I first heard about the idea of inner growth because the Beatles had gone to India to meditate in 1968. I was 19 and was a major fan. Their trip to see a guru seemed really cool, like the hip, next stop on the magical mystery tour, which had already been a great ride so far. And that’s about as deep as my interest in anything to do with consciousness went.  

          But within a few short, but high-impact years, I found myself seriously involved with personal development, and it’s only grown since then. So, I go back pretty far.

          As you can imagine, as a researcher, I’ve accumulated a tremendous amount of material over all these years, which brings me to this one particular folder that I have in my archives.

          Back in the early 80s, I came upon a paperback booklet of some quotes on personal growth that I found to be truly insightful. They were short and sweet, simple but profound, and every bit as powerful as they were wise. There were probably about fifty in all, but fourteen of them really stood out and I wrote them down and put them in a folder.

          As time went by, I grew more and more impressed with them, but then something unfortunate happened. I lent the booklet to a friend who seemed opened, but not really interested in the subject. I thought the quotes might help spark his interest.

          A week later, when I called to see if he had read it, he didn’t even remember what I was talking about. After I reminded him, he said he’d look around for the booklet and return it to me. But after a few days, he called and said he had no idea where it was and he had probably thrown it out by mistake.

          So that was the end of my precious booklet. I was pretty upset, but there was nothing I could do. It was spilled milk, gone for good and that was that.

          It had never occurred to me that the booklet might be lost, so I hadn’t even written down the title or the name of the author. All I had left was my list of these fourteen quotes, along with some notes that I had made.

          Even though I’ve always regretted what happened, in a certain way it’s kind of cool. Because I don’t know anything about their origins, the quotes are left to stand on their own. And for me, they’ve stood up quite well.

          I seem to come across them a few times each year, and every time I do, they strike me as being more profound than ever. They seem to deepen as I evolve. Of course, the quotes don’t change. What deepens is my understanding of their meaning. And that evolution just seems to continue.

          Recently, as I working on some podcast episodes, I started considering the idea of just presenting these quotes pretty much as they are and letting them stand on their own. Afterall, that’s the way I have them and they I always do a lot for me.

          So, I’m going to go through them now, one by one, along with the earlier notes I made, as well as some current observations. Again, I find them to be very special, but they’re deceptively simple, like icebergs of insight, from the surface, all you see are the tips.   

          My suggestion is that you consider each one as a stand-alone idea. Take your time, give them some thought and see how they hit you. For me, they’re still packing quite a punch.

 

So here goes -

         

1. Do not compare and you cannot be unhappy.

My God, this a deep one. Can you imagine what life would be like if we could simply stop comparing ourselves with to other people? It’s almost impossible to picture. For me, it seems like I do it all day long.

But on the most basic level, comparing yourself to others is the very root of envy and jealousy, and if you could take those two nasty culprits out of the human playbook, probably over 90% of our suffering would just disappear. And that’s just for starters.   

 

1. We are punished by whatever we hide from ourselves.

          While this may seem pretty obvious, on a deeper level, the root of the problem is probably fear. We hide things from ourselves because we don’t want to look at them. And we don’t want to look at them because we’re afraid of how bad they may actually be. But that’s just due to our limited understandings or our own potential, which, many authorities have told us, is far greater than we currently know. 

          Under this quote, I wrote a one of my own, “When you go inside and look at what’s really in there, you’re not going to like what you see. Your gonna love it!”

 

1. The suppression of unhappiness is not the same thing as happiness.

          Although it may bring some temporary relief – just suppressing inner turmoil doesn’t lead to lasting happiness. Bring the moldy poison of pain out of the dark basement of your mind and with relief, watch it vanish in the light of your higher understandings. Then the real happiness, which is a part of our true nature, can begin to shine.

 

1. It is imaginary self-pictures which cause pain, not results.

          This one really got me on a few levels. The thinking part of our mind is uniquely tied to our imagination, which literally means the image-making part of the brain. We all picture things all day long. That’s how our imagination works.  And a lot of the times, we create negative pictures that bring us pain.  

          Now it’s a subtle, but powerful idea that the root of most of our pain is actually coming from our imagination, because one thing we’ve all learned about having a bad dream – at some point you wake up! Mark Twain had an interesting thought about point of view and imagination.  “You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” Pretty deep…

 

1. Any man can sense that his problem is himself, but the extraordinary man goes beyond that to sense that the solution is also himself.

