That Is That Quotes

“The balanced view is to leave everything up to God, except what is right in front of you to do in this moment. If you are hungry, eat. If you are tired, sleep. If you are sick, find a way to heal. If there's a choice to be made, check what is truest to do and then do it. Then you can forget about the results of your actions because that part isn't up to you. That part is up to the bigger truth of God's will. There is a line in the Tao Te Ching: "Do your work and then step back." This reminds us that our actions are up to us, but the results of our actions are not up to us.”
― Nirmala, That Is That: Essays About True Nature

“Given the fluid, ever-changing nature of thought and therefore of meaning, the best approach is to believe whatever you believe but hold it lightly. We need a certain structure of belief to function and orient in the world. But we don't need a final belief or formula for how something works or what something means. You can play with beliefs and meanings and see what effect they have. If a belief is working—great. And if a belief isn't working—great, because then you can change it.”
― Nirmala, That Is That: Essays About True Nature

“When you look outside of what is actually happening, all you can ever find is an idea or a fantasy.”
― Nirmala, That Is That: Essays About True Nature

“Nisargadatta: "When I see I am nothing, that is wisdom. When I see I am everything, that is love. My life is a movement between these two.”
― Nirmala, That Is That: Essays About True Nature

“All of our suffering is the result of having and maintaining an identity.”
― Nirmala, That Is That: Essays About True Nature

“No one has more capacity to distinguish how true things are than anyone else. No one is wiser than you, and no one is less wise than you. Since no one else is able to experience your individual perspective, no one else can ever be more of an expert on your experience than you. Just as someone else can’t eat and digest your breakfast for you, others can’t experience and digest your perspective of the truth in each moment.”
― Nirmala, That Is That: Essays About True Nature

“However, if you’ve had many even larger experiences of much more expanded states of Being, possibly through spiritual practices, then moving into a strong emotion like anger, sadness, or excitement may be experienced as a contraction or diminishment of the sense of your self. The same truth, the same experience of emotion, can be experienced as either an opening up in your Heart or a closing down. It just depends on where you move into the emotion from and also how open or expanded the sense of your self generally is.”
― Nirmala, That Is That: Essays About True Nature

“Anything that puts you in touch with more of the truth opens the Heart. This is a literal and experiential description of truth. When your experience is bringing you more truth, there is a sense of opening, softening, relaxation, expansion, fulfillment, and satisfaction in the Heart. This can be most directly sensed in the center of the chest, but the Heart of all Being is infinite and therefore actually bigger than your entire body. So this opening, softening, and expansion is actually happening everywhere; we just sense it most clearly and directly in the center of the chest.”
― Nirmala, That Is That: Essays About True Nature

“There is a profound truth in this perspective, as it penetrates and dissolves the usual belief or assumption that the ego, our thoughts, and physical reality are more real than more subtle levels of reality. Even when we have tasted a deeper reality, we often return to an ego-centered perspective because of the momentum of our involvement with the physical and mental realms. Even in the face of profound experiences to the contrary, there's a habit of assuming that our physical body and our beliefs and other thoughts are what is most important, so much so that we think that everything that pops into our heads is important. We even use the argument, “That’s what I think” to justify our position, as if thinking something makes it true. Since our most common thought or assumption is the assumption that "I am the body" or "I am my thoughts, feelings, and desires," this pointing to the falseness or incompleteness of those most basic beliefs is”
― Nirmala, That Is That: Essays About True Nature

“The first stage of seeking is a period of searching for truth and trying to get there. It's the period of greatest doing and also the greatest sense of a separate self that is seeking. This is what most of the world is up to, although most people are seeking or acquiring wealth and fame and the other things the ego wants. But underlying even these activities is a deeper pull to find love, peace, and happiness. The ego just mistakenly thinks money or fame will give it peace, love, and happiness. Eventually, the individual discovers that these ego-driven activities don't really satisfy, so the seeking becomes more subtle and direct. We eventually seek peace itself and love itself, not something that will bring us peace or love.”
― Nirmala, That Is That: Essays About True Nature

