Introduction to Ron’s Sutra Sayings

Here you will find many of Ron’s most concise and quotable silly sutra aphorisms. Many of these mostly mystical musings were excerpted epigrammatically from longer postings elsewhere on this site. * [*Those sutra sayings which are posted elsewhere on this site are separately categorized and indexed as “Sutra Sayings”.]

These short sutra sayings may sometimes seem (and are) enigmatic or irrational or paradoxical. That is because they point the way beyond the rational to the ineffable – the inexpressible Absolute. According to the great Taoist sage Lao Tzu, “The truest sayings are paradoxical”. So when Ron’s sutra sayings really seem silly, remember that in a crazy world normality’s insanity, and silliness is sanity. These sayings are offered to help guide you to a sane asylum from this crazy world, to a “peace that passeth all understanding”, and they are dedicated to all life everywhere.

Hints for Happiness

Happiness heals.

The essence of all religions is LOVE;
the essence of all ethics is the Golden Rule.

Cultivate compassion;
harvest happiness.

Though we may not be free to choose our outer circumstances in life,
we are always free to choose our attitude and thoughts about those circumstances.

Learn to laugh at yourself, and you’ll always be amused.

When you’re down, don’t give up. Get up.

Find felicity in simplicity, and authenticity.

Don’t live to obtain, but to give and attain.

Let us elevate our aspirations from the bottom line
to the highest good.

Be inquisitive, not acquisitive.

What really counts in life can’t be counted.

We’ll get all we’ve sought, when all wants are naught.

Unfulfilled wishes can be Divine blessings.

We’ll never have all we want
‘Til we want just all we have.

Neither a master nor a servant be.
Abjure control by or over others.

‘Let him without sin cast the first stone’ (John 8:7)
Let him without vice, give the first advice.

Co-autonomy not co-dependency.

Be an optimist: Optimism optimizes opportunity.

Don’t hate: Hating hurts the hater.

Be optimally intimate: Be intimate with the Infinite.

Develop affinity with Divinity.

Be creative: Nature nurtures novelty.

Be a psychic alchemist: Transmute anger to insight.

Live from inside out, not outside in.

Listening is loving.

“Speak little; say much.”
Swami Ron Onandonananda

Eschew pedantry, punditry, and prolixity,
and seek profundity –
in silence, simplicity and serenity.

Every obstacle is an opportunity.

Chi is vitality. No chi, no achievement.

It’s not our longitude
Or our latitude,
But the elevation of our attitude,
That brings beatitude.

It’s not where we live but how we live that matters.

Essence of everyone is no-one.
Essence of everything is nothing.
So when anyone’s disturbed about anything,
it’s much ado about nothing.

Intentions are impetus for each of us.

Intentions are impetus for all of us.

Lofty intentions fuel our ascensions
to higher dimensions.

So, always aspire to be ever higher.

Life is a light show. So, let there be light.

Be the light to see the light.

As you become ever more luminous,
your life will be ever more numinous.

Choose to lose your illusions.
The less we’re illusioned
the more we’re illumined.

Ignorance is the root of all evil.

A life filled with wonder is a wonderful life.

Our search for “scientific” answers
can be a flight from wonder –
from awe of the ever unanswerable.
[Einstein, restated]

With wonder, faith and praise,
we glorify our days.

Uncertainty is the mother of Mystery
– Mystery of Divinity.
Certainty certainly masks Mystery.
As we open to Mystery,
we transcend shackles of certainty,
ever enhancing possibilities
of realizing our potentialities.

With radical trust we do as we must.

The more we live moment by moment,
the more momentous our lives.

An attitude of gratitude,
brings beatitude.

A state of thankfulness can be a state of Divine Grace.

Lay medical advice: Treat systems – not symptoms,
with tonics – not toxics.

Feeling hastens healing.

Dare to bare, and to share – your Heart.

Be “in the world but not of the world.”

Be active but not reactive.

Be responsive, not reactive.

Be reflective, not reflexive.

Live as cause, not effect.

Forgive the past to live in the present.

Authenticity

Skip the mentor middleman;
be your own Guru.

Personal power reclamation project:
From outer icon, to inner “I can”.
From ideology, to autonomy.

Celebrate the Infinite.
Don’t adulate the incarnate.
Honor inner, not outer, authority.

Path of devotion: adoration of the Infinite,
not adulation of the incarnate.

It’s better to be a seeker with many questions,
than a Guru with all the answers.

Nobody’s fully evolved;
incarnation implies imperfection.

