The Simple Path. The fruit of silence is prayer. The fruit of prayer is faith. The fruit of faith is love. The fruit of love is service. The fruit of service is peace. Mother Theresa of Calcutta.
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple. Psalm 19
Keep patience and be contented even in poverty. There may be many who are worse off and in a more degraded condition. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 1020.
You received without charge, give without charge. Provide yourselves with no gold or silver, not even with a few copper for your purses, with no haversack for the journey or spare tunic or footwear or a staff, for the workman deserves his keep. Matthew 10:9-10
Blessed are the simple; they shall have peace to their hearts' content. Thomas A Kempis, Imitation of Christ, I.11.1
Cleverness will be of no avail before the Lord. He loves only straightforwardness and simplicity. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 1359.
He is satisfied, who is contented and not the one who possesses vast wealth. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 1698.
To follow and demonstrate the path of Truth, Simplicity and Love is man's supreme duty and the highest Yoga. Diligent work is a quality of this path, for laziness is death on earth. Only by work can one claim victory over karma. All must strive to their duty in the best way possible and not wander from that duty. Service to humanity is the first duty. (...) Teachings of Babaji, P.36.
Materialism is rising like a storm and we have to face it. Teachings of Babaji, P.93.
Truth, Simplicity and Love are like a Triveni (the joining place of three rivers). The way to success is to join Karma Yoga to this Triveni. (...) If, with full faith and devotion to God and with a firm determination, people will follow the Path of Truth, Simplicity and Love with karma yoga, they will reach their goal. When the whole world is burning with the fire of sins and sorrows and the flames are about to swallow the world, this is the only way by which humanity can be saved. Only he who has firm determination will survive this destruction. That is why great rishis have proclaimed: "Awake! Arise! Go to the wise and learn from them!" Teachings of Babaji, P.99.
(...) we ought to act with God in the greatest simplicity, speaking frankly and plainly, and imploring His assistance in our affairs, just as they happen. Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God, P.18.
(...) Jesus said to me: (...) My daughter, speak to Me about everything in a completely simple and human way; by this you will give Me great joy. I understand you, because I am God-Man. This simple language of your heart is more pleasing to Me than the hymns composed in My honor. Know, My daughter, that the simpler your speech is, the more you attract Me to yourself. (...) Faustina Kowalska, The Diary, 797.
Your daily life is your temple and your religion. Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, P.78.
Perhaps by now you are wondering how to determine the proper mean in eating, drinking, sleeping and the rest. I will answer you briefly: be content with what comes along. If you give yourself generously to the work of love (i.e. contemplation), I feel sure you will know when to begin and end every other activity. The Cloud of Unknowing, P.101.
(...) avoid all unnatural compulsion and learn to love joyfully with a sweet and gentle disposition of body and soul. Wait with gracious and modest courtesy for the Lord's initiative and do not impatiently snatch at grace like a greedy greyhound suffering from starvation. (...) For like a father frolicking with his son, he will hug and kiss one who comes to Him with a child's heart. The Cloud of Unknowing, P.107.
The way to contemplation is an obscurity so obscure that it is no longer even dramatic. There is nothing in it that can be grasped and cherished as heroic or even unusual. And so, for a contemplative, there is supreme value in the ordinary everyday routine of work, poverty, hardship and monotony that characterize the lives of all the poor, uninteresting and forgotten people in the world. Christ, Who came on earth to form contemplatives and teach men the ways of sanctity and prayer, could easily have surrounded himself with ascetics who starved themselves to death and terrified the people with strange trances. But His Apostles were workmen, fishermen, publicans who made themselves conspicuous only by their disregard for most of the intricate network of devotions and ceremonial practices and moral gymnastics of the professionally holy. Merton, Thomas. New Seeds of Contemplation. P. 250. Submitted to L-Center Discussion Group by Gary Horn ghorn@uswest.com
The way of holiness is a way of confidence and love. The true Christian lives "in the Spirit" and drinks at every moment from the hidden fountains of divine grace, without being obsessed with any special need for complicated and marginal practices. He is concerned above all with essentials - with frequent moments of simple prayer and faith; attention to the presence of God; loving submission to the divine will in all things, especially in his duties of state; and above all the love of his neighbor and brother in Christ. Merton, Thomas. Life and Holiness. P. 110. Submitted to L-Center Discusion Group by Gary Horn, mailto:ghorn@uswest.com
(…) For years I have been calling you to encourage you to a profound spiritual life in simplicity, but you are so cold! (…) Therefore, little children, read everyday the messages I gave you and transform them into life. I love you and this is why I call you to the way of salvation with God. (…) Our Lady of Medjugorie, December 25, 1989. Words from Heaven, P.256.
(...) these Fathers distilled for themselves a very practical and unassuming wisdom that is at once primitive and timeless, and which enables us to reopen the sources that have been polluted or blocked up altogether by the accumulated mental and spiritual refuse of our technological barbarism. Our time is in desperate need of this kind of simplicity. (...) they flow from an experience of the deeper levels of life. That they represent a discovery of man, at the term of an inner and spiritual journey that is far more crucial and infinitely more important than any journey to the moon. Merton, Thomas. The Wisdom of the Desert. P.11. Submitted to L-Center Discussion Group by Gary Horn <horngary@aol.com>
When hungry, I eat; when tired, I sleep. Fools laugh at me. The wise understand. Ascribed to Zen Master Rinzai, quoted after: Novak Philip, The World Wisdom, P.103.
Those who seek only coarse food to eat, water to drink and bent arm for pillow, will without looking for it find happiness to boot. (..). Confucius, quoted after Novak Philip, The World's Wisdom, P.117.
The Tao never does anything, yet through it all things are done. If powerful men and women could center themselves in it, the whole world would be transformed by itself, in its natural rhythms. People would be content with their simple, everyday lives, in harmony, and free from desire. Tao Te Ching 37, quoted after: Novak Philip, The World's Wisdom. P.157.
I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being. Patient with both friends and enemies, you accord with the way things are. Compassionate toward yourself, you reconcile all beings in the world. Tao Te Ching 67, quoted after: Novak Philip, The World's Wisdom. P.164.
Don't seek little things; they will divert you from God. Start your experiment now: make your life simple and be a king. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.54.
You think you must have this or that and then you can be happy. But no matter how many of your desires are satisfied, you will never find happiness through them. The more you have, the more you want. Learn to live simply. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.136.
If you play your part well, you are just as good as the soul who plays the part of a king or queen. And so long as you play your part well, you will be attractive, and loved by all. Your part well played is your passport to God. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.
We must train ourselves to plain living and high thinking. It would be good if each family had a small garden in which to grow some of their food. Live more simply, so that you can find time to enjoy the little pleasures of life. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.191.
(...) God often accomplishes what we want through ordinary things, the ordinary means, and we can miss out because we are looking for something special or out of ordinary. Pennington, Basil. (1978). O Holy Mountain! Journal of a Retreat on Mount Athos. P.86.
Last modified: 2008/03/08