Wei Wu Wei (real name Terence James Stannus Gray) was a Taoist philosopher who lived from 14 September 1895 – 5 January 1986. He wrote around 8 books on the subject of Enlightenment and Non-dual Spirituality such as Fingers Pointing Towards The Moon; Reflections of a Pilgrim on the Way in 1958 and Open Secret in 1965 among others. Below are some of his best quotes-
“A man who is seeking for realization is not only going around searching for his spectacles without realizing that they are on his nose all the time, but also were he not actually looking through them he would not be able to see what he is looking for!”
“All the evil in the world, and all the unhappiness, comes from the I-concept.”
“As long as one accepts ‘time’ tacitly as such he is dreaming a dream, not living a life.“
“As long as there is a ‘you’ doing or not-doing, thinking or not-thinking, ‘meditating’ or ‘not-meditating’ you are no closer to home than the day you were born.”
“Are we not wasps who spend all day in a fruitless attempt to traverse a window-pane – while the other half of the window is wide open?”
“Are you still thinking, looking, living, as from an imaginary phenomenal centre? As long as you do that you can never recognise your freedom.”
“As long as there is a ‘you’ doing or not-doing, thinking or not-thinking, ‘meditating’ or ‘not-meditating’ you are no closer to home than the day you were born.”
“Disciples and devotees…what are most of them doing? Worshipping the teapot instead of drinking the tea!”
“In order to be effective truth must penetrate like an arrow– and that is likely to hurt.”
“It is only the artificial ego that suffers. The man who has transcended his false ‘me’ no longer identifies himself with his suffering.”
It is only with total humility, and in absolute stillness of mind that we can know what indeed we are.
“It is not for us to search but to remain still, to achieve immobility not action.”
“Past and Future are a duality of which Present is the reality. The now-moment alone is eternal and real.”
“Play your part in the comedy, but don’t identify yourself with your role.”
“Realisation is a matter of becoming conscious of that which is already realised.”
“Reintegration with Nature, which we are, is the recovery of spontaneity.”
“Spontaneity is being present in the present.”
“The notion that human life has greater value than any other form of life is both unjustifiable and arrogant.”
“The only real service we can render to that which we perceive and interpret in phenomenal existence as ‘others’ is by awakening to universal consciousness ourselves.”
“The practice of meditation is represented by the three monkeys, who cover their eyes, ears and mouths so as to avoid the phenomenal world.”
“The Saint is a man who disciplines his ego. The Sage is a man who rids himself of his ego.”
“The seeing of Truth cannot be dualistic (a ‘thing’ seen). It cannot be seen by a see-er, or via a see-er. There can only be a seeing which itself is Truth.”
“The unending process of finding things ‘good’ or ‘not so good’ is a work of imagination. Would it not be futile indeed to suppose that such judgments, that is any and all judgments, could have any absolute existence or value?”
“There is no mystery whatever – only inability to perceive the obvious.”
“This which is seeking is that which is sought,
and that which is sought is this which is seeking.”
“Transcendence implies the surpassing of two things, and the consequent attainment of a third thing. But there are no ‘things’ in reality, of any kind whatever: there is only the thing-in-itself, its suchness, which is Reality, revealed when the illusory dualism of inexistent qualities is dissolved.”
“What do you have to do? Pack your bags, Go to the station without them, Catch the train, And leave your self behind.”
“What is your trouble? Mistaken identity.”
“We do not possess an ‘ego‘. We are possessed by the idea of one.”
“We imagine that waking-life is real and that dream-life is unreal, but there does not seem to be any evidence for this belief.”
“We ourselves are not an illusory part of Reality; rather are we Reality itself illusorily conceived?”
“What you’re looking for is what is looking”
“Wise men don’t judge: they seek to understand.”
“Why are you unhappy? Because 99.9 percent of everything you think, and of everything you do is for yourself – And there isn’t one.”