“The concept of Emptiness – Formless Awareness – in Buddhism – (shunya in Sanskrit).

“Silence is not empty; it is full of answers.”

“Everything that’s created comes out of silence. Your thoughts emerge from the nothingness of silence. Your words come out of this void. Your very essence emerged from emptiness. All creativity requires some stillness.” – WAYNE DYER

“Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings — always darker, emptier and simpler.” – FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

“We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.” – LAO TZU

Home Is People – Robert Drake

“There will be times when we feel like we are meant to be alone; Like this love we seek is not real and we created it to make sense of our emptiness.

And because of that; sometimes, some of us become bitter with the idea that love is only the anticipation of finding someone we will never live to meet.

So we live our lives looking for something to fill us and give us meaning, only to discover that in the end, love was never meant to be received by one person, but rather all the people who made us feel at home.”

Tonight as you begin your practice, imagine leaving your shoes outside. Imagine your shoes represent the past and all you have traveled through to get where you are tonight. You will not need your shoes for the next few minutes. While you are at it, imagine leaving the ego and the mind outside also. Leaving the mind outside, simply means leaving aside all that you believe you are and all that you believe you know about yourself and life. Leave aside all thoughts about your past and any memories that tie you to your past. Avoid paying attention to any thoughts that come up about your future, for the future is impossible to predict anyway, so let’s not waste energy during your practice today by focusing on it. Also leave aside any interpretation about the present moment. For the next few minutes we do not need to refer to these things for they are not important and will not help you in finding or experiencing our freedom.

Even if only in our imagination, for the next few minutes, let’s leave all these things at the door of your practice. Almost as if you just got home and started removing your stinky clothing from your day at work. Imagine realizing as you do, that you are not your watch or your jewelry, you not the clothes, you are not even the flesh and bones, for these are all costumes we are wearing. In the emptiness that remains, we can see ourselves as energy and light; we are pure love, compassion, kindness and tolerance, untainted from anything external. At the end of this exercise, you get to decide whether or not to put back on this costume, but perhaps you will only put back on the parts that you decide still serve you. While we cannot choose the physical manifestation of our gross body, that our creator has given you for your journey, much of what we wear to identify our self to others and our ego is nothing but an illusion anyway.

Your wounded, blemished, stained self is filled with false beliefs regarding who you are and who you are not. Your wounded self may see you as inadequate, unlovable, not good enough, but in stepping away from the ego, we experience our true self in the limitless light of what we call “formless awareness.”

This is the emptiness of formless awareness that the Buddha taught us to bath in during our meditation. Free of all the human cravings and the clutter of untruths, take a moment to bask in this freedom deep within the soul.

“Emptiness is not something to be afraid of, says Thich Nhat Hanh. The Heart Sutra teaches us that form may be empty of self, but it’s full of everything else.” Practice repeating the manta – “Form is emptiness; emptiness is form, wave is water, water is wave”” – David Scott

Inhale the future. Exhale the past.

“We dye our soul with the color of our thoughts.”

“I’ve found that the less stuff I own, the less my stuff owns me.” – Nathan W. Morris.

“Simplicity involves unburdening your life, and living more lightly with fewer distractions that interfere with a high-quality life.”- Linda Breen Pierce.

“Less can be more. Any designer knows that one can furnish a room very luxuriously by taking out furniture rather than putting it in.” – David Yglesias

“Learn to live with less so that you appreciate more.” – James Ryan

“The first step in crafting the life you want is to get rid of everything you don’t.” – Joshua Becker.

“Be a curator of your life. Slowly cut things out until you’re left only with what you love, with what’s necessary, with what makes you happy.”- Leo Babauta.

Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths.

“No one can save you and no one may. You alone must do the work” – the Buddha

Learning to unlearn is the highest form of learning. —Buddhist proverb

Wisdom is knowing we are all One. Love is what it feels like and Compassion is what it acts like.

“In meditation and in our daily lives there are three qualities that we can nurture, cultivate, and bring out. We already possess these, but they can be ripened: precision, gentleness, and the ability to let go.” – Pema Chodron

“A scar is proof that healing has occurred. It is better to trip up with the feet than trip with the tongue. You can always get up when you trip with the feet, but when you trip up with the tongue you can never take your words back.” – David Scott

“We have two choices… We can wear away or rust away. i choose to wear away pursuing my dreams and hopes.”

“The best thing you could do is master the chaos in you. You are not thrown into the fire, you are the fire.” -Mama Indigo

“You can always find out who has been swimming naked when the tide goes out and the tide always eventually goes out.”

“The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little bit of extra effort.” – David Scott

“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“You’re only as young as your spine is flexible. Quality of life is determined by our health.” – David Scott

“A flower does not think of competing to the flower next to it. It just blooms.” – Zen Shin

“Everyone you meet can be your master and you can learn something from everyone you meet. When you witness someone in life, doing something better than you, instead of thinking of that person as competition, think of that person as inspiration.” – David Scott

“The battle you are going through is not fueled by the words or actions of others; it is fueled by the mind that gives it importance.” ― Shannon L. Alder

“Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.” – Rumi

“The study of asana is not about mastering posture. It’s about using posture to understand and transform yourself.” – B.K.S Iyengar

“Yoga is about clearing away whatever is in us that prevents our living in the most full and whole way. With yoga, we become aware of how and where we are restricted — in body, mind, and heart — and how gradually to open and release these blockages. As these blockages are cleared, our energy is freed. We start to feel more harmonious, more at one with ourselves. Our lives begin to flow — or we begin to flow more in our lives.” – Cybele Tomlinson

“To be kind is more important than to be right. Many times, what people need is not a brilliant mind that speaks but a special heart that listens.” – F Scott Fetzgerald