality \u2013 forever.)<\/p>\n

Our lives are based on certain assumptions created and taught by society. However, are these assumptions actually correct? Let\u2019s take a minute to turn some \u201ccommon wisdom\u201d upside down. Some wise spiritual teachers tell us that we are in fact wrong about many of the assumptions that we base our lives on. Try to read this with an open mind, you may be pleasantly surprised and inspired.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t need to be loved<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is yet another illusion, that it is important to be respectable, to be loved and appreciated, to be important. Many say we have a natural urge to be loved and appreciated, to belong. That\u2019s false. Drop this illusion and you will find happiness. We have a natural urge to be free, a natural urge to love, but not to be loved<\/em>.\u201d<\/em> \u2013 Anthony de Mello<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>You don\u2019t need anything to be happy<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cTo believe that you depend on things and people for happiness is due to ignorance of your true nature; to know that you need nothing to be happy except self-knowledge is wisdom.\u201d<\/em> – Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj<\/p>\n

If you have negative feelings something is wrong with YOU<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime you have a negative feeling toward anyone, you\u2019re living in an illusion. There\u2019s something seriously wrong with you. You\u2019re not seeing reality. Something inside of you has to change. But what do we generally do when we have a negative feeling? \u201cHe is to blame, she is to blame. She\u2019s got to change.\u201d No! The world\u2019s all right. The one who has to change is you.\u201d \u2013 Anthony de Mello<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>\u201cLet\u2019s suppose that rain washes out a picnic. Who is feeling negative? The rain? Or you? What\u2019s causing the negative feeling? The rain or your reaction? When you bump your knee against a table, the table\u2019s fine. It\u2019s busy being what it was made to be \u2013 a table. The pain is in your knee, not in the table. The mystics keep trying to tell us that reality is all right. Reality is not problematic. Problems exist only in the human mind. We might add: in the stupid, sleeping human mind.\u201d<\/em> \u2013 Anthony de Mello<\/p>\n

You are not a person<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYou have never been, nor shall ever be, a person. Refuse to consider yourself as one. But as long as you do not even doubt yourself to be Mr. So-and-so, there is little hope. When you refuse to open your eyes, what can you be shown?\u201d<\/em> – Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj<\/p>\n

You are nobody<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cFeel the space in you when you are nobody, nothing. When you never ever gonna be something. Get over it! It\u2019s like, if people think you are mad, they leave you alone. And then you can do all kind of things. You can pee in the street and everything. Oh it\u2019s just John he is mad.\u201d<\/em> – Mooji<\/p>\n

You were never born<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cInquire, investigate, doubt yourself and others. To find truth, you must not cling to your convictions; if you are sure of the immediate, you will never reach the ultimate. Your idea that you were born and that you will die is absurd \u2013 both logic and experience contradict it.\u201d<\/em> – Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj<\/p>\n

You are neither bad nor good, you just are<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is only one thing better than, you know, \u2018I\u2019m bad\u2019 or \u2018I\u2019m good.\u2019 And that\u2019s \u2018I am.\u2019 Only something as insane as a human being would ever ask themselves if I\u2019m good. You don\u2019t find oak trees having existential crisis. \u2018I feel so rotten about myself. I don\u2019t produce as many acorns as the one next to me.\u2019<\/em> – Adyashanti<\/p>\n

Experience is the denial of Reality<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMost of us die wishing we could live again. So many mistakes committed, so much left undone. Most people vegetate, but do not live. They merely gather experience and enrich their memory. But experience is the denial of Reality, which is neither sensory nor conceptual, neither of the body nor of the mind, though it includes and transcends both.\u201d<\/em> – Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t use your mind it uses you<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately… you usually don’t use it at all. It uses you.\u201d<\/em> \u2013 Eckhart Tolle<\/p>\n

You need nothing<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you seek reality you must set yourself free of all backgrounds, of all cultures, of all patterns of thinking and feeling. Even the idea of being man or woman, or even human, should be discarded. The ocean of life contains all, not only humans. So, first of all, abandon all self-identification; stop thinking of yourself as such-and-such, so-and-so, this or that. Abandon all self-concern, worry not about your welfare, material or spiritual; abandon every desire, gross or subtle, stop thinking of achievement of any kind. You are complete here and now- you need absolutely nothing.\u201d<\/em> \u2013 Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Thibaut Meurisse is the founder of\u00a0whatispersonaldevelopment.org<\/a>. Obsessed with improvement, he dedicates his life to finding the best possible ways to durably transform both his life and the lives of others. Visit his website to download his\u00a0free e-book \u201cThe 5 Commandments of Personal Development\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s take a minute to turn some \u201ccommon wisdom\u201d upside down. Some wise spiritual teachers tell us that we are in fact wrong about many of the assumptions that we base our lives on. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9303,"featured_media":31518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[205,45,5,6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n11 Thought-Provoking Quotes from Spiritual Teachers - Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Let\u2019s take a minute to turn some \u201ccommon wisdom\u201d upside down. 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