“The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.”
-Jalaludin Rumi
“The sema is peace for souls of the living;
The one who knows this, possesses peace in his heart.
The one who wants to be awakened
Is the one who sleeps in the middle of the garden.
But for the one who sleeps in prison,
To be awakened is only a nuisance.”
-Jalaludin Rumi
“Whatever causes the heart to turn away from contemplation and knowledge of God is a veil.”
-Jalaludin Rumi
“I was sleeping and being comforted by a cool breeze,
when suddenly a gray dove from a thicket sang and sobbed with longing,
and reminded me of my own passion.
I had been away from my own soul for so long,
so late-sleeping, but that dove’s crying woke me and made me cry.
Praise to all early-waking grievers!”
-Adi al-Riga
“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”
-Carl Jung
“Change thy character, beloved, change it through intelligent action , free from the battle of the opposites. I am talking to you about the path of action, free from the painful battle of the opposites. When the doors of fantasy are closed, the organ of intuition awakens.
Intuitive action leads us by the hand toward the awakening of the consciousness.
Let us work and rest happily, abandoning ourselves to the course of life. Let us exhaust the turbid and rotten waters of habitual thinking. Thus, into the emptiness Gnosis will flow, and with it, the happiness of living. This intelligent action, free from the battle of the opposites, elevates us to the breaking point. When everything is proceeding well, the rigid roof of thinking is broken. Then the light and power of the Inner-Self floods the mind that has stopped dreaming.”
– Samael Aun Weor, Revolution of the Dialectic
“He lived at a little distance from his body, regarding his own acts with doubtful side-glasses. He had an odd autobiographical habit which led him to compose in his mind from time to time a short sentence about himself containing a subject in the third person and a predicate in the past tense.”
-James Joyce “A Painful Case”
“Turn from the sleep of negligence and the slumber of ignorance, for the world is a house of delusion and tribulations.”
–Epistles of the Brethren of Sincerity
“Strictly speaking, there are no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity.”
-Shunruyu Suzuki
“I advise you, whoever you are, Oh you! who wish to explore the mysteries of nature, if you do not find within yourself that which you seek, neither shall you find it outside. If you ignore the excellencies of your own house, how do you intend to find excellence elsewhere? Within you is hidden the treasure of treasures. Oh, man, know yourself and you shall know the Universe and the Gods!”
-The Oracle of Delphi