Quotes About Truth

book and magazine publishers aren't in the business of enlightenment. They're in the business of selling books and magazines, not truth, and they know that seekers will gladly pay to be reassured that, common sense aside, they can wake up and stay asleep; awakening within the dreamstate being a much more marketable solution than waking up from it. Such

Self-deceit is the hardest habit to break cuz it tells us we ain't self-deceived.

Think for yourself and figure out what's true. That's it. Ask yourself what's true until you know.

It's very simple: If Buddhism is about awakening, people should be waking up. If it's not about awakening, they should change the name.

Who we think we are can be stripped away forever," I make a poof gesture, "just like that. Right now, well fed, unthreatened, we have the luxury of pretending the Donners and the Nazis and the gang-bangers are someone else, but they're not. They're us; a veil's breadth away. There are no good guys and bad guys. People are people, all the same; only the circumstances change.

What do we know for sure? That's the real question. That's what the cogito is. That's what solipsism is. This isn't theory. This isn't belief or faith. This is the basic fact of existence. It's all about figuring out exactly what we know for certain as opposed to everything else. It's truly amazing that something so glaringly obvious and irrefutable is so universally ignored by science and philosophy and religion.

If there is conflict between idea and actual, then the idea is in error.

The truth is that no belief is true, and to say that any belief is true is to open the floodgates and say that all beliefs are true.

There's no overestimating our ability to avoid making eye contact with the obvious.

What do you know? The answer is: I Am.

All beliefs. All concepts. All thoughts. Yes, they're all false; all bullshit. Of course they are. Not just religions and spiritual teachings, but all philosophies, all ideas, all opinions. If you're going for the truth, you're not taking any of them with you. Nothing that says two, not one, survives.

Truth is a uniquely challenging pursuit because the very thing that wants it is the only thing in the way of it.

Dedicating one's life to lofty spiritual ideals is every bit as life-defining and purpose-giving as the quest for heaven or power or money or love. Just because there's a flashing neon sign above the door that says "Free Enlightenment! The Shortest & Easiest Way! The One True Path!" doesn't mean that what goes on inside is really about enlightenment, or that the people who go in really want it.

The various forms of spirituality and religion are not the path to truth, but the antidote to it.

Here's all you need to know to become enlightened: Sit down, shut up, and ask yourself what's true until you know.

The price. Of truth. Is everything.

I want to stop not knowing who and what and where I am. I want to stop being confused and unclear. I want to stop pretending lies are true and that I understand things when I don't. I want to stop playing make-believe and find out what's real.

Ask yourself. Who am I? If you do it, you will become enlightened. There is no possible alternative. The only way self-inquiry can fail to work is if you fail to do it.

Nobody likes to have their cherished beliefs dumped on, but dumping on cherished beliefs is the name of the game.

The misconception about enlightenment stems from, or is at least compounded by, the fact that most of the world's recognized experts on the subject of enlightenment are not enlightened.

Everything is exactly as it should be, including your belief that it is not

The most useful piece of learning for the uses of life is to unlearn what is untrue. Antisthenes

An easy way to distinguish between caterpillars and butterflies is to remember that the enlightened don't attach importance to anything, and that enlightenment doesn't require knowledge. It's not about love or compassion or consciousness. It's about truth.

To say that the individual can do nothing to break free of dualistic perception because it results in nondualistic perception is nonsensical, like saying a living being can't step off a cliff because it results in death, or that a dreamer can't wake up because he's dreaming.