Sally Kempton > Quotes

“It's hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head.”
― Sally Kempton

“The Tantric sages tell us that our in-breath and out-breath actually mirror the divine creative gesture. With the inhalation, we draw into our own center, our own being. With the exhalation, we expand outward into the world.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“When men imagine a female uprising, they imagine a world in which women rule men as men have ruled women.”
― Sally Kempton, Meditation for the Love of It: Enjoying Your Own Deepest Experience

“Men define intelligence, men define usefulness, men tell us what is beautiful, men even tell us what is womanly”
― Sally Kempton

“Durga is the strength and protective power in nature, Lakshmi is its beauty. As Kali is the darkness of night and the great dissolve into nirvana, Lakshmi is the brightness of day and the expansiveness of teeming life. She can be found in rich soil and flowing waters, in streams and lakes that teem with fish. She is one of those goddesses whose signature energy is most accessible through the senses. You can detect her in the fragrance of flowers or of healthy soil. You can see her in the leafed-out trees of June and hear her voice in morning birdsong. If Durga is military band music and Kali heavy metal, Lakshmi is Mozart. She’s chocolate mousse, satiny sheets, the soft feeling of water slipping through your fingers. Lakshmi is growth, renewal, sweetness.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“Let the beauty of what you love be what you do. There are many ways to kneel and kiss the ground. RUMI”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“Love, enjoyed by the ignorant Becomes bondage. That very same love, tasted by one with understanding, Brings liberation … Enjoy all the pleasures of love fearlessly, For the sake of liberation. CITTAVISUDDIPRAKARANA”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“The divine feminine knows that a birth sometimes demands a death, and that the personal self sometimes has to die if the world is to be made sacred.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“For women especially, tuning into the goddesses is a way of homing in on aspects of our own life-energy that we may never have understood or owned. Celebrating the goddesses has the potential not only to tune us to our own sacred capacities, but also to help us work with the hidden and secret forces at play in our lives. When we can do that, we can literally harness these forces for our own transformation.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“Even if you can be aware of your awareness for only a moment, in that moment you will touch the primal awareness/bliss at the core of yourself.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“Kali's nakedness shows that she has cast away illusion; in her, the entire truth about life and death is revealed. Even her color is esoteric; Kali's dark colors stand for the ultimate void state, where as differences dissolve into the absolute beyond all form. Her sword is the force that slices delusion, ignorance, false hope, and lies. Her position on top of Shiva reveals that she is the dynamic force in the universe, the power that churns the stillness of the void, so worlds can be created inside that transcendent nothingness.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening to Kali: The Goddess of Radical Transformation

“At every level of consciousness, the masculine and the feminine, Shiva and Shakti, steadiness and dynamism, awareness and bliss, stability and transformation, being and becoming, complete and complement each other.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“If there is to be a future, it will wear a crown of feminine design. AUROBINDO GHOSE”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“It’s impossible to defeat an enemy who has an outpost in your head.”
― Sally Kempton

“The Kena Upanishad says that the Self "shines through the mind and senses," which is a poetic way of saying that it is the power of the Self which allows the mind and senses to function. So the eternally conscious Self is what makes us conscious. Essentially, it is light.
At times when our inner vision becomes pure enough to let us see through the layers of psychic debris that thickens our consciousness and make it opaque, we realize that everything is actually made of light. We understand that we are light, that the world is light, and that light is the essence of everything. This is why so many people's experience of touching the Self are experiences of light - visions, inner luminosity, or profound and crystalline clarity.”
― sally kempton, Meditation for the Love of It: Enjoying Your Own Deepest Experience

“In the external world, she is the force of evolution, the erotic thrust at the heart of life. She is the intrinsic creative drive that fueled the big bang and continues to unfold as stars, galaxies, planets, life-forms, species, and also human societies, cultures and individual consciousness itself.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“As the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says, “As is your will, so is your thought; as is your thought, so is your deed; as is your deed, so is your life.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti

