The core of all navigation is probably uncertainty: tolerating not knowing makes it possible to find your way. Not knowing means embracing what is not known rather than fighting with yourself over it. Since the mind always strives to know, not knowing is disorienting in a useful way. Uncertainty and not knowing teach you not to believe the stories your mind feeds you day in and day out. If you allow your own course to be mysterious, then even the hard things can become easy. This is the beginning of awakening.
John Tarrant from “Surprises on the Way” (PDF), Shambhala Sun, 2008 (via sharanam)
That which is not present in deep dreamless sleep is not real.
Ramana Maharshi (via onetaste & sharanam)
The sage dreams, but he knows it to be a dream, in the same way as he knows the waking state to be a dream. Established in the state of supreme reality, he detachedly witnesses the three other states—waking, dreaming, and dreamless sleep—as pictures superimposed onto it. For the sage, all three states are equally unreal. Most people are unable to comprehend this, because for them the standard of reality is the waking state, whereas for the sage the standard is reality itself.
Ramana Maharshi (via sharanam)
This is an extract from the Mutus Liber of 1718 depicting Angels attempting to awaken sleeping humanity. This image and I have a long history. I found it years ago and it made such an impression on me that I framed it and hung it up on my wall. I took it down a few years later, probably when I moved or something. Anyway, tonight, while going through some old writing, I came across it again.

This is an extract from the Mutus Liber of 1718 depicting Angels attempting to awaken sleeping humanity.

This image and I have a long history. I found it years ago and it made such an impression on me that I framed it and hung it up on my wall. I took it down a few years later, probably when I moved or something. Anyway, tonight, while going through some old writing, I came across it again.