Psychology Spirituality Quotes

He wanted to do, to be, to feel- and could not; he wanted sense, he wanted purpose- in Freud's words, 'Work and Love'. ~ Oliver Sacks

We are energetic beings, all we do is filling voids. ~ Stefan Emunds

We do not create our destiny; we participate in its unfolding. Synchronicity works as a catalyst toward the working out of that destiny. ~ David Richo

I'm Noah, and you are the ship coasting along the banks and as long as you are my valentine I will sail between your eyes.. ~ Adel Abouhana

Presence is not a question of judging or evaluating a client or a client's situation. Presence is to see the client's situation in a positive and creative light with a vision for how the present situation of the client relates to his further spiritual development. It is to accept a person as he is. It is to understand that the person is exactly where he needs to be in order to take the next step in his spiritual development. It is not about fighting with problems, darkness, drama and defences on the personality level, it is about becoming aware. It is about lighting the light in the inner being of another person. ~ Swami Dhyan Giten

We are all mirrors for each other – let us give thanks for our button-pushers for they show us our most potent triggers! ~ Erin Reese

All your thoughts, imagination, feelings, emotions and sensation are part of the mechanical process that can be understood, at the state of self-realization. ~ Roshan Sharma

Recognizing the structure of your psychology doesn't mean that you can easily rebuild it. ~ Dean Koontz

Presence is about how every action can arise from the quality, which we call awareness – the presence of our inner being, the presence of our soul.
It is a large difference between working with people from the inner being and working with people from duty or a specific technique. Through working from the inner being, we can touch the soul of the other person, while we can only touch the personality of the other person, his surface and periphery, if we just work from a technique. ~ Swami Dhyan Giten

Do not give up on yourself as you encounter your worst version and do not take it easy as you experience your higher self. ~ Ashlecka Aumrivani

The next time you have the urge to complain, stop and ask yourself what it is you truly want. Do you just want to complain or do you want to improve your situation? Somewhere within each complaint is a genuine desire to improve things, but the complaint by itself is never enough to make it happen. So make the choice not to aggravate a bad situation with your complaints. Choose instead to improve it with your positive thoughts, ideas and actions. ~ Anonymous

Just because something doesn't go as planned, doesn't mean it wasn't worth your while. Sometimes you have to fall forward, by learning what doesn't work, to discover what does. Sometimes you have to get knocked down lower than ever before, so that you can stand up taller than you ever were before. Tears wash out our eyes so that we can have a clearer vision. Don't carry your mistakes around with you. Be strong enough to let go and wise enough to fight for what you deserve. ~ Anonymous

That deep longing that you keep dismissing as impractical, may be the very thing your soul is calling you to do. ~ Renae A. Sauter

You are the average of the people you spend the most time with. And that's why it's not always where you are in life, but who you have by your side that matters most. Some people drain you and others provide soul food. Spend more time with nice people who are smart, driven and open-minded about personal growth and opportunity. There's no need to rush into a relationship you are unsure of, or socialize with those who hold you back. Be sure to get in the company of those who feed your spirit, and give the gift of your absence to those who do not appreciate your presence. ~ John Geiger

We find what's in our own heads. ~ T. Scott McLeod

God has fallen out of containment in religion and into human hearts - God is incarnating. Our whole unconscious is in an uproar from the God Who wants to know and to be known. ~ C. G. Jung

To take good care of ourselves, we must go back and take care of the wounded child inside of us. You have to practice going back to your wounded child every day. You have to embrace him or her terderly, like a big brother or a big sister. You have to talk to him, talk to her. And you can write a letter to the Little child in you, of two or three pages, to that you recognize his or her presence, and will do everything you can to heal his or her wounds. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Not only is there often a right and wrong, but what goes around does come around, Karma exists, chickens do come home to roost, and as my mother, Phyllis, liked to say, "There is always a day of reckoning." The good among the great understand that every choice we make adds to the strength or weakness of our spirits - ourselves, or to use an old fashioned word for the same idea, our souls. That is every human's life work: to construct an identity bit by bit, to walk a path step by step, to live a life that is worthy of something higher, lighter, more fulfilling, and maybe even everlasting. ~ Donald Van De Mark

A healthy woman is much like a wolf: robust, chock-full, strong life force, life-giving, territorially aware, inventive, loyal, roving. ~ Clarissa Pinkola Estes

I'm most disturbed by the theory of rubber resilience in children; as if its much easier to bounce back with youth. I see them more like Steel. When heated, they can be bent either which way. But if it's not corrected by the time things cool down, they can be forever changed. ~ Zack W. Van

