“When I said I wanted to die in my sleep, I meant I wanted to be stepped on by an elephant while making love.”
“It would be nice if there were some one thing constant and unchanging in the universe. If there is such a thing, then it is a thing which would have to be stronger than love, and it is a thing which I do not know.”
“If you ever loved anything in your life, try to remember it. If you ever betrayed anything, pretend for a moment that you have been forgiven. If you ever feared anything, pretend for an instant that those days are gone and will never return. Buy the lie and hold to it for as long as you can. Press your familiar, whatever its name, to your breast and stroke it till it purrs.”
“Call themselves?" asked Yama. "You are wrong, Sam, Godhood is more than a name. It is a condition of being. One does not achieve it merely by being immortal, for even the lowliest laborer in the fields may achieve continuity of existence. Is it then the conditioning of an Aspect? No. Any competent hypnotist can play games with the self-image. Is it the raising up of an Attribute? Of course not. I can design machines more powerful and more accurate than any faculty a man may cultivate. Being a god is the quality of being able to be yourself to such an extent that your passions correspond with the forces of the universe, so that those who look upon you know this without hearing your name spoken. Some ancient poet said that the world is full of echoes and correspondences. Another wrote a long poem of an inferno, wherein each man suffered a torture which coincided in nature with those forces which had ruled his life. Being a god is being able to recognize within one's self these things that are important, and then to strike the single note that brings them into alignment with everything else that exists. Then, beyond morals or logic or esthetics, one is wind or fire, the sea, the mountains, rain, the sun or the stars, the flight of an arrow, the end of a day, the clasp of love. One rules through one's ruling passions. Those who look upon gods then say, without even knowing their names, 'He is Fire. She is Dance. He is Destruction. She is Love.' So, to reply to your statement, they do not call themselves gods. Everyone else does, though, everyone who beholds them.""So they play that on their fascist banjos, eh?""You choose the wrong adjective.""You've already used up all the others.”
“Ali čovek zaboravlja stvarnost i pamti samo reci. Što je reči više upamtio, to ga pametnijim smatrajunjegovi drugovi. On gleda velike transformacije sveta, ali ih ne vidi onako kako su bile sagledane od prvog čoveka koji se suočio sa stvarnošću.Radije tražite to Bezimeno u sebi, to što nadolazi dok mu se obraćam. Ono ne opaža moje reči, već realnost u meni, čiji je deo. To je atman, koji čuje mene, a ne moje reči. Sve ostalo je nestvarno. Definisati znači izgubiti. Bezimeno je suština svih stvari. Bezimeno je nesaznatljivo, moćnije čak i od samog Brame. Stvari prolaze, ali suština ostaje.Snovi bivstva su san u formama. Forme prolaze, nestaju, ali bivstvo ostaje; i sanja nove snove. Čovek tim snovima daje imena i zamišlja da je uhvatio bivstvo samo, a ne zna da samo priziva privide.PONEKAD, MOŽDA, POJAVI SE SANJAR KOJI JE SVESTAN DA SANJA. ON MOŽDA KONTROLIŠE DELIĆ SUPSTANCE SNA, U STANJU JE DA TOM SUPSTANCOM RASPOLAŽE PO SVOJOJ VOLJI, ILI MOŽDA USPEVA DA SE PONEKAD DELIMIČNO PROBUDI, DOSPEVAJUĆI TAKO DO POVEĆANE SAMOSPOZNAJE. AKO IZABERE PUT SAMOSPOZNAJE, NJEGOVA SLAVA ĆE BITI VELIKA, KROZ SVE VEKOVE ON ĆE SIJATI KAO ZVEZDA. ALI AKO SE, MEĐUTIM, OPREDELI ZA STAZU TANTRI, GDE SE SPAJAJU SAMSARA I NIRVANA, GDE SE SVET SHVATA ALI SE ISTOVREMENO U NJEMU ŽIVI, ON ĆE BITI JEDAN OD MOĆNIH MEĐU SANJARIMA. MOĆ SVOJU ON MOŽE UPOTREBITI ZA ZLO ILI ZA DOBRO.Živeti u Samsari, međutim, znači biti podložan uticaju moćnih sanjara. Ako oni moć koriste za dobro, nastaju zlatna vremena. Ako je koriste za zlo, nastaju mračna vremena. San se može preobraziti u košmar.Čovek mora prvo da odradi opterećenja svoje karme, svog mesa, tela, pre nego što dostigne prosvetljenje.U svetlosti večnih istina, kažu mudraci, patnja je kao ništa; u terminima Samsare, kažu mudraci, ona vodi dobru.Bezimeno, čiji smo deo svi mi, sanja formu. Koji je najviši atribut ijednoj formi dostupan? Lepota. Bezimeno je, dakle, umetnik. Problem, dakle, nije u oblasti dileme dobro - zlo, nego u estetskoj oblasti. Boriti se protiv onih koji su među sanjarima moćni a koji svoju moć koriste za zlo ili za ružnoću, ne znači boriti se za ono čemu su nas mudraci podučili da je besmisleno u terminima Samsare ili Nirvane, već znači boriti se da san bude sanjan, simetrično, ritmično, sa poentom i kontrapunktom, izbalansirano, tako da postane lep kao umetničko delo.”
“Of all the things a man may do, sleep probably contributes most to keeping him sane. It puts brackets about each day. If you do something foolish or painful today, you get irritated if somebody mentions it, today. If it happened yesterday, though, you can nod or chuckle, as the case may be. You've crossed through nothingness or dream to another island in Time.”