Quotes About Enlightenment

It is often said that the Buddha's teaching is only a raft to help you cross the river, a finger pointing to the moon. Don't mistake the finger for the moon. The raft is not the shore. If we cling to the raft, if we cling to the finger, we miss everything.

Fear is based on ignorance. Lack of understanding is also a primary cause of anger.

The truth is already in you. You only need to open yourself — body, mind, and heart — so that his or her teachings will penetrate your own seeds of understanding and enlightenment. If you let the words enter you, the soil and the seeds will do the rest of the work.

Buddhist teachings are meant to awaken our true self, not merely to add to our storehouse of knowledge. From

A person who looks at the table and can see the universe is a person who can see the way.

Enlightenment is when the wave realizes that it is the ocean.

Ignorance is in each cell of our body and our consciousness. It's like a drop of ink diffused in a glass of water.

There is no way to happiness; happiness is the way. There is no way to enlightenment; enlightenment is the way.

When you get free from views and words, reality reveals itself to you and that is Nirvana.

With great understanding, we see the way out of our bondage. We discover the lightness and compassion necessary to love someone else

Whether you can see the Buddha or not depends on you, on the state of your being.

Nirvana means pacifying, silencing, or extinguishing the fire of suffering. Nirvana teaches that we already are what we want to become. We don't have to run after anything anymore. We only need to return to ourselves and touch our true nature. When we do, we have real peace and joy.

To bring wisdom into bloom? Yes, because the ultimate aim of Zen is the vision of reality, acquired by the power of concentration. This wisdom is Enlightenment, the perception of the truth of being and of life. This is what all practitioners of Zen wish to attain.

Intimacy is at the heart of the teaching contained in this book. In the thirteenth century, Zen Master Eihei Dogen taught that enlightenment is just intimacy with all things.

It is not by virtue of moral conduct that one can realize Wisdom, but by maintaining body and mind in the permanent Awareness of Being.

When the Buddha gave a talk to a large gathering of businessmen, the core of his message to them was, "It is possible to live happily right in the present moment.

Although different from Indian Buddhism from the standpoint of form and practice, in the end Zen seems to be more authentic than many other Buddhist schools. In particular, Zen emphasizes the necessity of practice aiming at enlightenment which is the very foundation of Buddhism.

Zen is none other than Buddhism.

There is no enlightenment outside daily life.

thoughts will cease, allowing your mind to dwell in mindfulness. When you are aware of your breathing, you dwell in mindfulness. Dwelling in mindfulness, you cannot be led astray by any thoughts. With just one breath, you can attain awakening. That awakening is the Buddha-nature that exists in all beings. "Breathing in a short breath, you know that you are breathing in a short breath. Breathing out a long breath

and because there are no more obstacles in their mind, they can overcome all fear, destroy all wrong perceptions, and realize Perfect Nirv??a

The Buddha's Four Noble Truths are: there is suffering; there is a course of action that generates suffering; suffering ceases (i.e., there is happiness); and there is a course of action leading to the cessation of suffering (the arising of happiness).

The Kingdom of God is a treasure. Once you have touched that treasure, you know that the things you previously considered to be conditions for your happiness are just obstacles.

If the wave does not have to die to become water, then we do not have to die to enter the kingdom of God.