Quotes About Freedom

Buddha's simple definition of enlightenment as "the end of suffering.

Your mind is telling you that you cannot get there from here. Something needs to happen, or you need to become this or that before you can be free and fulfilled. It is saying, in fact, that you need time — that you need to find, sort out, do, achieve, acquire, become, or understand something before you can be free or complete.

F]or so many people, a large part of their sense of self is intimately connected with their problems. Once this has happened, the last thing they want is to become free of them; that would mean loss of self.

Enlightenment is not only the end of suffering and of continuous conflict within and without, but also the end of the dreadful enslavement to incessant thinking.

The reason why some people love to engage in dangerous activities, such as mountain climbing, car racing, and so on, although they may not be aware of it, is that it forces them into the Now — that intensely alive state that is free of time, free of problems, free of thinking, free of the burden of the personality.

The present moment holds the key to liberation. But you cannot find the present moment as long as you are your mind.

The first thing to remember is this: As long as you make an identity for yourself out of the pain, you cannot become free of it. As long as part of your sense of self is invested in your emotional pain, you will unconsciously resist or sabotage every attempt that you make to heal that pain. Why? Quite simply because you want to keep yourself intact, and the pain has become an essential part of you. This is an unconscious process, and the only way to overcome it is to make it conscious.

All that is required to become free of the ego is to be aware of it, since awareness and ego are incompatible. Awareness is the power that is concealed within the present moment. This is why we may also call it Presence. The ultimate purpose of human existence, which is to say, your purpose, is to bring that power into this world.

It is as if there is nobody there to get hurt anymore. That is forgiveness. In

T]he moment that judgment stops through acceptance of what is, you are free of the mind.

You mean stop thinking altogether? No, I can't, except maybe for a moment or two. Then the mind is using you. You are unconsciously identified with it, so you don't even know that you are its slave. It's almost as if you were possessed without knowing it, and so you take the possessing entity to be yourself. The beginning of freedom is the realization that you are not the possessing entity — the thinker. Knowing this enables you to observe the entity.

La rendición no es debilidad. Hay gran fortaleza en ella. Sólo una persona rendida tiene poder espiritual. Por medio de la rendición, usted será libre interiormente de la situación.

Don't seek happiness. If you seek it, you won't find it, because seeking is the antithesis of happiness. Happiness is ever elusive, but freedom from unhappiness is attainable now, by facing what is rather than making up stories about it. Unhappiness covers up your natural state of well-being and inner peace, the source of true happiness.

You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free

The beginning of freedom is the realization that you are not the possessing entity — the thinker. Knowing this enables you to observe the entity. The moment you start watching the thinker, a higher level of consciousness becomes activated. You then begin to realize that there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond thought, that thought is only a tiny aspect of that intelligence

Will you become less when you let go of it?

All it means it that sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on.

But I still have to pay the bills tomorrow, and I am still going to grow old and die just like everybody else. So how can I ever say that I am free of time?

There is no salvation in time. You cannot be free in the future. Presence is the key to freedom, so you can only be free now.

La iluminación no es sólo el fin del sufrimiento y del conflicto continuo interior y exterior, sino también el fin de la temible esclavitud del pensamiento incesante.

El comienzo de la libertad es la comprensión de que usted no es la entidad que lo posee, el que piensa. Saber esto le permite observar a esa entidad.

La liberté commence quand vous prenez conscience que vous n'êtes pas cette entité, c'est-à-dire le penseur. En sachant cela, vous pouvez alors surveiller cette entité. Dès l'instant où vous vous mettez à observer le penseur, un niveau plus élevé de conscience est activé.

Do you want an easy death? Would you rather die without pain, without agony? Then die to the past every moment, and let the light of your presence shine away the heavy, time-bound self you thought of as you.

La iluminación no es sólo el fin del sufrimiento y del conflicto continuo interior y exterior, sino también el fin de la temible esclavitud del pensamiento incesante. ¡Qué increíble liberación!