Quotes About Enlightenment

It is common in our day, as it has been in many other periods of the world's history, to suppose that those among us who are wise have seen through all the enthusiasms of earlier times and have become aware that there is nothing left to live for. The men who hold this view are genuinely unhappy, but they are proud of their unhappiness, which they attribute to the nature of the universe and consider to be the only rational attitude for an enlightened man.

Whoever wishes to see the world truly, to rise in thought above the tyranny of practical desires, must learn to overcome the difference of attitude towards past and future, and to survey the whole stream of time in one comprehensive vision.

If men were rational, they would take a more correct view of their own interest than they do at present; and if all men acted from enlightened self-interest the world would be a paradise in comparison with what it is. I do not maintain that there is nothing better than self-interest as a motive to action; but I do maintain that self-interest, like altruism, is better when it is enlightened than when it is unenlightened.

The less rational a man is, the oftener he will fail to perceive how what injures others also injures him, because hatred or envy will blind him. Therefore, although I do not pretend that enlightened self-interest is the highest morality, I do maintain that, if it became common, it would make the world an immeasurably better place than it is.

He who exercises his reason and cultivates it seems to be both in the best state of mind and most dear to the gods.

I think the essence of wisdom is emancipation, as far as possible, from the tyranny of the here and now.

The intoxicating delight of sudden understanding.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling. Ephesians 1:18

Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures." I'm not sure original definitions get much better than the one for understand in Luke 24:45. Meditate on this definition: "The comprehending activity of the mind denoted by suniemi entails the assembling of individual facts into an organized whole, as collecting the pieces of a puzzle and putting them together. The mind grasps concepts and sees the proper relationship between them.

You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. John 8:32

The Way is basically perfect. It doesn't require perfecting.

I have this feeling that as time goes on, we're not getting any more civilized, and we should be. We're still running around like the days of Genghis Khan. There are so many important, better things to do and we need to encourage people to reach into the brighter side of humanity and not encourage people to continue to glorify the darker side.

progreso» no guiado por el humanismo no es progreso.

All genuine epiphanies seem to follow this model: their defining quality is the relinquishment of delusion.

All three of these paths embody one unifying principle," Vance said. We were now approaching the eighteenth green. "That of surrender. Surrender of the Little Mind to the Big Mind, surrender of the personal ego to the greater wisdom of the Self.

It was essential for the discovery of science that religious ideas be divorced from the study of nature.

The job of the conscious is to make the unconscious conscious.

It's always easier to see a lack of wisdom in others than it is to see it in ourselves. That's why we must pray daily for wisdom.

For always, always, we are waking up and then waking up some more.

I felt I'd stumbled upon an amazing secret—it was possible to close your eyes and exit life without actually dying.

I think of the dictum that when one person in a relationship starts to become conscious, the other is compelled to become conscious, too. Awakening precipitates awakening, and sometimes a woman's dogged groping for enlightenment and wholeness will ignite the process in her mate (or vice versa).

didn't know Amen from what when

I didn't know to call it religion back then, didn't know Amen from what-when

Once you wake up, can you wake up any more?