Now
The only room that was never locked. We keep looking for the key anyway.
Ram Dass made three words do the work of a lifetime, and they were Maharaji’s as much as his. Watts had already written that tomorrow is a phantom, and the faster you chase security the faster it runs. Baba’s silence is the same teaching without a microphone: there is no later in God. The Discourses say the path is a reversal of imagination, and imagination is always somewhere else. Easwaran gives the wandering trunk a bamboo to hold — a mantram, a passage gone through slowly while the morning is still cool. David Nichtern, in the Gospel’s octopus sheriff hour, offers silence, stillness, spaciousness — not as a cleared mind but as a made room. The Generator sacral knows this in the body: respond to what is here. The baby elephant does not plan the river. It finds it with its feet.
On this shelf
Titles that sit in this room. The books remain themselves.
The Untethered Soul / Living Untethered
Michael Singer
Awareness
Anthony de Mello
When Things Fall Apart
Pema Chödrön
The Most Important Thing, Vol. 1 & 2
Adyashanti
The Direct Way
Adyashanti
The Way of Liberation
Adyashanti
Guided Meditation: Evoking the Divine Ground of Your Being
Adyashanti
The Four Foundations of Mindfulness in Plain English
Bhante Gunaratana
Take Your Time
Eknath Easwaran
Strength in the Storm
Eknath Easwaran
The Book of Life
J. Krishnamurti
I Am That
Osho
Intuition
Osho
Meditations
Marcus Aurelius
Four Thousand Weeks
Oliver Burkeman
Good Morning, I Love You
Shauna Shapiro
In this weather
Meher Baba
The tunnel and the streak of light
The longing to go back to the source is present in each being from the very time that it is separated from the source by the veil of ignorance; but the being is unconscious of the longing till it, as an aspirant, enters the spiritual path. One can in a sense become accustomed to ignorance, just as a person in a train may get accustomed to the darkness of a tunnel when the train has been passing through it for some time. Even then there is a definite discomfort and a vague and undefinable sense of restlessness owing to the feeling that something is missing. When one’s experience of this world is sufficiently mature, the repeated disillusionments in life set one on the right track to discover what is missing. From that moment the individual seeks a reality that is deeper than changing forms. This moment might aptly be described as the first initiation of the aspirant. Just as the person in the tunnel longs for light all the more intensely after he sees a streak of light coming from the other end, the person who has had a glimpse of the goal longs to hasten toward it with all the speed he can command.
Discourses — The Stages of the Path
Meher Baba
Better to become God
Of all the subjects of human study, God is the most meaningful. But purely theoretical study of God does not take the aspirant very far toward the real purpose of human life, though it is always better to study God than to be completely ignorant of His existence. To seek God intellectually is infinitely better than to be merely a skeptic or an agnostic. And it is decidedly better to feel God than to study Him through the intellect, though even feeling for God is less important than the actual experience of God. However, even the experience of God does not yield the true nature of divinity because God, as the object of experience, remains different from and external to the aspirant. The true nature of God is known to the aspirant only when he attains unity with God, by losing himself in His Being. Thus, it is better to study God than to be ignorant of Him; it is better to feel God than to study Him; it is better to experience God than to feel God; and it is better to become God than to experience Him.
Discourses — The Man-God
Meher Baba
Meditation cuts its own path
Meditation may be described as a path that the individual cuts for himself while trying to get beyond the limitations of the mind. If a person caught in the tangles of a thick forest tries to get out into the open, his efforts to break through the encircling impediments will leave behind the marks of his journey. The movements of one who comes out of the forest are different in principle from those of a railway engine, which moves along rails already laid. The individual is not following a ready-made path; the path becomes imprinted after he has traversed it. In the same way, the person who finds himself drawn into deep meditation is really grappling with the spiritual problems he faces and not merely trying to follow a rigid course that already exists in his mental makeup.
Discourses — The Types of Meditation
Meher Baba
Intelligent meditation
Meditation has often been misunderstood as a mechanical process of forcing the mind upon some idea or object. Any purely mechanical handling of the mind is not only irksome but is bound ultimately to be unsuccessful. The mind can be controlled and directed in meditation only according to laws inherent in the makeup of the mind itself. Meditation is often easy and spontaneous when the mind is dwelling upon an object that it is interested in and that it increasingly understands. The spiritual tragedy about ordinary trains of thought is that they are not directed toward things that really matter. The object of real meditation has to be spiritually important; it has to be some divine form or object, or some spiritually significant theme or truth. Such intelligent meditation is a natural process of the mind; and since it avoids the monotonous rigidity of mechanical meditation, it becomes not only spontaneous and inspiring but easy and successful.
