"Why are we so frightened of what is? What is the good of running away if whatever we are is always there?"
The Book of Life, August 26th
 

"Intelligence is the seeing of what is."
On love and Loneliness
 

"Conflict is the denial of what is or the running away from what is; there is no conflict other than that..."
The Book of Life, August 26
 

"When we condemn or justify we cannot see clearly, nor can we when our minds are endlessly chattering; then we do not observe what is; we look only at the projections we have made of ourselves. Each of us has an image of what we think we are or what we should be, and that image, that picture, entirely prevents us from seeing ourselves as we actually are."
Freedom from the Known, p.24
 

"To understand that process there must be the intention to know what is, to follow every thought, feeling and action; and to understand what is is extremely difficult, because what is is never still, never static, it is always in movement. The what is is what you are, not what you would like to be; it is not the ideal, because the ideal is fictitious, but it is actually what you are doing, thinking and feeling from moment to moment. What is is the actual, and to understand the actual requires awareness, a very alert, swift mind.
But if we begin to condemn what is, if we begin to blame or resist it, then we shall not understand its movement."
The First and Last Freedom, p.45
 

"To see what is not only requires a great deal of capacity and awareness of action but it also means turning your back on everything that you have built up, your bank account, your name and everything that we call civilization."
The First and Last Freedom, p.167
 

"It is not a question of accepting what is; you do not accept what is...because it is a fact; only when you are trying to become something else do you have to accept. The moment you recognize a fact it ceases to have any significance; but a mind that is trained to think of the past or of the future, trained to run away in multifarious directions, such a mind is incapable of understanding what is."
The First and Last Freedom, p.215
 

"To understand what is, you have to be undisturbed, undistracted, you have to give your mind and heart to it. It must be you sole interest at that moment, completely. Then what is gives you its full depth, its full meaning, and thereby you are free of that problem."
The First and Last Freedom, p.269
 

"The understanding of what is does not demand beliefs, but direct perception, which is to be directly aware without the interference of desire."
Commentaries on Living, First Series, p.56