Ed Hacker

“’I need you because I love you,’ is very much different from 'I love you because I need you.’ You do not earn my love by filling my emptiness, my need. My love is always my freely given gift to you.” John Powell, S.J. (1925-2009) “Happiness Is an Inside Job,” (1989), Wikipedia.

“There is some critical point where it gets so bad the absurdity of it all overwhelms you and you can do nothing but laugh. At that moment you up level your predicament, you see the cosmic joke in your own suffering.” Ram Dass [Richard Alpert ] (b. 1931), “Journey of Awakening.”

“The little things? The little moments? They aren't little.” Jon Kabat-Zinn (b. 1944), Professor of Medicine Emeritus. Student of Buddhist teachers such as Thich Nhat Hanh and Zen Master Seung Sahn. Author of “Wherever You Go, There You Are."

“Realize that your world is only a reflection of yourself and stop finding fault with the reflection.” Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981) Hindu philosophy, taught Advaita Vedanta (non dualism).

“There r many things worth living for, a few things worth dying for, & nothing worth killing for” ― Tom Robbins, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

"We ourselves possess Beauty when we are true to our own being; ugliness is in going over to another order.” Plotinus

"In every cry of every Man, In every Infants cry of fear, In every voice: in every ban, The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.” William Blake

“Real love never judges. It does not condemn, criticize, or is punitive. It unites, welcomes, protects, and nurtures.” Red Hawk

“If you understand, things are just as they are… If you don’t understand, things are just as they are.” Anon.

“Do not meditate — Be! Do not think that you are — Be! Do not think about being — You Are!” Ramana Maharshi

“Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality.” Shunryu Suzuki, (1904-1971), Zen monk

“Two approaches: One is trying to live up to what we would ‘like' to be. The other is trying to live what we are.” Chogyam Trungpa

“When you look at a flower [or anything], at the same time be aware that you are looking at it.” [This is self-remembering] R. E. Burton

“Gurdjieff said ‘Life is real only then, when I AM’” R.E. Burton [Note: Nisargadatta stressed awareness of “I AM’]

“What do you have to do? Pack you bags, Go to the station without them. Catch the train, And leave your self-behind." Wei Wu Wei