"Cautiously, I allowed myself to feel good at times. I found moments of peace in cheap rooms just staring at the knobs of some dresser or listening to the rain in the dark. The less I needed the better I felt."
(Charles Bukowski)

The qualities of mind we’re developing are like strategic weapons. We develop mindfulness. We develop alertness. We pick out our one object of meditation — “This is what I’m going to fasten on” — and then we both keep it in mind and stay aware of it. When we refuse to let go of it, when we hold on tight to a single object, it becomes the quality called singleness of preoccupation. When this singleness of mind arises, it can cut through restlessness, cut through anxiety. It includes both mindfulness and persistence, and can keep the mind firmly gathered in one place.
(Ajahn Suwat)

"We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and—in spite of True Romance magazines—we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely—at least, not all the time—but essentially, and finally, alone. This is what makes your self-respect so important, and I don't see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness." (Hunter S. Thompson)

People have asked about my practice. How do I prepare my mind for meditation? There is nothing special. I just keep it where it always is. They ask, “Then are you an arahant?” Do I know? I am like a tree in a forest, full of leaves, blossoms and fruit. Birds come to eat and nest, and animals seek rest in its shade. Yet the tree does not know itself. It follows its own nature. It is as it is. (Ajahn Chah)

"Weird heroes and mould-breaking champions exist as living proof to those who need it that the tyranny of 'the rat race' is not yet final." (Hunter S. Thompson)

Khiṇā jāti ñāṇaṁ hoti:
‘There is the knowledge of no more birth.’

This stage is not an assumption or a supposing. It isn’t anything fabricated or conjectured into being, nor is it anything that can be obtained by wanting. It’s something that appears, is, and knows entirely of its own accord. Intense, relentless practice in which we analyze things shrewdly on our own is what will cause it to appear of its own accord.

This can be compared to rice plants. Once we have properly nourished and cared for the rice plant, the results—the grains of rice—are not things that can be obtained by wanting. They will appear of their own accord. If a person who wants to get rice is lazy and doesn’t care for the rice plant, he can keep wanting till the day he dies, but no rice grains will appear for him. The same holds true with the reality of release: It isn’t something that can be obtained by wanting. A person who wants release but who practices wrongly or doesn’t practice—and wastes his time being lazy until the day he dies—won’t meet with release at all.
(Ajahn Mun)

"I bear my burden proudly for all to see, to conquer prejudice and ignorance and hate with knowledge and sincerity and love. Whenever you are threatened by a hostile presence, you emit a thick cloud of love like an octopus squirts out ink..."
(William S. Burroughs)

The Buddha teaches us to be true in whatever we do — true in being generous, true in being virtuous, true in developing concentration and discernment. Don't play around at these things. If you're true, then these activities are sure to bear you the fruits of your own truthfulness without a doubt  (Ajahn Lee)

"If you can't boogie I know I'll show you how." (Jack Kerouac)

“Those who have awakened don’t talk of what they’ve awakened to, because it lies above and beyond all words.”
(Ajahn Dune)

"Yesterday's weirdness is tomorrow's reason why."
(Hunter S. Thompson)

For Buddhism, the true aim in developing concentration and absorption is to gather one's mental energies and make them steady and strong in a single point. This then forms the basis for the knowledge and discernment capable of gaining true insight into all conditions of nature and eliminating all that is detrimental and defiling from the heart. Thus, stillness of mind is developed not simply for other, external purposes, such as the various fields of science. Instead, it's meant specifically for use in cleansing the heart of such defilements as the five Hindrances (nivarana). But when you have practiced to the point of proficiency, you can use your stillness of mind in any way you like, as long as that use isn't detrimental to yourself or to others. (Ajahn Thate)

"What’s in store for me in the direction I don’t take?" (Jack Kerouac)

"Real generosity toward the future consists in giving all to the present." (Albert Camus)

To be interested just in study can’t bring release from suffering. You have to be interested in the practice of training the mind as well. All 84,000 sections of the Dhamma came out of the Buddha’s mind. Everything comes out of the mind. Whatever you want to know, you can look for it in the mind. (Ajahn Dune)

"No matter how much I wanted all those things that I needed money to buy, there was some devilish current pushing me off in another direction -- toward anarchy and poverty and craziness. That maddening delusion that a man can lead a decent life without hiring himself out as a Judas Goat."
(Hunter S. Thompson)

We should understand that the Dhamma taught by the Buddha doesn’t lie anywhere far away. As the Canon says, skillful and unskillful dhammas arise right here in the heart. If we want to study the Dhamma, we have to study our own heart. When we’re well acquainted with the heart, we’ll be well acquainted with the Dhamma. When we’re well acquainted with the Dhamma, we’ll be well acquainted with the heart.

There are times when the heart is in bad shape. Bad mental qualities get mixed up with it, making it even worse, making us suffer both in body and mind. These bad mental qualities are said to be “unskillful” (akusala). The Buddha teaches us to study these qualities so that we can abandon them. (Ajahn Suwat)

The mind sent outside…is the origination of suffering.

The result of the mind sent outside…is suffering.

The mind seeing the mind…is the path.