All people are flawed; none are perfect.
But the most flawed,
are those who claim or think they’re perfect.

The greatest self-delusion
is the conviction of being
beyond self-delusion.

Openness – Humility

Humility is next to godliness.

No one enters the highest heaven
believing s/he belongs there.

The essence of nobility
is not heredity, but humility;
not pedigree, but integrity.

The more we know we’re no one,
the more we’re seen as someone.

Knowing is unknowing
what we think we know.

The less we think we know,
the more we really Know.

Faith fosters humility.

Humility is antidote to humiliation.

We have nothing to surrender but the idea that
we’re someone, with something to surrender.

There is nothing to forgive or give up,
but the belief that we are separate someones
with something to forgive or give up.

To name and define is to constrain and confine.
So, to be free, be a nameless nobody.

Be nobody nowhere NOW.

Life School – Experience

The Universe is our university;
Life is our teacher.

Life is for learning.
When you stop learning, you’re dead.

Earth life is a learning laboratory
for discovering immortality –
experimentally and experientially.

Life is a perpetual continuing education course
from which we never graduate.

All studies are consciousness studies –
consciousness studying its phenomenal self.

There’s just one subject – the Self.
So, there’s just this to know – Thy SELF!
That’s ALL!

On the Earth branch
Of the great Cosmic University,
We are all students,
And we are all teachers.
We are all learning love.

Gleaning meaning in matter,
We learn all that matters-
We learn all that matters is LOVE!

Look out for Noumenon Uno.

In the school of life we suffer
to learn compassion for those who suffer.

Suffering spurs seeking.

Misery and mortality are monumental motivators.

No pain, no gain.

Reality

“Reality” isn’t REAL!

“Reality” is a holographic theater of the mind.

Earth-life is like a pre-programmed dream.

Ron’s Theory of Everything:
E = mc2 = Consciousness = Self.

We are microcosmic mirrors of the macrocosm.

We are the unseen Source of all we see.

Our “reality” is what we think it to be.

Reality’s essence is Divine luminescence.

Space/time is a state of mind.

Nonlocality is Reality.
Everything/everyone’s everywhere.

Inner Infinity projects Outer “reality”.

This world is wrought with naught but thought.

Everything we think, do or say changes this world in some way.

Mind is matrix; consciousness is context.

Spirit is Substance. Appearance is shadow.

It’s Substance, not shadow, that Knows.

Visible and invisible are indivisible;
Perceptible and imperceptible are inseparable;
Material and immaterial are integral.

Self subsumes ALL.

Flowing from formlessness, form follows function.

Nature nurtures novelty.

Time is how we measure Now,
and space is for the places where we
think we are in time.

‘Quality time’ is timeless.

Life is now – ever NOW – never then.

Truth is timeless. What’s new isn’t true.
What’s true isn’t new. Truth is NOW

In this ever-changing space/time world
nothing is immutable, but much is inscrutable.

In space/time everything’s energy everywhere.
Energy’s endless, so everything’s endless.

Phenomenal “reality” is congealed consciousness.

Objectivity is an illusory impossibility.

Theory of Everything:
e = mc2 = consciousness.

Evolution – Transformation

Life is a healing/wholing/gnosis process.

People evolve as their boundaries dissolve.

Nobody’s fully evolved;
incarnation implies imperfection.

Evolution is endless.

Evolution is ever opening to the Infinite.

Evolution is the ultimate alchemy of transmuting humanity to Divinity.

Cosmic consciousness is infinite evolutionary impetus in each of us.

There is an evolutionary impetus in each of us:
unfolding Consciousness ever experiencing itself.

As we experience our universality,
we transform our reality.

“We get what we need when we need it.”

Every adversity is an evolutionary opportunity
– a potential blessing.
Adversity impels adaptation,
and adaptation advances evolution.

As abrasives polish gems,
adversities polish people.

Life’s most painful and difficult experiences
often prove the  biggest blessings,
because they provide greatest  evolutionary
incentives and opportunities.

Every obstacle is an opportunity.

In surmounting life’s greatest impediments,
we may realize our greatest potentialities.

Our greatest challenges foreshadow our greatest possibilities.

The greater the challenge, the greater the opportunity.

Intentions are impetus for all of us.

Lofty intentions fuel our ascensions
to higher dimensions.

So, always aspire to be ever higher.

Butterflies are living
metaphors for metamorphosis.

Mind – Memory – Thought

This world is wrought with naught but thought.