          For me, I’ve always found it pretty easy to get a sense that I am the cause of my own problems. But you don’t really have to do anything with that realization, you can just keep playing around with it.

          Once you start to get the idea that you also have the solution to your problems in your hands, things get a little different. Now you can do something about it, but you have to act, rather than just think. Here’s a quote I wrote next to this one - “In order to do anything, you have to do something.”

 

1. There is no difference between sleeping men except in the ways they pretend to be awake. To be awake is everything.

          So many wisdom traditions say that our normal mind dwells in a kind of dream state, processing an unending stream of thoughts and concepts. To wake up to the larger part of our intelligence seems to be the name of the game in this life.

          For me this is pretty tricky, because even though I could swear I’m awake, how do I really know? Afterall, when I’m asleep and dreaming, how many times has it occurred to me that this is just a dream. I’m going to wake up soon and it will all disappear without a trace? As I said, this is a tricky one for me, but it’s all part of the fun.

 

1. An unawakened man speaks to convince himself that his illusions are realities. The enlightened man speaks to show others that their realities are illusions.

          At first, I was struck with how clever this quote is, until I went a little deeper and started examining how much like the unawakened man I actually am. It’s really subtle, but how much of the time am I just trying to convince myself that my illusions are real? In psychology it’s called confirmation bias.

          On the other hand, I’ve had the great good fortune to be exposed to some enlightened information, both spoken and written, and it it’s always such a relief to see that my “so-called” realities are actually illusions, because something wonderful always appears once that bubble breaks.

 

1. Observe how you unknowingly create your present world, for then you will be able to knowingly create a new world.

          This one’s still a little beyond my reach, but I’ll keep trying to get it. It probably has something to do with growing from ignorance to knowledge, and using what you have and practicing what you know. I know I have the idea down, I’m just waiting for the understanding to grow.

 

1. We cannot see above our own present level, but we can open ourselves to a higher level, which permits that level to impress us with its power for healing.

          I always find comfort in this idea. With inner growth, you can never really know what the next level holds in store for you. And the nice thing is, you don’t need to know. You can just open up to it and let it start affecting you. I’ve always been a big fan of the “relax and let go” approach, so I love that idea. All I have to do is open up to the greater good that is coming to me and let it come.

 

1. The necessary is always possible.

          Wow. What a comforting idea and wouldn’t it be great if it really is true. I think I’ll just move along in my life like it is and then, as they say, act as if.  

 

1. A planted seed is quite capable of developing in the dark.

          This is another comforting one for me. You don’t need to understand everything that’s going on. In fact, you can’t. And a lot of the time, you’re in the dark and you know it. But the seed of consciousness that has been planted within has its own power. And it finds a way to grow, no matter how dark the environment may be.

 

1. The only answer to “who are you?” is complete silence.

          This seems to speak to the idea of growing into the larger part of our intelligence. Although there doesn’t seem to be any silence in the framework of the ordinary mind, in the higher state, which some call “the heart,” because it is connected to the infinite, you can rest in the comfort, peace, and silence of being home again. And I guess, that’s who we are. Sure, feels like it.

 

1. The only thing we have to do for our spiritual progress is the very next thing.

          Gandhi said something related that is seemingly counterintuitive, “Whatever you do in life will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.” It almost doesn’t make any sense. If something is insignificant, why it is important that I do it?

          Maybe it’s because of the way our intelligence works. It grows by doing. And when it comes to growing into our highest potential, the more consciously we live, the easier and happier the growth process becomes. So, the secret might be, if you do the very next thing consciously, then being conscious is all you need to do for your spiritual growth.

 

1. He comes and goes as he pleases, unattached, yet truly compassionate, aware of everything and afraid of nothing.

          Because I don’t have the source material, I have no idea who or what this was referring to. But I’ve always liked the idea of using it as a role model. To go through life in absolute freedom, unattached yet truly compassionate, totally aware, yet completely unafraid. What an image! Something to strive for. Reminds me of the old Gershwin song, “Nice work if you can get it.”

          So, that’s all fourteen of the gems that are in that random file in my archives. For me, they always require a little deeper focus than I use in my everyday life, because there are some real pearls of wisdom there, but you have to dive deep to get to them. But that’s okay because, to finish where we started, as the old song Beatles song says, “The deeper you go, the higher you fly.”

          Well, that’s it for this episode. As always, keep your eyes, mind and heart opened, and let’s get together in the next one.