T.J. Brearton > T.J.'s Quotes

“With a novel, which takes perhaps years to write, the author is not the same man he was at the end of the book as he was at the beginning. It is not only that his characters have developed--he has developed with them, and this nearly always gives a sense of roughness to the work: a novel can seldom have the sense of perfection which you find in Chekhov's story, The Lady with the Dog.”
― Graham Greene

“I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.”
― Machiavelli Niccolo

“Good writers have two things in common: they prefer to be understood rather than admired; and they do not write for knowing and over-acute readers.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”
― Carl Jung, Psychology and Alchemy

“We have calcium in our bones, iron in our veins, carbon in our souls, and nitrogen in our brains. 93 percent stardust, with souls made of flames, we are all just stars that have people names.”
― Nikita Gill

“Writing is seduction. Good talk is part of seduction. If not so, why do so many couples who start the evening at dinner wind up in bed?”
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

“Insomnia is a variant of Tourette's--the waking brain races, sampling the world after the world has turned away, touching it everywhere, refusing to settle, to join the collective nod. The insomniac brain is a sort of conspiracy theorist as well, believing too much in its own paranoiac importance--as though if it were to blink, then doze, the world might be overrun by some encroaching calamity, which its obsessive musings are somehow fending off.”
― Jonathan Lethem, Motherless Brooklyn

“To deny the reality of things is to miss their reality; to assert the emptiness of things is to miss their reality. The more you talk and think about it, the further astray you wander from the truth. Stop talking and thinking and there is nothing you will not be able to know.”
― Sengstan, Hsin Hsin Ming

“The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. When love and hate are both absent everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. If you wish to see the truth then hold no opinion for or against. The struggle of what one likes and what one dislikes is the disease of the mind.”
― Sengstan, Hsin Hsin Ming

“Pursue not the outer entanglements; Dwell not in the inner void; Be serene in the oneness of things; And dualism vanishes by itself.”
― Seng-t'san, Hsin-Hsin Ming: Verses on the Faith-Mind

“To live in the Great Way is neither easy nor difficult, but those with limited views are fearful and irresolute: the faster they hurry, the slower they go, and clinging cannot be limited: even to be attached to the idea of enlightenment is to go astray. Just let things be in their own way and there will be neither coming nor going. Obey the nature of things (your own nature), and you will walk freely and undisturbed.”
― Sengstan, Hsin Hsin Ming

“One thing, all things: move among and intermingle, without distinction. To live in this realization is to be without anxiety about non-perfection. To live in this faith is the road to non-duality, because the non-dual is one with the trusting mind.”
― Sengstan, Hsin Hsin Ming

“Xinxin Ming or Trust in the Heart


The Perfect Way is only difficult for those who pick and choose;
Do not like, do not dislike; all will then be clear.
Make a hairbreadth difference, and heaven and earth are set apart.

If you want the truth [of nonduality] to stand clear before you, never be for or against.
The struggle between "for" and "against" is the mind's worst disease.
When the Way is not understood, the mind chatters endlessly to no avail.

The Perfect Way is vastness without holiness.
Like infinite space it contains all and lacks nothing.
Because you pick and choose, cling and reject, you can't see its Suchness.

Neither be entangled in the world, nor in inner feelings of emptiness.
Be serene in the oneness of things,
And dualism vanishes of its own accord.

Craving the passivity of Oneness you are filled with activity.
As long as you tarry in dualism,
You will never know Oneness.

If you don't trust in the Heart, you fall into assertion or denial.
In this world of Suchness there is neither self nor other-than-self.
To be in accord with the Way, let go of all self-centered striving.

Denying the world [of duality] is the asserting of it;
Asserting emptiness [oneness] is the denying of it.
The more you talk and think about it, the further astray you go.

To return to the root [the One] is to find the meaning,
But to pursue appearances [the many] is to miss the source.
At the moment of inner enlightenment there is a going beyond the one and the many.

The mind clings to its image of the world;
We call it real only because of our ignorance.
Do not seek after the truth, merely cease to cherish your opinions.

For the mind in harmony with the One, all selfishness disappears.
With not even a trace of fear, you can trust the universe completely.
All at once you are free, with nothing left to hold on to.

All is empty, brilliant, perfect in its own being.
In the world of things as they are, there is neither observer nor observed.
If you want to describe its essence, the best you can say is "Not-two."

Even to have the idea of enlightenment is to go astray.
Thoughts that are fettered turn from truth, sink into the unwise habit of "not liking."
"Not liking" brings weariness of spirit; estrangements serve no purpose.

In this "Not-two" nothing is separate,
And nothing in the world is excluded.
The enlightened of all times and places have entered into this truth.

The One is none other than the All, the All none other than the One.
Take your stand on this, and the rest will follow of its accord;
To trust in the Heart is the "Not-two," the "Not-two" is to trust in the Heart.

There is one reality, not many;
Distinctions arise from the clinging needs of the ignorant.
To seek Mind with the mind is the greatest of all mistakes.

I have spoken, but in vain;
For what can words say—
Of things that have no yesterday, tomorrow, or today.

Jianzhi Sengcan
(aka Seng-Ts'an, 僧璨, ?-606)”
― Sengcan

“If the eye never sleeps,
all dreams will naturally cease.
If the mind makes no discriminations,
the ten thousand things are as they are,
of single essence.
To understand the mystery of this One essence
is to be released from all entanglements.
When all things are seen equally
the timeless Self-essence is reached.
No comparisons or analogies are possible
in this causeless, relationless state.

Consider movement stationary
and the stationary in motion,
both movement and rest disappear.
When such dualities cease to exist
Oneness itself cannot exist.
To this ultimate finality
no law or description applies.”
― Sengcan

“I began to have an idea of my life, not as the slow shaping of achievement to fit my preconceived purposes, but as the gradual discovery and growth of a purpose which I did not know.”
― Joanna Field

“I used to trouble about what life was for. Now being alive seems sufficent reason.”
― Joanna Field

“There seemed to be endless obstacles preventing me from living with my eyes open, but as I gradually followed up clue after clue it seemed that the root cause of them all was fear.”
― Joanna Field

“The growth of understanding follows an ascending spiral rather than a straight line.”
― Joanna Field

“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
― Abraham Lincoln, Great Speeches / Abraham Lincoln: with Historical Notes by John Grafton

“There are no truths. Only stories.”
― Thomas King, Green Grass, Running Water

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.”
― Rumi

“Life was too abundant in its diversity – it wasn’t fair to get just one.”
― T.J. Brearton, No Way Back

“It should not be denied... that being footloose has always exhilarated us. It is associated in our minds with escape from history and oppression and law and irksome obligations, with absolute freedom, and the road has always led West.”
― Wallace Stegner