One’s inner light alone is the means, naught else. When this inner light is kept alive, it is not affected by the darkness of inertia.
The Lord who is the searcher of all hearts is my own guardian. Have no anxiety and everything shall be according to the will of God.
The greatest freedom is to be obedient and faithful to God. As we yield ourselves to God’s love and mercy, we are liberated from the suffering of sins. No longer are we dominated by unreasonable fears, compulsions and addictions. We live in peace and unity with all people. Despair and rage pass away.
He who trusts in God and makes an honest living to share with others and injures no one, nor harbours ill will against another need perform no other rituals.
Fasting in the monastic community is considered an ascetic practice, a “dhutanga” practice. Dhutanga means “to shake up” or “invigoration”. The Buddha, as is well known, emphasized moderation, the Middle Way that avoids extremes, in all things. Fasting is an additional method that one can take up, with supervision, for a time.
Those who read books cannot understand the teachings and, what’s more, may even go astray. But those who try to observe the things going on in the mind, and always take that which is true in their own minds as their standard; never get muddled.
The soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of Divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast; for until the cord be broken, the bird cannot fly.
He who knows his soul knows this truth: “I am beyond everything finite; I now see that the Spirit, alone in a space with its ever-new joy, has expressed itself as the vast body of nature…I am the wisdom and power that sustain all creation.”