Everything we think, do or say changes this world in some way.

All problems are thought problems.

Negative thoughts, are like negative prayers.

No thought, no problem.

Thought divides Awareness as a prism divides light.

Thinking and Being can’t coexist.
So stop thinking and start Being.

Find unity with Reality.
Deconstruct the mind.

Undo ego.

Mind control is Yoga.

Use mind to lose mind.

Get out of your mind,
to Know the mind of God.

No mind, Know God.

Remember God, forget the rest.

Forget who you think you are to know what you really are.

Lose yourself, to be your Self.

We are biotic holographers.

The more coherent and focused our mind energy,
the more we co-create our “reality”.

Everything conceivable is achievable.
Everything explainable is attainable.

Mind is a memory bank.

Heaven is a state of mind.
So is hell.

We can not reach heaven
without passing through hell.

Tune out your mind, to tune in your Heart.

Stop thinking to start living.
Start living – from your Heart, not your head.

Bliss abides when thought subsides.

To reminisce is to miss the eternal bliss of NOW!
So let us vow to be here now,
‘til now is when we’ll meet again.

When all thoughts cease, we are at peace.

Spirit speaks when mind is mute.

Mute your mind to hear your heart.

The power to think is a great gift;
but, the power to not think is a greater gift.
So, to think or not to think, that is the question.

Words

“Listening is loving.”

“Speak little; say much.”
Swami Ron Onandonananda

We maximize the impact of our words
when we minimize the number of our words.
The epigrammatic is most dramatic.

There’s nothing to say, but words point the way.
So, elevate your spiritual “lexi-consciousness.”

With wisdom words we implicate that
Truth words never explicate.

Language can be a ladder for ascent to the Ineffable.

Silence

Bliss abides when thought subsides.

To reminisce is to miss the eternal bliss of NOW!
So let us vow to be here now,
‘til now is when we’ll meet again.

When all thoughts cease, we are at peace.

Spirit speaks when mind is mute.

Mute your mind to hear your heart.

The power to think is a great gift;
but, the power to not think is a greater gift.
So, to think or not to think, that is the question.

Remember God; forget the rest.
Forget who you think you are,
to remember what you really are.

Belief – Conception – Perception

Everything’s possible when nothing’s inevitable.

Everything’s a miracle.
E=mc2 – all manifestation is miraculous.

In this world of relativity, we are all relatives.

As conception is body/mind’s inception,
Its imprisonment begins with conviction.

We are shackled by illusory bonds of belief.
Freedom is beyond belief.

So, seek relief from belief;
and  get out of jail — FREE.

Seek relief from belief.

Let us end our universal malaise–
our chronic belief syndrome.

Believing’s deceiving.

To know what’s so,
Question credo.

Follow your faith,
But “dis” your belief,
Lose your illusions, and
Drop your dogmas.

Follow dharma, not dogma.

Seek relief from belief.
And find clarity beyond doctrinairity.

The power to think is a great gift;
but, the power to not think is a greater gift.

So, to think or not to think,
that is the question.

Perceived perfection is Self reflection.

We perceive as we project.

Perfection perceived is perfection projected.

The flaws we detect in others,
are the flaws we project on others.

We perceive, as we believe.

Practice reveals perfection.

But, if nobody’s perfect,
how can practice make perfect?

Ego

Life is ideal when your ID is Real

Ego is a conceptual karmic cocoon confining cosmic consciousness.

Ego attrition is our mission.

In the theater of life, personality is not reality.
Reality is the whole, while personality is a role.
So, play your role passionately, but don’t take it personally.

Transcend entity identity.

Be empty of entity identity.

“Enlightenment” is Being beyond entity identity.

Ego and “enlightenment” cannot coexist.

Undo ego.

Surrender and let go, of ego.

End ego control, and gain the Whole.

Ego breakdown brings consciousness breakthrough.

We have nothing to surrender but the idea that
we’re someone, with something to surrender.

Forget who you think you are to Know what you really are.

No ego,
Know Self.

To Know Thyself is to know the Whole.

Get out of your mind, to Know the mind of God.

Lose yourself, to be your Self.

Lose illusion confusion.

Say sayanara to samsara.

An “identity crisis” can be life’s greatest opportunity,
because it raises life’s most crucial question –
“Who am I?”

Life is an identity crisis:
An endless opportunity to transcend
entity identity.

Karma

Karma causes everything.

Karma is a cosmic incentive system.

The Book of Life is a karmic comic book.