Need is what tears people apart. When you want someone, you never really need them. But as soon as you start need someone, they no longer want you. ~ Mohadesa Najumi

As the theologian Alan Jones has said:

One of our problems is that very few of us have developed any distinctive personal life. Everything about us seems secondhand, even our emotions. In many cases we have to rely on secondhand information in order to function. I accept the word of a physician, a scientist, a farmer, on trust. I do not like to do this. I have to because they possess vital knowledge of living of which I am ignorant. Secondhand information concerning the state of my kidneys, the effects of cholesterol, and the raising of chickens, I can live with. But when it comes to questions of meaning, purpose, and death, secondhand information will not do. I cannot survive on a secondhand faith in a secondhand God. There has to be a personal word, a unique confrontation, if I am to come alive. ~ M. Scott Peck

Unable to penetrate to the secret place of his soul where his motives lay hidden, he believed that a supernatural voice had called him onward, and that a supernatural power had obstructed his retreat. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

...suffering is not a problem that can be solved therapeutically; it is not a matter of emotional conflict. Psychologists and psychotherapists deal usefully with human suffering by working on the conflicts of the personality, but from the perspective of spiritual teachings this approach clearly cannot deal with the basic problem, the root of all emotional conflicts.

When the Buddha said that life is suffering, he did not mean only neurotic suffering. He was referring to the more fundamental understanding that there is bound to be suffering in the life of the ego, because one is not seeing reality correctly; one is taking oneself to be something that actually does not exist. It is a problem of mistaken identity"
- (The Pearl Beyond Price, 28). ~ Almaas, A.H.

You could even be in heaven, and make it like a God damn hell in your mind. It's your choice to choose your world. ~ Ali Khaheshi

Psychologically unhealthy people are sad, depressed, incapable of defining their wants and needs, incapable to choosing an occupation they like, incapable of unconditional love, and incapable of respect or admiration. Psychologically unhealthy people are cowards in disguise and they can only fear. Once in a relationship or friendship with such people, they will make you believe they depend on you to be happy, but they can't be happy. That is what they say to keep you for long enough, to feed on you for long enough, to consume your energy for long enough. Psychologically unhealthy people are already dead in spirit. They can only feed on emotions. Psychologically unhealthy people can only make you feel sad, lost, demotivated and incapable. But that is merely the surface, the resulting consequences of losing your energy to someone else that can merely feed on you. And psychologically people know that already. That is why they made you believe they need you. They do need you. That is how they survive. Without people like you, they die, they literally die. Their body and mind cannot survive without an external source of energy. Because truly, energy comes from the soul, and they have none. Their soul is drifting in hell. ~ Robin Sacredfire

This fire that we call Loving is too strong for human minds. But just right for human souls. ~ Aberjhani

For far too long, the female gender has been plagued with stereotypes, typecasting, as well as, subtle and blatant discrimination. ~ Asa Don Brown

India was and to some extent, still is, a nation where its citizens care more about their religious freedom than any other earthly possession. Give them food or not, it doesn't matter to them, as long as they are allowed to practice their religion. But, take away their religion, they will fight till the last breath of their life. ~ Abhijit Naskar

Don't just stand there and nod. The mind observes and cogitates, the heart engages, and I would encourage you to engage with the process. ~ Etienne De L'Amour

Are you seeking to be offended? ~ Asa Don Brown

We must love those close to us, all the time, every day. Moments only happen once. Make them matter. ~ Jacqueline Simon Gunn

Change your mind and change your whole life experience. ~ C.G. Rousing

It's not other people's job to make you happy and fulfilled; it's yours. It's important to always be nice and respectful of others, but it's even more important to be nice and respectful toward yourself. You have to live with yourself the rest of your life, so stop being so hard on yourself. Focus on your strengths and lead by example. You are special and unique in every way. And if other people don't appreciate you for who you are, it's their loss. Remember, there are some people who don't even like chocolate cake! ~ Anonymous

Presence is to meet another person in meditation. Presence is to invite another person in meditation. It is a meeting in love, joy, acceptance, sincerity, truth, silence and oneness. ~ Swami Dhyan Giten

Without energy being invested in resisting the unwanted or dueling with fears, we have more energy and attention available for noticing not only the disturbing, but the wonderful ... When we are not fixated on threat and defending ourselves, when we're not exhausted and burned out from chronic stress, we are able to see the daily evidence that we are in the midst of a mind-blowing miracle called Life ... Then we will experience breathtaking, heart-rippling moments that counterbalance every trial and tribulation. When we're fully conscious of the universe's artistry and generosity, who needs psychodelics or Prozac? ~ Charlette Mikulka

