"handbook for chronic yogies" quotes

"Handbook for chronic yogies"

or

"chronic yogi FAQ"

Or

"chronic yogi quotes"

???


Hello everybody!

I recently had an idea ... (if this is an old one please kindly post the link )

I read many times comments like: "this is my favorite post. it changed my life!"

And...

"This is only one way/ perspective, it does not mean it will also work for you!"

And i remembered:

Many times i read something here it empowered me to go on, showed me that "i am not alone with this" "its normal", gave me new perspectives on how to deal with certain issues in my practice, motivated me to try sth new, etc..

As well i thought...

I think everybody does experience sth like this. He reads something a comment a report and it makes "click", it frees energie! He feels he can go forward.

I myself compiled a "favorite quotes" list.

So i thought if i did it maybe others did sth like this as well!?
Further how would it be to gather all these "energie balanceing/freeing" quotes together!!!
Would be sth unique (as far as i know) to collect many perspectives to solve certain issues not only one like in most books. ONE author ONE way! MANY authors MANY ways. A team-project!! Many eyes see more, many helping hands can move more, ...

Here is this forum are so many real life solutions/ experiences etc. many "jewels" can be found here. So why not gather these "jewels" together and create like a living "manual for chronic yogis"!

I mean everybody knows the situation that he feels somehow "being stucked" in practice or life. How useful would there be a list or faq of real life experience real quotes out of the life of real practitioners, how to deal with these certain issues/problems/dysbalances of energies!!
Do you get an idea what i mean?? I mean this idea is still in the beginning state ... Much room for much more.

at first i would like to welcome everyone to share his favorite quotes with others. Later someone who could bring it into a logic easy owerviewing effectiv form.

Here it goes quote your favorites and feel free to share ideas and comments!

(i thought i read some really good dhamma books but this here tops all!)

"I ... sat. No goal in mind other than to see what was really going on in my reality right now. I wasn't conscious of any jhana, by that point I'd dropped all of my ideas about life, dharma, meditation. Anything other than the desire to find out what was going on in the moment was left behind."owenbecker

What to say?

"Simplify life. Get enlightened!"

Adyashanti: Where this really started for me was a very, very sort of eye-opening and in some ways sobering, chilling moment, after a Sesshin that I sat, on the retreat. I was sitting there, and at the end of it, people were having breakfast after it was over, and talking, and I heard a group of old-time students who'd been at this, like, 20, 30'”a couple of them'”40 years. They were talking, and they were all talking about how when they were young, they remembered getting involved in Buddhism, and they wanted enlightenment and to awaken, and now that they'd been doing it for 30 or 40 years they'd kind of just let go of that. They hadn't really found out what that was, but they'd found'”they kind of found peace with not finding out what this enlightenment thing was about. So they had a peace about that. And they actually did have a peace about that. You know, like, well maybe it's not going to happen but it's okay. And I could see, for them, it was okay. And that it was okay. But for me, at 23 years old, and I suddenly look over and I go, 'That could be me in 40 years.' I could be sitting there saying, 'Well, the enlightenment thing didn't really work out, but, you know, I'm really at peace with that.' And something about me, at 23 years old'“I literally had to bite my bottom lip. I literally dug my teeth into my bottom lip, otherwise I just would have screamed out this huge, 'No!' Like, it cannot end that way, that's what I thought. That can't happen. That's not acceptable. It was fine for them, so it wasn't a judgment for them. But for me, it scared the hell out of me. And that's the day when I thought, 'Okay, that's it.' I realized I was on my own. Because I realized you can't just follow the tradition, because it might not work out. Just doing what you're told because someone says that's the way to do it, and that's the way they've always done it'“I thought, 'Okay, I don't have that luxury. I've got to prove everything true or false for myself, and it's up to me.'

And I didn't leave my teachers, and I didn't leave my tradition, and I didn't stop meditating'“I didn't stop doing any of that, but the internal relationship shifted. And what I was really confronted with, is I thought, 'Not only do I not know what enlightenment is, I don't even know if there's such a thing. Maybe we're all just deluding ourselves. Maybe this is just a pipe dream.' But you see, up till that point, I couldn't even ask myself that question. I couldn't even admit that maybe it was just a pipe dream. It was too frightening. But as soon as I could admit that, it sort of frightened me into a clarity. I thought, 'Well I have to find out then, don't I?' And I don't know if you can sense it, but there was a real aloneness in it. There was a very stark energy to it. That, ok I've got to do this, I've got to find this out for myself.

And I look back many, many years later, and I look at that moment as probably one of the most significant moments in my whole spiritual seeking days. Because it was the day that I stopped accepting anything simply because somebody said it, including the Buddha. And I looked back and I go that was the most important thing I ever did. I didn't throw out what anybody said. But I realized that until I proved it to be true in myself, I don't actually know if it's true or not.

"The Buddha's enlightenment solved his problem. It didn't do anything for you."
-Bill Hamilton

""The Buddha's enlightenment solved his problem. It didn't do anything for you."
-Bill Hamilton"

Ooh, that's a good one!

Emboldened by Jackson's comment, I'll reach again into the "politically incorrect" archive:

"The Buddha wasn't the only or even necessarily the best."
-Bill Hamilton

"Emboldened by Jackson's comment, I'll reach again into the "politically incorrect" archive:

"The Buddha wasn't the only or even necessarily the best."
-Bill Hamilton"

Do you have these stockpiled somewhere?

"Do you have these stockpiled somewhere? "-OwenBecker

No, they just pop into my head from time to time. I can often remember the situation in which Bill dropped one of these gems, including the expression on his face and the tone of his voice. It's bittersweet for me. I miss him so much.

Kenneth,

Do you have any photos of Bill? I really would like to know more about him other than what I've read from you/Daniel and his book Saints and Psychopaths.

The Wikipedia page beckons....

I was thinking that, for most practical purposes, Bill is sort of our lineage founder. At least for those who care about such things. I've probably spent to much time in Zen circles.

I agree Owen, and that's why I really wish there were a wikipedia page, etc. He sounds like a really cool person.

Another of my favorites, uttered while I was waxing eloquent about my theoretical knowledge of Bhuddhism:

"I hear ya talkin'..." -Bill Hamilton