Krishna Das Quotes

One of your biggest lessons so far in life has been to learn to forgive myself over and over again and not to be so harsh with myself.

The presence of real love in the world inspires me.

Love is what we are; we don't get it from somebody, we can't give it to anybody, we can't fall in it or fall out of it. Love is our true Being.

You can never really know what a guru is as long as you are imprisoned by your own thoughts and circular ego.

If we know anything about a path at all, it's only because of the Great ones that have gone before us. Out of their love and kindness, they have left some footprints for us to follow. So, in the same way that they wish for us, we wish that all beings everywhere, including ourselves, be safe, be happy, have good health, and enough to eat. And may we all live at ease of heart with whatever comes to us in life.

Chanting is a way of getting in touch with yourself. It's an opening of the heart and letting go of the mind and thoughts. It deepens the channel of grace, and it's a way of being present in the moment.

Hanuman not only gives liberation, he also fulfills our beneficial desires.

We are not separate. So if one being hurts, I also hurt.

There is love in this world, and it lives within us as who we really are, not who we think we are.

As we do practice something unexpected starts to happen-we get happy!

Grace surrounds us and holds us like the sky holds everything in it ... and as soon as I find a way to let go of my story, I keep seeing over and over again that grace is always here and it includes the forgetting and the remembering. The practice is the opening of the hand to catch the raindrops, which are always falling. If you don't open your hand, you get wet, but you don't get much to drink.

I knew that if I did not start chanting with people, that I would never be able to clean out the dark corners of my own heart. I knew it with every cell in my body and mind.

Don't wait for a Guru. Your life is your Guru.

I just try to keep my heart open. By this, I mean to try not to let my own programmed reaction to things keep me closed down for too long.

The Presence is our own presence. We are not getting anything from the outside. We already have all we need inside.

Until you are fully enlightened, you can never know what another person's reality is like for them.

If I had been born in Germany with family of Nazis and if I had been raised with those beliefs, there was very little chance that I wouldn't be exactly like all those guards and all those people who tortured everybody.

We have to learn to love people even if they are not giving you what you want ... and then not take it personally. If you feel hurt, you have to recognize that they are not hurting you because you are you, but because they are them. You have to try not to be so hard on yourself.

Even if somebody tells us something, the hit, the light goes on inside of us, not out there. We learn and understand everything within ourselves.

I chant to save my heart. Every time I sit down, that's what I'm doing.

You cannot think your way out of a box made of thought.

On the Path, it's impossible to know how you are doing because it's the judger who is disappearing.

When our desires are fulfilled, and we still feel unhappy - this is the moment we begin the process of letting go.

All we can know is our own subjective version of reality. That's the way we go through our lives. Everybody.

You can't think yourself out of a box that's made of your thoughts.

Compassion is a college education. It's a doctorate.

The practice of the Name turns us in the direction of the light. The practice of the Name removes the dust from our eyes so that we can see the world as it really is: lit up by the light of the guru.

We all inhabit our lives, in different ways to some degree. We see ourselves a certain way, and based on how we see ourselves, that's how we see the world.

To love somebody is to let them be who they are and do what they have to do.

Let's just chant and be good people, alright?

We are so programmed to feel that our emotions are the most important thing in the Universe ... We write, produce and act in the story of me. And then we write reviews - and read them and get more depressed. All we can do is let go, and that comes from training. And then we spend less and less time in the darker spaces.

I'm reconnecting, I'm deepening, I'm opening, I'm releasing negativity and negative thoughts and all the limitations I carry around with me - again and again and again and again and again and again. And again! And that's the only thing that keeps me alive.

Just the slightest turn toward the inside is a very big thing.

The heart in us is deeper than any emotion or psychological issue.

You can't manipulate a heart open. You can only allow it to open in the right circumstances.

I didn't know what I was looking for, but I knew whatever it was that I was looking for was real.

It's inexplicable why somebody can lose a leg and it doesn't effect them at all emotionally; and another person can lose a foot and be destroyed for the rest of their lives.

The ultimate act of power is surrender.

Surrender happens by Grace. All we're doing is cleaning up the room so when Surrender walks in, He can sit down.

Bliss is easy, just take a drug. What is hard is feeling good about our real selves.

This is what I do to keep my head screwed on semi-straight and keep my heart open. Whenever I sing, that's why I sing. Whether it's at the Grammys, whether it's in the bathroom, whether it's in front of 10,000 people or three people, by my guru's grace, my head stays in that place.

When you meet your guru or a being who knows, who is no longer loving, but has become love, a being who is sitting in truth, and in compassion and kindness for all beings - you know. When I met my guru, I knew. And it was before I met him physically, actually.

Devotion is a way of being, it's not something you do. It's dedication to finding awareness and Love. Chanting is like asanas for the mind and the heart.

The heart is like a mirror. When we dust it off, we are able to see ourselves. The dust is all our stuff - guilt, anger - this stuff is reflected back to us. Practice removes the dust from the mirror of our hearts.

The repetition of the holy names reveals a presence hidden within the heart. Something begins to happen that's very disturbing - we get happy.