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Grace

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Someone once suggested that the weekly quotations that I send might be called  

Raindrops of Grace.

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I like the simple explanation of the word Grace proposed by Wayne Liquorman as follows: 

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"This beautiful word, Grace, is defined in the dictionary as: Unmerited favor from God. Unmerited meaning that I did nothing to earn or deserve it. Favor meaning that the result was something ultimately positive. From God meaning that some force in the Universe, other than an independent and powerfulme, was responsible for bringing it about."

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Looking back on my life I've come to appreciate that Grace has appeared not only in special moments, rather, virtually all the important events can be seen as having Grace as their source. Maybe all events in fact! I've noted with certainty that innumerable blessings in my life were nothing of my autonomous doing, rather it seems that I either had no choice or I simply stumbled into them. It now makes total sense to abandon any notion of personal accomplishment and it can be seen that "all is well - perfectly well."

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Thich Nhat Hanh writes "The Dharma is not a lecture. The Dharma in the Buddhist tradition is a kind of rain. Our consciousness should behave like the soil, the earth. We have to allow the Dharma talk to penetrate. According to the Buddha we have seeds of understanding, of awakening, of compassion, within ourselves. We don't need these seeds to be transmitted from the teacher. We already have all of them in the depth of our consciousness. We call it store consciousness, sometimes earth consciousness.Because these seeds are buried deep in the mind, in the soil of our consciousness, it is very hard for them to grow and manifest. Above there are many layers of suffering, confusion, prejudices and so on, and our intellect can never go deep enough. Our intellect very often contradicts our deepest nature and therefore to allow the intellect to rest and to open our earth store in order for the rain of the Dharma to penetrate is very important."

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So I hope that the various quotes below may be like raindrops, while some may pass by you others might land and soak in. Your challenge is to discard your ego-protective umbrella of resistance and allow yourself to get wet. 

 

Quotes

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Grace is always present.
You imagine it as something high in the sky,
far away, something that has to descend.
It is really inside you, in your heart . . .
When the mind rests in its source, grace rushes forth, sprouting as
from a spring within you. 

~ Ramana Maharshi 

 

That's what's nice about satsang: there's no doing required. The innocence just gets uncovered by Grace. She peels us like ripe fruit. 

~ Pamela Wilson 

 

Life does not make decisions.

The universe is not planning itself. It just unfolds.

Look at this plant. It is without concern.

It doesn’t say, ‘I think maybe in a few days

I will put on a new leaf just here to my left.’

The plant is not thinking.

Its life is a spontaneous unfolding.

Like a plant, our lives can unfold

in effortless grace and joy.

~ Mooji

 

It is true that guidance is a grace, a benediction, a blessing from beyond, from the source that is unseen; however, blessings do not arise if we are not open to them.

~ A.H. Almaas

 

Chanting is a way of getting in touch with yourself. It's an opening of the heart and letting go of the mind and thoughts. It deepens the channel of grace, and it's a way of being present in the moment.

~ Krishna Das

 

Humility is a deep bow, a recognition that you and I did not create ourself, we're not the creator of the universe. It sounds pretty obvious but we're caught up in thinking "I am the doer" and it's all up to me and of course that shows up in our lives as trying to do things ourselves, of thinking we need to direct the show. Thinking we should know the way, we're actually blocking Grace, the deeper mystery, from unfolding in us. 

~ Miranda Macpherson 

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You do not have to wait for something called Grace
to descend in some future moment of worthiness. 

~ Pamela Wilson

 

The long path works on the ego; but the short path uses the result of that work, which prepared them to come into communion with the Overself and become receptive to its presence, which includes its grace. . . . But the efforts on the long path will at last invoke the grace, which opens the perspective of the short path. 

~ Paul Brunton 

 

Remain open to the possibilities of grace, for she moves in mysterious patterns and cannot be captured by anyone who tries. 

~ Jeff Foster 

 

Just stay open, silent and receptive and the work of grace will unfold naturally. 

~ Mooji 

 

Now is the time for the world to know That every thought and action is sacred This is the time For you to deeply compute the impossibility That there is anything But Grace. Now is the season to know That everything you do Is sacred. 

~ Hafiz 

 

Just stop all dreaming. Stop all doing. Stop all excuses. Just stop and be still. Effortlessly be still. Grace will do the rest.

~ Adyashanti

 

Sufic and other practices do not bring Grace. For, in truth, Grace is always there. Every human soul is always under Divine Grace but does not know it; therefore the practices. 

