The notion of goodness and badness must be extinguished from one’s being, if he seeks to know Reality. (Location 172)
never in your life have you met a person who did not have a ‘message’ for you, or attempt to ‘lead’ you somewhere, or get you to ‘do something.’ Whether it was ‘for your own good’ or not. Regardless of whether it was benevolent, evil, well-intentioned, or holy. (Location 191)
In non-mechanical domains, prescribed actions and behaviors do not create outcomes. (Location 217)
M: There is something you must realize, student. S: What is that, Master. M: Rare is the human, who truly wants what he says he wants. (Location 245)
After one is given a prescription . . . or after he begins to follow a prescription . . . his allegiance, his focus, his attention, his intent is centered upon the prescription. Not upon the thing he is trying to attain. (Location 284)
Humans have become conditioned and enslaved to institutionalized concepts. By following various practices, they become part of a ‘club,’ so to speak. A ‘good meditator,’ a ‘good spiritualist,’ a ‘self-improver,’ a this or a that. Humans crave such identifications and classifications. (Location 322)
Humans are lost in the world. They are lost in the world’s notions. The world erects billboards of various things ‘to become.’ It creates groups and institutions and gives them a name. It then creates practices and techniques to be a part of the club. Prescriptions are little more than a secret handshake. A code word to get into the club. (Location 325)
So long as unseriousness thrives, prescriptions will as well. A human who deathly desires something, would never stand for a practice that continually failed to provide him that thing. (Location 333)
He achieved Enlightenment because he was Serious about achieving it. This Seriousness made him drop the prescriptions. This Seriousness allowed him to find his own way to Enlightenment. (Location 361)
All things lead back to seriousness and sincerity. Sincerity, not in a moral sense. But in the sense of a true and genuine and pure desire to reach one’s goal. (Location 365)
If you do not desire something in the depth of your bones, you will have an endless tolerance for failure. If you do desire something in the depth of your bones, you will have little tolerance for failure. As Buddha had. And once the prescriptions fail, as they always do, you will be forced to find your own way. (Location 370)
In employing prescriptions, he will approach the non-mechanical in a mechanical way. He will replace the power of his instincts, with manufactured notions of correctness and incorrectness. He will replace his inner voice with the voices of others. And when the prescriptions begin to fail, he will need new ones. (Location 399)
M: If one seeks to arrive at a particular goal . . . be it in life or craft . . . the only reliable path to that goal is The Truth. Every situation has Truths. S: Can you please tell me more about Truth as it pertains to reaching one’s goal, Master. M: In any situation . . . whatever one wishes to attain . . . there are Truths as to the way things actually are. As to how things actually work. The Reality behind things. The True state of affairs. The more that one pursues this, the more potential he has for attaining it. The closer he comes to The Truth about the way things are, as they pertain to his situation and goal, the less likely he is to go astray. The less likely he is to fail. (Location 418)
Reality is not sweet. Life is not sweet. Truth is not sweet. The question that matters is not if something is sweet or not. The question that matters is how desperately one seeks to reach his goal, whatever that goal may be. If he desperately wishes to reach his goal . . . if he longs for a particular outcome . . . he will not be swayed by sweetness or bitterness. He will not be swayed by pretty lies. He will not be swayed by anything. Whatever The Truth is, that will be his most direct path to the goal. So that is what he will follow. Whether it passes through the gates of heaven, or the bowels of hell. It is for this reason, that Seriousness is required. For if one is not Serious, he will jump ship when the sweetness turns to bitterness. Prescriptions are, thus, a path for the unserious. The Truth is the path for the Serious. (Location 435)