“El sufrimiento es la distancia—la brecha—entre aquello hacia lo que estamos orientados y aquello que es. El tamaño de la brecha entre lo que sucede y aquello a lo cual dedica su atención, representa cuánto sufrirá. Si no hay brecha, entonces no hay sufrimiento.”
― Nirmala, Eso es eso: Ensayos sobre la verdadera naturaleza

“There is a simple question that can short circuit this tendency to feel we need to fix this moment or improve upon it: Is this moment really so bad? Is there really anything present right now that is a problem? What if stiffness in the morning isn't bad but just a particular sensation? What if feeling stiff is actually okay? We can ask the same question about anything we are experiencing: Is sadness a bad sensation? Is confusion a bad sensation? Is the lack of money really a problem in this moment? Is the loss of a job or a relationship really a problem in this moment? In this moment, there is never really a problem, only ideas or stories about a problem.”
― Nirmala, That Is That: Essays About True Nature

“The mind has a tendency to label everything as bad or a problem. If we wake up stiff in the morning, the mind calls that bad and then worries about getting older. If we find out we are being let go at our job, the mind immediately assumes the worst and worries about the future. Even if something good happens, the mind sees the possible downside or worries about losing what it has just gained. The mind sees its job as rejecting what is presently going on in order to bring about a better future. Its logic is that if we are happy now, we won’t do anything to make things better. So it looks for what's wrong with the way things are so that it can figure out what to do to fix or improve things. This keeps the mind very busy and leaves us with an ongoing sense of incompleteness and lack. Because there is always something going on that could be labeled bad, there is always something to fix or improve upon. As a result, we have an ever-expanding to-do list in our minds. We may feel the need to improve our diet, our appearance, our finances, our health, our relationships, our career.”
― Nirmala, That Is That: Essays About True Nature

“What matters is the real you. You can become more curious about this real you than you are about the false ghosts of identity. What is the real you made of? What is it like? What does it want? What can it do? These are rich and meaningful questions to explore, but remember that the real answers aren't found in your ideas about yourself, but only in the simple sense that you exist.”
― Nirmala, That Is That: Essays About True Nature

“Suffering always comes from rejection of our experience and sensations, not from the experience and sensations themselves, even the most intense and enormous feelings.”
― Nirmala, That Is That: Essays About True Nature

“In this moment, there is never really a problem, only ideas or stories about a problem.”
― Nirmala, That Is That: Essays About True Nature

“When our focus is on what is, our experience of what is opens up and becomes bigger, richer, and more complete. But when it is on what is not (the past, the future, or any thought about what is), our experience of the moment contracts and becomes narrower and full of suffering and struggle, because inherent in a focus on what is not is a struggle with what is.”
― Nirmala, That Is That: Essays About True Nature

“There is a depth and wisdom that only comes from a wide range of experience, including painful and unwelcome experiences. The willingness to meet and have any experience comes from the recognition that what you are is open, spacious awareness. Your body, mind, personality, emotions, and desires all appear within that awareness, but they are not you. And the real you cannot be harmed.”
― Nirmala, That Is That: Essays About True Nature

“The realization of Presence, or Essence, gives back to our life a heartfelt sense of meaning and purpose, which becomes a pure expression of the wonder and beauty of this deeper reality. Instead of living a life in service to the ego’s wants and needs, we are moved to fulfill the deepest purpose of a human life: to serve and express freedom, joy, beauty, peace and love. By itself, the realization of no self can end up dry and lifeless, but when the Heart opens wide to the greater truth of the true Self, life is anything but dry and lifeless.”
― Nirmala, That Is That: Essays About True Nature

“Or is there a natural curiosity and sense of wonder that arises and puts you very much in touch with all of the mysterious elements that make up this particular moment? Does this curiosity lead you to rash and silly decisions, or does it allow impulses and intuitions to arise from a deeper place”
― Nirmala, That Is That: Essays About True Nature