“Contentment is not happiness. Contentment is stagnation and decay, whereas happiness is life and growth.”

Discipline does not mean suppression and control, nor is it adjustment to a pattern or ideology. It means a mind that sees ‘what is’ and learns from ‘what was’.

No book can teach you about yourself, no psychologist, none of the professors or philosophers. What they can teach you is what they think you are or what they think you should be.

All ideologies are idiotic, whether religious or political, for it is conceptual thinking, the conceptual word, which has so unfortunately divided man.

One is never afraid of the unknown; one is afraid of the known coming to an end.

To ask the ‘right’ question is far more important than to receive the answer. The solution of a problem lies in the understanding of the problem; the answer is not outside the problem, it is in the problem.

To meditate is to observe yourself, for you are totally responsible for your body, mind, thought.

Throughout life, from childhood, from school until we die, we are taught to compare ourselves with another; yet when I compare myself with another I am destroying myself.

What you believe you experience.

The fundamental factor of self-deception is this constant desire to be something in this world and in the world hereafter.

The moment I am aware that I am aware, I am not aware. Awareness means the observer is not.

From innumerable complexities we must grow to simplicity; we must become simple in our inward life and in our outward needs.

The more you know yourself, the more clarity there is. Self-knowledge has no end – you don’t come to an achievement, you don’t come to a conclusion. It is an endless river.

Change in society is of secondary importance; that will come about naturally, inevitably, when you as a human being bring about the change in yourself.

Enlightenment is an accident, but some activities make you accident-prone.

The constant assertion of belief is an indication of fear.

Merely to stuff the child with a lot of information, making him pass examinations, is the most unintelligent form of education.