My Spiritual Quotes » karma

Andrew Cohen Quotes from Evolutionary Enlightenment

My spiritual quotes Katinka — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:11:28 +0000

When we embark on the spiritual quest, most of us, understandably, are pursuing freedom or enlightenment for our own sake. This is why we begin by asking, What do I really want? What is more important to me than anything else? But once your intention has become clear, and you sincerely pursue that one-pointed aspiration, a profound shift occurs. Over time, as your soul develops and matures through the practice of the first three tenets, you will see the quality of that intention evolve. And as you embrace the fourth tenet, and learn to see yourself as a very small part of a very big process, your relationship to the spiritual path becomes dramatically recontextualized. You discover that it’s not about you. (p. 158, Andrew Cohen, Evolutionary Enlightenment: a new path to spiritual awakening, ch. Cosmic Consciousce)

When you think objectively about how much work went into creating your own capacity to have the experience you are having in this very moment – fourteen billion years of hard work - then it might even begin to strike you as immoral to spend too much time sitting around and worrying about the fears and desires of your personal ego. Surely the purpose of all that cosmic effort and creativity and positivity – from nothing to energy to light to matter to life to consciousness to you - could not possibly have been just for that. When you awaken to the evolutionary process and its endless creativity, and you discover how profound and complex the structure of our universe is, you start to recognize and appreciate, at a soul level, what a precious gift it is to be here. (p. 37, Andrew Cohen, Evolutionary Enlightenment: a new path to spiritual awakening,ch. A Big Yes)

Think about it for a moment: if you are reading a book like this, the likelihood is that you are among the luckiest people who have ever been born. To begin with, you are one of those privileged to have received a high degree of education. People like you and me have access to information that wasn’t available until very recently – about the life process, about our psychological development, the natural history of our planet, and the evolution of the expanding cosmos. Besides this wealth of knowledge, we also have a degree of material wealth, comfort, security, and leisure time that is historically unprecedented. The standard of living that we take for granted, kings and queens of old could not have imagined. And on top of all this, we enjoy a degree of freedom that is unparalleled – personal, political, religious, and philosophical. There have never been human beings who have had the extraordinary liberty we have to experiment with our own lives – to think in whatever way we want, to do almost anything we want, to say anything we want, to go anywhere we want, to be whatever we want. (p. 78, Andrew Cohen, Evolutionary Enlightenment: a new path to spiritual awakening, Ch. The Postmodern Predicament)

This awakened passion for evolutionary transformation is not reasonable. It demands change, right now, and it will not wait, because God is always desperate to grow. God is infinite in the unmanifest realm. But in the manifest realm God is not infinite – God can only know him- or herself to the extent to which conscious beings are actually able to awaken to their own absolute nature. (p. 52, Andrew Cohen, Evolutionary Enlightenment: a new path to spiritual awakening, Ch. The Universe Project)

There are layers of cultural conditioning, values and assumptions about how things should be that color our perspectives without us even knowing it. And many people believe that within our psyches we also carry the unresolved stories of previous lifetimes. All these factors play a part in the complex web of motives and impulses that makes up your sense of self. All this is you. And yet it is possible to take responsibility for all of these dimensions of who you are, through the transformative recognition that you are always the one who is choosing. (p. 71, Andrew Cohen, Evolutionary Enlightenment: a new path to spiritual awakening, Ch. Enlightening the Choosing Faculty)

When you awaken to the truth that your human experience of consciousness and cognition, your personal presence here on this small planet, is part of an infinitely bigger process than you had ever imagined, you may notice an uncomfortable and perhaps unfamiliar sensation stirring within you – a sense of obligation. (page 86, Andrew Cohen, Evolutionary Enlightenment: a new path to spiritual awakening, Ch. A Moral Imperative)

But if we choose – consciously or unconsciously – to live a life of mediocrity, then we are also making a statement. Because we are not flourishing, what we are saying, whether we intend it or not, is that the evolutionary process is not flourishing. (p. 89, Andrew Cohen, Evolutionary Enlightenment: a new path to spiritual awakening, Ch. The Moral Imperative)

As long as we remain invested in the ego’s need to manipulate reality, we will find that we keep making the same mistakes, over and over and over again, because we are deliberately avoiding aspects of the way things are. It’s not a mystery: if we are trying to get somewhere, but we cover our eyes to avoid seeing the obstacles that lie in our path, it’s no wonder we keep tripping over them. (p. 138, Andrew Cohen, Evolutionary Enlightenment: a new path to spiritual awakening, ch. Face Everything and Avoid Nothing)

…

(p. 139, Andrew Cohen, Evolutionary Enlightenment: a new path to spiritual awakening,) But the point is that when you choose to avoid, you lose touch with your own soul. Emotionally, you become disconnected from your own deeper dimensions. It’s as if there is a wall, a barrier, between you and your own authenticity. And far too many of us get accustomed to living that way.