Clear your past, to live in the present.
Clear your karma, to live your dharma.

Transcend karmic/causal compulsion with compassion.

Ego is a conceptual karmic cocoon confining cosmic consciousness.

Intuition – Insight – Heart

Honor intuition over intellect.

Truth abiding is ever hiding within plain insight.

Honor your Heart, over your rational mind;
use your mind to serve and follow your Heart.

The deeper our insight, the broader our outlook.
And the broader our outlook,
the greater our compassion
for everyone and everything.

Breadth of outlook depends on depth of insight.

True Vision is insight, not eyesight.
Eyesight is mind-sight; insight is soul-sight.

‘[N]ow we see through a glass darkly’,
but with ever expanding human consciousness and ever deepening insight,
we can and shall ‘see’ more and more –
we can and shall see what we couldn’t see before.”

Seeing the Invisible is Knowing the impossible.

Outer space is within.

Be inner – not outer – directed.
Follow the heart, not the herd.

Inner infinity projects outer reality.

Be an inner explorer.
The deeper you delve, the higher you’ll rise.

Cast your glance inwardly
and gaze there ‘til you’ll surely see
beyond supposed mortality
you’ll ever be Divinity.

Intuition is knowing without thought;
Truth beyond thought.

Intuition is mindless memory of Truth.

To tell the truth, Truth can’t be told.

Truth is ineffable, so lies are inevitable.

The less we say, the less we lie.

Verity’s a rarity in this world of polarity.
For shadow denied is truth belied.

Truth abiding is ever hiding within plain insight.

Truth transcends wisdom.
Wisdom is primordial; but, Truth is pre-primordial.

Self-inquiry

An “identity crisis” can be life’s greatest opportunity,
because it raises life’s most crucial question –
“Who am I?”

The quest is in the question.
The question is the answer.

Personality breakdown can bring consciousness breakthrough.

Life is an identity crisis:
An endless opportunity to transcend entity identity.

Seek the seeker, observe the observer,
and look for what’s looking.

Reality’s the unseen observer,
not the ever changing scene.

The Witness and the witnessed are ONE.

Ignorance is the root of all evil.

Faith

With wonder, faith and praise, we glorify our days.

With radical trust we do as we must.

Faith fosters humility.

Follow your faith, But “dis” your belief,
Lose your illusions, and Drop your dogmas.

Fear

Our deepest fears
hide our highest potentials.

The fewer our fears, the fewer our flaws.

We’ve nothing to fear but fright.

As we lose our fear of leaving life,
we gain the art of living life.

Face death to live life.

Life is ineffable; death is inevitable.

You are not a mortal; you are immortal.
So never fear being a non-being.

Live with faith, not fear;
with compassion, not compulsion.

Those who fear suffering, suffer from fear.

Love-thoughts bless the world,
but fear-thoughts afflict it.

Flow

When we’re “in the flow” there’s nowhere to go.

When no one’s a “doer” nothing’s undone.

When events seeming random happen in tandem,
it’s then we know we’re in the flow.

Leave it to the Lone Arranger.

On the path of undo we’ll never be through
’til we’re an undone ONE.

Freedom

Our conditioning determines our condition.

Our mentality is our reality.

We are shackled by illusory bonds of belief.

Freedom is beyond belief.

Freedom is existential, not mental.

Our only choice is to accept or reject “what is”.

Ultimate freedom is not freedom of choice,
but freedom from choice.

Escape to freedom:
Know the way in to find the Way out.

Divinity – God

God is non-denominational.
God is One: Divinity ain’t divisible.

So, let us celebrate, not separate, the Whole;
let us balance our differences on a fulcrum of
<LOVE>.

We’re whole,
we’re whole,
we’re whole.
Nothing ever
can dissever our soul.

Seeking God, sadhus* renounce everything,
until they realize God is everything.
*Indian ascetics

Visible and invisible are indivisible;
Perceptible and imperceptible are inseparable;
Material and immaterial are integral.
Self subsumes ALL.

Our destiny is Divinity.

Time – NOW

“There is nothing new under the sun.”
Everything’s NOW, so nothing’s new.

Discovering is but uncovering timeless Truth.

In Nature, all that ever is, was or will be is NOW.

“Reality” is ‘created’ instant by instant – ever NOW.

Earthlife is endless exploration of NOW.

Truth is  everywhere and nowhere – NOW.
To know the way, be the Way – NOW!

Time is how we measure NOW,
and space is for the places where we think we are in time.

