Quote

The Sufis advise us to speak only after our words have managed to pass through three gates. At the first gate, we ask ourselves, 'Are these words true?' If so, we let them pass on if not, back they go. At the second gate, we ask, 'Are the necessary?' At the last gate, we ask, 'Are they kind?'

Eknath Easwaran

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Eknath Easwaran
Age: 88 †
Born: 1910
Born: December 17
Died: 1999
Died: October 26
Author
Philosopher
Translator
Keralam
Kind
Spiritual
Managed
Words
Gates
Speak
Pass
Three
Necessary
True
Second
Sufis
Back
Asks
Sufi
Firsts
Lasts
Gate
First
Last
Advise

More quotes by Eknath Easwaran

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It may sound paradoxical, but however tight our schedule, however many things clamor to be done, we don't need to hurry. If we can keep our mind calm and go about our business with undivided attention, we will not only accomplish more but we'll do a better job - and find ourselves more patient, more at peace.
Eknath Easwaran
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Today, everything I do from morning meditation on - eating breakfast, going for a walk, writing, reading, even recreation - is governed by one purpose only: how to give the very best account of my life that I can in the service of all.
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As meditation deepens, compulsions, cravings and fits of emotion begin to lose their power to dictate our behavior. We see clearly that choices are possible we can say yes or we can say no. It is profoundly liberating.
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Every human heart has a deep need to love - to be in love, really, with all of life. This is the kind of love that comes when the mind is still. . . . Be still and know that we are all God’s children then you will be in love with all.
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Nothing really worth having comes quickly and easily. If it did, I doubt that we would ever grow.
Eknath Easwaran
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To be secure everywhere is the mark of sophistication, to be unshakable is the mark of courage, to be permanently in love with every person is the mark of masculinity or femininity, to forgive is the mark of strength, to govern our senses and passions is the mark of freedom.
Eknath Easwaran
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Lasting change happens when people see for themselves that a different way of life is more fulfilling than their present one.
Eknath Easwaran
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Don't think the purpose of meditation is to go deep into consciousness, wrap a blanket around yourself, and say, 'How cozy! I'm going to curl up in here by myself let the world burn.' Not at all. We go deep into meditation so that we can reach out further and further to the world outside.
Eknath Easwaran
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The eye cannot see it the mind cannot grasp it. The deathless Self (the Supreme Soul or God) has neither caste nor race, Neither eyes, nor ears, nor hands, nor feet, Sages, this Self is infinite, present in the great and in the small, Everlasting and changeless, the source of life.
Eknath Easwaran
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Instead of looking at difficulties as deprivations, we can learn to recognize them as opportunities for deepening and widening our love.
Eknath Easwaran
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Excitement and depression, fortune and misfortune, pleasure and pain are storms in a tiny private, shell-bound realm - which we take to be the whole of existence. Yet we can break out of this shell and enter a new world.
Eknath Easwaran
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Every angry thought makes it a little easier to get angry the next time, and a little more likely.
Eknath Easwaran
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Mastery does not come from dabbling. We have to be prepared to pay the price. We need to have the sustained enthusiasm that motivates us to give our best.
Eknath Easwaran
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When someone at peace and free from hurry enters a room, that person has a calming effect on everyone present.
Eknath Easwaran
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We can all learn to conquer hatred through love -drawing on the power released through the practice of meditation to throw all our weight, all our energy, and all our will on the side of what is patient, forgiving, and selfless in ourselves and others.
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When we go slower, we are more patient and when we are more patient we have a choice in how we respond.
Eknath Easwaran
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The things we think about, brood on, dwell on, and exult over influence our life in a thousand ways. When we can actually choose the direction of our thoughts instead of just letting them run along the grooves of conditioned thinking, we become the masters of our own lives.
Eknath Easwaran
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When we meditate every morning we are putting on armor for the day's battle against our own impatience, inadequacy, resentment, and hostility.
Eknath Easwaran
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As the web issues out of the spider, As plants sprout from the earth, As hair grows from the body, even so, The sages say, this universe springs from, The deathless Self (the Supreme Soul), the source of life.
Eknath Easwaran
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Our deepest need is for the joy that comes with knowing we are of genuine use to others.
Eknath Easwaran