Discourses — The Types of Meditation
Meher Baba
A picnic on the higher planes
Meditation should not be approached with a heavy heart, as if one were taking castor oil. One has to be serious about meditation but not grave or melancholy. Humor and cheerfulness not only do not interfere with the progress of meditation but actually contribute to it. The aspirant should freely allow himself the natural joy that is attendant upon successful meditation, without getting addicted to it. Meditation should be something like a picnic on the higher planes. Like excursions into new and beautiful natural surroundings, meditation brings with it a sense of enthusiasm, adventure, peace, and exhilaration. All thoughts of depression, fear, or worry have to be cut out completely if there is to be really successful meditation.
Discourses — The Types of Meditation
Meher Baba
Let the disturbance die of neglect
When the mind sets itself to systematic meditation, there is inevitably a reactionary tendency for irrelevant and contrary thoughts to emerge. This is the law of the mind, and the aspirant should not be upset by the appearance of many contrary and unwholesome thoughts that had hitherto never made their appearance. Meditation involves bringing the subconscious contents of the mind to the forefront of consciousness. It is useless to waste energy by trying to combat and repress disturbing thoughts directly. Any such attempt involves giving further attention to them; and they feed upon the very attention given for the purpose of repressing them. It is best to ignore them and turn to the object of meditation as early as possible. By recognizing the irrelevance of disturbing thoughts and the relative importance of the object of meditation, it becomes possible to let the disturbing thoughts die through sheer neglect.
Discourses — The Types of Meditation
Meher Baba
Turn toward the sun
Dissociative meditation may be illustrated by the formula “I am not my desires.” Associative meditation may be illustrated by the formula “I am infinite.” Dissociative meditation is a preliminary to associative meditation. It comes first and has its own value, but it is meant merely to pave the way. If a person is surrounded by shadows, it does not help very much to be continuously upset about them. If his only interest is being cross with the shadows, there will be no end to his worries. But if, instead of fretting and fuming about the engulfing shadows, he sets himself to the more important task of bringing himself under the full blaze of the sun, he will discover that all the shadows have disappeared. What really matters is not aimless discontent with existing limitations but directive effort toward the established ideal.
Discourses — The Types of Meditation
Meher Baba
Don’t worry, be happy
Don’t worry, be happy. I will help you. There is nothing to be worried about, nothing to be disheartened about. Don’t worry. My love will give you that strength and conviction which makes you feel that you belong to God. Seek Truth with all your heart, and Baba will help you. God and love are identical, and one who has divine love already has God. Divine love is the solution to all our difficulties and problems.
Messages
Ram Dass
Be here now
Be here now. The title was given, not invented. Before leaving India, Ram Dass was told that Maharaji had given his ashirvad — his blessing — for the book. He asked what an ashirvad was, and what book. He had not planned to write it. Be Here Now is Maharaji’s book. The instruction is so simple it keeps being missed. Not later, when you are improved. Not in a better room. Here. The one you are already in. Now. The only time that has ever been available for love.
Be Here Now
Ram Dass
The soul is not in a hurry
The soul is not in a hurry. The personality is always late for its own life. The soul has all the births it needs. This is not an excuse to sleep. It is permission to stop panicking that you have not arrived. Beings who are empty of ego and full of wisdom — you listen, and you remember, and you tune to your own being through theirs. Then you get up and do the next kind thing.
Talks
Alan Watts
The wave and the ocean
You are a function of what the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is a function of what the whole ocean is doing. You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself. What you are basically, deep, deep down, far, far in, is simply the fabric and structure of existence itself. The real you is not a puppet which life pushes around. The real, deep-down you is the whole universe.
Lectures
Alan Watts
The phantom of security
It must be obvious, from the start, that there is a contradiction in wanting to be perfectly secure in a universe whose very nature is momentariness and fluidity. The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance. Tomorrow and plans for tomorrow can have no significance at all unless you are in full contact with the reality of the present. To pursue security is to pursue a constantly retreating phantom, and the faster you chase it, the faster it runs ahead.
The Wisdom of Insecurity
Alan Watts
The menu is not the meal
The menu is not the meal. We have confused the world of words and ideas with the world they point toward, and then we wonder why we are still hungry. You cannot get wet from the word water. This is why spiritual book-collecting becomes its own appetite. The grove is not a bibliography. Sit down. Taste.
Lectures
Alan Watts
Muddy water
Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone. The mind that tries to force itself clear only stirs the silt. This is cousin to Baba’s instruction: do not fight the disturbing thought; let it die of neglect. Cousin also to Nichtern’s spaciousness. You are not corked and you are not a project. Sit. The sediment knows how to fall.
Lectures
Alan Watts
Completely engaged
This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play. Not play as escape. Play as the universe doing what it does, through these hands, without the extra job of being a stranger in the scene.