The result of the mind seeing the mind…is the cessation of suffering. (Ajahn Dune)

"Nothing is harder to understand than a symbolic work. A symbol always transcends the one who makes use of it and makes him say in reality more than he is aware of expressing." (Albert Camus)

"People are all alike, but not at all alike, but in the final analysis, all alike." (Ajahn Mun)

"Sounds of a San Juan night, drifting across the city through layers of humid air; sounds of life and movement, people getting ready and people giving up, the sound of hope and the sound of hanging on, and behind them all, the quiet, deadly ticking of a thousand hungry clocks, the lonely sound of time passing in the long Caribbean night."
(Hunter S. Thompson)

https://www.supportful.com/a5525fba-fb68-4da0-b253-dce7bb61a701

"All life is but a skull-bone and a rack of ribs through which we keep passing food & fuel - just so's we can burn so furious beautiful."
(Jack Kerouac)

My own motto is, "Make yourself as good as possible, and everything else will have to follow along in being good." If you don't neglect yourself for the sake of external things, you'll have to be good. So you shouldn't neglect yourself. Develop your inner worth to your own satisfaction.

The world says, "Don't worry about whether you're good or bad, as long as you have money." This is just the opposite of the Dhamma, which says, "Don't worry about whether you're rich or poor, as long as you're a good person." (Ajahn Lee)

"Suppose we suddenly wake up and see that what we thought to be this and that, ain't this and that at all?" (Jack Kerouac)

"Wisdom means the skill & ability of the heart alone which must penetrate into everything without exception - even pebbles & grains of sand - that can give rise to attachments" (Ajahn Mun)

Knowledge about the world we live in may be useful, but no other knowledge compares with truly knowing yourself. The understanding arising through our physical eye is very different from that of our inner spiritual eye. The superficial understanding that we gain from thought and reflection is not the same as deep understanding born of insight into something’s true nature.
(Mae Chee Kaew)

The traits that people have carried over from the past differ in being good, bad, and neutral. Their potential follows along with their traits—i.e., higher than what they currently are, lower, or on a par. Some people have developed a high potential to be good, but if they associate with fools, their potential will develop into that of a fool. Some people are weak in terms of their potential, but if they associate with sages, their potential improves and they become sages, too. Some people associate with friends who are neither good nor bad, who lead them neither up nor down, and so their potential stays on a mediocre level.

For this reason, we should try to associate with sages and wise people so as to raise the level of our potential progressively higher and higher, step by step. (Ajahn Mun)

Vampires gather round me
Anglin' to take a bite
They wanna drink my blood of courage
And try to take away my fight
But no no no they cant do that
Noooo
For one truth I learned in life
You want to scare away the vampires
You simply guide them into the light
(Michael Franti)

"No sympathy for the devil; keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride...and if it occasionally gets a little heavier than what you had in mind, well...maybe chalk it up to forced consciousness expansion."
(Hunter S. Thompson)

"If you neglect to cultivate your inherent mindfulness and wisdom, striving only half-heartedly, the obstacles in your path will multiply until they block all sight of the way, leaving the end of the road forever in darkness" (Mae Chee Kaew)

"In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone."
(Hunter S. Thompson)

"Dhamma has a value beyond all wealth and should not be sold like goods in the market place." (Ajahn Maha Boowa)

"They say that "he who flies highest, falls farthest" — and who am I to argue? But we can't forget that "he who doesn't flap his wings, never flies at all". And with that, I'll stop trying to convince myself that I can't fail; how dull the whole thing would be if that were true." (Hunter S Thompson)

https://www.supportful.com/a5525fba-fb68-4da0-b253-dce7bb61a701

So as long as we are devoting ourselves merely to the theoretical study of the Dhamma, it can't serve us well. Only when we have trained our hearts to eliminate their 'chameleons' -their corruptions (upakkilesa) — will it benefit us in full measure. And only then will the true Dhamma be kept pure, free from distortions and deviations from its original principles.
(Ajahn Mun)

"People who claim to know jackrabbits will tell you they are primarily motivated by Fear, Stupidity, and Craziness. But I have spent enough time in jack rabbit country to know that most of them lead pretty dull lives; they are bored with their daily routines: eat, fuck, sleep, hop around a bush now and then....No wonder some of them drift over the line into cheap thrills once in a while; there has to be a powerful adrenalin rush in crouching by the side of a road, waiting for the next set of headlights to come along, then streaking out of the bushes with split-second timing and making it across to the other side just inches in front of the speeding front wheels."
(Hunter S. Thompson)

Someone once asked Ajahn Mun: “What books do forest meditation monks study?” His reply was: “They study with eyes closed, but mind awake.” As soon as I awaken in the morning, my eyes are bombarded by forms; so, I investigate the contact between eye and form. My ears are struck by sounds, my nose by aromas, and my tongue by flavors; my body senses hot and cold, hard and soft, while my heart is assailed by thoughts and emotions. I investigate all these things constantly. In that way, each of my sense faculties becomes a teacher; and I am learning Dhamma the whole day without a break. It’s up to me which sense faculty I choose to focus on. As soon as I’m focused, I try to penetrate to the truth of it. That’s how Ajahn Mun taught me to meditate. (Mae Chee Kaew)

"I don't wanta hear all your word descriptions of words words words you made up all winter, man I wanta be enlightened by actions." (Jack Kerouac)

"Dhamma is to be found where death is close by, if one has not been faced with death one has not seen Dhamma". (Ajahn Mun)