“He embodies patriarchy’s inability to see the primal divinity of the feminine. She leaves because she knows that if the dignity of the feminine is not recognized, true union of the masculine and the feminine is not possible”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“She’s also showing us a deeper truth about spiritual life: that if we’re willing to make the necessary sacrifices, we can have it all. We can have enlightenment and intimacy together. We can know our transcendent bliss-self, and we can realize that bliss in passionate relationship. The secret Parvati shows us is that the relational form of self-realization requires just as much conscious effort as to realize the transcendent self. Both paths begin with self-cultivation. Parvati has realized that she can’t “have” Shiva unless she cultivates in herself the qualities of stillness, stamina, and devotion. To embody love requires absolute commitment, radical courage, and rigorous self-cleansing. The great desire has to be separated from smaller desires and tested in its own fire.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“The best way to explain in modern terms what a deity is, is to understand deity as a unique vortex of energy. Sometimes that energy vortex takes recognizable anthropomorphic form (for instance, in meditation visions). Sometimes that energy is felt through the sound vibrations, called mantra, or through the geometric pictures, called yantras, that map the way that energy looks in “blueprint” form.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“From a Tantric perspective, the inner masculine—Shiva—is the source of consciousness, awareness. But in order to act, to stir, he must take energy from the inner feminine.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“Through imagination, we tap into our highest human potential and encounter that which is more than human in us: that which is divine.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DEITY MEDITATION On a personal, psychological level, deity meditation gives us access to a power that works on a deeper level than is available through conventional psychology. The transformative power of the goddess energies can untangle psychic knots, calling forth specific transformative forces within the mind and heart. It can cleanse our mental and emotional bodies, put us in touch with the protective powers within us, and deeply change the way we see the world. More than that, it can shift the way we see ourselves, giving us the power to see the divine qualities we already hold. For women especially, tuning in to the goddesses is a way of homing in on aspects of our own life-energy that we may never have understood or owned. Celebrating the goddesses has the potential not only to tune us to our own sacred capacities, but also to help us work with the hidden and secret forces at play in our lives. When we can do that, we can literally harness these forces for our own transformation. GODDESS”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening to Kali: The Goddess of Radical Transformation

“Deity practice helps us embody the subtlest powers of the universe. It affects us psychologically, spiritually, and even physically. It can protect us, empower us, teach us unconditional love, and even enlighten us.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“here’s where it gets confusing. In spiritual life, the same word is used to describe both the archetype of the divine Guide and a human teacher—who may or may not be enlightened. In India, your music teacher, your Sanskrit teacher, or even your biology teacher might be addressed as guruji, because all teachers are considered worthy of respect. In the same way, in spiritual life, you may first meet the guru-principle through a teacher or mentor who happens to be a fairly ordinary human being with some spiritual knowledge. In Sanskrit, one name for this kind of teacher is acharya, meaning “the one who instructs.” The therapist who introduces you to deep breathing, the yoga teacher who takes you into your first meditative shavasana, and the author of your favorite meditation book are all important for your practice at different stages. (And any of them, in traditional India, might be addressed as “guruji” or “respected teacher.”) Different acharyas can provide particular kinds of instruction. If you’re a serious student, you’ll learn to recognize who can help you at each stage, when to stay with a teacher despite doubts or resistances, and when it might be time to move on.”
― Sally Kempton, Meditation for the Love of It: Enjoying Your Own Deepest Experience

“Goddess of: • sacred and mundane partnership • patron deity of yoginis, discipleship, and esoteric study • marriage and motherhood • asceticism, commitment to practice, power to practice intensely in yoga, meditation, or athletics • homemaking known for civilizing the wild aspects of the ascetic masculine Recognize Parvati in: • forest groves and mountains • yoga studios • partnerships between self-actualized individuals • unusual domestic situations • working mothers”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“Exercise: Basic Mantra Practice with So’ham Sit in a comfortable, upright posture and close your eyes. Focus on the flow of the breath. Gently and with relaxed attention, begin to think the mantra So’ham. Coordinate the syllables with the breathing— so on the exhalation, ham on the inhalation. Or simply think the mantra to yourself in a gentle, relaxed rhythm. Listen to the syllables as you repeat them. Allow your attention to focus more and more fully on the mantra’s syllables. Feel that each syllable is softly dropping into your awareness. Gently tune in to the energetic sensation that the mantra creates inside. When thoughts arise, as soon as you notice yourself thinking, bring your attention back to the mantra. If your attention wanders, bring it gently back to the mantra. Little by little, let the mantra become the predominant thought in your mind.”
― Sally Kempton, Meditation for the Love of It: Enjoying Your Own Deepest Experience

“If there is to be a future, it will wear a crown of feminine design.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“Tantra is a series of practices and teachings that help us realize that the world is filled with divine energy, with Shakti.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“The word shakti means “power.” Shakti, the innate power in reality, has five “faces.” It manifests as the power to be conscious, the power to feel ecstasy, the power of will or desire, the power to know, and the power to act.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga