Bernadette Roberts Quotes

This journey then, is nothing more, yet nothing less than a period of acclimating to a new way of seeing, a time of transition and revelation as it gradually comes upon "that" which remains when there is no self. this is not a journey for those who expect love and bliss, rather, it is for the hardy who have been tried by fire and have come to rest in a tough, immovable trust in "that" which lies beyond the known, beyond the self, beyond union and even beyond love and trust itself

Bernadette Roberts

Love, Inspirational, Life

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Only God is love, and for this love to be fully realized self must step aside. And not only do we not need a self to love God, but for the same reason we do not need a mind to know him, for that in us which knows God, is God.

Bernadette Roberts

Love, Self, Mind

Bernadette Roberts (1993). “The Experience of No-Self: A Contemplative Journey”, p.155, SUNY Press

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When one is perfectly still-mind and body, silent and alone-there is no personality to speak of, thus personality is one's unique way of expression, it is what others see and know of us, nothing more or deeper than that.

Bernadette Roberts

Unique, Expression, Personality

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This search for perfection - which is a search for divinity - is nothing more than the failure to accept our existence the way it is.

Bernadette Roberts

Perfection, Divinity, Way

Bernadette Roberts (1985). “The Path to No-Self: Life at the Center”, p.45, SUNY Press

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The truest communication with God is absolute, total silence; there is not a single word in existence that can convey this communication.

Bernadette Roberts

Communication, Silence, Existence

Bernadette Roberts (1985). “The Path to No-Self: Life at the Center”, p.47, SUNY Press

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It is far more than the discovery of life without a self. The immediate, inevitable result is an emergence into a new dimension of knowing and being that entails a difficult and prolonged readjustment. the reflexive mechanism of the mind -or whatever it is that allows us to be self-conscious - is cut off or permanently suspended so the mind is ever after held in a fixed now moment out of which it cannot move in its uninterrupted gaze upon the Unknown

Bernadette Roberts

Moving, Cutting, Discovery

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Spiritual life is like a moving sidewalk. Whether you go with it or spend your whole life running against it, you're still going to be taken along.

Bernadette Roberts

Running, Spiritual, Moving

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When there is no longer a cyclone, there is no longer an eye. So the storms, crises and sufferings of life are a way of finding the eye.

Bernadette Roberts

Eye, Suffering, Storm

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But coming home that day, walking downhill with a panorama of valley and hills before me, I turned my gaze inward, and what I saw, stopped me in my tracks. Instead of the usual unlocalized centre of myself, there was nothing there, it was empty, and at the moment of seeing this there was a flood of quiet joy and I knew, finally I knew what was missing-it was my "self".

Bernadette Roberts

Home, Self, Track

Bernadette Roberts (1993). “The Experience of No-Self: A Contemplative Journey”, p.23, SUNY Press

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The assumption that the egoless condition, or union of self and God, is man's final goal and ultimate destiny is a great mistake. My purpose here is to affirm that the unitive state is a hidden path in itself, a movement in its own right that ultimately leads to no-self (no true-self and no-union). In short, the unitive state is the hidden path to no-self.

Bernadette Roberts

Mistake, Destiny, Men

Bernadette Roberts (1985). “The Path to No-Self: Life at the Center”, p.15, SUNY Press

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...a point is reached where the self is so completely aligned with the still-point that it can no longer be moved, even in its first movements, from this center. It can no longer be tested by any force or trial, nor moved by the winds of change, and at this point the self has obviously outworn its function; it is no longer needed or useful, and life can go on without it.

Bernadette Roberts

Self, Wind, Trials

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In some ways, all our experiences of God are beyond belief, because all conceptual beliefs pale when compared to the experiential reality.

Bernadette Roberts

God, Reality, Way

Bernadette Roberts (1985). “The Path to No-Self: Life at the Center”, p.34, SUNY Press

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I went on to discover that in its deepest sense, the will is not primarily the faculty of desire for anything known, but rather, the desire for something unknown, animate desire for something that lies beyond ourselves, a longing for something we know is missing in us.

Bernadette Roberts

Lying, Missing, Desire

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To be forgiven is not enough; we must put an end to the very need to be forgiven.

Bernadette Roberts

Forgiveness, Needs, Enough

Bernadette Roberts (2005). “What is Self?: A Study of the Spiritual Journey in Terms of Consciousness”, p.16, Sentient Publications

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It is one step, and a giant one, to see clearly and participate in the love that flows between the persons of the Trinity, but even here, God is seen as the object of his own love. It is yet another step to realize that God is beyond all subject and object and is Himself love without subject or object. This is the step beyond our highest experiences of love and union, a step in which self is not around to divide, separate, objectify or claim anything for itself. Self does not know God; it cannot love him, and from the beginning has never done so.

Bernadette Roberts

Love, Self, Experience

Bernadette Roberts (1993). “The Experience of No-Self: A Contemplative Journey”, p.155, SUNY Press

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......at this point the self has obviously outworn its function; it is no longer needed or useful, and life can go on without it. we are ready to move on, to go beyond the self, beyond even its most intimate union with God, and this is where we enter yet another new life- a life best categorized, perhaps, as a life without a self.

Bernadette Roberts

Moving, Self, New Life

Bernadette Roberts (1993). “The Experience of No-Self: A Contemplative Journey”, p.13, SUNY Press

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Once beyond the self, however, holiness is no longer possible, because now, there is nothing left to give and no-one left to do the giving.

Bernadette Roberts

Self, Giving, Holiness

Bernadette Roberts (1985). “The Path to No-Self: Life at the Center”, p.5, SUNY Press

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Since the moment of self-consciousness comes to a permanent end - and a new journey begins- is such a decisive stroke or milestone in the contemplative life, I can only speculate why so little has been said of this breakthrough; in fact , I may never get over the silence on the part of writers who say nothing about this second movement.

Bernadette Roberts

Journey, Contemplative Life, Self

Bernadette Roberts “Experience of No-Self, The: A Contemplative Journey, Revised Edition”, SUNY Press

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The onset of this second movement is characterized by the falling away of self and coming upon "that" which remains when it is gone. But this going-out is an upheaval, a complete turnabout of such proportions it cannot possibly be missed, under-emphasized, or sufficiently stressed as a major landmark in the contemplative life.

Bernadette Roberts

Fall, Contemplative Life, Self

Bernadette Roberts (1993). “The Experience of No-Self: A Contemplative Journey”, p.13, SUNY Press

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Born: 1931
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