Here are some of the best quotes from H.W.L Poonja (also known as Papaji) on silence, emptiness, inner peace and other spiritual topics-
“Find where the ego rises from and it will disappear”
“First find peace within and you will see this inner peace reflected everywhere else”
“Go deeper, go deeper. Don’t land anywhere.”
“If you step out of the silence, there is trouble. You don’t need anything. Eternity is here. Happiness is here. No death can enter this silence. No trouble can enter here. Step out and there is samsara—the endless cycle of birth and death. No thought, no concept, can enter here. All desires are met here in emptiness. You walk out chasing after desires and they are never fulfilled.”
“If you practice meditation for one hour or two hours, for a ten-day retreat or a one-month retreat, then what about
the rest of the year? It must be sixty seconds of each minute, sixty minutes of each hour, twenty-four hours a day.
That is true silence. That is true meditation. True meditation never stops! This is why there is nothing to do. No practice. Simply be who you already are!”
“If you see the illusion you are enlightened, but if you think that you are enlightened you are in the illusion“
“Keep quiet. Nothing to think. Silence. Just be quiet. In quietness, in silence, the Self arises by itself.“
“Simply stay quiet, don’t make effort, don’t think. This is all you have to do.”
“The best you can do is stay quiet and not let anything bother you“
“The only way is to look within“
“What is the purpose of human life? To return home“
“When you speak of emptiness, there is no more to learn. Emptiness is emptiness. San Francisco or Delhi. Wherever you go, the emptiness surrounds you. Silence will follow you wherever you are.”
“Who is journeying for freedom? The one who is already free“
“You are the unchangeable Awareness in which all activity takes place”
“You don’t need any method, any practice, any concept, any book. Anyway, any thing, any practice, will take you away from that. Any doing will take you away from it, not toward it. Look for the silence. What is it? Where does it come from? How do you differ from that silence?
Anything that appears is not true. In the desert, you see a river mirage and you are thirsty. The more you chase it, the further away it moves. You can never quench your thirst in that river. This is samsara. You want to quench your thirst and you move toward an object of enjoyment and you get no enjoyment. Once you know, by your experience, that it is only a mirage, that no river exists, this understanding alone is enough. You will not run after these things. You will stay where you are.”