Zalman Schachter-Shalomi Quotes & Sayings

God is always present. The question is, how present are we? — Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

Don't regard yourselves as the final recipients of [...] music [...]. Instead, offer your ears and heart to heaven. Let your experience of [...] music go up to God. — Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

When God saw that people, instead of turning to God, were turning to the medicine cabinet, God made himself available in the medicine cabinet. — Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

The mind is like tofu. By itself, it has no taste. Everything depends on the flavor of the marinade it steeps in. — Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

Dialogue does not happen when we are adversaries. — Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

Find your major flaw. There lies your glory. — Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

Theodicy, the philosophers call it: the problem of God's justice. The — Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

The awareness that we stand in the presence of the Living God is one of the most important realizations we can install in our operative consciousness. God is always present. The question is, how present are we? We want to stand in that Presence without opacity. Our work is to penetrate, in meditation and in action, to the very heart of being nokhach penei ha-Shem (Lamentations 2:19), of being truly present before God. — Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

elders serve as conduits between the divine realm and the mundane world, making the abstract truths of spirituality accessible to the community by embodying them in their everyday behavior. — Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

Ultimately, our questions must emerge not from mental categories, but from deep within the heart. They must rise to the surface of our beings as we sit in silence, so that they are not just the old questions which we raise whenever we have nothing else to talk about or just for the sake of argument. They need to be the questions which make a difference in our lives. — Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

No one who hasn't taken a vigil for the night and had it out with God can get to the place where their love and faith become real. We — Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

Do not exalt any path above god. There are many paths that lead to god. So people are capable of finding and following the ways that suit them, provided they do not stand still. — Zalman Schachter-Shalomi