Contemporary Sutras

The Upanishads were initially composed as sutras (meaning threads). Before writing existed, teachers summarized a teaching in a short, easily memorable, sutra. This could later be unpacked by students to recreate the full teaching.

In this spirit, I invited people to submit some contemporary sutras. Here are the top 30 or so of the many suggestions I received.

Prizes - copies of the original illustrated edition of The Upanishads - went to Keith Van Vliet, Barry Mastro, and Eve Wright.

Don't take life too seriously, you'll never get out alive.

I'm not much, but I'm all I think about.

Don't believe everything you think.

Forgiveness is giving up all hope of a better past.

It's never too late to do nothing.

The future is coming, don't be early.

If your life sucks, it's an inside job.

It is not important what happens to me, but rather who I am when it happens.

Holding a resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.

It is blessed to be aware of one's awareness.

Seeing is believing, but it shouldn't be.

It's always sunny above the clouds.

I think, therefore I am not.

Let it be; it will anyway.

Man's capacity for self deception is infinite.

My in-laws found God and now they see the devil everywhere.

Truth is the invention of a liar.

I am the secret I've been searching for.

The greatest gift is giving.

I would rather Be.

Quit going there, start being there.

There's no rush when you're already here.

Life's a joy for the living.

Wherever you go, there you are.

Everything is real, but not necessarily what it looks like.

Today is just like yesterday, except that it contains the now.

The only way out is in.

In the One there is no-one.

In the knowledge that there is no other, love ceases to be a verb.

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