Quotes About Enlightenment

Awareness is all that changes in the journey from separation to the one reality.

This is not the kind of knowledge you learn; it is the kind you become.

To a suffering person, a night is an epoch. To a reveler, a night passes like a moment. In a dream, a moment is no different from an epoch. But to the sage, whose consciousness has overcome all limitations, there is no day or night. As one turns away from the notion of "I" and "the world," one finds liberation.

You have tried the power of the sword. Now try throwing it away... (rise) to a privileged place where everyday acts took on a mythical meaning.

Two journeys had to be made without companions: the journey to your death and the one to enlightenment.

Once you choose to raise your own awareness, you will have done the most you can to defeat the dark side of human nature and to discover that a higher reality can actually be found and lived.

Spiritually, to be a criminal is a form of suffering, so this was the last gesture of atonement needed before Shiva, lord of spiritual seekers, was satisfied that the thief deserved enlightenment.

An integral being knows without going, sees without looking, and accomplishes without doing.

Spirituality is meant to take us beyond our tribal identity into a domain of awareness that is more universal.

When you are living the truth of one reality, every secret reveals itself without effort or struggle. It

I" must surrender every claim of the ego, whether public or private, to seek a higher state of consciousness.

People who live ordinary, mundane lives have not gotten in touch with the mythical being inside them. You can pave the path to enlightenment by understanding the plan written on your soul, by nurturing the relationships that give you context and meanings, and by enacting your mythical drama. Out of that is born love and compassion. Out of that comes fulfillment and completion.

A man born blind from birth will never know the meaning of darkness because he has never experienced light.

most of our energy goes into upholding our importance.… If we were capable of losing some of that importance, two extraordinary things would happen to us. One, we would free our energy from trying to maintain the illusory idea of our grandeur; and two, we would provide ourselves with enough energy to … catch a glimpse of the actual grandeur of the universe.

You discover the goal of existence by living it. The present is the only time when you can evolve, experience the divine, expand your awareness, or reach enlightenment. But this cannot be a haphazard journey that falters and wanders off the path. It's easy for that to happen when a crisis develops. Sudden losses and setbacks shake everyone up; those who keep moving forward are buoyed by knowing that their path cannot be destroyed, only interrupted.

re-examine everything you think will get you ahead in life—money, possessions, status, accomplishments—and see them as a source of suffering

Every person has two selves, a lower self that is born of flesh and tied to the illusions of the material world, and a higher self that is eternal and unborn, with no attachments at all. The lower self craves pleasure, the higher self knows only bliss. The lower self cringes from pain, the higher self has never felt pain. If that was true, then Gautama had to find his higher self or be lost in the endless quicksand of the mind's deceptions.

To see through the mask of evil, search for the light that is the essence of everything. The fruit of this search is revelation; the light reveals itself of its own accord.

You can align yourself with God-consciousness at any given moment by pursuing these glimpses.

In everyday situations, getting out of the way begins by giving up on the ego's fantasies.

As this life evaporated before his eyes, Siddhartha felt a shiver, as if someone had ripped off his winter coat and left him naked in the cold. But he wasn't naked, and far from dead. Instead of the mask of images and memories, surrounding him on every side was something pure and free: life itself. He couldn't remember who he was. There was nothing left of his fears and dreams, nothing to do, nothing to want. He was simply alive, the breath of the breath, the eye of the eye.

Gautama said. "But I am blessed, because it has taken me only five years to know who I am not.

Duality makes us believe that making good decisions and avoiding bad ones is all-important. Buddha disagrees—he says that getting out of duality is all-important, and you'll never escape as long as you keep burying yourself deeper into the game of "A-or-B?" Reality isn't A or B. It's both and it's neither.

Brooding on your negative traits isn't going to bring the shadow to light.