To be a conscientious human is real karma - it is real spirituality - it is real religion. ~ Abhijit Naskar

Inner Peace can be seen as the ultimate benefit of practicing patience. ~ Allan Lokos

Vibration can be shifted through the mastery of thought ~ Alaric Hutchinson

If men act upon the teaching of the Word of God, and as proportionately men live according to the teaching and commands of the Bible, so they have in practice a sufficient psychological base. I will find you a man dealing with psychological problems on the basis of the teaching of the Word of God, even if he never heard the word psychology, or does not know what it means. ~ Francis Schaeffer

The richness of life is hidden until relationships are only based on love instead of ego ~ Gianni Fresco

Perfect does not mean perfect actions in a perfect world, but appropriate actions in an imperfect one. ~ R.H. Blyth

The traditional Indian mind has been for centuries, and still is, first religious, and then everything else. ~ Abhijit Naskar

When we are authentic, when we act out of presence and awareness, it also gives nourishment to the inner being of people around us. ~ Swami Dhyan Giten

In situations where I feel unclear or I do not know what to say or do, I turn my attention within myself. Then I listen to what my intuition and to what Existence within myself wants in this moment. Through listening within in this way, an answer often comes in the form of a creative and authentic impulse to say or do something or simply being silent until Existence is ready to respond. ~ Swami Dhyan Giten

Each aspect within us needs understanding and compassion. If we are unwilling to give it to ourselves how can we expect the world to give it to us? ~ Debbie Ford

We live in graves and call them home, and we further sustain the neurotic structure of those graves with elements of so-called sociological, cultural, traditional, religious, political and intellectual significance. ~ Abhijit Naskar

There is reason to fear that men love better to investigate how muslins, hay-rakes, and, above all and inclusive of all, money may be made, than how their own minds are constructed ~ Fitz Hugh Ludlow

By embracing your subconscious, you gain a different way of seeing and experiencing - an expanded perception that opens a doorway, not only to lucid dreams, but also to the mythic dimension.
As in lucid dreams, you see yourself or others with new eyes; your senses awaken and grasp an experience more fully than ever before; suddenly, you find your ears are open to hear with a deeper understanding. ~ Jenny Davidow

Shame and blame should have no place in our body, mind, or spirit. ~ Asa Don Brown

Life is ephemeral; each moment passes quickly, a blur of color on a fast moving subway car. There and gone and all we are left with is the imprint of what once was. ~ Jacqueline Simon Gunn

When creativity is seen as more important than facts, we will find ourselves in a world where problems are solved more often than spoken of. ~ Tarryn Tomlinson

The mind loves whatever repeats a pleasurable experience from the past. "I love this" basically means "I love repeating what felt so good before". ~ Deepak Chopra

A psychiatrist is the God of our age. But they cost money. ~ Sylvia Plath

Persistent problems, however unpleasant they may seem, contain the unprocessed and unexamined thoughts and feelings that, if left alone, keep you from your greatness. That's why the pain, emptiness, and longing you feel can be your greatest gift - it can motivate you to examine parts of yourself that have been overlooked, forgotten, or hidden. It's the irritant of sand in the oyster, which is the impetus for the pearl. In walking the conscious life path, you reveal your deepest Reality, layer by layer. You come home. ~ Jennifer Howard

There is the inner life, which is the world of final reality, the world of memory, emotion, imagination, intelligence, and natural common sense, and which goes on all the time like the heartbeat. There is also the thinking process by which we break into that inner life and capture answers and evidence to support the answers out of it. That process of raid, or persuasion, or ambush, or dogged hunting, or surrender, is the kind of thinking we have to learn and if we do not somehow learn it, then our minds lie in us like the fish in the pond of a man who cannot fish. ~ Ted Hughes

In any kind of relationship we can make the assumption that others know what we think, and we don't have to say what we want. They are going to do what we want because they know us so well. If they don't do what we want, what we assume they should do, we feel hurt and think, "How could you do that? You should know." Again, we make the assumption that the other person knows what we want. A whole drama is created because we make this assumption and then put more assumptions on
top of it. ~ Miguel Ruiz

Let them laugh and point. You are a yogi of traffic jams and discarded apple cores, aloneness and impossibly blue winter skies, a yogi of broken dreams, mad with truth and devotion and inexplicable joy, and you cannot be saved now. ~ Jeff Foster

The ramifications of workplace violence can have a lingering effect on the organization for generations. ~ Asa Don Brown

