Andy Ritchie

Questioning the quiddity of existence...

[Andy Ritchie @AndyRitchieSP]

@dommenrod Muito obrigado, igualmente 🙏🏻

[Zen masters @Zenm001]

Buddha was not a buddhist, Jesus was not a christian, Lao Tzu was not a taoist.

They were teachers of love and harmony, love was their religion, beyond labels, borders or beliefs.

-Zen Teaching

[Giorgio @perennialmystic]

"Observe how difficult it is to change yourself and you will understand how naive it is to try to change another person.”

~ Voltaire

[Temet Nosce @GnothiSea]

You can only stop the flow of thoughts by refusing to have any interest in it.

Ramana Maharshi

[Giorgio @perennialmystic]

"A man becomes honorable when suffering gives him every excuse to fall, and he still chooses to stand."

~ Seneca

[Zen masters @Zenm001]

Behind every atom of this world,

Hides an infinite universe.

-Hamzrat Rumi

[Giorgio @perennialmystic]

“Meditation in the midst of activity is a million times superior to meditation in stillness.”

~ Hakuin Ekaku

[Giorgio @perennialmystic]

“O human race, born to fly upward, why do you fall at a little wind?”

~ Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio

[Zen masters @Zenm001]

Love is in the one who loves,

Not in the one who is loved.

-Zen teaching

[Dr Rudolf Steiner @RudolfStein2026]

The deepest form of slavery is the hunger to be understood by others.

Why?

Because the moment your peace depends on someone else's understanding, you hand them power over your inner life.

Think about it.

Someone misunderstands you.
You explain.

They still don't understand.
So you explain again.

Then you replay the conversation in your head for hours.

Why does another person's opinion have such power over you?

Because part of your identity is trapped in their perception of you.

Human beings can either allow external influences to determine their thinking and actions, or gradually develop the capacity to think and act freely.

Most people unknowingly build themselves through the eyes of others.

They ask:

"Do they approve of me?"
"Do they recognize my intentions?"
"Do they understand who I really am?"

And when the answer is no, they suffer.

Praise lifts them.
Criticism wounds them.
Misunderstanding consumes them.

Their inner state rises and falls with other people's opinions.

That is not freedom.

Freedom begins when you learn to think and act from your own inner convictions, rather than being guided by the judgments of others.

This does not mean rejecting other people.
The freer you become inwardly, the more genuinely you can encounter another human being.

There is also a hidden trap:

The desire to be understood is often a disguised desire to be admired.

We say:
"I want people to understand me."

But what we often mean is:
"I want people to recognize my worth."

And so we become prisoners of an image we are trying to create in their minds.

Learn to observe yourself.
Learn to distinguish truth from the desire for approval.
Learn to stand inwardly firm without becoming cold toward the world.

You can be criticized without collapsing.
Praised without becoming dependent.
You can love people without demanding that they fully comprehend you.

And perhaps most importantly:
You can continue doing what you recognize as right, even when nobody understands why.

Your task is not to control how others perceive you.
Your task is to become who you truly are.

When that happens, being understood becomes a gift.
Not a necessity.

[Zen masters @Zenm001]

For things to reveal themselves to you,

You must be ready to abandon your views about them.

-Thich Nhat hanh

[Temet Nosce @GnothiSea]

The aim of all practices is to give up all practices.

Ramana Maharshi

[Giorgio @perennialmystic]

You have projected onto yourself a world of your own imagination based on memories, desires and fears, and you have imprisoned yourself in it. Break the spell and be free.

~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

[Zen masters @Zenm001]

Once you realize what you are not.

Then suddenly, what you are will be revealed to you.

-Eckhart Tolle

[Temet Nosce @GnothiSea]

There is only one meditation - the rigorous refusal to harbor thoughts.

Nisargadatta

[Lucid Dreams @sanjabh]

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”

― Confucius

Artist: Christian Schloe

[Zen masters @Zenm001]

Before you speak, let your words pass through three gates;

Is it true?
Is it necessary?
Is it kind?

- Pearls of Rumi

[Mahavatar Babaji @ombabajiom]

Babaji says: "It is easy in the world, to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own, but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps up perfect sweetness and independence of solitude."
Aum Namaha Babaji Maha-Vallabha!

[The Still Point @thestillpoint_]

"To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour."

— William Blake