“To be thankful” ...

...means to concentrate positive moods and to associate them with an image, with a representation.


It did not strike me as strange to find a devotion to the Sun-god among ancient peoples. And I understood that while some worshipped this heavenly object because it gave life to the earth and to nature, others recognized in that majestic body the symbol of a greater reality.  There were those who went still further and received innumerable gifts from this center, gifts that at times “descended” as tongues of fire over the inspired ones, at times arrived as luminous spheres, and at times appeared as burning bushes before the fearful believer.

Learn to recognize the signs of the sacred...

...within you and around you.

If you have come to listen to a man who it is thought transmits wisdom, you have mistaken your way...

...for true wisdom is not communicated through books or speeches—true wisdom is found in the depths of your consciousness, just as true love is found in the depths of your heart. If you have come at the urging of slanderers and hypocrites to listen to this man so that what you hear today may later be used against him, you have mistaken your way, because this man has not come here to ask anything of you or to use you, because he does not need you.


Silo, Public Talk, the Healing of Suffering, Punta de Vacas, May 4, 1969

This world is on the verge of exploding...

...with no way to end the violence! Do not choose false doors. There are no politics that can solve this mad urge for violence.



There is no political party or movement on the planet that can end the violence. Do not choose false doors that promise to lead away from the violence in the world…

Only inner faith and inner meditation can end the violence in you, in others, and in the world around you. All the other doors are false and do not lead away from this violence.

Silo, Public Talk, the Healing of Suffering, Punta de Vacas, May 4, 1969

When we speak of morality, we refer to a free act...

...to the possibility of freely acting or not acting, and we say that this act is beyond all necessity and beyond all mechanicity. This is our free act, our moral act: “Treat others as you want them to treat you.” No theory, no justification, is above this free and moral act.



It is not our morality that is in crisis. It is other moralities that are in crisis, not ours. Our morality is not in reference to things or objects or systems—our morality refers to the direction of human actions. All the criticism we offer, all the communication we provide or attempt to transmit, is oriented to the direction of human actions.

Silo, Public Talk, Sports Pavilion, Madrid, September 27, 1981

...what motor has propelled the human being through history... ...

After an immense period of time had passed, human life began to flower on this planet. But with the passage of millennia, the peoples and the nations began to grow separate and distinct. There was a time to be born, a time to laugh, a time to suffer, and a time to die. Individuals, peoples, and nations, building and growing, succeeding one another until at last they inherited the Earth. They ruled the waters of the oceans and flew faster than the wind, and they crossed the mountains. And in voices of the storm and with light brighter than the sun, they demonstrated their power.



Then they looked back and saw in the distance their blue planet, their gentle protector, veiled by clouds. What energy has moved all this activity, what motor has propelled the human being through history, if not rebellion against death? From earliest times, death has dogged humankind's footsteps like a shadow. And since ancient times, death has found its way into the human heart and tried to conquer it.

Silo, Public Talk, Sports Pavilion, Madrid, September 27, 1981

Surrounded by a triangular wall of mirrors...

...your landscape is reflected infinitely in infinite hues. There, depending on how you orient your vision on the path of images that you have chosen, all movement is transformed and then restored, time and again. You can come to see your own back in front of you, and when you move your hand to the right, it will respond to the left.