Encouraging Quotes (soul, hell, Buddha, evolution)

[Monastic555]

To introduce encouraging quotes, I'll begin with:
When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.

[Monastic555]

Happiness is not the absence of problems but rather the ability to deal with problems.

[Hannah5555]

The smile that you send out returns to you.
(beach boys album, pet sounds)

[irootoo]

“It is nearly impossible to see the light at the end of the tunnel until you remember that you are the light, moving through the tunnel.”
- Matt Kahn

[Mahayana]

Let not mettá [goodwill] be mistaken as a mere sentiment. It is the power of the strong. If the leaders from different walks of life were to give mettá a fair trial, no principle or guideline to action would be found to possess greater efficiency or fruitfulness in all spheres.
In everything man is the ultimate unit. If man decides to substitute mettá as a policy of action for aggression and ill will, the world will turn into a veritable abode of peace. For it is only when man shall have peace within himself, and boundless goodwill for others, that peace in the world will become real and enduring.

Ácariya Buddharakkhita

[Mahayana]

Self-discipline is not necessarily self-denial, which may consist of penances in the form of extreme or unnecessary deprivations or self-torture. Self-discipline guides the moody mind in a positive way, saving it from fruitless searching for happiness in blind alleys of illusion. One who follows the way of self-discipline not only avoids dead ends in his quest for happiness, he has also the assurance of the divine law that he will be rewarded with positive success in reaching his goal. The sole purpose of self-discipline is to prevent the mind from straying off the pathway of true happiness.

Swami Yogananda, from Wine of the Mystic

[Mahayana]

Everything in creation is temporal and fleeting; nothing remains permanently in this mortal sphere. Beautiful objects are like blossoms that awaken with the dawn, and die in the arms of time. The spark of life that resides in ephemeral forms, however, is immortal. This spark, the soul, evolves from life to life in an upward evolution. Whereas mortal forms are born and then fade away forever, the soul within them lives on, and comes and goes between this manifested world and the unknown void beyond.

Yogananda, Wine of the Mystic

[Winterbeard]

I’m glad I see with my eyes and not the pages I’ve read.

Alberto Caeiro

[Mahayana]

The consciousness of good, which neither gold,
Nor sordid fame, nor hope of heavenly bliss,
Can purchase; but a life of resolute good,
Unalterable will, quenchless desire
Of universal happiness; the heart
That beats with it in unison; the brain
Whose ever-wakeful wisdom toils to change
Reason's rich stores for its eternal weal.
This "commerce" of sincerest virtue needs
No mediative signs of selfishness,
No jealous intercourse of wretched gain,
No balancings of prudence, cold and long: —
In just and equal measure all is weighed;
One scale contains the sum of human weal,
And one, The Good Man's Heart!

— Shelley

[Mahayana]

There is only one God, sole and supreme, without beginning or parentage, whose energies, diffused through the world, we invoke under various names . . . Through the mediation of the subordinate gods the common father both of themselves and of all men is honored in a thousand different ways by mortals who are thus in accord in spite of their discord.

— Maximus of Madaura