Vicki Woodyard's Wisdoms

VICKI WOODYARD is a long-time Nondual writer--she's been around these parts for more than a decade.  She lives in Atlanta as a fellow hermit, and writes some of the wisest and funniest stuff around.  Jerry Katz calls her a treasure, and as is usually the case with Jerry, he's absolutely correct! Vicki is the author of Life With A Hole In It and A Guru in the Guestroom.
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Mystical Bliss

Quotes That Can Float Your Boat

*All of the quotes were written by Vicki Woodyard 

at various times but in the same place...outside the mind.

Mystical Bliss

Part I

Straight is the way and narrow is the gate...and the ego is a double-wide.

Anything I need will be drawn to me effortlessly by the principle of inner grace. Inner grace means that I am the fountain of my own youth.

The cosmic dance includes the time step but you just don't believe in it anymore.

The whole purpose of the spiritual journey is to learn to live behind the mind.

Awareness is the pearl in the oyster of mechanical life. Use grit to grow.

My tension comes from inattention.

Drop the "k" in seeker.

The daily grind can be a "find" when you are looking at the nuggets of now.

Nurture the now.

I count my blessings to make sure none get away.

Charity begins within.

The teacher, both within and without, is merely a mirror.  Simple reflection is the great healer.

For something to happen, the entire universe must AGREE.
Everything is destined.

The flow will find you when it needs you. In between, relax....

Don't teach it until you reach it.

Brevity is the soul of awareness. Silence is the thing that can sing.

Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is within. He had a lot of nirvana to say that!

The world is impulsive and draining.
The Way is slow and sustaining.

The mind won't allow you to be in the moment...ever.

Don't try to get-—try to let.
Don't try to give—try to live.

Duality is not reality.

You don't have to know everything. You just have to be everything.

I'm tired of living inside my head—there's not enough room in there!

You can unravel or you can unfold.

Mystical Bliss

Part II

I distill and distill until "I" gets still.

To be in the moment is to be out of your mind—and oh, how good it feels.

Every true statement is carrying an energy payload.

Energy is essential to have if you intend to wake up now.

Paradox thinks out of the box.

It is freeing to choose suffering.
It is chaining to choose pleasure.

If the hand of thought remains open long enough, any object of desire will be placed therein. But you will no longer want it.

Television-watching is okay if you are also watching who is watching.

If the manna of the moment is your teacher, you will never be hungry for book-learning.

Books are a great start and a lousy finish. Why? Because essence, once released, must be set free from words.

Quotes are boats to the other shore.

Enlightenment is offered on the cheap. Teachers are a dime a dozen. Ten cents a dance. The real guru wants the last waltz with you. Look out.

The middle way may look boring, but if you walk it long enough, enlightenment happens. No proof, just presence.

Presence in the face of suffering is my inner directive and I have cotton in all of my ears.

Put yourself right in the middle of the moment. Nothing is harder to do.

The moment cannot be controlled, only allowed.

If I truly enter the now, there can be no "how."

Texts and tomes and tracts and dissertations—too much information.

If you listen, you will hear a symphony of silence.

Being waked up is a rude and rough experience for all of us.

The guru's tricks are endless. He is always short sheeting the bed. He is cold oatmeal for the mind...a warm room with no air conditioner...an itch that you can't scratch and tears that clog your sinuses. Those are the pluses.

I went to a guru to find enlightenment. He was no Motel Six. He told me to find my own light.

Nothing mental can offset the mind's suffering.

There is only suffering for the ego—all pronouncements to the contrary.

We delight in the dilemma of delusion.

What part of nothingness do you lack?

The feign in pain falls mainly on the brain. I think I've got it!

Delusion is the only disease and awareness is the only cure.

To meet oneself consciously is an experience of grace.

The now is the Self and the game is over...at least until you forget for a bit.

To be an instrument of God, you must be in tune.

Standing at the corner of Emptiness and Fullness, which way shall I walk?

Wish to be willing, not thrilling.

Most people are cracked but not broken.

Don't think that you know. Know that you think.

The ego is a dim bulb.

