Zorba's golden gems 1

"Think in terms of optimism, don’t be a pessimist

Even if you come across a negative, find something positive in it. You will always be able to find something. And the day you become skillful at finding the positive in the negative, you will dance with joy.

Try it, try the new vision of life. Think in terms of optimism, don’t be a pessimist. The pessimist creates hell around himself and lives in it — you live in the world you create. Remember, there is not only one world, there are as many worlds as there are minds in the world. I live in my world, you live in your own world. They are not only different, they never overlap. They are utterly different, they exist on different planes.

Then you start turning each opportunity into a challenge for growth. For example, somebody insults you. Now it is so clear that you have been insulted, how can you practice a happy frame of mind now? Yes, it can be practiced.

This is how one should use situations, this is how a sannyasin should use negative opportunities for inner growth, for inner understanding, for meditativeness, for love, for compassion. And once you have learned this happy frame of mind, this positive vision of life, you will be surprised that the whole existence starts functioning in a totally different way. It starts mothering you. It starts helping you in every possible way, it becomes a great friend.

~ Osho - Book “The Book of Wisdom”

The essence of bhagwat geeta

When Lord Chaitanya was traveling in South India, in a big temple, Ranganatha temple, He went to see the Deity, and He saw one brahmana was reading Bhagavad-gita. And people were joking with him, ‘Oh, Mr. Brahmana, how you are reading Bhagavad-gita?’ Because they were neighbors, they knew that this brahmana was illiterate, and he was studying Bhagavad-gita. So they were joking. But the brahmana did not care about them. He was taking the book and in his own way he was reading. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu saw this incident. He came to the brahmana. He asked the brahmana, ‘My dear brahmana, what you are reading?’ The brahmana could understand, ‘This person is not joking with me; he is serious.’ So he explained, ‘My dear sir, I am reading Bhagavad-gita. Unfortunately, I am illiterate. I do not know even the alphabet.’ ‘Why you are reading Bhagavad-gita?’ So he said, ‘My spiritual master knows that I am illiterate, but still, he has asked me to read Bhagavad-gita. What can I do? Therefore I have taken this book. I am simply seeing. I do not know how to read.’ ‘Oh, that’s all right. You cannot read. But I see that you are crying. How you are crying, if you are not reading?’ ‘Yes, I am crying. Of course, there is cause.’ ‘What is that?’ ‘As soon as I take this Bhagavad-gita, I remember Krishna. Krishna is sitting as driver and Arjuna is hearing. I have heard the story. I know something of the instruction but cannot read. So as soon as I take this book, this picture comes before me and I simply think how Krishna is nice that He has become a charioteer of His devotee. He is so great. Still, He has accepted a menial service of His devotee. This gives me so much pleasure that I cry.’ Chaitanya Mahaprabhu embraced him, ‘Your Bhagavad-gita reading is perfect. You have taken the essence.’
“If you simply remember how Krishna is teaching Arjuna and Arjuna is hearing—if you simply remember the picture—that is sufficient. Even if you think that you cannot read. Because after all, we have to become Krishna conscious. We don’t have to become a learned man to argue with another learned man. If it is possible, we can do that. But it does not make any difference if I cannot argue with others or if I cannot teach very nicely Bhagavad-gita to others. Simply if I remember this picture, that is perfection. Because we have to become Krishna conscious. We have to simply think of Krishna. You think in any way. That is your perfection. Smartavyah satatam visnuh [Padma Purana]. This is the injunction. You have to think of Visnu always. This is samadhi; this is meditation; this is yoga siddhi, perfection of yoga.
“One who has learned to think of Krishna always, he is already on the perfectional stage. Aradhito yadi haris tapasa tatah kim [Narada Pancaratra]. If one has come to this stage, just to understand Krishna to be the great, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and he’s a surrendered soul: ‘Krishna, whatever You like You do. I am surrendered.’ This is aradhana. Then he isn’t required to undergo any austerities or penance. His everything is finished. And naradhito yadi haris tapasa tatah kim. And if he does not come to this stage, his so-called scholarship, learned argument, this or that—all nonsense, finished. Useless. One has to come to this stage. Therefore Lord Chaitanya embraced the brahmana: ‘Yes, your study of Bhagavad-gita is perfect.’ Because one has to come to this stage, thinking of Krishna always.

Silence ~

Spiritual knowledge is nothing but this: that there is a constant longing in the heart of man to have something of its origin, to experience something of its original state, the state of peace and joy which has been disturbed, and yet is sought after throughout its whole life, and never can cease to be sought after until the real source has at length been realized. What was it in the wilderness that gave peace and joy? What was it that came to us in the forest, the solitude? In either case it was nothing else but the depth of our own life, which is silent like the depths of the great sea, so silent and still. It is the surface of the sea that makes waves and roaring breakers; the depth is silent. So the depth of our own being is silent also.

And this all-pervading, unbroken, inseparable, unlimited, ever-present, omnipotent silence unites with our silence like the meeting of flames. Something goes out from the depths of our being to receive something from there, which comes to meet us; our eyes cannot see and our ears cannot hear and our mind cannot perceive because it is beyond mind, thought, and comprehension. It is the meeting of the soul and the Spirit.

~from Volume VII, In an Eastern Rose Garden, Silence~

Kahlil Gibran says

Silence is painful, but in silence things take form, and we must wait and watch, In us, in our secret depth, lies the knowing element which sees and hears that which we do not see nor hear. All our perceptions, all the things we have done, all that we are today, dwelt once in that knowing, silent depth, that treasure chamber in the soul. And we are more than we think. We are more than we know. That which is more than we think and know is always seeking and adding to itself while we are doing nothing - or think we are doing nothing. But to be conscious of what is going in our depth is to help it along. When subconsciousness becomes consciousness, the seeds in our winter-clad-selves turn to flowers, and the silent life in us sings with all its might.

~Kahlil Gibran, Beloved Prophet: the love letters, p268~