Before the soul can hear,
the image (Man)
has to become as deaf
to roarings as to whispers,
to cries of bellowing elephants
as to the silvery buzzing
of the golden fire-fly.

Before the soul can comprehend
and may remember,
she must unto the silent speaker
be united,
just as the form
to which the clay is modeled
is first united
with the potter’s mind.

For then the soul will hear,
and will remember.
And the inner ear will speak
the voice of silence.

The author of this poem is unknown to me, if known please let me know so that I may give proper credit.

What do you believe or know about yourself?

Is it consistent with your self-talk?

You can always know what your beliefs are by your actions.

Examine what you do.

That is who you are, on the inside.

That is what you believe.

“If you yourself are at peace, then there is at least some peace in the world.”
Thomas Merton

“If you scramble about in search of inner peace, you will lose your inner peace.”
Lao Tzu

By the proper practice of pratyhara, your senses come fully under your control. They become obedient horses, taking you wherever you want. You become a complete master over them.

We shouldn’t think we lose anything by avoiding sensual pleasures.
If our senses try to pull us somewhere we should feel, “No; I’m not going to satisfy you.”
Although we might feel a little tension at first, it is just momentary.
After that we’ll really feel proud: “Ah, I have gained some mastery.”
If we satisfy the senses, we might feel momentary pleasure followed by a greater dejection afterward.

The happiness we can receive by mastery lasts longer than temporary joys. We should all become masters. That is true freedom and real victory. If you are free from your own mind and senses, nothing can bind you; then you are really free. Even imperial power, even dictatorship, can never bind you. You are not afraid on anything.

This isn’t the birthright of just a few people. It is everyone’s. But we should build up our mastery, never allowing the mind to fall back. If we have that control, we can do whatever we want, find peace and joy within and share the same with all humanity.

Living in this marvelous reality ~ living in peace, is something we all want.
But I would like to ask: Do we have the capacity of enjoying peace?
If peace is there, will we be able to enjoy it, or will we find it boring?
To me, peace and happiness and joy and life go together,
and we can experience the peace of the divine reality right in the present moment.
It is available, inside us and around us.

If we are not able to enjoy that peace,
how can we make peace grow?

Thich Nhat Hanh

Doing good to others is the one great, universal religion.
-Vivekananda

Meditation has been laid stress upon by all religions. The meditative state of mind is declared by the yogis to be the highest state in which the mind exists. When the mind is studying the external object, it gets identified with it, loses itself. To use the simile of the old Indian philosopher: the soul of man is like a piece of crystal, but it takes the color of whatever is near it. Whatever the soul touches…it has to take its color. That is the difficulty. That constitutes the bondage. The color is so strong, the crystal forgets itself and identifies itself with the color. Suppose a red flower is near the crystal: the crystal takes the color and forgets itself, thinks it is red. We have taken the color of the body and have forgotten what we are. All the difficulties that follow come from that one dead body. All our fears, all worries, anxieties, troubles, mistakes, weakness, evil, are from that one blunder-that we are bodies. This is the ordinary person. It is the person taking the color of the flower near to it. We are no more bodies than the crystal is the red flower. – Vivekananda