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Before enlightenment, I chopped wood and
carried water.
After enlightenment, I chopped wood and carried water.
Zen
saying |
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If we
pretend to be more enlightened than we really are, we will miss
an opportunity to heal ourselves. Admitting our limitations
can make us
feel vulnerable, yet it is very freeing. We just have to be
ourselves as
we are now, accepting the mixture of enlightened awareness and
human
limitation that is in each of us. Through this
self-acceptance,
we find a deep peace and self-love.
Shakti
Gawain
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There are many paths
to enlightenment.
Be sure to take one with a heart.
Lao Tzu
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If
we demand enlightenment, it hides. . . . All that we can
do is
make ourselves
enlightenment-prone. We learn to
treasure the possibility of
awakening in
all moments and
circumstances. We learn to simplify and
cultivate the
receptivity of heart that can be touched by profound
understanding. We learn to listen deeply and discover
stillness amid the movement
in our world.
Christina
Feldman
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Enlightenment
must come little by little, otherwise it would overwhelm.
Idries
Shah
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Nirvana
or lasting enlightenment or true spiritual growth
can be achieved only through persistent exercise of real love.
M.
Scott Peck
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Enlighten
the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions
of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.
Thomas
Jefferson
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You
may have expected
that enlightenment would
come Zap! instantaneous
and permanent. This is
unlikely. After the first
"ah-ha" experience,
it can be thought of
as the thinning of
a layer of clouds.
Ram
Dass
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To be surprised, to wonder,
is to begin to understand.
Jose Ortega y Gasset
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Even to be attached
to the idea of enlightenment is to go astray.
Sen Sen Ming
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Everybody
wants to get enlightened but nobody wants to change.
This is the simple, daunting truth that has been staring back at
me
from the eyes of countless seekers over the years. "I
really want
to get enlightened," they insist. "But are YOU
ready to CHANGE
now?" I ask. "What?" is the
inevitable response—surprised and
even slightly stunned. And I repeat, "Are YOU ready to
CHANGE
now?" What follows is always a strange and
surreal moment of
ambiguity, confusion, and backpedaling.
"But I thought you wanted to get enlightened... "
Andrew Cohen
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Words that enlighten the soul are more precious
than jewels.
Hazrat Inayat Khan
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Enlightenment
means taking full responsibility for your life.
William
Blake
To see the world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour. |
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If one wishes to be sure of the road one treads on,
one must close one's eyes and walk in the dark.
Saint John of the Cross |
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Enlightenment
is not about becoming divine. Instead it's about
becoming more fully human. . . It is the end of ignorance.
Lama
Surya Das |
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To
the illumined man or woman, a clod of dirt, a stone, and gold are
the same.
Bhagavad
Gita |
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It's in the entrails of
the earth, not on its surface, that you can find diamonds and
gold.
It's in going into the darkness that we find enlightenment.
Robert Scaer |
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To
enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one's family, to
bring
peace to all, one must first discipline and control one's own
mind. If a
person can control his or her mind, he or she can find the way to
Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to
him or her.
The Buddha |
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There is no enlightenment
outside of daily life.
Thich Nhat Hanh |
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If I could define enlightenment briefly I would
say it is "the quiet acceptance of what is."
Wayne
Dyer
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real meaning of enlightenment is to gaze with undimmed eyes on all
darkness.
Nikos Kazantzakis |
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Enlightenment
is like the moon reflected on the water.
The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken.
Although its light is wide and great,
The moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide.
The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on
the grass.
Dogen |
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You never know where enlightenment may come
from. Be always open,
on the look-out and ready for it. Usually it is a click,
something which falls
into place after a long time of gestation. The most
unexpected event
or person can trigger it off.
Robert Muller |
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The
attainment of enlightenment from ego's point of view is extreme
death,
the death of self, the death of me and mine, the death of the
watcher.
It is the ultimate and final disappointment.
Chogyam Trungpa |
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One does
not become enlightened by imagining fingers of light,
but by making the darkness conscious.
Carl Jung |
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Enlightened
space, the place of unconditional love, cannot be achieved until
and unless one is willing to be comfortable with paradox and
confusion.
Ralph Walker |
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Do not think you will necessarily be aware of
your own enlightenment.
Dogen |
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Going
back to the origin is called peace; it means reversion to destiny.
Reversion to destiny is called eternity.
They who know eternity are called enlightened.
Lao Tzu |
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In
this world, aspirants may find enlightenment by two different
paths.
For the contemplative is the path of knowledge;
for the active is the path of selfless action.
The Bhagavad Gita |
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Liberation
and enlightenment do not exist outside of your own self.
We need only open our eyes to see that we ourselves are the very
essence of liberation and enlightenment. All dharmas, all
beings,
contain the nature of full enlightenment within themselves.
Don't look
for it outside yourself. If you shine the light of awareness
on your
own self, you will realize enlightenment immediately.
Thich Nhat Hanh |
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Those who think that any action
can lead to their "enlightenment"
are turning their backs on the truth: they are thinking that
there is
a "he" or a "she" there to be
"enlightened," whereas "enlightenment"
is a name for the state wherein there is no separate individual at
all,
and which is that of all sentient beings, a name for what they
are,
but which cannot be recognized by anyone who believes
him or herself to be an autonomous individual.
Wei Wu Wei (Terence Gray) |
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I
was sitting in a train when it happened, crossing the
Punjab to Pathankot and reading a book on Buddhism.
And sitting there in that crowded train, with all its heat
and smell, suddenly it was utterly self-evident that I did
not exist in the way I thought I did. And this
realization brought with the experience which I can only
describe as a kernel of popcorn popping. It was as
though the inside came out on the outside and I looked
with wonder and joy at everything. And the sense
then was of unutterable relief, of "I don't need to
do anything with the self, I don't need to improve it or
make it good or sacrifice it or crucify it--I don't need
to do anything because it isn't even there. . .
." There was an immense feeling of release, and
with that release came at once, immediately, a feeling
that it was release into action.
Joanna Macy |
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great Kindle books from our site! First,
the daily meditations from the first year are gathered
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have thousands of quotations that took over a decade to
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to read whenever you feel the need for inspiring thoughts. |
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Enlightenment
does not consist of pretending to be where we are not;
enlightenment means being in touch with where we are and being
willing
to learn what God would have us learn from it. Sometimes the
purpose
of a day is to merely feel our sadness, knowing that as we do we
allow
whole layers of grief, like old skin cells, to drop off us.
Marianne
Williamson |
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Enlightenment
is one’s leaving one's self-caused immaturity.
Immaturity is the incapacity to use one's intelligence without
the guidance of another. Such immaturity is self-caused if it is
not caused by lack of intelligence, but by lack of determination
and courage to use one's intelligence without being guided by
another. Sapere Aude! Have the courage to use your own
intelligence! is therefore the motto of the enlightenment.
Immanuel Kant |
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We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the
dark;
the real tragedy is when adults are afraid of the light.
Plato |
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One
of the core meanings of enlightenment is liberation from false and
spurious value attachments that blind you to your true
essence. When
and if I learn that I am ultimately my mind and my manner of using
it;
when and if I understand that ego is only the internal experience
of
consciousness, the ultimate center of awareness, I am free.
Nathaniel
Branden
Self-Esteem Every Day |
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