~ Samuel Lewis (Sufi Sam) 

 

And I surrender to the mystery 

In the lap of God I rest my case 

The force that bore this world can carry me 

Who am I to question grace? 

~ Kirtana 

 

So it not that you are a little brilliant entity and you have love, compassion, beauty; no, the whole shift happens because the true identity is the identity with all Essence, with all of reality. This very moment, not related to past or future, is the center, and from there you can see that you are nothing but grace. Not only does life have meaning, but it is a grace, as if the heavens opened and poured grace into you. You will see that your very nature is that grace, pure unoriginated preciousness, which you don't see by looking but by being. There is no sense of separateness between the looking and the being; they are one act. To be yourself means you are Essence, you are Being, you are the significance, you are the meaning. 

~ A.H. Almaas 

 

Only if one makes himself available to higher and higher possibilities, then Grace can descend and do something that you yourself could never do. 

~ Sadhguru 

 

There is a love that cannot die. 

There is a light that cannot be extinguished, that time cannot touch. 

There is an intimacy so strong and immediate we spend our lives wondering where it's gone.

Do not seek joy, let it find you, let it creep up on you in your private moments, unexpected; let it reach you in the depths of your brokenness and despair and your exhaustion from seeking it in time.

Love the place where you are, love the ground upon which you stand, for it is this very ground that joy is heading towards, the ground from which your new life will grow, even if now upon the ground you find your own inability to wait.

Remain open to the possibilities of grace, for she moves in mysterious patterns and cannot be captured by anyone who tries.

~ Jeff Foster

 

To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness. This state is then no longer dependent upon things being in a certain way, good or bad. 

~ Eckhart Tolle 

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You can't push yourself into enlightenment...
You can only wait for grace.
~ Ram Dass

 

I am pointing beyond words to the richness that lies there. It is a silence profound and deep out of which all the words come and to which all the words return. Do not deny the words...do not deny anything! Life is not your enemy! There is no going back to the Source because the Source cannot be left. Listen and perhaps you will hear. Look and perhaps you will see. Open your heart and perhaps you will feel. All that is Grace. Breathe, live, die... as if you had a choice in the matter but know in your deepest place that your every choice is given and you are powerless to refuse. 

~ Wayne Liquorman 

 

Watch a flower opening in the morning. Just go on watching - this is grace. There is no effort at all, the flower just moves according to nature. 

~ Osho 

 

I am often asked, “What exactly is grace?” One definition is that grace is the direct experience of divine love, in which we know our existence as profoundly blessed. When I say love, I mean the oceanic fullness that lies within the depth of our heart – that wants to open and connect with all that is real and meaningful in life; that healing presence that is naturally generous, compassionate and joyful; and most exquisite of all – wants to share it with another, with the world.

~ Miranda Macpherson

 

Beyond even any teaching, though, the aspect of spiritual life that is the most profound is the element of grace. Grace is something that comes to us when we somehow find ourselves completely available, when we become openhearted and open-minded, and are willing to entertain the possibility that we may not know what we think we know. In this gap of not knowing, in the suspension of any conclusion, a whole other element of life and reality can rush in. This is what I call grace. It's that moment of "ah-ha," a moment of recognition when we realize something that previously we never could quite imagine. 

~ Adyashanti 

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It is by the grace of God these words are spoken. It is by the love of God I am here. The God I know is not a God of one nation.  He is without limit, or bias, or judgement. It is the God of the entire universe.​

~ Mooji

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To love is to recognize the essential Unity. To recognize Unity is to know the truth of things. It does no good to exhort someone or yourself to "love more." Love is always a gift. Love comes unexpectedly. Love is a mystery. If we are seekers, we may try to unravel this mystery. Penetrate it. Bend it to our understanding. But ultimately love reveals itself to be grace, an undeserved kiss from the Universe. In a sense it is a passage through the illusion of independence. It is a moment in which the truth of things is revealed and in that moment we feel the expansion of ourselves such that we are no longer independent of that which we love, we are Unified, we are whole, we are at peace.

~ Wayne Liquorman

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Satsang is the invitation to Rest and let Grace dissolve what is unreal. It takes more effort to maintain the persona than to Rest in what Is!

~ Pamela Wilson

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Now is the time to know that all that you do is sacred… Now is the time for you to deeply compute the impossibility that there is anything but grace.
~ Hafiz

 

If you’re not a lover of what is, you live in a godless world, a world without grace.

~ Byron Katie

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Nothing will cut us off from the experience of Grace more than exerting effort to control the show.
~ Miranda Macpherson

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