…

(p. 141, Andrew Cohen, Evolutionary Enlightenment: a new path to spiritual awakening,) When you remove the protective shield of avoidance and self-protection, there is an intensity and vulnerability to the human experience. And the complexity of life hits you more directly. … It demands that you be emotionally willing to bear a degree of reality – both in regard to yourself and to life itself – that you may have been unwilling to tolerate before.

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Bhagavad Gita Quotes on Work aka Karma

My spiritual quotes Katinka — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 17:30:46 +0000

The man who in his work finds silence, and who sees that silence is work, this man in truth sees the Light and in all his works finds peace (p. 24; chapter 4: 18)

Offer all thy works to God, throw off selfish bonds, and do thy work. No sin can then stain thee, even as waters do not stain the leaf of the lotus. (p. 28; chapter 5: 10)

This man of harmony surrenders the rewards of his work and thus attains final peace: the man of disharmony, urged by desire, is attached to his reward and remains in bondage (p. 28; chapter 5: 12)

The Lord of the world is beyond the works of the world and their working, and beyond the results of these works; but the work of Nature rolls on. (p. 28, chapter 5: 14)

In these verses work is a translation for the word ‘karma’ which is also often translated as ‘action’.

From the Bhagavad Gita Translation by Juan Mascaro

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Buddhist quotes about rebirth, reincarnation and karma

My spiritual quotes Katinka — Sat, 08 May 2010 11:20:05 +0000

Only the quality, that is the social surrounding, the physical appearance and the mental abilities of a person are fixed by the deeds of his previous existences, but in noway his actions.

Karma in Buddhism, Hans Wolfgang Schuman

If you see that other people are suffering, and you’re in a position to help, you focus not on their karmic past but your karmic opportunity in the present: Some day you may find yourself in the same predicament that they’re in now, so here’s your opportunity to act in the way you’d like them to act toward you when that day comes.

It’s not about fatalism, Bhikkhu Thanissaro

In Buddhism, rebirth is part of the continuous process of change. In fact, we are not only reborn at the time of death, we are born and reborn at every moment.

Fundamentals in Buddhism

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Buddha quotes on karma

My spiritual quotes Katinka — Sat, 08 May 2010 11:02:49 +0000

These quotes are the closest we can get to the Buddha: they’re from the Tipitaka, the ancient Pali Buddhist scriptures. I’ve replaced the Pali ‘kamma’ with the more common Sanskrit ‘Karma’. The two words mean the same thing.

Monks, these four types of karma have been directly realized, verified, & made known by me. Which four? There is karma that is dark with dark result. There is karma that is bright with bright result. There is karma that is dark & bright with dark & bright result. There is karma that is neither dark nor bright with neither dark nor bright result, leading to the ending of karma.

Anguttara Nikaya,AN 4.235, PTS: A ii 235,Ariyamagga Sutta: The Noble Path,translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Monks, these three are causes for the origination of [karmic] actions. Which three? Greed is a cause for the origination of actions. Aversion is a cause for the origination of actions. Delusion is a cause for the origination of actions.

Anguttara Nikaya, AN 3.33, PTS: A i 134, Thai III.34; BJT III.34, Nidana Sutta

Student, beings are owners of karmas, heirs of karmas, they have karmas as their progenitor, karmas as their kin, karmas as their homing-place. It is karmas that differentiate beings according to inferiority and superiority.

Majjhima Nikaya 135: The Shorter Exposition of Kamma

So, Ananda, there is karma that is incapable (of good result) and appears incapable (of good result); there is karma that is incapable (of good result) and appears capable (of good result); there is karma that is capable (of good result) and appears capable (of good result); there is karma that is capable (of good result) and appears incapable (of good result).

Majjhima Nikaya 136: The Great Exposition of Kamma (Mahakammavibhanga Sutta)

Monks, a fool is characterized by his/her actions. A wise person is characterized by his/her actions. It is through the activities of one’s life that one’s discernment shines.

Anguttara Nikaya, AN 3.2, PTS: A i 102, Lakkhana Sutta: Characterized (by Action)

These Buddha quotes on karma explained.