Quotes About Awakening

It is not difficult to gather his meaning. He wished to create the attitude of a newly-awakened soul still lingering amid shadowy dreams of the past, yet bathing in the sweet unconsciousness of a mellow spiritual light, and yearning for the freedom that lay in the expanse beyond.

How should the little creatures, the awakened worlds, reach out to knowledge of the whole cosmos, and of the divine? Instead they must play their own part in the drama, and appreciate their own tragic end with godlike detachment and relish.

The one reasonable goal of social life was affirmed ti be the creation of a world of awakened, of sensitive, intelligent, and mutually understanding personalities, banded together for the common purpose of exploring the universe and developing the "human" spirit's manifold potentialities. Imperceptibly the young were led to discover for themselves this goal.

Yet most of these worlds were really no worse than our own. Like us, they had reached that stage when the spirit, half awakened from brutishness and very far from maturity, can suffer most desperately and behave most cruelly.

When he woke his conviction of failure was somehow less inevitable.

Reject everything, do not look, shut your eyes and change your gaze, awaken another one that almost everyone has, but that few use.

Therefore, in Zen one awakens to one's True Self and takes firm hold of it. To give life to one's True Self sufficiently in all the affairs of daily life and to practice living as a human being while purifying the entire world is perhaps the most complete way of saying it.

The above difference between Eno and Jinshu later came to cause the division of Zen Buddhism into two branches: the Southern School, derived from Hui-neng, and the Northern School, stemming from Shenhsiu. The former advocated direct seeing into one's original Buddha nature—that is, sudden awakening to one's self-nature. The latter taught gradual awakening through perpetual endeavor to keep one's mind clean.

In Master Shibayama Zenkei's Rinzai Zen no Seikaku,72 the styles of the Soto sect and the Rinzai sect are respectively described as honkaku (original awakening) and shikaku (primal awakening). He writes, "It may be said that, as similar as they are, they are different. Rinzai Zen principally stresses discipline for enlightenment, whereas Soto Zen is principally concerned with discipline for descent from the height of enlightenment.

nirvana, which is another name for samadhi.

But when we break through that delusion, the illusion caused by selfish desires and doubt, and come into contact with the Absolute for a fraction of a second, we realize our original True Self. This experience is called satori or kensho.12 In short, this is awakening to one's True Self. It may be said that the aim of Zen is to have that kind of experience.

Did you come to me because I dropped off to sleep, tormented by love? If I had known I dreamed, I would not have awakened.

And I found that I can do it if I choose to - I can stay awake and let the sorrows of the world tear me apart and then allow the joys to put me back together different from before but whole once again.

You can never be the same after the unveiling of a truth.

O Lord, this morning disperse every mist, and shine clear and strong and invigoratingly. Forgive my tardiness, it takes me so long to awaken to some things.

Compared with the miracle of the forgiveness of sin, the experience of sanctification is small. Sanctification is simply the wonderful expression or evidence of the forgiveness of sins in a human life. But the thing that awakens the deepest fountain of gratitude in a human being is that God has forgiven his sin.

Just think what we could be when we are awakened to the truth!

You think people open their eyes just because you tell them to look? There's no happily-ever-after on this. You're dreaming.

You are speakin' low like me," he answered. "But we have no dream we can wake from

Please guide all beings from this swamp of cyclic existence!

What is the difference between buddhas and sentient beings?' It is nothing other than realizing or not realizing mind. The substance of the awakened state, of buddha, is present within you, but you don't recognize it.

The awakened state of mind is neither male nor female.

When realization occurs you should definitely be free from samsara, so that your disturbing emotions naturally subside and become original wakefulness. What is the use of a realization that fails to reduce your disturbing emotions?

The master replied: Tsogyal, the empty essence of your awareness is not created by anyone. Without causes and conditions, it is originally present. Don't try to change or alter awareness. Let it remain exactly as it is! Thus you will be free from straying and awaken within the state of primordial purity.