They all know the truth, that there are only three subjects worth talking about. At least here in these parts," he says, "The weather, which, as they're farmers, affects everything else. Dying and birthing, of both people and animals. And what we eat - this last item comprising what we ate the day before and what we're planning to eat tomorrow. And all three of these major subjects encompass, in one way or another, philosophy, psychology, sociology, anthropology, the physical sciences, history, art, literature, and religion. We get around to sparring about all that counts in life but we usually do it while we're talking about food, it being a subject inseparable from every other subject. It's the table and the bed that count in life. And everything else we do, we do so we can get back to the table, back to the bed. ~ Marlena De Blasi

If your life is Christ, then your death will be only more of Christ, forever. If your life is only Christlessness, then your death will be only more Christlessness, forever. That's not fundamentalism, that's the law of non-contradiction. ~ Peter Kreeft

Christianity is a way of life - not a dogma! ~ Stefan Emunds

The majority of India's adult and elderly population is too medieval to think as civilized, rational and progressive human beings. ~ Abhijit Naskar

The great mission of our day is not conquering the sea or space, disease or tyranny. The grand quest which calls to the hero in every one of us is to become fully alive--to stand up and claim our birthright, which is inner freedom, love and radiant purpose. By fulfilling this, we transform the world. ~ Jacob Nordby

Know thy sacred soul ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

The only way in which the world can be grasped ultimately lies, not in thought, but in the act, in the experience of oneness.
Thus paradoxical logic leads to the conclusion that the love of God is neither the knowledge of God in thought, nor the thought of one's love of God, but the act of experiencing the oneness with God. ~ Erich Fromm

Sometimes war may become the only resort available, but never try to justify it, by saying that it's the right thing to do, because war is never the right thing to do, no matter how right you feel. When you fire that first shot, no matter how right you feel, you have no idea who's going to die - you don't know whose children are going to scream and burn - how many hearts will be broken - how many lives shattered - how much blood will spill until everybody does what they are always gonna have to do from the very beginning - sit down, talk and try to understand each other beyond the petty little differences born from instinctual tribalism. ~ Abhijit Naskar

Is that what depression is about-the sinking feeling that your connection to God is broken and you are left to float on your own in a liquid black space, like an astronaut who has been cut loose from his spaceship and all that linked him to Earth? ~ Elif Shafak

Everyone has to have a spirituality and everyone does have one, either a life-giving one or a destructive one. ~ Ronald Rolheiser

You are not subject to the systems or structures of this world, you belong to the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Glory, Prosperity, Beauty and Honor- where sickness is foreign. ~ Moroaswi Tumiso Victor

There is another reason also why the soul has traveled safely in this obscurity; it has suffered: for the way of suffering is safer, and also more profitable, than that of rejoicing and of action. In suffering God gives strength, but in action and in joy the soul does but show its own weakness and imperfections. And in suffering, the soul practices and acquires virtue, and becomes pure, wiser, and more cautious. ~ San Juan De La Cruz

Well, I'm not sure what pop psychology is, but I don't like it. ~ Phil McGraw

I am no Patriot for I try to breathe in with the steadfast belief that my country is the Earth and my religion is Humanism. ~ K. Hari Kumar

The devil is the most stubborn verisimilitude on earth! ~ Stefan Emunds

..children only begin to understand differences in desires when they are about eighteen months old...Toddlers are systematically testing the dimensions on which their desires and the desires of others may be in conflict... The terrible twos reflects a genuine clash between children's need to understand other people and their need to live happily with them. ~ Alison Gopnik

You want to mess up the minds of your children? Here's how - guaranteed! Rear them in a legalistic, tight context of external religion, where performance is more important than reality. Fake your faith. Sneak around and pretend your spirituality. Train your children to do the same. Embrace a long list of do's and don'ts publicly but hypocritically practice them privately ... yet never own up to the fact that its hypocrisy. Act one way but live another. And you can count on it - emotional and spiritual damage will occur. ~ Charles R. Swindoll

...the higher the expectations about unselected alternatives, the lower the level of satisfaction with the chosen good. ~ Michael R. Solomon

I who am the beauty of the green earth and the white moon among the stars and the mystery of the waters, I call upon your soul to arise, and to come unto me, for I am the soul of nature, that gives life to the universe, from me all things proceed, and unto me all things must return, but for those who would seek to worship me, let them do so with joy in their hearts for all acts of love and of pleasure are my rituals, let them develop within them the qualities of compassion, kindness, humility, love, understanding. But for those who seek to know me, let them know that if all they are seeking and they are yearning it will avail them not until they learn the great mystery that which you seek you find not within yourself you'll never find it without. For I am that which is attained at the end of all suffering. I am she of a thousand names. ~ The Empress

Becoming a fashion designer is agreeing with the fact that what you experience or what you see as free is also connected to a system. Does that mean giving up your freedom? I still don't know the answer. There's a very different kind of psychology going on in the fashion scene than in art. ~ Raf Simons

Whatever you do, put your inner work first. ~ Swami Chetanananda

Saying of the Prophet
Anger
You ask for a piece of advice. I tell you: 'Do not get angry.' He is strong who can withhold anger. ~ Idries Shah

In the course of working on ourselves, we learn in time that when we stay on the surface of ourselves, which is to say when we are identified with and operating from our outer shell - our personality - we suffer. The more asleep we are to the reality beneath our shells, the less we feel that life is fulfilling, meaningful, and pleasurable. Or, in the language of the enneagram, the more fixated we are, the less we partake of the loving nature of reality, for we have lost our connection with Holy Love. Our suffering is not the result of being alone or of being in the wrong relationship, is not because we don't have enough money or because we have too much of it, or because of anything of the sort.

Nor is it because our outer surface doesn't look as pretty as we think it should or because our personality isn't as pleasant as we think it might be. We suffer because we are living at a distance from our depths - it's as simple as that. The more our souls are infused with Being, the better we feel and the better life seems to us, no matter what our outer circumstances happen to be. ~ Sandra Maitri

I think the highest forgiveness is to accept that creation is thoroughly tangled, with every possible quality given outlet for expression. People need to accept once and for all that there is only one life and each of us is free to shape it through the choices we make.
Seeking can't get anyone out of the tangle because everything is tangled up ... it's much easier to keep up the fight between good and evil, holy and profane, us and them. But as awareness grows, these opposites begin to calm down in their clashes, and something else emerges- a world you feel at home in. ~ Deepak Chopra

Faith is like automobile insurance. It need to be in place before there's a crisis. ~ Pamela Christian

EARLY ONE DARK April morning a few years ago I was sitting in my living room in central Copenhagen, wrapped in a blanket and yearning for spring, when I opened that day's newspaper to discover that my adopted countrymen had been anointed the happiest of their species in something called the Satisfaction with Life Index, compiled by the Department of Psychology at the University of Leicester.

I checked the date on the newspaper: it wasn't 1 April. ~ Michael Booth

For many of us, especially being so fortunate to live in a first-world country, the vast majority of pain we experience is due to the seriousness with which we identify with our thoughts. ~ Chris Matakas

To me, spirituality is about two things: The liberation of consciousness from all illusion, so that the true nature can shine and an embodiment in life that is an alternative to the patterns of manipulation and greed that dominate our current culture. ~ John William Willis-Bund

Thomas Merton to write: The modern child may early in his or her existence have natural inclinations toward spirituality. The child may have imagination, originality, a simple and individual response to reality, and even a tendency to moments of thoughtful silence and absorption. All these tendencies, however, are soon destroyed by the dominant culture. The child becomes a yelling, brash, false little monster, brandishing a toy gun or dressed up like some character he has seen on television. His head is filled with inane slogans, songs, noises, explosions, statistics, brand names, menaces, ribaldries, and cliches. Then, when the child gets to school, he learns to verbalize, rationalize, to pace, to make faces like an advertisement, to need a car and in short, to go through life with an empty head conforming to others, like himself, in togetherness.3 ~ Brennan Manning

What is it, I wonder, that they hope to Correct? I am what I am, irredeemably, irretrievably, implacably - as are mostof my fellow desperadoes here in Correctional Facility.
We are monsters. ~ Jeff Lindsay

So our building of the visible Church becomes much like any natural business function, using natural means and natural motives. ~ Francis Schaeffer

No matter what the world thinks about religious experience, the one who has it possesses a great treasure, a thing that has become for him a source of life, meaning, and beauty, and that has given a new splendor to the world and to mankind. ~ Carl Jung

The results of that charismatic takeover have been devastating. In recent history, no other movement has done more to damage the cause of the gospel, to distort the truth, and to smother the articulation of sound doctrine. Charismatic theology has turned the evangelical church into a cesspool of error and a breeding ground for false teachers. It has warped genuine worship through unbridled emotionalism, polluted prayer with private gibberish, contaminated true spirituality with unbiblical mysticism, and corrupted faith by turning it into a creative force for speaking worldly desires into existence. By elevating the authority of experience over the authority of Scripture, the Charismatic Movement has destroyed the church's immune system - uncritically granting free access to every imaginable form of heretical teaching and practice. ~ John F. MacArthur Jr.