Lectures
Grace Walk
Love in the midnight
There is always love available in the midnight. The gospel is not that we escape suffering, but that we can meet it with presence, surrender, and an open heart — and in doing so, transform it into medicine. The deepest teachings arise not in sterile temples but in the beautiful mess of existence. After every explosion, the only instruction that survives is: just be here now. You are not offering escape from the simulation. You are offering high-quality company inside it.
The Midnight Gospel Study Guide
Grandfather
Alone, not lonely
The chasm between being alone and loneliness is deep. The way you begin to be alone and at peace without being lonely is to know that you are with your best friend. When you are at peace with yourself and love yourself, you can never be lonely. Only when one learns to love himself can he love another. You must find that love for yourself before you can touch the purity of aloneness. Love of self, without being selfish, will not allow loneliness to exist. Love of self also creates a love for everything else and brings us closer to the sacred oneness.
Grandfather
Tom Brown Jr.
I am a coyote teacher
To give instruction would satisfy the needs of most people, but that is not my goal. My goal is to give the reader a picture of the world we live in, the forgotten world. This book explains that it is not easily come by and a search for the truths must occur before knowledge is attained. Grandfather’s life was full of every emotion, every feeling, and they did not come from listening to his elders. He had to seek them out for himself as I wish the reader to do. I am a coyote teacher. The fire still burns. Someday people will seek again the old ways.
Grandfather
Tom Brown Jr.
Thirst is an ally
Thirst is an ally, not an adversary. Once accepted, heat and thirst lose their power, for they become a constant part of existence here. Without them there could be no living entity called desert. He had nearly died in the desert, but only the alien had died, only to be reborn as a child of this land. Thirst thus becomes the doorway through which we can see into the heart of the deserts, and more important see into the heart of ourselves. He did feel them. He did not fear or fight them, for they were part of the realities of life.
Grandfather
Jon Young
Connection is the birthright
Connection is our natural state, our birthright. Civilization has made disconnection the only thing we know. When we connect with each other we also connect with nature; when we work on our connection with nature we are also working on our connection with each other. People have an innate and deeply rooted need to be seen, heard, understood and valued. They need to know that they are contributing and that they belong. When everyone participates, and everyone feels seen and heard, the group becomes stronger than the sum of its parts.
10 Stones Protocols for Sharing
Jon Young
Ten stones of agreement
Welcoming into the container. Wiping off road dust — what is keeping me from being fully present. Gratitude, to bring hearts into resonance. Unconditional listening, as you would listen in nature. A culture of allowance. Lifting up the gifts in others and ourselves. Supporting peace, love, joy, and purpose. Facilitation so even the quiet voices arrive. Mentoring, curiosity, and inner vision. Wrapping the bundle and closing, so nothing unfinished walks home with you. The stones work together. There is no one right way. Nature is a common context.
10 Stones Protocols for Sharing
Jon Young
Wiping off road dust
Anything that keeps us from being fully present to the spirit of the gathering is a distraction generated from holding on to the stresses of the day, the week, the life. It is good to slow down to the rhythm of the Earth. The purpose is to release the distractions so you can focus on everyone in the meeting. Many people aren’t used to truly being listened to. Keep this focused on just what is keeping one from being fully present. From this, we will feel heard. All that follows will move more powerfully.
10 Stones Protocols for Sharing
Jon Young
Wrapping the bundle
Just as the first stone opens the container, the tenth remembers to close it. Wrap the bundle: what were the takeaways? Any final reflections? What are you grateful for? Intentional closing lets people cleanly separate mind, heart, and intent from the group mind, so nothing unfinished walks home. We move forward with a fresh start, still holding the feeling of belonging. The baby elephant knows this in the body. The walk ends. The herd remains.
10 Stones Protocols for Sharing
Adyashanti
A destructive process
Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It’s seeing through the facade of pretense. It’s the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true. What remains is not a better version of the person who was seeking. The seeker was the last costume. Truth does not need you to hold it up. It has been holding you.
The End of Your World
Adyashanti
Stop manufacturing a state
True meditation has no direction, goals, or method. All methods aim at achieving a certain state of mind. True meditation is effortless, choiceless awareness. You are not trying to get anywhere. You are not trying to become anyone. You rest as what you already are, and let every movement of mind and body arise and pass without interference. The one who would improve the silence is the noise.
True Meditation
Michael Singer
The voice inside your head
There is nothing more important to true growth than realizing that you are not the voice of the mind — you are the one who hears it. If you watch it objectively, you will come to see that much of what it is saying turns out to be false. The inner roommate never stops talking. You do not have to believe a word. You do not have to argue. You can sit in the seat of awareness and let the roommate have its weather. You are the one who remains when the weather moves on.
