Ashrams Quotes & Sayings

You have a manure pile of memories. Nothing you can do about that. Now, you can drown in the stink, or turn it into compost and grow a garden. — Rebecca O'Donnell

Professionally I felt like a horse running in the wrong race. — Susan Strasberg

But then the subject turned to the spiritual life and Meg talked about her many visits to ashrams in India and her admiration for Swami Muktananda and Gurumayi. That got in the way, especially because he told her of his skepticism regarding the guru industry, and suggested she might profitably read Gita Mehta's book Karma Cola. "Why are you so cynical?" she asked him, as if she genuinely wanted to know the answer, and he said that if you grew up in India it was easy to conclude that these people were fakes. "Yes, of course there are lots of charlatans," she said, reasonably, "but can't you discriminate?" He shook his head sadly. "No," he said. "No, I can't." That was the end of their chat. — Salman Rushdie

Enlightenment is not about being political. It is not a social club. Ashrams often turn into that, I know. Societies of enlightenment often just become cliques. — Frederick Lenz

Ashrams and gurukulas (spiritual schools) are the pillars of spiritual culture. If we perform sadhana according to the guru's advice, we need not go anywhere else. We will get whatever we need from the guru. — Mata Amritanandamayi

Why do I not forget? — Louise Gluck

The majesty of the Scriptures strikes me with admiration, as the purity of the gospel has its influence on my heart. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Seeing bored-looking fans staring at you while you DJ is about as horrible as it gets. — Boy George

The problem with monasteries, ashrams, convents is these institutions become extremely political. In other words, they're really small societies, and much of what you hope to avoid in societies you find there. — Frederick Lenz

I don't think that Hollywood will have much to do with changing politics. Hollywood usually reflects things. — George Clooney

Tomorrow you may bring about the destruction of your world. Tomorrow you may sing in Paradise above the smoking ruins of your world-cities. But tonight I would like to think of one man, a lone individual, a man without name or country, a man whom I respect because he has absolutely nothing in common with you - MYSELF. Tonight I shall meditate upon that which I am. — Henry Miller

I only wish we could stay for his grief - it should be Homeric. — William Goldman

So long as people do not consider all men as their brothers and do not consider human life as the most sacred thing, which rather than destroy they must consider it their first and foremost duty to support; that is so long as people do not behave towards one another in a religious manner, they will always ruin one another's lives for the sake of personal gain. — Leo Tolstoy

I asked for very little from life, and even this little was denied me. A nearby field, a ray of sunlight, a little bit of calm along with a bit of bread, not to feel oppressed by the knowledge that I exist, not to demand anything from others, and not to have others demand anything from me - this was denied me, like the spare change we might deny a beggar not because we're mean-hearted but because we don't feel like unbuttoning our coat. — Fernando Pessoa

No knife cuts as swiftly, deeply and precisely as the blade of the Beloved. — Tiziana Stupia

Some people would rather die in their pride, than live in their humility. — Anthony Liccione

Poetry as Initiation
Every poem embraces our passion to connect
its reader to snippets of knowledge
that have become life-giving to us.
Poems go beyond simple sharing to initiation,
beyond the need to express
to the urgency to edify. — Beryl Dov

I cannot actually see him, but there he is in my mind's eye, crouching or down on all fours, on a hillock, black clouds racing past over his head, and the hillock becomes a hill and the next minute it is the atrium of a church, an atrium as black as the clouds, charged with electricity like the clouds, and glistening with moisture or blood, and the wizened youth trembles more and more violently, wrinkles his nose and then pounces on the story. But only I know the story, the real story. And it is simple and cruel and true and it should make us laugh, it should make us die laughing. But we only know how to cry, the only thing we do wholeheartedly is cry. The curfew was in force. — Roberto Bolano

People seem to get caught up in jargon like they get caught up in ashrams and power structures and they never become free. They become masters of jargon and power structures. — Frederick Lenz

Even though ashrams ... probably still exist in India, you don't find a child widow anymore. — Deepa Mehta

Ashrams often become places where there is a hierarchy and a pecking order and not much enlightenment. That is what some people are drawn to. But that has nothing to do with enlightenment. — Frederick Lenz

If the guilt of sin is so great that nothing can satisfy it but the blood of Jesus; and the filth of sin is so great that nothing can fetch out the stain thereof but the blood of Jesus, how great, how heinous, how sinful must the evil of sin be. — William Throsby Bridges

Ashrams" are Theaters, "Gurus" are the Actors and his "followers" are Ticket Sellers". — Sunil Sinha

To trust any man is the road to slavery. — Evangeline Walton

In our Ashrams of East and West, places of spiritual retreat, we begin with what we call "The Morning of the Open Heart," in which we tell our needs ... We give four or five hours to this catharsis. The reaction of one member, who listened to it for the first time, was: "Good gracious, have we all the disrupted people in the country here?" My reply was: "No, you have a cross section of the church life honestly revealed." In the ordinary church, it is suppressed by respectability, by a desire to a appear better than we really are. — E. Stanley Jones