Life is now or never, Life is now forever.
Life is now
Ever now
Never then.

Life is  NOW – NOW is forever,
so Life is forever.

Life can never be lived in the past,
only in the present – the NOW.
And we can never be NOW
while thinking we are then.
So to live as the NOW
we must identify as the NOW.

What was or will be is what IS:
Always only NOW!

Mind and memory are then,
while life is NOW.

Thoughts are then,  while life is NOW – not then.

Thought is then, Life is NOW.

Thought and Presence can’t coincide.

Life is NOW; books are then.

Hope is then, Life is NOW.

Wishes are then, but Life is NOW.

Wants and worries are then –
but life is NOW.

Questions are then, Life is NOW.

What was or will be is what is: NOW!

In in awe we bow to the ever NOW.

Freedom is NOW.

Acceptance is NOW; rejection is then.

To be immortal, be Eternal Awareness– NOW.

Transcend temporality – NOW.

Seeking self is then,
while Self is NOW.

Seeking is then.
Life is NOW!
Seeking is thought.
Life is NOW!
All that’s ever thought or sought is
NOW!

What we seek is what we are – NOW.

After-life is NOW.

Tao and Zen are NOW,
not then.

Discover the timeless:  Know your Self – NOW!

Time is thought;
no thought, no time.

Time is thought trying to measure the immeasurable
– NOW.

Time is how mind measures NOW,
so everything won’t seem to happen at once.

‘Quality time’ is timeless.

To reminisce is to miss the eternal bliss of NOW!
So let us vow to be here now,
‘til now is when we’ll meet again.

Love

We can never love others without loving ourselves.

Love thy neighbor as thyself,
for thy neighbor is thy Self.

Our purpose is process – Metamorphic process.
Gleaning meaning in matter,
We learn all that matters-
We learn all that matters is LOVE!

As Love, we bless the world — with love.
Love-thoughts bless the world,
but fear-thoughts afflict it.

Negative thoughts, are like negative prayers.

As we change the way we see our life,
we change the way we live our life.
The more we see that life is love,
the more we let life live us as love.

Let us live our life with love of life;
let us let life live us as love.

It’s loving not lusting that’s lasting.

The more we are loving,
the more we are loved.

Lovers are givers, not getters.

Awareness – Consciousness – Presence

Life’s essence is presence.

Presence is our greatest gift.
And the greatest gift we’ve been given,
Is the greatest gift we can give.

Be aware!
Be aware of Awareness!
Be Awareness NOW!

All concepts in consciousness are Consciousness.
But for name – subject and object are same.

Phenomenal “reality” is congealed consciousness.

Brains do not create consciousness;
consciousness creates brains.

Cosmic consciousness comprehends all contradictions.

Cosmic consciousness is infinite
evolutionary impetus in each of us.

Cosmic consciousness  conceives, creates,
and completely connects the Cosmos.

Ordinary human consciousness is conditioned consciousness; it is pure Awareness conditioned by conceptions.

And our conceptual conditioning determines our condition.

Common sense’ comes from our common sensibilities,
common sentience, and common consciousness.

Common sense isn’t so common.

Self is selfless. Self subsumes all.

The higher we go the more we Know.

Our highest highness is our common “I-ness”.

Consciousness sees; Eyes divide; Heart unites.

We are each a part of the Sacred Heart.

Ecology

The “American dream” has become a global nightmare.

We must die to our unsustainable habits and beliefs,
or we will die from them.

We are being consumed by our consumption.

We need a critical mass to solve our critical mess.

Cherish or perish.

Co-exist or co-expire.

Co-exist cooperatively or
Co-expire catastrophically.

Nature is our nature, and Nature knows best.

Nature is our nature; honoring Nature is honoring your Self.

Let us elevate our aspirations,
from the bottom line to the highest good.

Whimsy

Q:
What is the difference between a ‘kook’ and a sage?
A:
About 30 years.

I feel like a stranger in a strange world;
this crazy world has driven me sane!

I seek refuge from this crazy world,
I seek a sane asylum.

“Normality” is a consensus abstraction.
In this crazy world, normality’s often insanity.

In a crazy world “normality’s” insanity, while silliness is sanity.

What “normal” people believe,
and what they exalt,
is often reified deception,
and deified delusion.

Common sense isn’t so common.

Knowingly or unknowingly,
we all want to know the Unknowable.
But, few know It.

Knowing is unknowing
what we think we know.

The less we think we know,
the more we really Know.