The Untethered Soul
Michael Singer
Get out of the way
What would happen if I let go of my resistance to life? The experiment was simple, and it was not safe: say yes to what arrived, and watch what the universe would do with a life that stopped arguing. Surrender is not passivity. It is the end of using the mind as a wall. Each time the roommate said no, he practiced the opening. The life that grew was larger than the one he had been trying to manage.
The Surrender Experiment
Alfred Korzybski
The map is not the territory
A map is not the territory it represents, but, if correct, it has a similar structure to the territory, which accounts for its usefulness. If the map could be ideally correct, it would include, in a reduced scale, the map of the map; the map of the map, of the map; and so on, endlessly. People react to their abstractions — beliefs, labels, feeds, slogans — as if they were reality itself. This is identification. The harder, saner path is consciousness of abstracting: this is my map, not the land.
Science and Sanity
Alfred Korzybski
The cortical pause
Insert a moment of silence before reacting to the symbol. The nervous system abstracts only a tiny fraction of what arrives. Flood it with symbols detached from silent experience, and the thalamus answers as if the word were the event. Index. Date. Add etc. Politician-2025 in this instance, not Politician is. The organism-as-a-whole-in-environments can return to cortical evaluation. In the age of instant outrage, this pause is not manners. It is hygiene for a 45-mile nervous marvel.
Science and Sanity
Iain McGilchrist
Attention makes a world
The kind of attention we pay to the world changes the world we pay attention to. A culture that attends only with the left hemisphere will find a world of parts, resources, problems, and enemies — and will be certain it is seeing clearly. A culture that lets the master lead will find a world that is alive, unfinished, and worthy of care. This is not anti-reason. It is reason remembering it serves something it did not invent.
The Matter With Things
Nikola Tesla
The brain is a receiver
My brain is only a receiver. In the Universe there is a core from which we obtain knowledge, strength, and inspiration. I have not penetrated into the secrets of this core, but I know that it exists. If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration. Korzybski would remind us these sentences are maps. Tesla lived as if the territory were electric, and the nervous system a wire that could be tuned.
Attributed teachings
Eknath Easwaran
The mind and the elephant trunk
On festival days in India you will often see a huge elephant, caparisoned in gold and gorgeous cloth, carrying an image of the Lord on its back through the village streets. Stalls of fruits, vegetables, and sweets line the narrow, crooked streets, and the trunk of an elephant, as you may know, rarely stays still. It seizes a coconut, a bunch of bananas, whatever the stalls offer, because a trunk that is empty will take. To prevent this the mahout asks the elephant to grasp a firm bamboo shaft. Out of love the elephant does as he is told. He steps right along with his stick held upright in a steady trunk, not tempted to feast on mangoes or melons, because he has something to hold on to. The human mind is rather like the trunk of an elephant. It never rests. It goes here, there, ceaselessly moving through sensations, images, thoughts, hopes, regrets, impulses. What should we give it to hold on to? The systematic repetition of the mantram, which can steady the mind at any time and in any place.
Passage Meditation
Eknath Easwaran
Chip away what is not elephant
The sculptor studies the granite for a long time and does nothing. Then, slowly, an outline shows itself. An elephant is stirring in there. Only then does he start to work, clinging to that outline, chipping away every last bit of stone that is not elephant. What then remains will be, must be, elephant. We do not need to bring our real self into existence. It is already there. It has always been there, yearning to be out. Once we have become attentive to this true self, all we really need do is resolutely chip away whatever is not divine in ourselves. In meditation, the inspirational passage is the chisel, our concentration is the hammer, and our resolute will delivers the blows. Can you imagine a sculptor scurrying to pick up the slivers, hoarding them, ignoring the statue altogether?
God Makes the Rivers to Flow
Eknath Easwaran
We become what we meditate on
Meditation is not a religion. It is a technique which enables us to realize for ourselves the unity of life within any of the world’s great religious traditions, or even if we profess none at all. Memorize an inspirational passage — the Prayer of Saint Francis, the Twenty-third Psalm, the last nineteen verses of the second chapter of the Gita. With eyes gently closed, go through the words in the mind as slowly as you can. Do not follow any association of ideas. When distractions come, do not resist them; give more and more of your attention to the passage. The secret is that we become what we meditate on. Sustained concentration on the passage drives it deep into consciousness. Just as others write beautiful poetry, you can make your life such a work of art that everyone who sees it will be inspired.
Meditation: Artistry for Living
Eknath Easwaran
Putting others first
We all need joy, and we can all receive joy in only one way, by adding to the joy of others. Putting others first is not a slogan and not a loss. It is how the fist of I opens. The eight points walk together: a passage in the morning while the day is still cool; a mantram whenever the trunk starts to wander; slowing down; one-pointed attention to the matter at hand; training the senses; spiritual fellowship; spiritual reading; and this — freedom from the small self, joy in helping, the far shore used for someone still in the water. In living for others, I come to life.
Passage Meditation