Quotes About Enlightenment

Proceed from earth! Proceed to heaven! Proceed!" Apollonius was being told, in other words, to ascend to the realm of the gods.

When the artist is alive in any person, whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressing creature. He becomes interesting to other people. He disturbs, upsets, enlightens, and he opens ways for a better understanding. Where those who are not artists are trying to close the book, he opens it, shows there are still more pages possible.

Learning itself is a present, the best one anyone can give or get.

the third eye... our sacred Cyclops... our good eye, the only one that can see beyond our conditioned ways of seeing. It is, of course, a knowing eye, not a seeing one. It is the eye through which we look within to experience the universe unfolding. It is the single eye that concentrates duality into the One: the eye of insight, the locus of the point of remembrance on the ascent to death, as well as the point of forgetfulness on the descent into birth.

In almost every spiritual prototype we have to go through hell on our way to pure awareness, indistinguishable from unconditional love, the Pure Land of our illuminated nature. For some, that process of awakening and "enlightening" is the experience the Taoists call "self ablaze.

To become Kuan Yin is to recognize the extreme toil and commitment that brings fruition. Her accomplishment not bestowed on her by some celestial prize committee, Zeus, or the Holy Ghost, but by the hard-earned forgoing of all earthly pleasure, to complete what Buddha called "the work to be done.

These six are equal to the following statement from the Avatamsaka Sutra: 'If you wish to thoroughly understand all the Buddhas of the past, present, and future, then you should view the nature of the whole universe as being created by the mind alone.

Desire and aspiration are two different things. The idea that you want to achieve something in Zen meditation is basically selfish. 'I want to get enlightened' means 'I want to get enlightened.' But aspiration is not for myself, it is not a merely individual desire, it transcends the idea of self. It is desire without attachment. If enlightenment comes, good. If enlightenment does not come, good. Actually, this is enlightenment.

The Great Way is not difficult if you do not make distinctions. Only throw away likes and dislikes, and everything will be perfectly clear. So

Just as the sun by itself illuminates the entire world, so the field owner illumines everything in the field.

Soen-sa said, The universe is infinite; all people are infinite. So the Bodhisattva's attachment is infinite. A Bodhisattva attachment is no attachment. No attachment is a Bodhisattva attachment.

be very careful about wanting enlightenment. This is a bad Zen sickness. When you keep a clear mind, the whole universe is you, you are the universe. So you have already attained enlightenment. Wanting enlightenment is only thinking. It is something extra, like painting legs on the picture of a snake. Already the snake is complete as it is. Already the truth is right before your eyes.

Para entender tu verdadera naturaleza, debes esperar el momento y las condiciones apropiadas. Cuando ese momento llega, te despiertas como si fuese de un sueño. Comprendes que lo que has descubierto te pertenece y que no proviene de ningún lugar externo. Aforismo budista

As unnecessary as a well is to a village on the banks of a river, so unnecessary are all scriptures to someone who has seen the truth.

a goal of a book a month, then a book every two weeks, then a book a week. "The person who doesn't read is no better off than the person who can't read.

So ignorance increases ignorance, and knowledge

It is no good to try to stop knowledge from going forward. Ignorance is never better than knowledge. Enrico Fermi

There is no one else like knowledge, and no poverty like ignorance. – Buddha

The man who knows not, but knows not that he knows not, is a fool . Shun him. The man who knows not, and knows that he knows not, is a student . Teach him. - Persian proverb

The man who knows not, but knows not that he knows not, is a fool . Shun him. The man who knows not, and knows that he knows not, is a student . Teach him. The man who knows, but knows not that he knows, is asleep. Awaken him. But the man who knows, and knows that he knows, is a teacher. Learn from him. - Persian proverb

Religion seemed the last vestige of man's intellectual infancy.

A] book is not merely a book, it is the sun as well.

L]iberation [doesn't occur] in wearing robes or performing ritual acts.

As useful as science is, it will never provide a way for us to wake up to Ultimate Reality. Science remains forever in the conceptual. It wouldn't be science otherwise. This isn't a criticism. It's a necessary and unavoidable limitation.