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"But you also admit you’re really doing it for a selfish reason—your need to be needed—and you also know you need to be needed in a way that makes you feel like you’re contributing to the world a little bit." "“A saint is one until he or she knows it."

"The first test of whether you’ve been brainwashed and have introjected convictions and beliefs occurs the moment they’re attacked. You feel stunned, you react emotionally."

"Do you think a capitalist wants to see what is good in the communist system? Do you think a communist wants to see what is good and healthy in the capitalist system? Do you think a rich man wants to look at poor people? We don’t want to look, because if we do, we may change."

"It’s not that we Fear the unknown. You cannot Fear something that you do not know. Nobody is afraid of the unknown. What you really Fear is the loss of the known."

"“The Lovely thing about Jesus was that he was so at home with sinners, because he understood that he wasn’t one bit better than they were."

"What are you complaining about? Did you expect any better? You’re the idiot—you glorified her, didn’t you?" "you chose to paint people in glowing colors; you chose not to see through human beings because you chose not to see through yourself"

"No one can help you there. No one can give you a method. No one can show you a technique. The moment you pick up a technique, you’re programmed again"

"You’re not in Love, you silly ass. Any time you’re in Love—I hesitate to say this—you’re being particularly asinine. Sit down and watch what’s happening to you. You’re running away from yourself."

"This is an unexploded bomb. We dug it out of the garden and I’m taking it to the police station.” The conductor says, “You don’t want to carry that on your lap. Put it under the seat."

"Psychology and spirituality (as we generally understand it) transfer the bomb from your lap to under your seat. They don’t really solve your problems. They exchange your problems for other problems."

"it’s precisely the ones who don’t know what to do with this life who are all hot and bothered about what they are going to do with another [transcended] life."

"It’s painful to see your illusions being shattered. Everything that you thought you had built up crumbles and that’s painful. That’s what repentance is all about; that’s what waking up is all about"

"‘I really hate those people.’ Then I said, ‘Jesus, what can you do about all that?’ A little while later I began to cry, because I realized that Jesus died for those very people and they couldn’t help how they were, anyway."

"We never feel grief when we lose something that we have allowed to be free, that we have never attempted to possess. Grief is a sign that I made my happiness depend on this thing or person, at least to some extent."

"When your illusions drop, you’re in touch with reality at last, and believe me, you will never again be lonely, never again. Loneliness is not cured by human company. Loneliness is cured by contact with reality."

"That’s what it is to watch yourself. No one can show you how to do it, because he would be giving you a technique, he would be programming you."

"You Fear no one because you’re perfectly content to be nobody. You don’t give a damn about success or Failure. They mean nothing. Honor, disgrace, they mean nothing! If you make a fool of yourself, that means nothing either."

“The three most difficult things for a human being are not physical feats or intellectual achievements. They are: - first, returning Love for hate; - second, including the excluded; - third, admitting that you are wrong.”

"because Love does that. It shines on good and bad alike; it makes rain fall on saints and sinners alike. Is it possible for the rose to say, “I will give my fragrance to the good people who smell me, but I will withhold it from the bad”?"

"God would be much happier, according to Jesus Christ, if you were transformed than if you worshipped. He would be much more pleased by your loving than by your adoration."

"You know there are times like that when the Blessed Sacrament becomes more important than Jesus Christ. When worship becomes more important than Love, when the Church becomes more important than life. When God becomes more important than the neighbor."

"Of course, it’s important to listen to you, but it’s more important that I listen to me. Otherwise I won’t be hearing you. Or I’ll be distorting everything you say."

"Look how upset they get if they have a stain on their shirt. Do you call that a success? Look at how frightened they are at the prospect they might not be reelected. Do you call that a success?"

"Lots of people are depressed and they’re not aware they are depressed. It’s only when they make contact with joy that they understand how depressed they were."

"When you bump your knee against a table, the table’s fine. It’s busy being what it was made to be—a table. The pain is in your knee, not in the table. The mystics keep trying to tell us that reality is all right."

""Very well, I’ve understood your symptoms. I will prescribe a medicine for your neighbor!” The patient replies, “Thank you very much, Doctor, that makes me feel much better.” The person who is asleep always thinks he’ll feel better if somebody else changes."

"You keep insisting, “I feel good because the world is right.” Wrong! The world is right because I feel good. That’s what all the mystics are saying."

"Many people swing into action only to make things worse. They’re not coming from Love, they’re coming from negative feelings. They’re coming from guilt, anger, hate; from a sense of injustice or whatever."

"Part of waking up is that you live your life as you see fit. And understand: That is not selfish. The selfish thing is to demand that someone else live their life as YOU see fit. That’s selfish."

"Some people make Awakening a goal. They are determined to get there; they say, “I refuse to be happy until I’m awakened.”"