Men believe themselves to be free, simply because they are conscious of their actions, and unconscious of the causes whereby those actions are determined.
At every moment, step by step, one must confront what one is thinking and saying with what one is doing, what one is.
I have done so many things in my life," she said to the mirror. "Evil things, perhaps. But never unattentively, never wastefully...was I wrong?
I'm a Pisces, and Pisces have this weird inability to be completely spontaneous. We're too conscious of our actions. I've always been way too sensible for my own good.
Now, there are a very large number of bodily movements, having their source in our nervous system, that do not possess the character of conscious actions.
If you do something positive, something positive will come back to you. If you consciously do negative things, then negativity will rule your life.
There's been a thoughtfulness to everything I do. Even the stupidest things I do have some kind of point.
And I come to realise that all my small todays, the way I act, will lead into my tomorrows.
I've found that I can only change how I act if I stay aware of my beliefs and assumptions. Thoughts always reveal themselves in behavior.
A man is at his youngest when he thinks he is a man, not yet realizing that his actions must show it.
A will to be unkind is like a sickness. It can be healed or driven out. But to be unkind because you are thoughtless is the worst kind of blindness: difficult to cure, because you cannot see the fault even as you commit it.
The emphasis on practice is because it is the only time in your life you can steer your karmic situation.
to design means forcing ourselves to unlearn what we believe we already know, patiently to take apart the mechanisms behind our reflexes and to acknowledge the mystery and stupefying complexity of everyday gestures like switching off a light of turning on a tap
Any act can be a prayer, if done as well as we are able.
Doing is a function of the body. Being is a function of the soul. The body is always doing something. Every minute of every day it's up to something. It never stops, it never rests, it's constantly doing something.