A true teacher comes from right in the middle of nowhere.

God is not holding out on me. God is holding me.

I suspect that there is no such thing as prefab enlightenment...and yet some would buy it.

Forget about realizing the Self. Realizing the non-self is much easier...it's the mind.

A true teacher cannot be found inside the mind. In that I take heart.

Enlightenment is about the music, not the words.

My mirror is up to no good! 

Mystical Bliss

Part III

Many teachers can feel your pain. Only a few can peel your "feign."

God is a great magician with nothing up His Sleeve.

Now is not enough for the mind.

Bow to the now.

I don't aspire to buddhahood—it would just make me look fat.

The creature cannot be a teacher.

The mind is a roadblock to reality.

Come home by being home.

Stop chewing the scenery. We need it for the third act.

Everyone is stuck in their story.

Twoness is not the final trueness.

You can think two but you can only be one.

Honor the inner.

What is beyond me sustains me.

When one is in the fire, become the fire.

You can have harm or harmony.

Peace at any price involves the world. Peace beyond price—now that's another story.

The now is a safety net—use it.

Make your passion a priority.

You're going in the wrong direction. Go more deeply into your suffering.

Choose to lose.

Awareness is the most potent form of prayer.

Mystical Bliss

Part IV

The "I am" exists, but not the "me."

There is no refuge from unity.

Hiding and seeking from nothing keeps us busy until we die.

Being whole is being free.

I do not need to know the future. I only need to know the now.

The heart is the axis on which the earthly spins.

The mind is a hobo riding the rails of reason. Let it come home to the heart.

Sit down. Take off your mental distinctions. Make yourself at home.

I have a deep belief in the power of the resurrected mind. Silence is the savior.

You can't have a mental experience of the spiritual.

It is when we stop resisting that healing happens.

Resistance is the root problem. Willingness is wealth.

We are not anything, yet we are everything.

The more I look at how life happens, the more I see that we are puppets dancing to a Divine Tune.

Moving into awareness is the greatest act of love that we can do for one another.

You will take back all your power when you take back all your weaknesses.

Follow me...and I'll take you directly into the confusion.

We long to belong—to what we already are.

It is very important to find nothing.

Back to square one—where spiritual work is done.

There is no answer to the answer.

Humility and wholeness arise together.

Enlightenment is a "sate" of mind.

Mystical Bliss

Part V

I have everything it takes to be myself.

The truth of your being is wholeness.

The ego does not know the tune of life or else it would whistle every now and then.

One consciousness per customer.

The mind should be the student of awareness.

What IF there is only what IS?

"Who am I?" goes on only until "I am."

All true teachers lead you to the breaking point and say, "Now let go."

It's not the mind's life after all.

Surrender powers the universe.

We never know where we are until we are not.

You make your escape through the heart.

Resistance is the greatest energy thief.

The world is coming from me not at me.

You can't wrap your mind around it.

The universe is unbreakable.

The mind is not an escape route.

We are all in the same boat and it is empty.

The dearness of your heart is the nearness of your heart—to God!

When you align yourself with the Absolute, all of your relatives fall into place.
 

Mystical Bliss

Part VI

I can hear silence behind the words now. It sounds like nothing I have never heard.
 
Listening is where healing begins and ends. The mind would comment on this, but it is out to lunch.

If thoughts were fattening, only the enlightened would be runway models.

Thoughts are kittens playing with skeins of pain.

The only thing worse than having nothing to do is having something to do!

If it’s attainable, it ain’t enlightenment.

The power of the inner guru lies in his ferocity/tenderness. One must be devoured by his grace.

Copyright 2012, Vicki Woodyard

All rights reserved.  Used by permission. 




Vicki's website:    http://www.vickiwoodyard.com.

Vicki on Amazon: http://amzn.to/IUG8Ff

Print Interview with Vicki on nonduality.com: http://bit.ly/fHq5QP

Audio Interview with Vicki at Where is My Guru, recorded on 5.11.12:  http://bit.ly/JjoH5e
(Vicki's interview is at the 45 minute mark)