Do everything with full attention. Nothing should be done without reverence, for everything is really done unto God. You should not worship God carelessly. It is not that God will punish you, but that you will destroy your own fine sense of values. Don't trample on greatness in any form. One should have reverence for whatever one does, even if it is just an extraneous thing.
Forget that anyone is bad, that anyone is inferior. You have to go beyond the person’s behavior. The real person is God, peeping through the eyes. This is the highest ideal.
Behind what appears to you as a dull face, a bright face, or a vicious face is God alone. All these various pictures we see are but misreadings of the one truth, just tricks of the mind. Actually, everything is perfect.
Unless we see divinity in every being, we will never see unity in the world. Intelligence is that which sees unity among apparently separate things.
I believe that through meditation, which is the uninterrupted flow of the same thought of God, one can easily attain the Highest, for the mind eventually succumbs to a thought to which it is subjected uninterruptedly for a long time.
If we continue to imbue the mind with a certain kind of consciousness - whatever may be the condition of the mind in the beginning, whether spiritual or not, whether filled with love for God or with restless desires - in course of time the desired change will take place.
What is the condition of mind suitable for meditation? It is known to all of you, as quietness. This is not a forced calmness, but a calmness resulting from the cessation of most of the strong desires.
The things which disturb the mind, whether rising from within or coming from without, are connected with our secret, basic desires. We are always trying to realize certain ends. Though we strive desperately, we often fail, and failure exasperates the mind.
Swami Ashokananda (1893-1969), Swamiji of the Ramakrishna Ashram