The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.
– Robert M. Pirsig
The son of man is within you
Then Jesus said:
“Peace be with you all.
Take my peace into your Selves; be watchful so nobody leads you astray claiming ‘Look there, look here for the son of man’.
I tell you that the son of man is within you all!
Seek him inside; those who search diligently and earnestly shall surely find him.
Then leave and teach the truth of the Kingdom to those with ears to hear; don’t invent rules beyond those I’ve given.
Don’t make laws like lawmakers do or else you’ll be held back.”
– From the gospel of Mary Magdalene
The perfect mystic
The perfect mystic is not an ecstatic devotee lost in contemplation of Oneness, nor a saintly recluse shunning all commerce with mankind, but “the true saint” goes in and out amongst the people and eats and sleeps with them and buys and sells in the market and marries and takes part in social intercourse, and never forgets God for a single moment.
– Abu Said Ibn Abi-L-Khayr
All is the Self
What exists in truth is the Self alone. The world, the individual soul and God are appearances in it.
Like silver in mother-of-pearl, these three appear at the same time and disappear at the same time.
The Self is that where there is absolutely no ‘I-thought’.
That is called ‘Stillness’.
The Self itself is the world; the Self itself is ‘I’; the Self itself is God;
all is Siva, the Self.
– Ramana Maharshi