Shafts of Light Swami Ashokananda

Quiet your restless mind

A man can have everything, but if he doesn’t have the cooperation of his mind, he has nothing.

Brave the danger of the mind. It has more power over you than a million atomic bombs. To control it makes you the master—fearless.

Until you have actually felt the mind at work within itself, you will not be able to control it.

If the mind is gloomy, why are you gloomy?

Tranquility comes when the rubbish of the mind has been removed. Greed and self-indulgence must be vanquished.

You become calm by eliminating the causes of mental disturbance. Find out what they are and get rid of them. It is as simple as that. All spiritual teachings are about how to remove disturbing things from your mind and your life.

You have to be calm and quiet and examine every thing that arises in your mind. See that it is in accord with reason and not just accepted automatically by custom.

How to bring the mind under control? Direct it so that it cannot do anything on its own, that is how.

Only when the mind is under control and has become peaceful can you know what the mind is. You can never know your own mind unless you practice self-discipline.

You have to be bold and persistent. Cut down the old thoughts again and again as they come to you again and again, and then the roots will die.

You have to examine all your motives. You will find that it takes a long time before your only motive is the realization of God.

Depth in meditation will not come without quieting the mind. The mind is quieted best by unselfishness—there is no technique so good!

Out of the infinite calmness of mind, the knowledge of God comes.

The mind is coextensive with God, transparent and luminous when it reflects God alone. Do not cheat the mind by stuffing it with other thoughts.

Stop dragging the mind down to worldly thoughts and it will naturally rise on its own to reveal the Self.

When the mind is perfectly still, the soul becomes Spirit.

Concentration is nothing but attention. It requires a quiet mind, not a scattered mind.

Meditation is a slow, slow process like the opening of a flower—silent and graceful.

There is no one—no power or being on earth—that can make any difference to you.

If you can look at something and not covet it, you have become spiritual.

If you don’t have to speak, don’t speak.

Everything is revealed to the mnd that is one-pointed.

The essential condition of meditation is one-pointedness.

The scattered mind is the worst state, related to the worst phase of reality.

Meditation should be undertaken with a sense of eternity, not in the atmosphere of time.

If you are tired and cannot think, meditate. You will find that your mind has become refreshed.

You go to a pool of peace and joy and strength—that is how one should meditate.

You will find one day that one day after your meditation you will feel full of power.