Quotes About Enlightenment

When the secret is discovered, when the Truth is seen, all the forces which feverishly produce the continuity of samsara in illusion become calm and incapable of producing any more karma-formations, because there is no more illusion, no more 'thirst' for continuity. It is like mental disease which is cured when he cause or the secret of the malady is discovered and seen by the patients.

The root of all evil is ignorance (avijj?) and false views (micch?di??hi). It is an undeniable fact that as long as there is doubt, perplexity, wavering, no progress is possible.

There is a path leading to the realization of Nirvana. But Nirvana is not the result of this path. You may get to the mountain along a path, but the mountain is not the result, not an effect of the path.

You may see the light, but the light is not the result of your eyesight.

It is always seeing through knowledge or wisdom (ñ??a-dassana), and not believing through faith.

Further, the Buddha explained to ?nanda how one could be one's own island or refuge, how one could make the Dhamma one's own island or refuge: through the cultivation of mindfulness or awareness of the body, sensations, mind and mind-objects (the four Satipa??h?nas).2 There is no talk at all here about an ?tman or Self.

Because Nirvana is thus expressed in negative terms, there are many who have got a wrong notion that it is negative, and expresses self-annihilation. Nirvana is definitely no annihilation of self, because there is no self to annihilate. If at all, it is the annihilation of the illusion, of the false idea of self.

Here the four elements of solidity, fluidity, heat and motion have no place; the notions of length and breadth, the subtle and the gross, good and evil, name and form are altogether destroyed; neither this world nor the other, nor coming, going or standing, neither death nor birth, nor sense-objects are to be found.

M]an's emancipation depends on his own realization of Truth, and not on the benevolent grace of a god or any external power as a reward for his obedient good behaviour.

It is the vague feeling 'I AM' that creates the idea of self which has no corresponding reality, and to see this truth is to realize Nirvana[.]

The Buddha says: 'Never by hatred is hatred appeased, but it is appeased by kindness. This is an eternal truth.

The conception of dukkha may be viewed from three aspects: (1) dukkha as ordinary suffering (dukkha-dukkha), (2) dukkha as produced by change (vipari??ma-dukkha) and (3) dukkha as conditioned states (sa?kh?ra-dukkha).

Few things are as essential as education.

My judgment is that as long as the pastors of the church are embarrassed by this urgent language to God and assume in our Enlightenment model that such rhetoric has no actual force, we will not get very far in the struggle for justice.

Reading is not optional.

There are movements of the soul, deeper than words can describe and yet more powerful than any reason, that can give a man to know beyond question or arguing or doubt that digitus Dei est hic (the finger of God is here), and the name of that reality is grace. God does inspire men by his grace, does lift the heart, does enlighten the mind and move the will.

If you wish to find the unclouded truth, he told himself, do not concern yourself with right or wrong. Conflicts with right and wrong are a sickness of the mind. The

In gewisser Weise sind auch wir Bücherjäger", sagte Gofid. "Obwohl wir uns natürlich nicht der barbarischen Methoden dieser professionellen Mörder bedienen. Wir suchen aus Liebe, nicht aus Gier. Wir suchen mit Herz und Verstand, nicht mit Axt und Schwert. Wir suchen, um zu lernen, und nicht, um uns zu bereichern. Und wir suchen besser! Wir finden die wertvolleren Bücher.

Lest soviel ihr könnt! Lest Straßenschilder und Speisekarten, lest die Anschläge im Bürgermeisteramt, lest von mir aus Schundliteratur - aber lest! Lest! Sonst seid ihr verloren!

Knowledge is night!

aquellos que logran transitar el camino de la sabiduría, sea por la vía de la filosofía o por cualquier otro medio, no necesitan de nada más, incluyendo el dinero.

No one alone can attain truth.

If you would attain real freedom, you must be the slave of philosophy. Epicurus, quoted in Seneca, Epistles 8.7

Music is the ultimate teacher.